2009-2010 Marching Band Season is here!!

[golfgal]

We won our state championship last night as well as the upper midwest Youth in Music Championship (same competition-state goes to the highest scoring MN band). Our season is officially over. I wish the kids would get a chance at nationals but 3 more weeks of trying to find a dry, warm place to practice just isn't possible.

Good luck to everyone that will be going on to Nationals.

 

[mickeymo]

Congratulations to both of your bands! I grew up in the Chicago area and remember Friday night games in October and November. I never liked playing the trombone in the cold! I keep trying to tell my son, that 90 degrees is much much better!

 

[profdsny]

Well, we are back from Regionals in Indy. We came in 4th, after 3 Indiana bands, which makes us the highest ranking non-Indiana band in competition. There were some great shows, as always. My one disappointment was that Fr. Ryan did not make finals. What a great show. They are at a whole different level than the other bands. Almost as a DCI type program. It's not always marching band stuff, and often more showy, but always an enjoyable presentation to watch. I'm glad I got to see them yesterday as they won't be back next week.
A big surprise we had today coming home was the the band was on the front page of the Chicago Tribune. There has been a writer and photographer spending some time with them for a series of articles. Today was the first. What a great story. We are all very proud of our kids.
So, hell week begins. Updates to follow.
How about anyone else? Anything to report?

 

[golfgal]

We have our marching band banquet tonight, does that count?

We have been done for a couple weeks now, it is amazing how much we can get done around the house now on the weekends.

Good luck at Nationals!!

 

[mickeymo]

Well, we are back from Regionals in Indy. We came in 4th, after 3 Indiana bands, which makes us the highest ranking non-Indiana band in competition. There were some great shows, as always. My one disappointment was that Fr. Ryan did not make finals. What a great show. They are at a whole different level than the other bands. Almost as a DCI type program. It's not always marching band stuff, and often more showy, but always an enjoyable presentation to watch. I'm glad I got to see them yesterday as they won't be back next week.
A big surprise we had today coming home was the the band was on the front page of the Chicago Tribune. There has been a writer and photographer spending some time with them for a series of articles. Today was the first. What a great story. We are all very proud of our kids.
So, hell week begins. Updates to follow.
How about anyone else? Anything to report?

My father sent me the link to the Trib article; It was a good story. Congrats on regionals!

Grand Nationals week seemed so far away when summer practices started. Now, we're trying to figure out where the time went.

We had a busy week last week. The kids performed at our rescheduled district marching festival with all four of our district's marching bands and the final football game. As the kids were fond of saying, they had their final Texas performance of the show at half-time of the game.

Two more practices and then we board the buses for Indy Wednesday after school. 24 hrs on a bus! The kids perform on Friday morning, the last of the Texas bands. I spent the day yesterday making cookies and other goodies for the kids on my bus. My son is willing to acknowledge me for food and money when I chaperone but other than that I must remain incognito.

Unfortunately, as a chaperone I won't see much of the competition - best of luck and safe travels!!!
The downfall of volunteering as a chaperone - I will not get to see shows.

 

[Marla Hellwig]

Congrats to everyone for a great season

Anyone at Indy remember seeing Kettering Fairmont Firebirds - their guard was in the glow in the dark pinks etc colors - short dresses with 'black boots"?

 

[mrsklamc]

Was lurking here last night and thought you would like to know- after not initially planning to come to Grand Nationals, American Fork (school that lost a director) made a last minute decision and was able to raise $250,000 in THREE DAYS to come to Nats.

 

[mickeymo]

Was lurking here last night and thought you would like to know- after not initially planning to come to Grand Nationals, American Fork (school that lost a director) made a last minute decision and was able to raise $250,000 in THREE DAYS to come to Nats.

Wow! That's incredible what an outpouring of support! - I have been following their story on the various marching discussion boards.

Safe travels to all who are heading to Indianapolis!

 

[profdsny]

Good for American Forks. I think one would be hard pressed to find folks who didn't support their band program. I'm glad that they can make it to the 'show'.
Those still headed to Indy know this is now middle of hell week. The band put on a performance for Step-Up day yesterday, and did it inside the gym. The guard went through all the steps, but pretty much each in about a 5 or 6 foot radius. Still, the show was incredible. And in a gym? Talk about a wall of sound.
Tomorrow night is the dress rehearsal at the school field for all those who might not be able to head down for the weekend. Or want to see it again and again. Anyone in the area, please stop by. Weather is supposed to be okay.

So, we'll meet again here Monday and rehash things. Good luck to all.

 

[golfgal]

Good for American Forks. I think one would be hard pressed to find folks who didn't support their band program. I'm glad that they can make it to the 'show'.
Those still headed to Indy know this is now middle of hell week. The band put on a performance for Step-Up day yesterday, and did it inside the gym. The guard went through all the steps, but pretty much each in about a 5 or 6 foot radius. Still, the show was incredible. And in a gym? Talk about a wall of sound.
Tomorrow night is the dress rehearsal at the school field for all those who might not be able to head down for the weekend. Or want to see it again and again. Anyone in the area, please stop by. Weather is supposed to be okay.

So, we'll meet again here Monday and rehash things. Good luck to all.

Good luck today!!

