Anyone going to Grand Nationals this year? :D

We're not all that good...

Anyone going to Grand Nationals this year? :D

We hope to get there eventually. We're trying to work our way up to a national level like that, but it may take a few years (it'd be nice if it happened this year though, who knows.)

Until we get there, you can still find us at the St. Louis Super Regional :)

New York for us. We're doing the Vet's Parade.

Our show is John Williams. We've got summon the Heroes(?), Indiana Jones, Can you read my mind? (Superman), Cantina Band (Starwars), the Patroit, and Liberty Fanfare (?). The title's somehting like "The Heroes of John Williams" or something like that.

We got two sweet pit features this year. One in Cantina and the other in the Patroit, although the second one's not finished.

That sounds sweet. Be sure to upload audio of your field show =]

Cantina Band FTW! We're hopefully gonna play that in jazz band this year!

New York for us. We're doing the Vet's Parade.

Our show is John Williams. We've got summon the Heroes(?), Indiana Jones, Can you read my mind? (Superman), Cantina Band (Starwars), the Patroit, and Liberty Fanfare (?). The title's somehting like "The Heroes of John Williams" or something like that.

We got two sweet pit features this year. One in Cantina and the other in the Patroit, although the second one's not finished.

Wow, all of your shows have popular music in them. We never have shows like that.

Ohh, if anyones interested, here's audio of the show we're doing this year. Synergy (http://johnfanninmusic.com/Synergy.html)

Yeah, the music really isn't that catchy, but it's really difficult (refer to woodwind runs in 3rd movement x_x) which I think will help us out in competition.

Second Movements not up, probably some kind of copyright restriction. It's an arrangement of a song from Dancer in the Dark. If you've seen the Cadets 2005 show, its pretty much their ballad.

Ha, even when you think you're done with band when you graduate, you still get sucked back in. I'm being paid to rewrite scores and make parts for some simple stand tunes for my old High School band. If anyone is interested in a copy, give me a PM. I have...

Final Countdown
Another One Bites the Dust
Gonna Make You Sweat
Get Ready for This

HAHAHAH! THE FINAL COUNTDOWN BY EUROPE!! XD That'l sound interesting with the marching band...

It's quite fun on piano; the Super Bowl advertisements were killing me to figure it out on the piano. Have fun with that!

I'm back from Band camp! it wasn't actually that bad...except for 90% humidity at night rehearsal and mosquitoes up to wazoo. Out show, however, has gotten infinitely better =]. I'll let you guys know once we get some field show audio. I'll upload it.

^^I heard that at Sonic the other day... Wow, that will definately be an interesting show. >_<

^Sounds like our band camp. Heh.

Some drunk tractor guy cut the power line, so we didn't have any stadium lights... Gotta love how inefficient everything gets when the sun goes down. ^_^

^ Yeah. If it weren't for the stadium lights here at home...my got the field would get dark.

"Ok, step off your dot."
"Umm....WHERE'S THE FREAKING HASH???"

lol

hah, kind of reminds me of when we first played our show for all the parents at the after-band-camp-picnic. the field wasn't completely painted. as you got closer to the endzones, lines were painted every 10 yards instead of 5. kinda confusing at some parts haha

Does anyone else spraypaint their dots? You can get high just walking around on the field around here... >_<

No, if we all spray painted our dots, there would be WAY too many dots on the field. You wouldn't know where the hell you were going lol. However, we do paint dots in intervals of 4 steps from the hashes when splitting two yard lines. It makes it easier to step off your dot instead of taking steps from the hashes or sidelines

_yardline_______________________________
| 4 8 12 16, etc
_______________________________________
yardline

Eh, I'm new to marching band, which was killer on my knees when I was in band camp. Having to hold your knees at 90 degree angle is killer.

We have four bands. Marching, concert, jazz, and some other thing, I forgot, since I'm not in it.

Marching band is the first semester, I think the whole year.
The concert band is the end of the first semester, into the second.
Jazz band, is the second semester.
And the rail guard(I rememeber now) is the whole year.

That's weird. We don't consider those classes. They are extra-curricular. Except for concert and symphony band, they are classes. But Jazz Band, Pep Band, Marching band, etc are your choice. By the way, what the hell is Rail Guard? lol.

^.^ Varsity Band starts in 2 weeks. At least I actually get to play something harder that requires practice, for once. -_-

@_@ What is Rail Guard?

We've been doing fundamentals for weeks before the beginning of school. And, of course, these aren't fun--especially when you have to do 8-and-8's, right/left faces, and various maneuvers in mud. Also, our makeshift yardlines are pretty much 8 steps, 12 steps, 5 steps, 4 steps, etc. I guess that makes 8-and-8s more exciting, if you will, but our lines are suffering. Maybe this ubertraining will do us some good in the future. Hmm. Maybe. But as usual, none of the members seem to really take this seriously, so I wonder. XD

Actually, we did relocate. ...
To the fieldhouse!
Haha! I preferred the field, as it had yardlines. And it was bigger.

Anyways, we're marching at a local parade this Saturday. Yay.


Eh, I'm new to marching band, which was killer on my knees when I was in band camp. Having to hold your knees at 90 degree angle is killer.


Hey, that was our track practice. (You're referring to the "invisible chair" thing, right?) Hahah! Wow. Well, I guess it might help you in the end!

That's weird. We don't consider those classes. They are extra-curricular. Except for concert and symphony band, they are classes. But Jazz Band, Pep Band, Marching band, etc are your choice. By the way, what the hell is Rail Guard? lol.

Some kind of thing that follows along with some JROTC(Which is an militaryish program.)





