Band Camp Day I

Yay!  The first day of band camp 2011 was yesterday.  It wasn't as bad as I had remembered.  The weather wasn't as hot either.  It rained off and on, and it felt absolutely amazing. 

During dinner, my marching band mentor pulled me aside as I was walking around and asked me how I was doing.  I told her that things are easier this year.  Then another upperclassman who tried to help me last year came and told me I was doing a lot better.  I remember last year, on the first day of band camp when we were connecting sets, I didn't know one goal was to keep shoulders square with the sidelines.  So I marched facing the end zone.  Now I know better.  Also, I can march and play some, especially the beginning, where I know the music really well and the sets are easier to make.  When we were handed drill sheets, I wasn't sure how much I remembered about reading them.  I had forgotten until I had overheard someone say it that the left and right are from the director's point of view.  I made fewer mistakes, like using the wrong 40. 

One thing I still can't do is track.  That's where music is played with the sets, but the marching is in basics block forward and backwards.  I struggled with it because we just learned the step offs yesterday, so they were new.  Also, I didn't know the music as well as I should.

Our director added the very first visual.  I don't like it.  I don't exactly know all of the counts, and it requires going down on one knee.  On pavement, that's extremely painful.

An upperclassman who was a clarinet and now baritone said when I "interviewed" people of how they got marching down said that she doesn't count in her head, she listens.  I'm trying to break my habit of counting in my head.  Instead, I'm trying to play and know that when a certain note in a specific beat is played, I'm in this set. 

So far, all of the drill we've learned seems as if I do a lot of dodging the colorguard, especially the ones with sabers.

The directors also changed my sets with another flute's.  We practically had to go around each other to make this one set.  So now, we have to chop our drill sheets in half and give them to each other.  It makes my life a little easier for one set.  It's still a backing set, but I don't have to go as far.

One day down, I think like seven more to go...