Marching Band '09- How is it looking?

[Deleted]

We have a new field tech this year, and he is amazing. Actually, I don't know how good he is because I've never seen a field tech in action, but having him is definitely better than not. There is, however, some grumbling among the lazier members of the band because he actually makes them work. My only complaint with him so far is that he won't be here past band camp.

Our band is a third again the size it was, from 46 to roughly 60 plus color guard. The freshmen are doing okay, and, oh, wait. We have a color guard. That is huge. They all seem to be girls who were socially peripheral to the band and decided to do guard to hang out with us, but they're doing very, very well. I feel bad for the coach because she prefers our band to the band that she really works for, but we can't pay her and they can.

[tubagirl]

Hi guys Haven't been active in a while, but I miss the atmosphere.

Had a sectional yesterday, and I realized I HATE being section leader of a five-person section. Two of them weren't there and the bass clarinet that WAS there, didn't have his reeds. Sucky. Anyway, our freshman are doing really well! We've had two 'mass sectionals' that our DMs put on for newbies, but it's like, seventy percent vets who go. Haha.

Our old band director came back this year (Yay) after taking a year off, but we all kind of know she's only there because her Admin position in another city got cut. (Boo) We're all excited this year, especially since our show is Meet the Beatles. The music is super easy but the drill is so freaking hard.

I can't wait for band camp. This year we're going for two weeks, when usually it's just one and the week before is drumline. We're all happy to have the old BD back because she's way more organized than the one we had this last year.

[290Piika]

Woooo...we had check-ins today.

Apparently, we're getting 35-40 freshmen, which are going to be about 1/3 of our band. Oh boy. o:
The flute/picc parts of our marching music is WAY easier than the past few years. I dunno about the rest of the band though. We still don't know our SLs, and band camp starts in three days. We're going to attempt to learn drill during camp, but whether that works out is up in the air. We're also starting parade competition back again for sure. That music's pretty easy too.

[clarinetrox2012]

We had two people quit yesterday, both of them clarinets. We lost our section leader...=(

[uscsummermusiclvr]

Well, we just finished our band camp, and our BD said we were WAYYY far better than he thought we would be by the end. I'm a freshy (woo! X3) but I think we DO look good; except for the brass. The brass is always bad. But Savannah said they were doing great this year, so I guess it's great (:
We were missing our assistant BD because he was marching with The Cadets, but he'll be shocked when he sees us! (:

Our show is based on different aspects of CHINA, so you can guess that it's a fast tempo and TONS of sixteenth notes and arcs and curves and like no lines. WE GET TO DO TI-CHI! At the beginning and then during the ballet. It looks awesome, because also during the ballet the color guard comes running down a river that the band makes (it's at like double the speed for them, though, to make it down from the back sideline to the front in 64 beats), and it's just amazing.

Still yet to know the third half of the drill because Mr. G. has yet to write it; it might be because we just got the music like two days before we got done with band camp... So yeah.

IT'S AMAZING! I love it!
Go band! X3

[hansel2011]

Oh my God. Week one of band camp...complete. IT IS ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. I love every minute of it. Our music is hot. Here is our instrumentation...

clarinet-5
flute-3
sax(bari, tennor, alto)-7
low brass-4
high brass-4
pit-10
line-6


Okay, yes we are small....but it is amazing. It really is. In one week we have two songs on with drill. We were playing our first song memorized Thursday and when it was done my band director said he forgot we played it memorized. We have more sound than we ever have and we are smaller. Shows it does not matter how many people you have, it matter how bad they want to get better and how much they care.

[uscsummermusiclvr]

Aug 8, 2009 20:11:54 GMT -5 hansel2011 said:

Here is our instrumentation...

clarinet-5
flute-3
sax(bari, tennor, alto)-7
low brass-4
high brass-4
pit-10
line-6

Geez! That IS small...
We have like around 20 clarinets, 16 flutes, NO OBOS D: (how sad), 6 sous's, 12 sax's (bari, tenor, alto), maybe 17 melos.** Somehow we have enough brass and woodwinds and pit and battery/percussion to make up about 130 kids.
We have a huge band, but we still somehow don't sound "OMFGWTFDQBBQ LOUD" X3
Still, I would rather be in a small band, to be honest.
(At least I'm not in Wondo; they have like 200 kids in their band!)


**note; I did NOT mention ALL OF INSTRUMENTS IN THE BAND.

[hansel2011]

lol. I love my band. I would rather have this band than a huge band. Our band is smaller than ever but has the biggest sound than ever. it is pretty amazing. i love it. the rain is killing us but more work on myusc that way. today we had a 2 hour leaders meeting with me and the captains. it was great. we came up with a lot of ideas. for thiryt minutes we did teaam building, communication, trust drills. they loved them. tomorrow morning the first half hour we are having a meeting...the whole band. confidence.

[Lee]

Heck, my band lost our guard instructor. Good show though. Newbie day is tomorrow.

[hansel2011]

our camp is over with. had an amaizng and long two weeks. but it was incredible. we have this poll. when the band hits 70s, who is going to dye their hair? our director, assst director, guard instructor, or me, or all of the above. all of the above is winning with 83%.

[fruple]

It's getting to be pretty bad. Because of the no competing (the school said we need 100 people, which would be adding like 40 people), people are getting mad. We have our director back from two years ago, which I'm thrilled about, but everyone is getting angry and saying it's his fault we're not competing. On top of that, he's having us read a book about leadership, which is a good idea because we kinda suck at that, but everyone's getting pissy about that too. It's getting to the point where people are quitting, or saying they won't join next year.

It's pretty frustrating, especially since they make rehearsals such a downer, which is making the rookies not want to join again. All I'm hoping for is us to make it through this season without people sending angry emails to the director (which is what caused a huge mess last year). Ugh, people.

[hansel2011]

you hvae to find a way to make it fun. people will not want to do it if they are not enjoying it. maybe instead of reading a book....do some team work and communication activities. we did some with our band and it helped. no one is going to read a book excpet for the true leaders. i would be more than happy to give you some things to do.

[hansel2011]

I ma going to Dr. Tim tomorrow. I cant wait!!

[KUguardgrl13]

the KU marching jayhawks are looking pretty good so far! we just got new, more hardcore, guard coaches, so i guess compared to other years, we're a lot better. pregame's about half done, but we still have a ton of choreography and all the drill to learn for our first half-time show.

[290Piika]

Band Camp has been over for almost a week for us.

As a band, we sound terribly weak (even on something as simple as a pep-tune version of Apache WITH music) compared to previous years. Everything just sounds muddy...

Our flute section balance is completely whacked. We have 7 piccs, four of which who have never really practiced or played picc. The other six are flutes, two who can't play very well, and five of them are our freshmen. Three of them don't like to listen much, but the other two are like little freshman angels.

Our rehearsal ettiquitte has REALLY improved..for now. I hope it stays. We've been quieter and getting more stuff done. However, I don't know if it'll last, considering when our drill writer was writing instead of doing basics with us, people started goofing off with our marching tech. :\ Alas...I hope at least the show itself can be better. Last year was a catastrophe for us. (For those of you in WBA, we were the ones with the giant pyramids...)