marching band

[Das Mole]

well, as most of you know, i am in band, play french horn, blah dee blah blah blah bleh...

anyway, this is my first year in marching band, b/c last year i wasn't in concert band 1 or symphonic band...but this year i will be! so tuesday, yesterday, and today, i've had to go to new member training sessions. actually, i missed tuesday's, but i was able to make it yesterday and today.

so yesterday, me and another guy were pulled away from everyone else and taught the stuff from tuesday, and half the stuff from yesterday. then, today, we finished learning the rest of the stuff from yesterday, and we joined the rest of the group. so we had a marchoff, where we had to know and do all the following commands:

left hace (turn left while standing still)
right hace (same as above, but turn right)
about hace (turn around 180 degrees while standing still)
left flank harch (turn left in one move while marching)
right flank harch (turn right in one move while marching)
left turn harch (turn left in four steps while standing in one spot while marching)
right turn harch (turn right in four baby steps while standing in one spot while marching)
attention (get into attention position)
horns up (snap horns up)
horns down (snap horns down)
to the ready (get into certain relaxed position)
backward march (march backward)
mark time harch (pick up your heels one after the other, but stay in one spot: can happen after attention, after horns up, or while marching)
halt (stop marking time/marching)
left slide harch (turn your legs to the left and march left, but keep facing the way you were)
right slide harch (same as above, but march to the right)

hm...there might be some other stuff that i don't remember, but wadeva. anyway...there were about 30-35 other people doing marching as well. the whole point is that you want to keep following commands correctly. if you goof up, a drum major will come over and tap you on the shoulder, and that means you're out and you go sit off to the side. the last person standing ends up winning the marchoff.

so we start off, we're in this big block formation, and we're told all the commands. so my horn is up the whole time, and since it's a mellophone, the bell is huge on the end, so i can't see in front of me. so the whole time i'm just doing what i'm told, but i can't see. anyway...we get to "mark time harch", so i'm marking time, and then they "band halt", so i stop. "horns down". i put my horn down. there are only about 20 people left now. it starts all over. lots of "left turn harch" and "right turn harch". so we get to mark time, then horns down. there are only about 12 people.

we start again. now we're doing a lot of flanks. so then we get to horns down. there are only 6 people left, and we get put into a smaller block of 2x3. so then we go again. i kind of goofed up on one of the things, but i don't think anyone saw. it was just a tiny little fumbling of my feet. anyway, we get to mark time, then horns down again. there are only four people left now, myself included. we go. we stop. still four people. we go, we stop. three people. they say "give it up for the final three!". i'm so tired. my legs are killing me, my arms as well from holding up my horn.

so then we start again. we go through about another three minutes of marching. lots of flanks, slides, turns, all this stuff. it was hard. and then there were two.

...sadly, i wasn't one of them we had marked time halfway through, and we were doing haces, so we did about three left haces, and then we were told to do a right hace, and my feet just goofed up and i began to do a left, but then tried to do a right hace. unfortunately, someone saw (not hard w/only three people), and i got my shoulder tapped. but i still got a bag of m&m's! i think i did pretty well for only knowing two days worth of stuff.

so anyway...tonight, i'm supposed to back again from 5:30-8:30, and we're supposed to do the start working on halftime. there are like, 20 different pages in the position chart packet...i've got pregame down pat, but i don't know about this thing! it's really hard to play and march at the same time...even in pregame. i don't even want to think about halftime. that song is like, 4-5 minutes long. i don't know how i'm gonna last. the thing is, i kind of forget to breathe when i'm playing and marching at the same time. so sometimes i'm gasping for air...

anyway. just wanted to share
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[James]

Wow. That sounds like a lot of hard work. I don't do much extra activities because I'm too lazy .

Congratulations on winning that game
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[Das Mole]

oh, thanks.

yeah, it isn't really as hard as it seems...it may look like there are a lot of commands, but due to the left/right thing, there are more than there really are....you only really have to know how to do about ten things. not to make me look like i'm better than i really am...

yeah, last night we got through the first song of halftime! whoohoo! a twenty page packet. i remembered most of the stuff, except for one or two moves halfway through...i'll have to write my moves on my music. anyway, we got through the first song, "conquistador". the theme this year is latin rock music, i think. not sure. the song is really cool, though. it's got a few fast parts in there and stuff. well, for me at least. i don't know some of my fingerings, though (!) since i'm using a mellophone...which has fingerings like a trumpet's, not a horn's.

my music looks so f*cked up. i've got all these little numbers above some notes for my fingerings, and then above the music, i have these little abbreviations like "dtp------------------------------------------------|" for however long i have to get to my next position. so yeah. we only ran through the whole song (marching to it, that is) in it's entirety once, and it was a little sloppy.

so today, instead of going from 5:30 to 8:30 pm, it's from 2:30 to 5:30, which is better. b/c that means more time to do stuff! i usually do more things in the afternoon, and this marching band stuff has soaked up all my free time. luckily, i don't have any more new member training nor do i have a sectional today, so it's only 3 hours. we might get another packet of drill charts for another halftime song, which i won't be looking forward to, but i know for sure that we're going to run through all of pregame, and then work more on "conquistador".

anyway. that's all. i just wanted to share more stuff.
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[Steve]

I used to play the saxophone. The teacher said I was talented and stuff, I still practised at that time...Then I stopped practicing b/c i got bored and the teacher was like: omg you suck, dont you practice at home? and I'd be like: Of course I do... And he was like: You have to practice more, then! So I was like: F*ck that, dude and I left and never went back...that happened 2 years ago...

Anyway, Congratz!
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[Das Mole]

yeah, i kinda like band...i just hate how you have to take time out of your day to do concerts sometimes and all that crap.

anyway...yesterday, we started and quickly ran through conquistador once in the band room...and then once we did that, we went outside to the practice field and marched around. we reviewed all the stuff we had learned on thursday for about an hour and a half, and then we ran through the marching itself two times. by then, it was about 4:15. and then, we practiced marching onto the field for pregame. that took about ten minutes. then we mrached through pregame a few times, that took another ten minutes. by now we've got roughly an hour left. so then we get a small little five minute break, and then go back to review. we reviewed the marching for conquistador once more, then marched through it three times, and then we were allowed to leave, and it was pretty early. like 5:15. so i was happy about that. i brought home my mellophone...today, i practiced for a little bit, but my fingerings still need some brushing up. then i should probably start practicing marching and playing at the same time.

so anyway...that's all that happened yesterday.
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[Das Mole]

hey, people...kind of on this topic...

i just started taking private lessons every wednesday at 3:00-3:30, so i can catch the late bus home. i plan to become first chair! i've got a whole nother month to prepare for this thing...and i'm gonna kick jenny's patoot!!

anyway, if you want to know about marching band...

we just had another grueling practice today. 6:00-7:30, though, so it wasn't as bad. we did the whole thing on the real field, with no hash marks, b/c we've already done two games, so it's not like marching on a field with no hash marks is completely foreign to anyone...so yeah. about 80% of the band can't march, but that's ok, i guess. *shrug*
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