Saturday, August 21, 2010

Band camp, oh band camp.


So as you all know, I was gone for band camp this week. Let me just begin by saying that this is pretty much a recap. Although I can't tell you everything that went on, (don't worry, I kept it G-rated. Lol) I will give you a little idea of what went on. I have no idea how long this will be, so I'm sorry if this is like three books long. :P
Let's begin by explaining the schedule.

7:00 AM Wake up
7:45 Calisthenics/stretches on the field
8:00 Breakfast
9:00 Basic Block/Rehearsal #1
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Sectionals
3:30 Break
5:00 Block
5:15 Dinner
6:00 Rehearsal #2
9:00 Event Preparation
9:45 Evening Event

Wake up is pretty self explanatory. Lol. However, with twelve girls in a cabin, we generally got up earlier to make sure everyone got ready and had time to get all of their stuff done.

Calisthenics is basically stretching, doing really basic cardio-like workouts, and just getting yourself warmed up for the day.

Breakfast. I'll just say that it was camp food. If you've ever been to a camp, you know how camp food goes.

Basic block.
Ugh.
I seriously HATE basics with a burning passion.
Basics are pretty much lining up in about fifteen lines of five people and listening to our instructor finding ways to torture us.
Band ten hut!
Horns up, move!
Okay, your assignment is quadrant one of the diamond drill. Eight 8 to 5's forward, twelve steps diagonally to the left, backwards style, and eight 8 to 5's to the right. Now remember, keep your shoulders forward and traverse on the third set. Keep those horns up. Remember your duts. Oh wait, Ben put his horn up late. Everyone start over.
Horns down, move!
Horns up, move!
Nope, Sara was late.
Horns down, move!
Horns up, move!
And by this time, my arms, back, calves, neck, shoulders, and feet are hurting so badly that they feel like they're on fire.
HATE.

Rehearsals usually consisted of learning dots. Basically if you know how to graph on an X Y one quadrant graph, you can do dots. However, basics and dots are tied together, so they were pretty uncomfortable unless you were doing them without the horn. Putting the music to them was also weird.

Lunch.

Sectionals was always one of my favorite times of the day. We just met up as the high brass section and worked on how we sounded, memorization, and keeping ourselves focused on more than just making sure we're marching the right way. We had a guy named Matt as our instructor. Basically it was "Hey guys, how are you? Alright, now forget that marching band crap, let's work on one chorale for two hours." Which frankly was kind of boring but at least it wasn't painful. Matt also recommended that I try out for the Flint Youth Symphony and a Brass Quintet that he leads, which I think I'll do if I can because I'm awesome. Lol :)

Break was pretty much spent laying down and eating junk every day. If I wasn't doing that, I was filling out my dot book. I'm glad a break was put into the day, but I wish it was longer. :P

Dinner block was a bit better because it was only fifteen minutes and it was usually an activity. The first day it was pretty much mini-basics, the next couple of days, it was E-block. E-block was an exercise where we had to follow directions and try not to mess up or we'd be out. However, it was all trick questions. I got out during this exercise:
Band ten hut!
Band parade rest!
Horns up, move!
*motion horn up*
Oooooh, you can't put your horn up during parade rest! You are OUT!
Fail.
However, on Friday, we did this thing colled a C-block.
The C stands for concentration.
The seniors come out either wearing something absolutely ridiculous, doing something absolutely ridiculous, or saying something absolutely ridiculous. The goal is to keep your concentration, stand at perfect attention, and not laugh. I failed.
Julianne somehow managed to not laugh when Travis whispered in her ear "I'm going to take a hot stick of butter and rub it all over you, then lick it all off. Drop. By. Drop." Which I would have died laughing at. Kathryn, however, managed to surprise us all by actually making it the whole fifteen minutes.

Dinner.

Rehearsal #2 is basically doing the same thing as rehearsal #1 but with instruments and playing the music along with it. It was harder, though, because it was later in the day and we were all really tired and sore.

After rehearsal, we'd go back to our cabins and change, do what we needed to do, and make sure we were ready for whatever event was going on that evening.

Monday: Game night
This is where we discovered Linda. More on this later.
We played cards, knight rider princess, and chilled in the shelter house for a little while. It was fun. :)
PRINCESS! AAAAAH!

Tuesday: Dance
I can't dance, but I tried. I also taught Chris how to do love shack. Lol

Wednesday: Movie night
We watched Up. It was fantastic :) We ate popcorn, sat on couches, and laughed at all of the-
SQUIRREL!
Hi there. :)

Thursday: Skit night
There are no words for this. I may post a video on facebook if I can, but I don't know if it'll let me.

Friday: Senior ceremony
This night was the emotional one. It was the seniors' very last night at Echo Grove band camp and we performed a traditional ceremony where we waited for the seniors to march toward us and light candles, then we walked on a lit path and sang kumbaya until we got to a campfire in the woods. Strange, I know, but it's a tradition that I thought was pretty cool. When we got to the campfire, our director gave a speech and then the seniors gave their own speeches about how they loved to march and how worthwhile it is, which inspired me to stick with it and persevere through the painful horn angles. Lol. After that, we watched videos of previous shows, ate junk food, and had a good time overall.

Quotes

"Wait, are you part cow?"
"Yeah, it's in my genes."
"NOOOOOO!"

"I HAVE A JOKE!"
"It's going to be a dead baby joke, I know it."

"Gum! Aaaaah!"
"Where?"
"Right there!"
"Where?!"
"Kathryn, right there."
"I don't see it!"
"OMG Kathryn it's right in front of your face!"

"Everyone knows that zippers go on the back."
"Obviously these people didn't."
"Well they're dumb."

"So she decided to do what any sensible woman would do back then and became a prostitute."

"No, fathead! Don't sit on my duffel bag!"

"Mitchell, you cursed my horn, I can't play high F's."
"It's because he licked his mouthpiece on your horn."
...
"HAHAHAHAHA!"

"She looks like a little boy!"
"That was terrible word choice."

"Amber, there's bacon!"
"BACON?! Yes!!"
"Wait, that's sausage. Nevermind."
...
"You pig."

"Okay, the farther we get at band camp, the better we do at states."
"It's true. OH MY GOODNESS, I COULD GRAPH IT!"

Overall, band camp was a fantastic, yet painful, experience that I can't wait to do again next year. It's really fun and extremely rewarding, so if you're ever on the fence about it, fall to the side in which you join. :)
Yeeeeah, band camp. :D
♥♫♪JMJ

0 comments:

Post a Comment

 

Blogging a Musician Copyright © 2008 Green Scrapbook Diary Designed by SimplyWP | Made free by Scrapbooking Software | Bloggerized by Ipiet Notez Blogger Templates