Hey, that was our track practice. (You're referring to the "invisible chair" thing, right?) Hahah! Wow. Well, I guess it might help you in the end!

Not really but it's close enough. When marching in the standard style(I forgot it's name), you have too hold your legs at a 90 degree angle with your toes pointed.

I hate the fact of having two styles of marching, the "traditional" and "corp"(pronounced 'core') style marching. Switching from one to another is is almost suicide.

My new drum instuctor makes us curl our drums. @_@

And let me tell you, that sucks balls for tenors.

Not really but it's close enough. When marching in the standard style(I forgot it's name), you have too hold your legs at a 90 degree angle with your toes pointed.

I hate the fact of having two styles of marching, the "traditional" and "corp"(pronounced 'core') style marching. Switching from one to another is is almost suicide.

Oh, I know what you're talking about. =D At first, I thought you guys were simply doing exercises, since we've never marched that way before. Our instructor just told us flat out that we were going to keep our toes on the ground to minimize problems, since we already have so many of them. Haha! That's how I've marched the past three years, and it's 99.99999% likely that the same will occur this year.

My marching band. Is a very small marching band of 43 people. Only 2 of those people our Color Guard.

Our show this year is called "Smell the Roses" It consists of 3 movements.
1. Ode to Joy-Jazz style
2. Kenny and the Waccakets.
3. Joy to the World

The show is all about joy, and Kenny. Its an original show, as we have all our music custom made. Just for us. It sound great.

Our marching style is a mix between straight leg and Drum Corp styles.

And yes. We do use paint cans.

Well, you only have 43 people... it makes a lot more sense to use paint cans because you won't have a tye-dyed practice field like our 190-man band. >_<

Yeah. But the thing is, we only have yellow paint. And because of the heat down here, the grass is yellow. So yeah. It doesn't even work.

Wow, whoever decided to get all yellow made a bad call. XD

Does it seem to anyone that in 90% of mainstream marching shows, the brass is the only section that truly moves around on the field? Every show I've ever done the woodwinds are up front and the drumline's way in the back. The whole show.

Thats because drums are loud, and woodwinds are quiet. Its good staging. Our band on the other hand. We go everywhere. We aren't usually with out sections.

Thats because drums are loud, and woodwinds are quiet. Its good staging. Our band on the other hand. We go everywhere. We aren't usually with out sections.

I disagree, percussions (including drums) can be whispering soft, and woodwinds can be shrilling loud too. Panning (putting certain instruments on a certain spot) just determines how the audience will perceive each timbre.

Well then let me put to you in this perspective.

It is much easier for a percussionist to play loud, than a woodwind to play loud. And in marching band, Percussion is usually ALWAYS loud. Too loud in fact....

Well then let me put to you in this perspective.

It is much easier for a percussionist to play loud, than a woodwind to play loud. And in marching band, Percussion is usually ALWAYS loud. Too loud in fact....

Actually, it's easier for woodwinds to play loud than 'soft'. To play soft, all woodwind players must use even more amount of air but into a smaller embouchure. This have been quite a misconception to people in my opinion. Acoustically, all instruments' volumes can be executed evenly (so clarinets can be equally loud as trumpets), the only thing that makes people think clarinets are softer is because of the trumpets' timbre is much more thicker and overwhelming.

As for percussion, it doesn't always have to be loud. It's another typical stereotype of band music that all percussion must be loud.

Yes, I know it is possible for a clarinetist to play as loud as a trumpeter, but its just extremely difficult to do.

And no instrument always have to be loud. Its just percussion usually is...:[

And no instrument always have to be loud. Its just percussion usually is...:[

Well, I guess percussionists really need to reflect upon their own professionalism for that. If you're a good percussionist, interpretation of dynamics shouldn't be a problem.

Which would explain why in Drum Corps, you're never on the same dot twice, because (for the most part) Drum Corps percussionists can use a wide variety of dynamics.

What about melodic percussion aka pit. For the last few years we were drowned out and we had mics.

oh it feels so good to be back on the thread! haven't been on in a while! had some timpani-playing to do!^_^

wow. i can't believe a pit drowned the rest of the section out. Normally we get drowned out(save the timpani! lol) but jeez!
Is your pit always playing outside with you?

No, they always get drowned out - I'd love to see a pit that could drown out an entire band... @_@

with or without the use of amps? lol our MB has a synth this year. =]

for a pit to use amps... sad
for a pit to use amps and still get drowned out... depressing

if i can play to the loudest extent during a full practice, i'll win 10 dollars! ^_^

Our Synth and Bass Guitar uses an Amp. Every one else is on their own. Our pit is where it needs to be. Not overpowering loud, but loud enough to be heard.

all of the staff is awlays telling us to play out.

Yeah, amps for a synth and a Bass guitar are perfectly normal. However, most of the time the pit is like playing from 6-9 inches continuously. (mf - f+...for those of you who don't speak pit lol) but for the most part, the dynamics are really quite good. softs are soft and louds are loud.

Yeah, Pit is generally good with it. They don't really have to focus on marching, so they can focus more on playing. But that isn't an excuse for the people marching to not play just as well.

I'm in the West Boca Vanguard (South Florida). Last year we got first place in all local competitions, and 2nd at states (Our show was called What's the Matter, science concepts). This year, our show "Sideways", rocks! We're planning on going to BOA Georgia and Tennessee (sp?).

Anyways, I'm in pit also, and this year we're getting amped due to the lack of pit members (4 seniors graduated :/) and we got a synth :)

all of the staff is awlays telling us to play out.

Lol, our drum guy said he would replace any broken mallets for free if they would just play louder. XD

And so far, he's made good on that promise.

