REAL rehearsal...

[trumpetman1288]

We all have them: things that go on during rehearsal that the directors "don't know about." During concert season, trumpets harass horn players. During stand tunes, people ad lib certain parts in songs. Stories like this and crazier exist in nearly every band, so I am curious...what strange, humorous tales does YOUR band carry?

 

Mute Stories:

-We got bored because the clarinets could not play a certain part in the music, so our director kept working that part over and over again. Being the trumpet players we are, we decided it would be a fun, less boring means of entertainment to stack mutes on top of each other while he was fixing the clarinets. We got to three, and just as we were about to take a picture, someone accidently kicked it over and all our mutes came crashing down. Our director, already losing patience, told us to be "idiots on our own time."

- Much shorter...I had this quick mute change in this song called Divertimento (great song!). Well, while I was getting my mute, I picked it up too quickly from my leg and I flung it at the back of a sax player's head.

 

Quick mouthpiece story:

-Again while waiting for woodwinds to get their music fixed, we decided to steal someone's mouthpiece and pass it down. It eventually got back before our director asked for the full band. The guy whose mouthpiece got passed said it tasted funny. We later heard it was put in someone's pants...but we never let the guy know that

[actualgirltrombone]

We've done the mute stacking thing before... it was pretty funny.

 

Another time the trumpets were passing a balloon around and it popped during this really soft lyrical section in the song. Our director was pretty mad.

 

Another time the trombone section was playing the **** game, which is when you say **** louder and louder. Fortunately the band director never heard them... although I can only imagine what would have happened...

 

I heard that one time during Honors band, this kids mouthpiece got stolen right before he had this big solo, and he didn't realize it until it was time to play.

[mnkyman]

lol we've done the mouthpeice thing and ppl try to hide behind stands so the directer doesnt see it

 

as a bass clarinet we sit right in front of the baritones/trumpets and we like to lean back and grab a piece of music and not give it back till the end of rehearsal lol

 

percussionisnt always try to push eachother and stuff while there playing - especially during quite parts

 

 

 

during marching season ..darn....i dont think i can post all that here - itll take all of txbands upload space lol

[trumpetman1288]

  mnkyman said:

during marching season ..darn....i dont think i can post all that here - itll take all of txbands upload space lol

Same here man...that's why I stuck mainly with concert season for me, and I still have TONS of stories. But I'll share one of the ones we do during marching season.

 

Calling to Attention:

At my school, we are rather traditional, and we stick with the traditional "give the band every command before a performance" thing. So the drum majors give a horns up command, attention, and so forth when we enter the field. Well, the command for "attention" is the drum major says "band ten hut" and we say "go big red." The drum major says the command on quarter notes, and for us, "go big" is a pair of eighth notes, and the "red" is the next down beat. SOOOOOO....we like to have fun with the "go big red" part of the command. We substitute anything we can that sounds like it...

I like men

I like bread

give me *censored, but it rhymes with "bread" *

 

And so on and so forth. We have come up with a number of dirty ones, but I don't think it's such a good idea to say EVERY single one of them.

[springbassliner26]

Band Director Story:

 

One fine day, we were rehearsing Sketches on a Tudor Psalm and the brass was having a tough time playing on of the sections of the piece. Apparantly, it ended up being too much for our director, who lifted up his stand and threw it back down in a fit of rage. He started to count us off and a little red trickle ran down his nose.

 

He had cut himself on his stand and was bleeding.

 

So everyone started laughing (including him), and we didn't get anything else done the rest of that class. The next day he had a band-aid on his nose, and now I'm pretty sure he has a scar. Man, almost makes me miss concert band.

 

  actualgirltrombone said:

Another time the trombone section was playing the **** game, which is when you say **** louder and louder. Fortunately the band director never heard them... although I can only imagine what would have happened... 

 

oh yeah...that's gone on with the entire back row. And they didn't get caught either.

[Fortisimo]

Our old head director used to get really into conducting... I mean REALLY in to it.. anyways, one time during a concert he was up conducting the first band and he was getting to a really climatic point. Well you see, the bnands perform up on stage and the director is up on a little raised podium in front of them. Now, in front of that is the pit which is ~6-7 ft deep. So, yeah.... I think you see where this is going- he definitely was going nuts with it and he fell backwards in to the pit ion the middle of the concert, lmfao.

 

Oh, and mute stuff... we've done the stacking thing, but me and another trumpet player started a game where you set the mute down on the ground/riser and hold a pencil by the tip in your hand. You then takes turns trying to drop the pencil down the skinny opening of the mute from at least above lap-level. Rather challenging, but fun nonetheless. And did I mention noisy too? We kept score on his music folder.

[MartinHorn]

  Quote

Our old head director used to get really into conducting... I mean REALLY in to it.. anyways, one time during a concert he was up conducting the first band and he was getting to a really climatic point. Well you see, the bnands perform up on stage and the director is up on a little raised podium in front of them. Now, in front of that is the pit which is ~6-7 ft deep. So, yeah.... I think you see where this is going- he definitely was going nuts with it and he fell backwards in to the pit ion the middle of the concert, lmfao.

 

Not to mention during the end of first band's final piece he swung his baton like a baseball bat for the finish.

[Xukaniz]

The trumpets at our school like to take their mouthpieces and hit someone on the elbow, right where it makes their arm go numb. As a matter of fact, the whole brass section does it, hehe.

[whitewing09]

  trumpetman1288 said:

Same here man...that's why I stuck mainly with concert season for me, and I still have TONS of stories. But I'll share one of the ones we do during marching season.

 

Calling to Attention:

At my school, we are rather traditional, and we stick with the traditional "give the band every command before a performance" thing. So the drum majors give a horns up command, attention, and so forth when we enter the field. Well, the command for "attention" is the drum major says "band ten hut" and we say "go big red." The drum major says the command on quarter notes, and for us, "go big" is a pair of eighth notes, and the "red" is the next down beat. SOOOOOO....we like to have fun with the "go big red" part of the command. We substitute anything we can that sounds like it...

I like men

I like bread

give me *censored, but it rhymes with "bread" *

 

And so on and so forth. We have come up with a number of dirty ones, but I don't think it's such a good idea to say EVERY single one of them.

im like so stupid... umm what rhyms with bread

[trumpetman1288]

It's part of the human anatomy....right above your neck. In fact, it SITS on your neck. Yes...that part of your body. Rhymes with "bread." But since this is a family place, I shouldn't actually say what it is.

[umdebaba]

For our spring concert, we played In Memoriam Dresden and it was insane. Lots of screaming in german and the percussion was going so nuts that the bass drum fell over as the percussionist hit it. The audience was just like