Band Camp help?

[trumpetramen]

So our marching band is getting overhauled. As in, we're undergoing MASS changes for the better.
For the first time ever, our school will have band camp this summer.
But we need suggestions.
We're trying to plan things out as early as possible; I mean, our last game was last Friday.

What do you do for band camp?
Keep in mind, we're staying in the school building, and going home at night.

But during the day, what are things we can do?
We're a 20 piece band now (I know; pathetic) and have about 10 coming up. No seniors. So we need to get them to want to stay.

[tubachick11]

This was my first year of band camp and we stay at our school also.

We mainly just go over basics, teach everyone who's new how to march, and do set after set after set while learning the music. During band camp we manage normally to get a fiar amount of our opener on the field. The first couple of days we begin out side doing basics while it's still cool. We work on how to march, turn, everything, and putting some sets on the field. We broke for lunch around noonish until oneish then would work outside a bit more and learn/memorize our music until fourish.

We don't try to keep them really. If they're not prepared to work we don't really want them.

[brassdancer]

In high school band, we had about 2 days where ALL we did was learn how to march. I.E. the first day we went to the field, learned the very very basics (like roll stepping and crossing on ands) and we did this for the first block and second block of the day. The evening rehearsal we worked on music in sectionals and then went to full band.

The days after this we began to beef up basics, working on harder things such as backwards march and slides, and then in the afternoon/evening we worked on the actual drill to the show.

[fruple]

Well, for us, we stay at the school too. Too poor for anything else.

Usually, we learn and practice marching May - July, so it's like awesome by camp (which is the first week of August usually). We usually have music by June, so that gets cleaned before camp. Then, we just hold camp for one week. It usually looks like below:

8am - 10am: Sectionals and Basics [<3]
10am - 12noon: Go over sets in short, 5 set blocks
12noon - 1pm: Eating
1pm - 3pm: Going over music relevant to what sets we're learning
3pm - 4pm: Running over the sets learned earlier with the music now
4pm - 5pm: Eating
5pm - 8pm: Learning drill

Well, I hope this helps; I haven't got much else to add that hasn't already been said. Just know how to march before learning; it'll make the process go soooo much smoother.

[babette2009]

At my school, we've done summer band one of two ways.

The first way was my freshman, sophomore, and junior years.

Around mid or late July, we'd have freshman band camp. This is where we taught them the very basics of marching such as how to stand at attention, what foot to step off with, how to kick off, halts, faces and all that stuff. Then, we'd just drag the the field, marching with instruments at attention or in playing position. By the end of the week, we'd start marching while playing simple scales.

Then, after freshman camp, we'd start full band camp. We'd work in the morning with all grades, reviewing marching basics. Bascially, the same stuff we did with the freshman, we'd do with the upperclassmen. The difference was that it didn't take as long, because it was just review. Most mornings, we'd break into sections to work as well. Then, lunch, then we came back. When we got back, it was time for sectionals and music work.

A couple weeks before school started, we'd start learning the drill.

This year, it was different because we switched from corps to military. So, instead of having a freshman camp, we just started with full band, becuase everyone was starting from scratch. Other than that, it was actually the same concept.

[altoclarinets]

From what you say, it sounds like you won't even be going outside. Booo. It's very hard to use band camp to rehearse field shows in a gym with no yardlines.
We have band camp at my school but I think it could be done better. So here goes:
*Alto's "Ideal" Band Camp*
Prep Work:
-The last few weeks of school, after the last concert when people are just trying to waste time, hand out marching music in class. Rehearse this and start working on memorization.
- Have incoming fish/ rookies (you may want to march some JH kiddos) come to the HS in the afternoons a few wks before school's out, teach them the basics of marching. Have them back again about a wk before all others' band camp begins for a "refresher course".
Now, for the meat:
First week: (on a 3- wk plan)
8:00- Report to practice area (ideally spare football field) for fundamentals review. Spend this time in sections checking for precision and uniformity of marching style.
9:00- 11:45- Full group works on field show. Make sure all understand how to read drill charts, get everything on field first, then go back and clean.
11:45- 12:00- march off, drill down, whatevayawannacallit. Winner earns some sort of incentive for their section (this will help build camraderie)
12:00- 1:30- Lunch break. Encourage upperclassmen/ band leadership to hang out with noobs and make them feel like a part of the group. Eat in band hall or caf, enforce rule of picking up trash. Your discretion as to whether those with cars will be allowed to go to McDs or wherever.
1:30- 4:30- Music rehearsal. Show music, stand tunes, anything. Use part of the time to break into sectionals. Focus on a controlled, clear and unified sound.
5:00- 7:00- back out to the marching field for more show work. If you don't already have one, instill some manner of dismissal chant for the end of practice.
i.e. ours: (bold= DM,s normal= everyone)
Where're we from?
KATY!
Who's the best!
KATY!
WHY
BECAUSE WE WORKED HARDER THAN WE DID THE DAY BEFORE!!! UHHHH!!!
The next two weeks:
Morning practice (8-12) is spent focusing entirely on the marching show. Begin to clean what you've learned, don't plan on performing at the first game anything you haven't cleaned. Don't spend so much time playing, this is really for focusing on the marching. Continue to have the drill down at the end of practice- it should have by this point become something everyone looks forward to.
Lunch break continues as normal...
Music rehearsal should grow in intensity. Perhaps have a few executed with band members standing, marking time and doing stepouts at the appropriate points in the music. Focus should be placed upon musical details like dynamics, tempo, etc. Continue to have sectionals to develop the technique of the musicians. Start to have tests over memorization of show music.
Final marching rehearsal should be devoted to putting the two together. Players can have their music in a flip- folder for a few days but after a short while they should phase it out. Focus on not getting off and the overall effect of the show. At least one afternoon the last week of band camp should be spent at the stadium used by the school for its home games running a mock foot ball game, with march in, calling up songs in the stands, first down cheers, halftime, the whole 9 yards. Invite the team to play an inter- squad game if need be.

[1frodos1]

Make sure you include some down time to have fun and build band comradery.Our band always does a couple community service projects during the summer.We get broken into groups of twenty then have to do something- its a great way to meet your section and a couple others (flutes and saxes always get put together) Plus the community gets a positive image of the program and we end up with insane storys.

During band camp we have sandwhich day which always results in the lowbrass eating truly disgusting combinations.We have everyone bring a sandwhich ingredient-bread,meat,penutbutter,jelly,cheese.veggies,ect. then we make some truly epic sandwhiches.

[hansel2011]

Okay. So are you staying inside the entire time? Well, we go outside in the morning. We take everything from the begginning, every year. Basically we stretch, explain what the program is about, introduce people like dm's, captains, and we have instuctors that come in for each section. We have everyone go arounf the group and introduce name and instrument. On day one we just go over parade rest, attention, mark time, and we get to the forward march. After that we go in for lunch. then comes sectional time for an hour or so. We have a snack. We have full rehersal. We dismiss. Each day we will review what we did the days before and keep adding new things. The first week is 9-5. The second week is 8-8. The first part of the day will be the same as first week. After full band rehersal we have dinner. After we have dinner we go back outside. We learn some drill and keep adding from there. On the last night it stops at 5 and at 6 we have a parent preview show to show off all of the hard work we put in. We do all of this at our own school. So...yea that is our 2 weeks of camp.