Lol, our drum guy said he would replace any broken mallets for free if they would just play louder. XD

And so far, he's made good on that promise.

what did you do???? im doin it for the 10 dollars


I'm in the West Boca Vanguard (South Florida). Last year we got first place in all local competitions, and 2nd at states (Our show was called What's the Matter, science concepts). This year, our show "Sideways", rocks! We're planning on going to BOA Georgia and Tennessee (sp?).

Anyways, I'm in pit also, and this year we're getting amped due to the lack of pit members (4 seniors graduated :/) and we got a synth :)


go pit! what do you play?

In winter drum line, I played synth in the pit, and one of the marimba players almost hit me in the head with a mallet when it broke after she did a hard glissando down the instrument lol. I'd say that was loud enough =p

In winter drum line, I played synth in the pit, and one of the marimba players almost hit me in the head with a mallet when it broke after she did a hard glissando down the instrument lol. I'd say that was loud enough =p

@_@i think so too

what did you do???? im doin it for the 10 dollars

I didn't do anything, I'm a quad player... but I would definately want to test that theory if I was a pittie. ^_^

I didn't do anything, I'm a quad player... but I would definately want to test that theory if I was a pittie. ^_^

oh yes! i almost forgot about that bro! my bad:heh:
so how is your band doing so far?

GO PIT PEOPLE!!!! I'm in pit this year, even though i marched flute last year,oh how i miss marching, and my flute witch i won't get to play at all this year because our oboeist graduated and i'm the only other person that plays it, :mad::no::crybaby:,,anyways.....our field show this year is circ du soleil quidam which pretty much centers on pit so......i suppose i'm pretty happy that i'm in pit this year @_@ man i think i'll stop writing now:heh:

Cirque du Soleil is pretty sweet. You'll have to upload some audio if you get recorded. I'm debating whether or not I'll be in Winter Drumline this year. It's a fun experience, but it's like...when marching band gets over with, WD starts up. I have no free time. Nevertheless, I'll have to think about it some more. The main instructor says he needs me for synth, but I don't know.

you should join. i've been thinking of being in winter line as well but the truth is they don't really any more people but i have a couple friends that want me to...hmmm...i guess we're both in a dilema here...

you should totally do winter line! i intend on doing it this year to prep for the 08-09 marching season(first tima!) seeing as our drumline is losing a lot of people.

I feel like I'm a little obligated to join too. The instructor says he really needs me, and there's another guy that plays synth, but he has no where near my playing ability, at least according to Andy (the instructor). He said he'd rather have NO synth in the show than let the other guy play keyboard. He can hardly play moving parts with his left hand while playing melody with his right O_O. I kinda feel like I have to help out lol.

you know what you hould do? kill him. jk jk

GO PIT PEOPLE!!!! I'm in pit this year, even though i marched flute last year,oh how i miss marching, and my flute witch i won't get to play at all this year because our oboeist graduated and i'm the only other person that plays it, :mad::no::crybaby:,,anyways.....our field show this year is circ du soleil quidam which pretty much centers on pit so......i suppose i'm pretty happy that i'm in pit this year @_@ man i think i'll stop writing now:heh:

My high school is doing the Cirque De Soleil as well. I was going to try out for our marching band this year, but I remembered I'm not a person who wants to want all over the place, and I can't put in 200+ hours for pit. x_x

but it's so much fun especially when you're with friends:lol:

My high school is doing the Cirque De Soleil as well. I was going to try out for our marching band this year, but I remembered I'm not a person who wants to want all over the place, and I can't put in 200+ hours for pit. x_x

You don't want to want all over the place? :lol:

I get that, but I can't help thinking that if you have time for piano, you'd have time for pit. I'm about 1000% sure that you'd be amazing, what with your piano wherewithall, and I've noticed that they're (generally) interchangable.

I hype Cirque! :w00t:

did anyone not see te dci championship?
rockin!

Freaking yes!!
Criminal, Winged Victory, the Phantom one I can't remember the name of... The Academy, where the hell did they come from? >_O
Phantom and BD were cleaner than a hospital room (as usual)!
And Cavaliers are overrated. -_-

man, that was the moest epic display of marching ive ever seen. ever. so epic that i even recorded it... to wath it again and again and again...

I didn't watch DCI...Which makes me sad. : [

How good was it?

I'm beginning to despise our show. And our drill writer, who writes for drum corps, is being really stupid.

This is our show from this past season.

"Galactic Empires" by David Gillingham. It's an amazing piece. We got 4th place in the state at championships. We're a Flight II band in MCBA. Here's the link =]

http://www.4filehosting.com/audio/72097/HHS%20-%20Galactic%20Empires.mp3.html

Enjoy! =)

I played the Tenor Sax in this show.

-------------------------------------------------------

2005 - Pacific Sketches. Featuring the Music:

Symphonic Dance #3 by Clifton Williams
Santa Fe Saga by Morton Gould
Fiesta Del Pacifico by Roger Nixon

I also played Tenor in this show. Unfortunately, the judges were bitches and gave us like 8th or something at state. I think we were better though. At least musically. I liked the music that year. Enjoy the show!

http://www.4filehosting.com/audio/72107/HHS---Pacific-Sketches-mp3.html

hey sondagger! do you know the Fort Zumwalt West Silver Jaguar Brigade?!
( oh, & did you see the DCI quarter finals this year? Loved the academy!)
any way... it's my first year marching, but I'm a sophmore... heh-heh, yeah
(missed band camp last year) but we almost won Mizzou last year (I think)
& north high won by, like, a 0.1 of a point; but as for our show? Why it's
"Serenada Schizcofrana" by Danny Elfman, who's been the most busy movie music writer for the past 18 years! :) Yeah he actually made a marching version of the show for us. :)

hey sondagger! do you know the Fort Zumwalt West Silver Jaguar Brigade?!

