Post by farore on Mar 30, 2009 6:59:11 GMT -5
I remembered that in sophomore year, I knew I was going to be incredibly sad about leaving this marching band. While I'm sad about leaving the people and good times, I don't miss the directors.
We had one director since I came in as a freshman. She was a good director, pushing us really hard to the point of madness, but we always got good scores. We are a small school but most of the people in it are involved in the music program. In sophomore year, we got 4th place in Giant's Stadium, even though, as a band, we are very poor compared to the rich community around us. 100 people and yet few supported us
I'm in the pit and I can tell you first hand of some of the dangers we were in from our messed up equipment. For example, we have chimes. The chimes' wheels are flat and coming off the axle. These chimes are also not new. They are extremely old, and therefore taller than they are supposed to be. They're extremely top heavy and they, as we always said, dance whenever you try to move it. If you pull it from the top, it'll fall over and the individuals will fall out (plus you'll get injured, it's happened). You can only pull it from the bottom and half the top.
Whoa I digressed.
Anyway, things were going good. A year ago, one band teacher retired, so they hired a new one. Senior year is what screwed me. The board decided to give a teacher who had no more than a year of experience the marching band and the concert band in addition to his previous freshman band, choir, and jazz band. The other director, who has tenure and is getting the master's, doesn't even have a band anymore.
Under the new director, we placed 6th out of 9 bands, we placed 17 out of 22 bands, and 2nd in a competition where we always won first. Our band has dropped to 70 members and now for next year, the meeting only had about 50 people in it. I'm praying that it's just a low in the wave of players (kind of like football).
It's ridiculous! And it makes me angry. The band directors are acting like babies, separating themselves from the last band director. One time she was accused of "publicly humiliating a student on the field" when she yelled at them. Known fact: Everyone gets yelled at and pointed at in marching band, deal with it! The kid also was the guy who was just mean to the director.
I understand that people make mistakes, but it's like trying to involve religion in politics. You can't say, well I don't like this person so I'm going to find a loop hole so I can make her miserable.
Some people never grow up
I hope my college marching band will be amazing
We had one director since I came in as a freshman. She was a good director, pushing us really hard to the point of madness, but we always got good scores. We are a small school but most of the people in it are involved in the music program. In sophomore year, we got 4th place in Giant's Stadium, even though, as a band, we are very poor compared to the rich community around us. 100 people and yet few supported us
I'm in the pit and I can tell you first hand of some of the dangers we were in from our messed up equipment. For example, we have chimes. The chimes' wheels are flat and coming off the axle. These chimes are also not new. They are extremely old, and therefore taller than they are supposed to be. They're extremely top heavy and they, as we always said, dance whenever you try to move it. If you pull it from the top, it'll fall over and the individuals will fall out (plus you'll get injured, it's happened). You can only pull it from the bottom and half the top.
Whoa I digressed.
Anyway, things were going good. A year ago, one band teacher retired, so they hired a new one. Senior year is what screwed me. The board decided to give a teacher who had no more than a year of experience the marching band and the concert band in addition to his previous freshman band, choir, and jazz band. The other director, who has tenure and is getting the master's, doesn't even have a band anymore.
Under the new director, we placed 6th out of 9 bands, we placed 17 out of 22 bands, and 2nd in a competition where we always won first. Our band has dropped to 70 members and now for next year, the meeting only had about 50 people in it. I'm praying that it's just a low in the wave of players (kind of like football).
It's ridiculous! And it makes me angry. The band directors are acting like babies, separating themselves from the last band director. One time she was accused of "publicly humiliating a student on the field" when she yelled at them. Known fact: Everyone gets yelled at and pointed at in marching band, deal with it! The kid also was the guy who was just mean to the director.
I understand that people make mistakes, but it's like trying to involve religion in politics. You can't say, well I don't like this person so I'm going to find a loop hole so I can make her miserable.
Some people never grow up
I hope my college marching band will be amazing
