2014 Marching Band thread

[MouseLover]

Post here!!!!!

I'll start...
My daughter is a senior. She plays clarinet and is Color Guard captain. She attends a small public school with a small band, often combining grades 8-12 to have around 50 members. Summer band should begin the end of July. She's hoping for a Disney theme (of course). She would love to perform music from Fantasmic!

 

[Mickeyluver37]

My DD is also going to be a senior, and is the Color Guard captain. Just curious how your dd does both? Does she switch on and off during the show? There is no opportunity to do both here, or to be in the band and play football like I've seen mentioned on prior Marching Band threads. Color guard takes up the whole school year for DD between marching and winter guard, and since she started in 6th grade, this will be her 7th and final year of guard. I will be very sad to see it end!

 

[Airship Ariadne]

A little early for us, our daughter is just going into 8th and doesn't start marching till 9th, but since she plays oboe (so will play percussion while marching), the HS director invited her to come hang with the drum pit during games this fall to get some early practice and make friends.

 

[K and K's Mommy]

I have a sophomore saxophone player! He's at practice now!

They started 2-9 last week for three days and this week for four days. Next week they'll have practice all five days and includes marching in a Fourth of July parade. They'll have a three week summer break after the Fourth and then band camp all day the last week of July.

 

[Breezy_Carol]

I miss the marching band days. Both of my kids were in high school then college marching band but are now out on their own.

She plays clarinet and is Color Guard captain.

I also wonder how you can do both.

 

[Katy Belle]

Go Band! I will have 2 in Marching Band this year!

DS17 will be a Junior and plays Sousaphone. DS14 will be a Freshman and will be playing Bass Drum. We are thrilled he made Drum Line as a Freshman and we are looking forward to this new adventure!

Our band camp starts July 28. The practice from 7-11 and 12:30-4. Drum Line has an additional camp in July.

I can't wait to see the show!

 

[momof1princess]

DD16 will be a junior in HS this fall. She plays clarinet, and is section leader this year. This will be her 4th year marching, and 5th year in the band (she was an equipment manager in 7th grade, which means she helped hauled instruments and the drum major's podium.) She attends a small, rural HS, and the band has about 50 members. They usually do 2 competitions per season; one is the large, local competition, the 2nd will be out-of-town. She tried out for drum major, but the kid that got it has tried out twice before, and beat her easily. I'm hoping she'll try out again next spring.

Band camp doesn't start until July 28th, and I'm hoping she has her driver's license before then. Poor kid, her driving is fine, and she can park in an angled parking space (like the ones at Walmart) just fine, but she can't part in the straight spaces to save her life, and the ones at school are painted straight, as well as most other places she'd be going, so she's got more practicing to do before she hits the road alone.

 

[Colleen27]

DS will be a sophomore percussionist in the fall, and I'm a little sad because this will likely be his last year of band. He's also a football player so he plans to drop band when he makes varsity.

Pre-camp sectionals are the last week of July and they're headed for band camp Aug 3, so he's got a little while before he has to think about the new season. This year's show theme is Fantasia, which should be really fun to see.

 

[daemom]

DS14 joins marching band as a Freshman this year. Band camp starts mid-July!! I hope he loves it as much as his brother did!!

 

[Simba's Mom]

Post here!!!!!

I'll start...
My daughter is a senior. She plays clarinet and is Color Guard captain. She attends a small public school with a small band, often combining grades 8-12 to have around 50 members. Summer band should begin the end of July. She's hoping for a Disney theme (of course). She would love to perform music from Fantasmic!

Oh, enjoy those marching band years. Although it's been over 15 years, I still think back on them fondly. And we were band parents, so chaperoned virtually every event. My eyes still tear up when I see a marching band at WDW. Such exciting times for those kids!

 

[KiminChicago]

DS found out just before the school year ended that he is one of the three drum majors for the 2014-2015 school year. One of his buddies, another clarinetist, is also one of the drum majors. I was surprised that two of the clarinets were chosen, especially these two boys as they are always first and second chair, but DS says that he was going to be playing sax if he was playing anything in the marching band. Good thing he knows how to play both! He says that they have a lot of clarinets now and not enough saxophone players so the band director had asked him to play sax. He'll switch back to clarinet for concerts, but he'll continue to play sax with the pep band for basketball games.