Sorry, can't say that I do.

I think my perc. director has gone mental (in a good way). He totally re-wrote the drill for the percussion break and asked on of our directors to help with body movment. Luckily for me I don't have to learn anything new. I feel sorry for our battery.

Cirque de Soleil. Don't they change shows every so often, so what would you guys doing a cirque show play?

well my band will be playing:
1. atmadja
2. nikou lattora.....i think thats how you spell it:think:....
3. quidam
and 4. incantation we get to chant in this one:lol:

I didn't watch DCI...Which makes me sad. : [

How good was it?

I'm beginning to despise our show. And our drill writer, who writes for drum corps, is being really stupid.



it was EPIC

( oh, & did you see the DCI quarter finals this year? Loved the academy!)

Heck yes I did! I was there! And double-w00t for the Academy!

All together, it was pretty flippin awesome

I'm part of the Western High School Marching Band. Our band is actually quite big, approx 115 people this year. I'm a Senior and play the Euphonium (our section is quite small this year, though, only 3 people :( )

This year our main show is a Beatles show, so we're doing A Hard Day's Night, Elenor Rigby, Yesterday, and Can't Buy me Love.
I seem to wonder how we even seem to march to Yesterday (it is soooo slow) But my favorite one to do is Can't buy me love because of how fast it goes and all the little Squad Gates we do in this piece.

We also do a special show that the seniors have to buy the music, write the drill, and plan everything else for the show. This year the theme is Jump through the Ages, so we're doing Jump Jive and Wail, Jump (Van Halen), and Jump on It.
In JJ&W we do some fun little body movements while in Jump on it we do the dance for it. Jump is the song that the seniors will dance to.

hey sondagger! do you know the Fort Zumwalt West Silver Jaguar Brigade?!
( oh, & did you see the DCI quarter finals this year? Loved the academy!)
any way... it's my first year marching, but I'm a sophmore... heh-heh, yeah
(missed band camp last year) but we almost won Mizzou last year (I think)
& north high won by, like, a 0.1 of a point; but as for our show? Why it's
"Serenada Schizcofrana" by Danny Elfman, who's been the most busy movie music writer for the past 18 years! :) Yeah he actually made a marching version of the show for us. :)

ahh dude we're gonna be competing!! I knew the name sounded familiar, but so far this season we've only gone to competition with Fort Zumwalt North at Mozingo's and Fort Zumwalt South at Belleville East. But why aren't you guys coming to Lafayette, North and South are.

aw well, guess I'll be seeing you guys at BOA then

Yeah, I had a band competition today. Mid-Atlantic contest of Champions.

My school, Waccamaw, a AA school with 41 people. Happened to be the Grand Champion of the A and AA division, and came a second place overall, behind a AAAA band with 100 people.

WOOO! Our first competition will be this saturday. I'm sooo exited. Wish my band good luck!!:P

My high school is going to BOA this weekend (St. Petersburg, FL). Anyone else going?

nope sry, its our homecoming week. we wouldn't go all the way out to florida anyway. We're going to BOA in St. Louis the weekend after this one though.

ooh, and theres a video up of my band if anyone wants to see :sweat:

missourimarching.com
click media, videos, and then o'fallon township. our sets aren't perfect but i think we do a pretty decent job with rotating lines and stuff :D

hey my brother posted some videos of us at one of our games its pretty shitty quality but if you pay attention some of it is pretty funny.there are also some other videos if you want to watch more ;)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0g68JGxokrY

Our band is doing alright. We still have some work to do but it is pretty darn good. Here is the link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rxor5FWOR7M
P.S. Yell at a first trumpet who was sticking out in the end of the third movement! BTW we ran out gas in third movement. Incase you were wondering about the color guard having more people at the end with the red flags is because the flutes and four clairnets do a routine there.

Yell? No. Praise? Yes.

Really awesome show, but not what I consider a marching band. More like a show band.

Yell? No. Praise? Yes.

Really awesome show, but not what I consider a marching band. More like a show band.

Eh, thats what the director calls it. :) Thanks, the show is crazy fun too.

Either way I like your show. Keep up the good work.

Huzzah. My band is going to state finals for the 1st time in 10 years!
I'll have a video of our show up soon.

I'm not in our Marching Band, but our Marching band took 1st this year.

Won everything, but placed 2nd in "Best music" (Had a biast judge).

Our drumline is cursed with a bad band... and it seems that no matter how good we do seperately, the band's bad rep follows us. It's like judges see the name Burleson and automatically lower their expectations.
Not that I care, it's just kind of funny to me. I know we're pretty good, so I don't really care.
But is it wierd that, out of three judges, two gave us fifth place and the third gave us first? This guy's never seen us before, so I know he's not biased.

Our band came it 6th place yesterday. With a score of 87.625
5th place-87.626
4th place-87.7
3rd place-88
2nd place-89
1st pace-92

It was very close.

we had our last competition of the season yesterday. We did really well too, amazing way to end the season.

This year has been really awesome for us, dominated a couple local competitions, went down to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma and got second (only lost to Owasso), we got into Finals at BOA St. Louis for the first time, and we sweeped our division and came out on top overall at GSL yesterday.

But the highlight of the season was definitely getting into finals at BOA, considering last year we got like 30th out of 50.

Hi! I'm new:

This is my 3rd year in Marching Band [junior] I've been in 3 different schools. But for this year I attend Bellflower High School.

