Premiere Night

I'm blogging less and less as the years pass.

This week, I just felt like I didn't care about band.  I just wanted to get through the rehearsal.

One day, we tracked the ballad.  Tracking is a technique used to learn where one set ends and the next one begins by playing the music and marching the correct number of steps in a block.  I mostly had it.  I still don't know the ballad music because the directors didn't give it to us until a few weeks ago.  If they gave us the music a couple of months ago, I would have it memorized.  I'm not quite gelled on one set.  I just remember how hard tracking was freshman year.  We tracked warm ups, and I couldn't do it. 

We've done a total of two complete runs.  Me, personally, I've done okay.  As a band, it was pretty bad.  I really wish we had a drum major.  We wouldn't have to listen as carefully, and one person would direct us. 

Learning More Drill

I really like being one of the older ones in marching band.  I know what I'm doing (for the most part), I'm usually not on the hot seat, and I have more 'authority' in decision making.

Most of the way through rehearsal, our director told us to go back to the arc.  One freshman's expression was priceless.  He was so worried because he didn't know where the arc set was in the show or where to go.  Truthfully, I didn't know where the arc set was either, but I know to drift towards the people I know I'm around, and somehow we'll find our set.

The flute section makes decisions in a democratic style.  One person makes a suggestion and others affirm or disregard it.  I feel like people listen to others' suggestions more, and more gets done.  The flutes haven't made T-Shirts (a marching band tradition) for the past two years, but we did this year. 

End of Band Camp Thoughts

I felt so out of the loop yesterday at band.  I missed so much the day I was sick. 

We did some run troughs of the opener.  The runs were the first time I marched the entire piece.  I know the opener in chunks, not as an entire section.  My feet knew where to go, but my brain did not.  I got a quick lesson on the visuals, but I was a count later than everyone else because I forgot were they were.  The runs were awful for me.

We also learned the ballad.  Drill wise, it's so easy.  We don't move that much.  I joked that there are five sets and ten holds.  Our director didn't give us the music until two weeks ago.  I didn't get the music until a week ago because of vacation.  Not very many people know the music, and only the brass can play because they can hold the music in one hand and play the music with their other hand.  It was really bad.  I mean, I COULD HAVE worked harder to learn the music, but I've been at rehearsal most of my time.  I need to learn the music so I can learn the show by the music.  The ballad is the first place I've missed having a drum major.  The drum major would start each piece, which was nice.  Now we have to listen to the bag pipes.  At least we'll supposedly score more points for performing drum major less.

By the end of rehearsal yesterday, my capacity to learn new drill was shot.  The directors pushed us to learn sets of the closer.  It isn't too difficult.  It's all in sets of sixteen, and the music phrasing is in counts of sixteen.  That means that every time we start a new musical idea, we move to another set.  I know this music a little, but I doubt I remember the drill.

I feel like I knew the show at the end of band camp better last year.  Oh well, I'll get it eventually.

Band camp Day Four

One REALLY frustrating thing about band.  I woke up today with an upset stomach, yet I pushed myself to go to band because it's expected.  My mom tried to dissuade me from going.  We got there, and I went to tell my band director.  He told me I could just sit where I could run to the bathroom.  I stayed.

When my stomach hurts, playing flute or piccolo is one of the worst things.  I ended up throwing up.  I stayed a little longer, but I didn't do anything that everyone else did. 

I missed a lot of visuals.  I'll have to make it up tomorrow.

One of the parts of marching band I do love is the people, and most of my friends are in the band.  It's fun to be a part of something big with them.

Yay! Band Camp 2012!

I missed the entire week of band last week because my family went on vacation.  That was a total of twenty five hours of band.  Unlike the past couple of years, the band learned drill during that week, so I had to catch up.  Fortunately, there were a lot of people not there last week, so the directors re taught the drill. 

It's so different being one of the older ones in band.  Less experienced band members sometimes look to me to help them.  It's almost pressure.  Their expectation is that I know what's going on and how to help them.  I notice more now if a newbie doesn't know what they're doing.  I'm getting it relatively well. 

It's frustrating, though.  Instead of having individual drill sheets with coordinates for just one person, we have big drill that shows a picture with everyone's set.  I'm better at reading drill sheets because that's what we had for the past two years.  I've made a bunch of mistakes reading the big drill. 

My first year of band, I didn't know how to think.  I counted each count of the show, and I memorized the counts of all the direction changes and visuals.  The past two years, I've memorized the show by the music.  I think like, "wen I get to this E-Flat, that's when the direction changes."

 I also know most of the tips and tricks.  One freshman wore flip flops.  All of the older kids commended her for lasting the whole day without complaining or stopping.