 

[profdsny]

Well, another season is over. I don't know what we or our dd are going to do from now on. It's been a 7 day a week 12 hour day for band kids for seemingly forever . What do we do with all this extra time now?
Finals were fantastic, with a few new bands to really punch things up. For those who saw it, or will, the Midsummer's Night program was great. Watch for that school again.
Our band did extremely well, and I finally realized after all these years what a lot of the kids have always known, it's beyond winning. The kids did 3 perfect performances Friday and Saturday. You can't do better than that. Everyone was thrilled with the program. The only tears shed were tears of joy. As the line goes, 'you can beat us, but you can never defeat us.' At that point, numbers mean nothing.
There was another fabulous article about the band in today's paper. The author really got into it. I saw him back at the school where the band stayed at 3am Sunday morning, hanging out and taking it all in. From what I understand, he had no concept of these type programs before he began the story. Check the on-line article, and the pictures. The ones with the brass at final practice is great, but doesn't mention that when that was taken it was about 45 degrees out and getting colder by the minute.
Anyhow, love to hear about other peoples' experiences. Hope your bands did well also.

 

[mrsklamc]

Finals was spectacular. Everyone on that field 'won.'

I almost got in an argument with some random guy yesterday. He said people were so excited about the Colts/Patriots that they started tailgating Saturday night. I tried to explain that wasn't what was happening at Lucas Oil...he said "I was there, I SAW it!" Ok dude, fine, they were tailgaters.

 

[profdsny]

That's funny. Though we did see a lot of people out about 11am starting to tailgate. Not the night before. If anyone should do it then, it would be band parents. At least the weather was kinda nice this year.

 

[mickeymo]

The kids had a good experience at BOA - unfortunately, just missed qualifying for semis - we came in 36th place after prelims. Visually, mental mistakes did the kids in, plus a few falls on a very tight fast jazz run section. Lots of upset faces and tears coming off the field.

Due to my father's work schedule, they weren't able to drive in from Chicago until Friday afternoon. So, unfortunately they also missed the kids perform. Even though they went to the Friday night block, they just missed M.C. Mom had been following the articles in the trib and hoped to see the the band perform.

My biggest regret for the band is that we did not see any bands perform. The kids were kept busy with rehearsals and by our tour company including a pizza party Friday night . They watched the semi announcements by live feed, wishing they could have been at the stadium. We loaded the buses on Saturday morning for the trip back home, arriving home at 9am Sunday.

Other than our disappointing finish, there was a strong Texas presence at BOA...

Band parents do tailgating right - semi trucks!!!

 

[golfgal]

Well, another season is over. I don't know what we or our dd are going to do from now on. It's been a 7 day a week 12 hour day for band kids for seemingly forever . What do we do with all this extra time now?
Finals were fantastic, with a few new bands to really punch things up. For those who saw it, or will, the Midsummer's Night program was great. Watch for that school again.
Our band did extremely well, and I finally realized after all these years what a lot of the kids have always known, it's beyond winning. The kids did 3 perfect performances Friday and Saturday. You can't do better than that. Everyone was thrilled with the program. The only tears shed were tears of joy. As the line goes, 'you can beat us, but you can never defeat us.' At that point, numbers mean nothing.
There was another fabulous article about the band in today's paper. The author really got into it. I saw him back at the school where the band stayed at 3am Sunday morning, hanging out and taking it all in. From what I understand, he had no concept of these type programs before he began the story. Check the on-line article, and the pictures. The ones with the brass at final practice is great, but doesn't mention that when that was taken it was about 45 degrees out and getting colder by the minute.
Anyhow, love to hear about other peoples' experiences. Hope your bands did well also.

I would say extremely well is a bit of an understatement--you tied for 2nd at NATIONALS!!! Congratulations!!! I read that article on your band, it is all over the band junkie websites. It was very well done. I heard that they mispronounced your school name during semi's.

 

[profdsny]

I heard that they mispronounced your school name during semi's.

Yeah, I caught that. You'd hope that after all this time they'd get it right. But what was worse was the band photo buttons that parents wear with the kids picture in it: the company that makes them misspelled the name of the school.

 

[mickeymo]

Well, another season is over. I don't know what we or our dd are going to do from now on. It's been a 7 day a week 12 hour day for band kids for seemingly forever . What do we do with all this extra time now?

I'm laughing at this part of your quote, what extra time???!!! Church orchestra auditions Monday, rehearsal start tomorrow. Freshman region auditions yesterday, 9th place trombone. Just missing top honors by one place, not bad coming off of the Indy trip when our season is a few weeks longer than the rest in our region who do not compete BOA. Jazz band music distributed for a concert in two weeks. And to top it off he's considering trying out for the winter drumline season.

Oh yeah, my daughter is in the middle of school basketball tryouts and Christmas recital practice

 

[profdsny]

Well, so much for extra time. How do they fit it all in? Concert season does start fairly soon, plus, there is all the extra rehearsals for the Rose Bowl Parade this year. (well, next year, actually.)
This is the first time that one of our kids didn't get to do WDW Music Days, or whatever it's called, with the parade down Main Street during high-school. One of the kids did it twice. But they've done other stuff, so I guess it's okay. They are going to Disneyland on the California trip, but not to perform.

But this is the last year, for us, after 12, of BOA. We volunteered at two Regionals this year for the first time and that was fun. I think we'll do that next year. But it's going to be weird with no one in the band anymore. I'm really going to miss that.

Anyhow, it's been a fun marching year. Good luck with the concert season.

 

[golfgal]

Yeah, I caught that. You'd hope that after all this time they'd get it right. But what was worse was the band photo buttons that parents wear with the kids picture in it: the company that makes them misspelled the name of the school.

Well, it is spelled a little differently

There is a very prestigious, highly selective, Ivy League caliber college near us that was in our athletic conference when I was in college. Their track team sweat shirts had the college name misspelled on them. We all thought that was pretty funny.