Stats:

1A Division Band: (65 ppl) =/ [smallest Band I've ever been in.]

Title of Show: "A Bit of Soul"
Opener: Yen on a Carousel - Ocean's 12
Ballad: Ooh Child
Closer: People get up and drive your funky soul/ 7-29-04 The Day of/ What is Hip?

We just started competing Last week. [SCSBOA]
Colorguard- 4th place
Percussion- 2nd place
Band- Penalty.

We would've gotten 1st place only if we had a complete field show! we only performed the first 2 songs. We're barely finishing the closer this week. =/

Well, our small band of 41 people is never going to go to BOA....but we haven't made state in ten years, and then we did fairly well there. I'm happy.

From what I've heard, if I make it into Concert Band next year (which will probably be easy, with what I just learned), I will be able to go to Spain next year for a band tour or something... O_o... and get some college credits.

Wow, Spain!? O.O

I'm also in a marching band:

3rd year in a marching band but first year in a competitive high school marching band [Freshman]

Arcadia Marching Band [California]
6A Division Band (If I remember correctly) [400+ members]

Field Show Title: Romeo & Juliet
5 Parts all from the music of Tchaikovsky
You can hear it here: http://www.musopen.com/view.php?type=piece&id=191

Instrument: Alto Sax [bringing saxy back]

Only one competition so far since Mt. Carmel was canceled due to the fires.
Street - Second :cry:
Drum Major [Street] - First
Auxiliary [Street/Field] - Forgot both :P
Field - Sweepstakes
Percussion - First

Highlights of the Year Thus Far:
Going to Bands of America
Going to Rose Parade
Won best music score with a 396/400 at our first [and so far only] field show comp.
Homecoming game was pretty awesome
Band Camp was fun

We're doing winter drumline for the first time in seven years this year! And our show is the Nightmare Before Christmas - I'm rather excited. ^_^
Just in case you're curious:
What's This
This is Halloween
Kidnap the Sandy Claws
Jack's Lament

Not in that particular order though.

[/tangent]

Well, our small band of 41 people is never going to go to BOA....but we haven't made state in ten years, and then we did fairly well there. I'm happy.

yes you will.
41 ppl will be in 1A Division Band.

.so maybe, there's nothing wrong with small sized bands.

we have a cali competiotion this saturday
we had boa flagstaff and finished in 12th. We were like a point and a half from the top ten!
Oh And let me shout out: Any person from the Sky View Marching Band in Utah: Do not listen to the judges from Boa, your show was simply AMAZING you totally deserved first and the judges are mad because they're gay

well my band will be playing:
1. atmadja
2. nikou lattora.....i think thats how you spell it:think:....
3. quidam
and 4. incantation we get to chant in this one:lol:


Diogenes, what band are you from? Cuz my school's show is cirque du soleil too. And im from cali too.


Oh also it seems everyone plays a woodwind instrument.
No low-brass? :/. I play the baritone.

Diogenes, what band are you from? Cuz my school's show is cirque du soleil too. And im from cali too.


Oh also it seems everyone plays a woodwind instrument.
No low-brass? :/. I play the baritone.
well.....im from newport, and seeing as how you play baritone i doubt, knowing the two people in the section, that your in my band-_-....it would be cool though...^.^

Diogenes, what band are you from? Cuz my school's show is cirque du soleil too. And im from cali too.


Oh also it seems everyone plays a woodwind instrument.
No low-brass? :/. I play the baritone.
lol, Baritones are our biggest section.

Hey, our school did Cirque de Soleil last year, [I watched it, it was simply amazing] they came in 5th place in championships last year.

But anyways, talking about Championships. I doubt we're gonna make it in the top three this year.... =/
In our last 2 competitions we've had. [on placement]
2nd competition 11/06-
Band- 1st place
Drumline- 1st placement out of all 5 divisions
Colorguard - 1st place

3rd competition [yesterday] 11/10-
Band-1st
Percussion-1st
Auxilary- 1st.

Sure, we're doing good on placements this year but our scoring [from band] we're doing terrible! a 61.83 on both comps! [not good] percussion and guard are kicking our butts. we only have 2 more comps to raise up our scores. *sighs* Only if the judges quit being turds... it wouldn't hurt to raise our score up by 7 points! [all we need to be the equivalent of charter oaks].

haha, I love how you guys are talking about BOA.

Well you see, my band is much to good to waste our time at BOA. So says our band director.

Either you really are good or your band director is rather full of himself, cause that's quite a statement to make. =/

it's really cool, my band made it to championships for the first time in like 10 years and if we win the competition this saturday then we we will be in 2 championships!>.<

My band Director was being sarcastic.

Our band is good, but not great. We can play, and we can march, but we can't do both at the same time.

Lol, same here...

At first I was glad marching season was over, but then I realized all our percussionists minus about three of us are strictly marching drummers. Kind of depressing, really.

