TMEA All-State 2007-08

[ClaireAnnette07]

  ClarinetGlissandoInBlue said:

= some girl named alyssa from Kingwood Park got first, Cody Gibson got second for tuesday night. however, cody tells me that andrew of DP got first. *shrug

 

= thanks sarah!

 

Mann. Tough competition this year! I hope it's not as bad as last year since we '07 prodigies graduated

 

Good luck tomorrow! Show those Kingwood kids who Andy REALLY is..mwah ha.

 

On a side note, I feel extremely OLD. But glad I don't have to go through a 5th year of the nail-biting, reed cracking, obsessively practicing fall semester!

[ClaireAnnette07]

  borchnork said:

Yes, best of luck to everybody!!!!!

 

I want as many people from this forum making state as possible!

 

I already made state. Like 5 seconds ago. I made it 10 times.

(if you don't watch the "Karen" skit on SNL, my apologies..I hope I'm not the ONLY one who watches that..)

[MaverickBand15]

wow i got sooo nervous at Region. I played like crap!

[JustAddWat3r]

speaking of nervousness. anyone have good techniques on how not to get nervous? my section leader from last year told me to bring a sports magazine or something to read in the room.

[the_DRUM_MAJOR]

I definitely miss the obsessive practicing and audition for the fall....i mean...it was an adrenaline rush...but yea...im sure you will advance to area andy. just be chill in the room...as for the others who are nervous....the banana thing...i dont know..lol...but i would just take deep breaths and play the first note for like 10 seconds....it also helps if you get to scope out the room to find the right reed to balance it.

[JustAddWat3r]

monday is phase one...ive played so much i cant even tell if my tone is good or not...

ahh help.

[borchnork]

What I did was while the person before me was playing, I forced myself to zone out. I stared around the room and was reading the posters and looking at all the cool decorations that were up in the room.

 

And I was doing homework when everybody else was playing. It helped keep my mind off of things for a long time.

 

Also, our director told us that if you just take deep breaths through your nose, it helps relax you. It didn't work to well during my first etude, but on the 2nd and 3rd pieces, I forced myself to take a LONG and SLOW breath, out of tempo of the piece and I felt fine after that.

[JustAddWat3r]

haha reading posters and decorations in the room has to be one of my favorite parts of region tryouts.

 

i remember this one room i was in last year, it had all these encouraging quotes all over the room. it was really cool.

Edited December 1, 2007 by JustAddWat3r

[takigan]

This past Spring, I had to play a Euphonium solo on stage with a piano player I just met that day in front of the Tuba and Euphonium professors from practically every major university in the State of Texas (UT, Texas State, Baylor, SFA, Sam Houston, UNT--all of them were there!). I tell you what, it's one thing to play in front of 30-80 HS players who know just about as much as you do about playing, but it's a whole other level of nervousness when that same number of people in that audience consists of old people who are masters of your instrument, who've been around the world, played in the finest Symphonies, sampled the finest wines and all that jazz, lol. And not only that, since I was the representative from my school for that recital (each school sends their best players to perform) my performance would be a measure of the collective strength of my school's Euphonium studio! There was a lot riding on this performance!

 

I had nerves of steel in HS, I could always put out a performance in the region room that equated to about 90-95% of what I was truly capable of.....but wow, when I walked out onto that stage I was shaking like a little **** !!

 

The trick I always used was psyching myself up by talking to myself inside my head, like a boxing coach or something. Like; "All right, you're going to knock the socks off of every person in this room! You're a bad@$$! This is nothing! I know you're nervous but when you get through with this etude, THEY'RE the ones that are going to be nervous!

 

Ugh, I never made state though....there were roughly 60 Euphoniums in my region competing and they only took 2 to Area.....I made the top 8 my sophomore, junior and senior years, but I'd always miss one of the 2 spots by just a couple chairs.

 

EDIT: Oh come on....p.ussy isn't a bad word! Stupid language filter >_>.

Edited December 1, 2007 by takigan

[ClaireAnnette07]

I never had nerves of steel, which is what hindered me from making 5A area last year. My last etude was a train wreck, and after I played, I knew I was done. Worst thing was that I was a senior. UGH!

