Quick note: if you ‘member, I used to write the tales of Dixon Dills, and I really wanted to start that again, but I didn’t want to have to attach it to every entry(and be able to write it separately), so it’s in a link off to the right. I’ll be loading everything from these entries into it, and continuing.
So summer band has started, as much as I wished the summer had not ended and it would not come, it’s been awesome. This year is going to be sooooo much fun…
So 2 days ago, I woke up at 7 in the morning, at least 1 1/2 hrs earlier than ‘ne other day, pumped and ready to start band. Got to the school where I spent most of the first part setting up the tubas and such, discovering we were short 3 tubamaphones. Hmm… copied some music, then went out for lunch with the other kids, and oddly ’nuff seeing Mr. Aditya there. Without his whiskers. It was sad.
Got back and decided, since I wasn’t going to bother painting a sign for the tubas(we don’t need an effing poster to show our pride; we’ve transcended that!), so I helped Janda assign lockers… which was an incredible blessing. With that power, I managed to get every one of the returning JET Band tuba players a big horn sized locker! Haha, suckers who are stuck with clarinet/flute lockers… did some stickering, stuffing of music, etc. Quite a bit of work, but quite a bit of fun. Got back after 11 hrs of work, very tired.
Next day was DIA AKA Drill Instructor Academy AKA Leadership Camp AKA Let’s All Make Fools of Ourselves. Without exposing too many of our secrets of how we got to be so perfect at DIing *wink wink*, we sang songs and danced, which was completely ridiculous and embarressing, but with 30 other ppl doing the same, I guess it isn’t so embarressing. I’m thinking that the “fun” I had was the type of idiotic fun ppl get from, say, dancing at HC or yelling out random comments in a movie theater. In ‘ne case, we spent the morning outside, working on stuff. I must say, I’m a lot more confident now than I was at New Marchers. Then, I was like, “WTF, I don’t know what to do, I’m so effing screwed… crap”, but at DIA, I (think I) managed to call commands on the right foot, nice and loud and confident and everything. My clapping was really inconsisent, but there’s a learning curve for everything. After the morning rehearsal, a couple of teh guys and I went over to Thomas Crockett’s house where we started playing ping-pong. Having not played in several years, it was about the same: easy as it looks… yet not. It’s a fun game with a lot to it, though, even with it in my blood, I suck. Got beaten by a white guy(correction: according to him, 1/64 or some crap like that asian. though tom has a bad record of lying…), though Kyung redeemed us all by totally rocking. Had lunch, blah, blah, went back for the afternoon.
After coming back, we got to listen to our DMs and Janda teach us more leadership skills and do weird stuff, including a game (once again, not revealing our secrets) that was way too difficult for what it was, and a game where the only way to succeed(quickly) was to cheat. I mean, I guess taking too long on that game was just part of the lesson: IILSST.
This morning, I woke up in the dazed stupor more commonly seen during the school year, though I recovered quickly. Got to school, did some stuff, and awaited the beginning of rehearsal.
Janda talks, blah blah blah, and the other band directors leave, leaving us with a Lone Grange-r(HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA… sorry). Stands tunes went way slower than I had expected, and we had to do Louie, Louie way too many times… I was out of shape.
I lean back, and my back totally just like… bends like a metal rod. I go back, it hurts like heck, and I pop straight back up. We do it over and over, and then Grange insists on picking on me and getting one tuba entrance right, so I dance and play, over and over by myself with the trumpets. Yup. I think I might have been irritated if I hadn’t been having so much fun.
On a side note, I was really happy about how I was sounding. I remember that last year, I couldn’t get a soft sound out of my sousa if I had tried. I played so quietly I couldn’t hear myself, but after a good year of real training, I was pleasantly surprised with my new sound(with the exception of way too much resistance whenever I pressed my 3rd valve; I think I’ve been spoiled by the miraphones). I could actually hear myself play out, though that might just be a dig on the rest of the section. But that’s next.
So, the morning rehearsal goes by… and I’m less than impressed with the section. Hopefully, they aren’t reading this, but I was really disappointed, though I guess Johnson (and Eric before that) must have been severely disappointed as well. Katie, the #2 tuba didn’t make it, so my main hope for the fishies was missing. In the scheme of things, right now, I only think about half of the section can actually play; the other half just need to learn high school tuba playing. It’s… this is going to sound bad, but it’s not that they’re stupid; they’re just ignorant, for right now, but I think there’s a good chance that that can be changed. Fortunately, today, my private lesson teacher came by and managed to save me and help, but it’s going to take a lot. ‘Neways, I think I should stop writing about my section to avoid ‘ne retribution. So…
We get to the afternoon rehearsal… and wow. I love the show soooo much. Before I go ‘ne farther, I would like to admit something: I was wrong. I thought that, just as in years past, the tubas would be stuck with a sh*t part, but our part just rocks. Throughout the entire thing, we(naturally) ahve the bass line, but it’s incredible. I’ll start with the closer(the order of this will soon make sense). The closer is pretty darn spiffy. All in all, it’s a solid, good feeling piece of music, with one really awesome part that throws in an almost swing element. In the opener, we play this 2 measure run over and over, but it’s brilliant. It’s high, and right now, most of the section can’t play it(oops, won’t talk about that ‘nemore), but I love our part in the opener. It’s super hard, but super important. It’s really exposed, easy once you got it, and just awesome. I would definitely put that music up in the most awesome music I’ve ever played(probably most awesome music ever, since I appreciate music I’ve played way more than ‘ne other) right next to Dance Movements 4(though Rocky Point is hanging in at #1. That had an incredible tuba part). There really isn’t a way to express how awesome that piece is from the tuba perspective, and when the band can play it well, it is giong to be so awesome, it might give DM4 a run for it’s money.
Then there’s the ballad. That one is a double wow. I mean, I had heard the Blue Devils recording and one Buddy Rich b4, and I thought that it was very cool and very pretty, but playing it was… completely different. While the opener is one of the most awesome, the ballad is probably the most beautiful music ever.(beating 2. Letter From Home 3. DM3) Letter from Home was beautiful, with a great solo and beautifully written, and DM3 was just a powerfully beautiful piece, but the ballad is so much better. I can’t explain exactly what it is about it; it’s so much… free-er than DM3, being jazz, and so much more moving and.. something than LFH that just makes it so much better. Playing the piece, I could so feel everything about it; normally, shaping and the details of music are a bit of work, but I could so feel the music that I just… knew what to do. It probably sounds really ridiculous, but it was incredible. The tuba part is so simple, but it’s so wonderful. And all the parts of the music, with 3 different solos, including one absolutely OOC trumpet one, are just unbelievably beautiful. I am going to love our show.
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