We just finished our marching season and we placed first in our class for all our competitions we went to. I posted some pictures on my deviant art account so check them out. Our music was all music by The Police(Synchronicity II, Every Breath you take, and King of Pain/Message in a bottle)
http://moonscara142.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKPSbN6ypLM (a video of us at a competition)

we finished our season a few weeks ago. just never got on to say anything!
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaanywaaaaaaaaaaayyyssss, we went to the U of A competition on the 17th of November. We got Superiors from all 7 judges and we also recieved the Nunamaker award. Since we were the only band to do both, pretty much 1st place

wow your marching bands must be awesome. our season ended and i'm so sad cuz i'm a senior and i'll never march again! it was such an awesome experience, though we didn't even come close to winning this was the best we've ever done =D it was a good season... seniors went out with a bang =D

our seniors did too. we made championship finals and got third place!!
not only that but our percussion got first place and our band directors gonna take us out to eat.....and this hasn't happened for a good 5-6 years so we're all excited!:P

wow your marching bands must be awesome. our season ended and i'm so sad cuz i'm a senior and i'll never march again! it was such an awesome experience, though we didn't even come close to winning this was the best we've ever done =D it was a good season... seniors went out with a bang =D

i guess were the band to beat in AZ now!:heh:
of course after next year itll be different so... yeah


our seniors did too. we made championship finals and got third place!!
not only that but our percussion got first place and our band directors gonna take us out to eat.....and this hasn't happened for a good 5-6 years so we're all excited!:P

oooh oooh! i wanna go!

back in the day in 12/01/07:
SCSBOA CHAMPIONSHIPS.
[if anybody was in them.]
they took place in Corona, CA

Bellflower HS Marching Band [1A Band] - 9th place.

*sigh* somehow we moved down 6 places from last year. =/

I'm so glad the season is over.

My school has one in the spring for a parade. Who knows what evil pieces were gonna play this year DX Last year (whith the awsome band director) we played ABC and Some latin-ish song. Either way it was cool, because we had a bunch of chants and stuff. Plus we got awesome T-shirts (They're say "'our school's name' Band" In grafitti style B)

So you've never had band t-shirts or those ones are sweetly awesome?

Ooooh!

Yesterday we did a parade at Disneyland ["Community Classic Arts Showcase"]
It was AWESOME!
The parade started at Main Street all the way to Smallworld.
I almost teared when we saw the front of the Castle. It was so beautiful.

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about.
Disneyland has a program called "Community Classic Arts Showcase". Which is when everytime Disney has a parade or a special musical event they pick a group of schools to come and audition for them to participate in their parades... SO that's what happened to our school,this October Bellflower High School got invited to Disney for the first time. We Auditioned, and in November we got the letter were it said that we have made it and that we will be performing in one of their Christmas parade. I got SO exited when I heard the news. And yesterday was the day, 12/21/07. at 5:56 pm was when the gates opened to us and what do you know, Mainstreet was cleared, they were crowds of ppl on both sides of the street. And after 8 measures of a cadance we started playing and marched through Disneyland.

We weren't the only school there, but for me it was and incredible experience. I grew up with Disney, and 'till this day I still loved. and sure I've been to Disneyland many times, but this was a once in a lifetime experience. Not only we got to perform, but we got to see the backstage of Disney, we passed control rooms, their workshops, and their tiny factory were they make all their costumes. We had stage managers, [crowded dressing] rooms and a professional photo shoot taken [in uniforms] of the band.

yeah, I love Disney, I was like a little kid in a candy store. And what's best about it is that it was our last Marching Band Performance.

[<---very happy person]

I'm in Marching Band, I'm a flute! ^_^

Competition season was over by the time I found this thread :( so I'll just talk about last year's show. I'm from East High School, Portsmouth East for those of you from Ohio, and our band has 25 members INCLUDING percussion, pit, and color guard. Our show was 'Getting Medievel on You' and it got us a II rating at OMEA state competition :) I was the first (and only) trombone. The whole list was: 3 Trumpets, 1 Trombone, 1 Mellophone, 1 Baritone, 2 Alto Sax, 1 Tenor Sax, 1 Bass Clarinet, 3 Soprano Clarinets, 2 Pit, 5 Drumline, 5 Color Guard.

no flutes!?!!!O_O

Oops! Sorry, one Piccolo, but that's all (and that was a good year in size for us...)

oly jeez 25 members???

oh yah just wanted to get out that after 1 1/2 years of trying(and isnane pit playing), i'm finally on dline! ok its actually just winterline but still yay!

WOOO!!!
what do you play?

Did a brief search of this thread for 'CAL' and videogame, and found no returns, so I'm assuming this hasn't been posted yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QNI3W8UB-s

A halftime show for a college football game. The marching band plays various videogame songs, it's worth a laugh =)

i play snare!

Congrats! How's the book?

kokoro? book?

Really late for this topic but, our theme was The Phantom of the Opera. We had 7 trumpets, 1 cornet (me), 5 flutes, 4 clarinets, 2 alto saxes, 1 tenor sax, 1 baritone sax, 1 sousaphone, 1 trombone, one French horn, 4 drums (snare, quads, base, base), three pit crew members, and our color guard. We played at 4 competitions in south NJ under group one, and scored 80 in our final.

Wow, that's a really off-balance band If you don't mind me saying... I mean 1 french horn and trombone? They better be good lol. I fear the trumpets may just trample on all the other sounds. All the bands I've been in have had something like a 6:4:4:3:2 ratio for Flute:clarinet:trumpet:trombone:french horn.

kokoro? book?

Book, music, score, it's all the same.

Wow, that's a really off-balance band If you don't mind me saying... I mean 1 french horn and trombone? They better be good lol. I fear the trumpets may just trample on all the other sounds. All the bands I've been in have had something like a 6:4:4:3:2 ratio for Flute:clarinet:trumpet:trombone:french horn.

Funny you say that, from what the middle school band director tells us, we're going to gain one heck of a flute section, and one trumpet. Not to mention two more trombones. We're going to lose our only french horn, and gain another one a year later. To be frank about it, our town really sucks at french horn.

Haha! Actually, every school has that problem. French horn sounds really unique too in a band, so it's rather difficult to replace them. One of my old band directors gave extra credit to trumpet players that convert to French horn to make up for the deficiency.

