escababe07

we're all fine. though very sore. and busses make me nervous.

hey, not to divert from the real topic at hand...i'd just like to give a big thank you to all those who kept us in your thoughts as we were marching. the accident was pretty scary, i know, i was in one of those busses. i really appreciate especially those bands who prayed for us. we love you guys!

our directors don't like boa. at least that's the impression i've gotten. i actually had no idea so many people did it, until this year i'd never heard of it, and until about 3 weeks ago the only band i knew who did it was l.d.bell. *shrug* would we even be allowed in? but this is off topic. i wonder how judges (if we ever had on field judges) would manage seeing all of us? twould be impossible, i think.

what do you consider "covering" the field? cause i think along the lines of goal to goal. but i don't think that's what you had in mind.

jeez. 1 band for concert and marching. that just blows my mind. is that weird? we have eight concert bands.

pretty sure not north texas, cause we were there. they were all in the press box.

we've never had judges down on the field with us... at any contest. they're always in the press box... is that unique to us or something?

we have at least one bassoon for every band i think (and there are 8 bands) it's just most of them become brass players for marching, like mellophone or baritone. same with oboes. although we have one bassoon tenor sax, we once had an oboe alto, and we have a bassoon in pit.

well, there's 3 bands at the freshman center, 5 at the high school. freshman cant be in any bands at the high school except wind ensemble, and that's usually rare (they have to go to high school all region, not just freshman, and make phase 2). so that gets rid of about 150 ish kids. (and upperclassmen cant be in freshman bands...duh) and trying out is totally optional... but if you don't go, you wont make one of the upper bands. (usually. there's exceptions...like me! but that's cause my section is small and i'm one of the best players anyway. i'm in symph 1 and i didn't go! woot.) our region (i don't remember what it is) is supposedly the most competitive, meaning most of the all state players come from this region and area. that fact makes getting to phase 2 harder. not all of the wind ensemble players went to phase two, but out of the entire wind ensemble there's only about 10 of those max. the rest filter in based upon how they did at all region (those are our band tryouts, basically) and how they behave. if they went to phase 2 but are always late and back talk and all that kind of crap, they won't be in wind ensemble. simple as that. the directors from the higher bands get to pick who they want first. so mr gibson, wind ensemble director, gets the largest selection. then mr pennington picks from what's left, then mr gowler, and so on down the line for the upperclassmen. so the bands get bigger as they worsen because the directors further up only took who they wanted to and passed on the leftovers. it's the same at the freshman center based on who did the best at freshman all region. i think that's about it...

we actually have two sets of "bibbers" (pants), black and white. our school loves us. that's mucho bucks, cause these uniforms are only 3 years old, there's about 700 of them, and they cost about $5oo each. biiiiig bucks.

the funny thing is...i think having less than 500 is really, really weird. my freshman year i saw other bands of about 200 and i thought 'wow they're small!' and then i realized...'we're just freakin big!' we don't even look like 600 to me anymore. and the people in the last band are usually the kids who are just in band for their friends and honestly don't care. doesn't every band have some of those? it does sound dpressing though...symphonic 4.... i'm in symphonic 1! which is just as good as the wind ensemble, the top top band, without extra rehearsals. and with the director who's more fun. so i'm happy!

eighteen "yellow dogs", 20 ish charters we even have a charter flight to cali this year. (plus a bunch of other flights where there are less than 60 band kids on each) a couple of penske trucks.... on a side note, at every football game, the escadrille uses about 1300 water bottles.

actually, most people in band know about 200 of the others. it's not that difficult....we spend all of our time together basically. *shrug* i know almost everyone in band, maybe not personally, but at least i've heard their name. and when your school has 4500 people in it, well then, even if i knew all 640 it still wouldn't be that many. you probably can't understand, because you've never experienced it. WE ARE DEFINATELY NOT SOULESS, THANK YOU. well, there's the freshman center and the high school (two campuses) but we are one high school. it's kinda confusing sometimes. probably something you just have to experince.

green

we have 8 concert bands