I can't believe that it's his senior year and my last year as a marching band mom. He's not planning on marching band in college and his sister is a violinist, so this is it for me

 

[Sirenn]

You're all bringing up some very heartwarming memories for me! <3

My high-school started at 8th grade, and I performed in our marching band's color guard, and had the amazing luck to march in one of the WDW Christmas parades that year (1993, and we came from Upstate NY so it was one helluva buss ride!) The crowds were immense and the wait at Space Mountain was 3 hours long, but that visit was something I'll never forget. I'm not sure if WDW still invites out-of-state marching bands to participate in their holiday parades, but I hope they do because it's a once in a lifetime opportunity!

 

[lovegrumpy]

Senior year for ds are show is daredevil. He plays the tuba.

 

[Happy Snowman]

Long-time marching band parents. One son is still marching in college, but their college band is horrible and he has forbid us to watch...ok, not really, but he keeps telling us not to bother coming. It's probably not that bad but they did have a good high school band. Their HS has started practices/band camp and I get a little weepy knowing after 14ish years, we aren't a part of that any longer.

 

[jara1528]

My boys are both in marching band. My senior plays trumpet and my junior plays clarinet. We are headed to Disney for vacation next week and band camp starts as soon as we get back. I'm looking forward to this year and even thought my oldest is a senior I know he will play in college. He is only looking at schools that have a marching band!

 

[2jboysmom]

I have a freshman in a small band about 63 kids. He plays the baritone. We are new to marching band. Will be fun!

 

[Southernmiss]

Senior alto sax and sophomore baritone mom.

Band camp started this week for 2 weeks. School starts August 7 and football season August 22nd.

New director this year who was the assistant for a few years. Glad he's the director and hope he can keep their momentum going.

Our band has almost 200 members

 

[TN Hockey Mom]

DS15 will be a junior this year. He's on the Drumline (Tenors).

He had band camp last Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday 8:30am-5:00pm. This week, he has it everyday 8:30am-5:00pm, except for Thursday, when he'll finish at 3:00pm, for what his school calls Valleypalooza (he has to go get his schedule, make changes if needed, pick up his yearbook from last year, order one for this year, have school pictures made, pay fees, buy a parking pass-which he's not old enough to do yet, buy spirit wear, etc.-right before school starts back). The band will have a car wash fundraiser this Saturday. Then, next week, he'll have camp Monday-Thursday 8:30am-9:00pm and a parent performance on Friday at noon with an end of camp pool party at 7:00pm. Wow, that seems like a lot when I type it all out!

School starts back on August 11th and Football Season (or Marching Band Season as we prefer to call it) starts August 22nd.

Unless DS14 changes his mind, this will be our only child to do Marching Band. He gave up playing Ice Hockey, after playing for 10 years, to focus on band. DS14 plays Tuba and will be in 8th grade, however, he's already said he plans on playing baseball in High School (he is a starting pitcher for the Varsity Middle School team and the High School coach oversees the team to insure they're ready to play for him when they get to High School, therefore, unless something happens, he should make the team).

DH and I usually have to go separate ways during Marching Band season. I go with the band & he goes with the fall baseball team.

 

[PrincessKsMom]

Can anyone tell me what your guard does for uniforms for marching band? Are they custom made or do they mostly order ready-made? Our guard director wanted to get custom for our show but they don't seem to be able to turn them around quickly. Most say they'll be available in October, but our season ends the beginning of November, so it's not worth it.

Thanks and happy marching!

 

[okeydokey]

Can anyone tell me what your guard does for uniforms for marching band? Are they custom made or do they mostly order ready-made? Our guard director wanted to get custom for our show but they don't seem to be able to turn them around quickly. Most say they'll be available in October, but our season ends the beginning of November, so it's not worth it.

Thanks and happy marching!

Ordered ready made uniforms, jackets, duffle bags with name emroidered on. They do keep the same ones for 3 years though, so if a kid is in guard for 4 years they only have to buy 2 uniforms over the course of their high school years.