We must have not gotten the memo - our two best sections by far are percussion and french horn. -_- We had two All Staters in the horn section last year.

man our percussion is gonna suck next year

I'm sorry. I dunno what to think about ours next year, but we're pretty much rockin' this year. We've got a kickass ensemble concert coming up, it'll be sweet.

yeah im a little late on this topic too but this year im a senior and finished up my 4 years in marching band. im from the Avon ohio highschool if anyone from the ohio area has heard of us. were a 67 person band (i think hah) and we went to BOA nationals for like 8 years straight. best we've ever done was 4th in class A. were too dinky to be in AA. our bands theme this year was circuitry (go to http://www.msconcepts.com/ to listen to it. itll be under grade 4 music). which is weird cuz 2 years previously we did grade 5 shows like minimally speaking and reflections...both written by the Carmel indiana AAA band director richard saucedo. (i wish our band was that gigantic...) yeah we didnt do so hot for the 07-08 year. 12th in our class..bleh...im coming back as a staff member this coming year and am goin to try out for the cavaliers hopefully soon.

ditto!!! i cant wait for it, i love the pieces that i am in
next year will be a new line...
on the bright side, im on it!!! woot!!!

Hey, if you've got six really strong people fundamentally, I suggest you check out Raptures of Undream. It's an insane six-part drum piece that consists of six gradiating toms and various cymbals. Basically a five-minute bass split, only worse. =) It's awesome.

oooh, that i will check out

I definitely can't wait for next year to come. We're playing a show titled FANTASMIC! for our competition season/football season.

yeah im a little late on this topic too but this year im a senior and finished up my 4 years in marching band. im from the Avon ohio highschool if anyone from the ohio area has heard of us. were a 67 person band (i think hah) and we went to BOA nationals for like 8 years straight. best we've ever done was 4th in class A. were too dinky to be in AA. our bands theme this year was circuitry (go to http://www.msconcepts.com/ to listen to it. itll be under grade 4 music). which is weird cuz 2 years previously we did grade 5 shows like minimally speaking and reflections...both written by the Carmel indiana AAA band director richard saucedo. (i wish our band was that gigantic...) yeah we didnt do so hot for the 07-08 year. 12th in our class..bleh...im coming back as a staff member this coming year and am goin to try out for the cavaliers hopefully soon.

oh its never too late to be on this topic

yeah im a little late on this topic too but this year im a senior and finished up my 4 years in marching band. im from the Avon ohio highschool if anyone from the ohio area has heard of us. were a 67 person band (i think hah) and we went to BOA nationals for like 8 years straight. best we've ever done was 4th in class A. were too dinky to be in AA. our bands theme this year was circuitry (go to http://www.msconcepts.com/ to listen to it. itll be under grade 4 music). which is weird cuz 2 years previously we did grade 5 shows like minimally speaking and reflections...both written by the Carmel indiana AAA band director richard saucedo. (i wish our band was that gigantic...) yeah we didnt do so hot for the 07-08 year. 12th in our class..bleh...im coming back as a staff member this coming year and am goin to try out for the cavaliers hopefully soon.

oh its never too late to be on this topic

this is our performance from this year
http://youtube.com/watch?v=DVNFvvDeWdU
i play timps!!!:lol:

ahhh, i'm trying out for drum major....i hope that i get it!!!
...although i'm kinda conflicted on the inside...i wanna march flute cause it's so much fun....but then i've been wanting to march snare for like the past 4 years...i dunno what to do =[

Ehh, not sure if I want to do marching band in college. I still have a bit of time to decide, I guess. ~ Big Band style marching band--now THAT'D be fun. I've seen some pretty cool drills done to Vehicle. <3 So far, we've only done Cirque du Soleil, Grease, and 2 pseudo-Latin ones. Cirque du Soleil was great...the rest was okay.

I was going to try out for DM this past season, but I wanted to keep playing to keep in shape for concert season. Aww, I wanted those whistles, haha!

Yay, I made it to the top High School band (only person clarinetist I'm in right now to have made it to it)! :) Next year is a trip to Iceland/Sweden.

And... I joined the High School Pep Band; apparently "#2 in the State." xD It's really fun, to have something to do in High School apart from regular classes.

I'm a proud member of the Greendale High School Marching Band. :D We won state 3 years in a row. I love it to death. We haven't yet gotten all of our new music yet, but it's really pretty and fun to play. ^_^

I'm excited, next year I get to go into Wind Symphony next year! (It's usually for mainly Juniors and Seniors) I'm a current freshman. :D Haaaa I love band.

Mmm... I'm not a stellar musician, but marching band is pretty fun. For brass players it's almost like a test of endurance.

yay. tryouts for fall drumline are... next week i think
i have yet to practice the exercises

i really want to do drumline next year but i dunno what will happen cause there are like some really good snare players...i just hope the instructor likes me enough

i intend on doing snare next year as well, and our 8th grade hopefuls are... alright?
but i have about 2 days to tryouts so...

