First Impressions

[treyj]

we start drill monday evening

[whitewing09]

We start drill Monday evening too!!! I'm so excited!!

[b_sax_agent]

I'm making a prediction that our drill will be a bunch of blocks.

 

at least 2 pass throughs

 

2 block rotations.

 

and a couple of parallelagram sets.

[Miray]

We just got through with our percussion camp the past week. Tomorrow band camp starts.

From the past week...all I can say is eh.

I think we're getting off to a great start.

 

I really hope we get a decent number of freshmen. We're still...kinda sorta new. So yeah.

 

But I really hope its nothing like Falls'.

I heard from a member there that they had 8 or so freshmen oboes.

I feel terrible for the section leader. Haha.

I think they also said that half of the horn section are freshmen. Same goes for the flutes I believe.

 

Anyway! I can't wait to learn drill and such.

I'm excited about this year.

Edited August 10, 2008 by Miray

[takigan]

I'm looking forward to Cypress Woods' show this year. Ya'll had a very solid first year and I enjoyed the intensity that was in that show.

[JustAddWat3r]

i love marching in the rain.

[treyj]

so we learned our first sets today!!

well this evening

 

im excited

[b_sax_agent]

we did our first 13 sets-our opener, and it's nothing complicated, but if it isn't clean, then the effect is kind of ruined...and we had three people absent in my section so that ticked me off. And one of them will ask questions till next week *sigh*

 

But if what was said today happens, I'll get to have lots of fun in the 5 sets that I don't move.

[treyj]

awesome!

 

we got to set 10.

 

which is our first "hit"

 

im excited :]

 

finally starting to come together hahaha

[b_sax_agent]

  treyj said:

awesome!

 

we got to set 10.

 

which is our first "hit"

 

im excited :]

 

finally starting to come together hahaha

 

 

hm....set 10 is our first hit too.....

and set 12 is our hold...then we go into our bizarre second movement.

 

Our drill consists of pairs, a moving line, and arcs.

 

Better than starting in a block.

[MaverickBand15]

we have the entire oppener drill on the field. The PIT and Drumline can play the opener together really well. The band can play the show well when standing, but has some work to do when marching. That will come in time!

[whitewing09]

I HATE our drill, well in general it's ok, but our opener consist of super easy drill for the tubas and drum line.

 

We have to have some of the weirdest drill, alot of weird curvy shapes. lol

Edited August 13, 2008 by whitewing09

[b_sax_agent]

I only have one difficult set...and I miss it by only a little bit and it somewhat irrtates me. but If I push harder, I look like crap coming in from the previous set. oh well.

 

We heard our second and thrid movement with the pit and DL, and it's...interesting.

[treblemaker]

Tomorrow is our last day of 2 a days! I'm so excited we have our pre-show and our opener laid out and have added music to the marching. I'm so excited already for this season. I can't wait to see what everyone else's shows are. During lunch everyday we watch past shows and being band nerds we sing along. It's awesome.

[treyj]

we;ve got up to set 16 today.

 

playing and marching.

still 8-8 until next week when it goes to 5-8 just evening rehersals

 

 

can't wait

[b_sax_agent]

practically the same with us.

 

Except I get to miss the first two blocks of rehearsal due to registration and a select group preformance thingy.

 

so I'm happy about that.

[bonepit06-07]

diddo to titan our brass is young but man they are starting to move some air... GO BRASS!!!! this is exciting to see and be apart of

[kollormn]

We're learning our drill extraordinarily fast this year. Currently we've already learned through the 2nd movement of our show which is 56 sets. This on its own may not be that impressive, but what's really impressed me is that we've been able to put MUSIC to all 56 sets.

 

This year everyone has been working extremely hard though. My section (clarinets) had sectionals all summer to work on memorizing music, and I know they other sections worked very hard over the summer too. It helps that we got a LOT of freshman, and that they are fast learners this year! I think everyone in our band is just extraordinarily motivated because of State Marching this year! We like to think that we've grown a lot musically since our debut in 3A two years ago.

 

As well as our summer band is going, I do have concerns. One is that I think we may be putting too much emphasis on learning drill and putting music to it. I would like to see more fundamentals work. I'm also concerned about our volume. We're pretty small, even for 3A, and we absolutely do NOT play louder than we can play with a good tone. Of course this means we have to sacrifice loudness in order to achieve a good sound. I hope as the season goes on, we will be able to play both LOUD and in tune

[crazyjakeup]

so today after work i went up to rowlett's practice to give my gf(dont worry, she is a color guard director lol) her cell phone.. i watched about fifteen mins. of the outside marching practice(w/o playing), it wasnt good. their marching is wayyy to weak... but then i heard them play and i wet myself, i wish i was still in high school so that i could marching that show... ... i think they still have a lot of work to do, but they have a chance to do what i wished i got to do... ... ...

[AzNtRoMbOnEcHiCk]

we finished our show last week.

i think this year was the fastest year everr.

 

now to cleaning and adding visuals!

[whitewing09]

That's really fast too learn a show.. be careful yall might peak too early

[Danpod]

  whitewing09 said:

That's really fast too learn a show.. be careful yall might peak too early

 

Depends on how you look at it. Everyone turn your attention to the dry-erase board for a quick Pro/Con Analysis on learning your entire show early.

 

Pros:

- The quicker you learn all the drill, the more time you have to clean. Executing clean drill is key, especially in a UIL State year.

- The sense of accomplishment that comes with knowing all of your drill before the first football game, regardless of cleanliness, can give a program a huge psychological boost.

- Directors like to have all of their drill on the field as quickly as possible because students tend to be the most motivated right before school starts. The students are more receptive to new information and are motivated to learn quickly because for the most part, they don't have anything else on their plate to worry about.

 

Cons:

- When you try to cram all of the drill down on the field in a short period of time, your program is at a high risk of burning out early in the season. Depending on your program, students can only take so much information at one time. If you push them too hard and too early, you might meet some resistance.

- One of the greatest challenges that comes with learning all of your drill early is changing it later in the season. It is very difficult to break drill habits when you've been doing the same drill over and over again for months. Programs like to feed the students the drill a little at a time to keep their minds fresh and ready for new challenges.

- To go along with my previous point, students may fall into a static situation if they learn all of their drill before school starts, which could create a sense of complacency within the student's psyche. In an activity as competitive as this, complacency is a Tragic Flaw of many programs.

[treyj]

dang.

 

we jut got our opener all on the field last night.

 

were going to keep cleaning that until friday for meet the band night.

 

then hopefully get the ballad laid out in the first week of school for our game friday

[JustAddWat3r]

  treyj said:

dang.

 

we jut got our opener all on the field last night.

 

were going to keep cleaning that until friday for meet the band night.

 

then hopefully get the ballad laid out in the first week of school for our game friday

 

 

you basically just stated our schedule except we learned our closer first.

 

I've never learned a show backwards before. Danpod, care to do an analysis of Pros/Cons on learning a show backwards?

[b_sax_agent]

We got about half our show done tonight.

 

I swear, this drill is 2000 times better than 2006 or 2004.

 

It's not just a bunch of lines and boxes which makes me happy.