 

I have a band audition for a spot in the UT Wind Symphony on Thursday & I hope my nerves can settle. I am already so freaked!

[b_sax_agent]

  takigan said:

The clinicians don't have to select the music until like, after Area competitions, so we probably won't know for awhile.

 

 

Makes sense.

 

I hope they do another piece like Turbine.

[aaron067]

  takigan said:

The clinicians don't have to select the music until like, after Area competitions, so we probably won't know for awhile.

 

...the audition cuts that are passed out to those who qualify AT the Area audition are from the actual concert pieces.

[TRtrumpet]

Good luck to anyone who hasn't tried out!

 

I GOT 2ND IN AREA!! WHOOOHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

I'm so happy. It's my first year to try out, lol.

[ClarinetGlissandoInBlue]

i had a glitch in one etude, got second.

[takigan]

  aaron067 said:

...the audition cuts that are passed out to those who qualify AT the Area audition are from the actual concert pieces.

 

My mistake....that would actually make MORE sense because it would be a good idea to get the music out to the qualifiers ASAP....my assumption came from personal experience talking to a clinician one year about it (he mentioned to me he hadn't picked out the pieces for State yet even though he only had a couple more weeks to do so). Since his workshop that I regularly attend is held in early January, I assumed that I had the conversation then, but I forgot the conversation I had with him about it was actually sometime in early December....just a miscalculated memory gap :/.

[ClaireAnnette07]

  ClarinetGlissandoInBlue said:

i had a glitch in one etude, got second.

 

Hey, that's awesome! I know you wanted first, but second is still really great. Congrats!

[Warfact]

  bonepit06-07 said:

trombone pieces are a piece of cake right trombones?

 

I hope Berkins picks these pieces more often

 

Haha yeah they are. We just finished phase II yesterday and I got 2nd, our prodigy child freshman trombone player got 3rd, and his brother(junior) got 5th so we're all going to area in January. Our bass trombone player got 2nd and is going to area as well.

 

For some reason this year the music just wasn't as difficult as it has been in the past for trombone.

[ClarinetGlissandoInBlue]

  ClaireAnnette07 said:

Hey, that's awesome! I know you wanted first, but second is still really great. Congrats!

 

thanks...haha just traded one kingwood kid for another. Cody was failing regular biology last year...

 

Kingwood, Myself, Kingwood, Kingwood, Rayburn, .............Kingwood, Kingwood, Kingwood

 

pretty much that's the school distribution, but with less Kingwood in the top band.

[the_DRUM_MAJOR]

so many kingwood...makes me want the clear schools back...i mean honestly...our region band was really good when they were in it...lol last year was kind of...uhhh lol

[ClarinetGlissandoInBlue]

  the_DRUM_MAJOR said:

so many kingwood...makes me want the clear schools back...i mean honestly...our region band was really good when they were in it...lol last year was kind of...uhhh lol

 

yeah. the orchestra was especially affected.

[actualgirltrombone]

We definately had an impromptu TxBands meetme at region 26. It was pretty gangster.

[ClaireAnnette07]

  the_DRUM_MAJOR said:

so many kingwood...makes me want the clear schools back...i mean honestly...our region band was really good when they were in it...lol last year was kind of...uhhh lol

 

 

Try being in the 2nd region band..it SUCKED! If only I would have had one more year..lol.

 

Who's Cody from Kingwood? I don't remember him from last year, I guess because he failed biology or whatever it was

[t3hZm4n]

  bonepit06-07 said:

trombone pieces are a piece of cake right trombones?

 

I hope Berkins picks these pieces more often

 

Ugh I don't want Brickens picking the music ever again. The music is too easy, plain and simple. It's going to be 1000000x harder to make state than it was last year, because everyone at area is going to sound so unreasonably similar. I'm glad I made state last year, because a lot is going to have to go right for it to happen again this year.

[bonepit06-07]

the music was good but i kinda wish is was more technical

[borchnork]

this year is the only year I feel like if I were to just sit back and listen, I would genuinely enjoy listening to this region music, but I did NOT like playing it.