Supposedly our 8th graders leave a lot to be desired. Which is surprising, since they were loaded with potential when I TA'd in their class as 6th graders. But then, they got the worst of the transition period, being as our long-time instructor left halfway through their first year, and they proceeded to have four different teachers (as did we all, but we had the first guy longer), finally settling on a new permanant teacher hired at the beginning of this year. What sucks for MY class is that the sixth graders this year and every year afterwards will be awesome, and I'll only be able to be a part of that if I come back and tech after I graduate. >(

Marching band is amazing. ^^ It's too bad my new school doesn't have it... oi, I feel bad for my old school's marching band. It's May and it's still raining tons. I wonder if it'll get better by the time they have to start going outside, if that hasn't come already. XP

lol i remember practicing in the rain... in the morning... it seemed really epic. we were all drenched and playing and stuff but the timps werent sounding as well as they normally do. still, epic music + epic rain + marching= epic 8 minutes worth of musical and visual performance lol

anyways, i had tryouts for dline and now all i have left are tryouts for front ensemble this weekend which should be fun ya knoooo?

that sucks pantalaimon. school issues always screw around with middle school band. our 8th graders are... alright. i have yet to see them actually play

well, the results are in. for 08-09, i am doing snare in drumline. three man snare line too, i was freakin out that i wouldnt make it, but i did, so its all cool

This past year, there was only one rainy day, and we had to play inside. It was sort of stressful, because we didn't march or anything, we had to stand and play, while the colorguard did their work, which is a great showcase for them. It was interesting, because you were more up close and personal with the judges.. Like, literally. Judges were walking THROUGH the rows of marching band members, mumbling into voice recorders. It was sort of irritating, but we did well anyway.

Band Camp starts for us in late August, and I really don't want to wait that long, since our show rocks... We got the music already, and we're just waiting on one more movement. It sounds awesome so far. Luckly our sectionals start not long after school ends, and we're about 2 weeks away from finals.

The only thing I'm worried about is the incoming freshman for next year. I hope they're good... XD Then again, I'm sure that's how everyone feels. :D

Just wait till Drum Corps, buddy.Then you have to make sure you don't bowl the judges over, lol.

@Jumpoff - Congrats! We have our tryouts next week. I know I've pretty much got a reserved spot but I'm still worried about the freshmen... -_o

i'm just always waiting for the DCI judges just to cause a colossal collapse of a giant line of marchers... no one survived. muahahahaha!!! jk ^_^

but thanks pantalaimon! id say totally dont worry cause i think you've gots some mad skillz that killz but then again you live in texas, and you guys have insane skills compared to us. still, the gods of skill shine upon you and the freshman will cower in fear of your awesome playingness...ness... and possibly pee in their pants!!! muahahahahah!
:3

Just learned yesterday, our marching band sectionals start June 16th!! I'm so excited! <3

isnt summer marching band just the greatest???

I'm not worried about the freshmen uprooting me, I'm worried about them being crappy...

isnt summer marching band just the greatest???

Yeah!! I love it! Because then I don't have to be sad about not seeing anyone after school ends for the year, because I'll get to see them just a few days after for marching band! It rocks!! :)

I'm not worried about the freshmen uprooting me, I'm worried about them being crappy...

Same here. One of my fellow marching band friends told me that we're going to have to whip the incoming freshman into shape. :sweat:

Hell, I'm worried about the sophomores not being up to scratch... but that'll be a little easier to work with, at least.

our sophomores... ehh... ehh... ehh... i wont go into it

we should have a good season as long as no extreme drama erupts and consumes everybody... which is prolly what will happen

Grr I hate drama... oh well as long as it doesn't interfere with our sweet clean beats (yeah right), we should be okay.

haha as long as it doesnt interfere with my sleep, ill happily wake up at 5 in the morning to take it head on

gosh darn band drama!

I hype your signature, man. That's how I feel most days lol

haha! don't we all!

ironically, in one of those rare double-whammie type events, Dusk to Dawn was the name of our show. It fits quite well ^_^

Have you checked out out my most recent stuff on the Recordings thread? I got a lot of requests to be in pit after that lol

holy crap theres a recordings thread?

Yea it's at the very top of the music board...

Anywuz, drumline results should be up tomorrow. I'm curious to see what our 08-09 line looks like.

jeez i feel dumb lol.
but dude, thats some nice playin!!! Stubernic sounds like another piece from my freshman year concert... Afta Stuba!!! lol wow...

we have our first practice on wednesday, which reminds me that UPS should be here with my damn sticks by now...

Afta Stuba is the sequel... Stubernic is better in my opinion.

Yesss. :D Sectionals start on Tuesday!!!! I'm so excited!! ^_^

Carmen for the field show at my school. Band camp just started this week and I'm pretty exited for the year.

Some brilliant kid in our band decided to make us do Circus from Dark Chronicle, how embarassing...it's alright for a game but to play out to a crowd on a field? Google it and you'll see what i mean..

Our marching show this year is "The Journey Within", and it's all Cirque du Solei (sp?) like. It's really pretty, and fun to play. Band camp starts for us in later August.

I'm reviving this old thread because I refuse to start another since that would be pointless.

Tomorrow's February 1st, which means it's 6 months to go until band camp (I know, I know, I'm a nerd because I'm already excited). I asked my band instructor if he had any ideas for the theme this year, but he said he doesn't have any yet. I'm personally thinking that Tim Burton, or Coldplay would make pretty good themes. I'm mostly leaning towards the Tim Burton idea. Of course, there are numerous other good ideas out there.

I'm currently a sophomore, so I'll be a junior when marching band starts back up. So, I'm trying out for drum major this year. I obviously know quite a bit about music. I know how to arrange, I know a little on composing, I'm taking a Music Theory class (In which I'm learning a secondary instrument, learning the rules of music, and am reading a book on composing (By my own choice)). But I'm still not certain that I'll get that spot as drum major when the time comes. This is actually why I'm reviving this thread. I was wondering if any of you guys have any tips for me. I want to be junior drum major in a very bad way. I know exactly the job of a drum major. I know it's more than just calling out commands, it's showing leadership, and teaching others. That's a little as to why I want it.


Oh, and I forgot to mention I play Alto Sax! :D