Band Camp

[tha Guardians]

Re: Band Camp

I was in band in high school, but I don't know the pains of marching because I was in Pit/Front Ensemble.

Me too, but moving the equipment definitely makes up for the lack of marching. Personally though, standing hurts me a lot more than marching does.

Distorted (should've been the opener)

Distorted was our opener last year. I'm not clicking the link, but I'm gonna take a wild guess and say it's the Cirque du Soleil one.

[Xx{Midnight}xX]

Re: Band Camp

Camp
Camp
Camp
Camp

[Prime8]

Re: Band Camp

Me too, but moving the equipment definitely makes up for the lack of marching. Personally though, standing hurts me a lot more than marching does.

That's what I tried to tell everyone else! A lot of people in my band gave me and my section crap for not having to march. Whenever there was a water break, they'd ask us why we needed it lol. But yeah, they don't realize that it does hurt standing still for that long. Also, moving the equipment on and off the field as fast and efficiently as possible is quite physically tasking, especially if you had way less people than you should in your section to help.

What instrument(s) did you play? I was section leader Sophomore year and up, so I got stuck with Marimba and Xylophone (which I didn't mind because that's what I'm best at )

[OnixRose]

Re: Band Camp

Marching was the only thing that kept me away from playing in our concert/marching band. Partly because I used to play football but also because I prefer concert ._. I played jazz for a few years, but I don't think I can this year.

[tha Guardians]

Re: Band Camp

That's what I tried to tell everyone else! A lot of people in my band gave me and my section crap for not having to march. Whenever there was a water break, they'd ask us why we needed it lol. But yeah, they don't realize that it does hurt standing still for that long. Also, moving the equipment on and off the field as fast and efficiently as possible is quite physically tasking, especially if you had way less people than you should in your section to help.

What instrument(s) did you play? I was section leader Sophomore year and up, so I got stuck with Marimba and Xylophone (which I didn't mind because that's what I'm best at )

Yeah. We had carts the last 2 years, but not this year. With the carts (which were built by ag shop by the way), you have to expend enough energy to make you exhausted in just 1 minute. Loading/unloading drills suck.

You're gonna be just as tired if not more tired than the people that march. We used to have to take the carts from the band room, up and down a gravel road to the practice field, and drag it through 2-foot high grass. It was terrible.

This year though we have no carts. We get to experience the joy of carrying ALL the auxiliary equipment and wheeling concert keyboards which have been literally falling apart for the last 5 years. Being in pit is a ton more stressful than marching, at least at my school. And it doesn't help that neither the director or band give a **** about us. They expect us to learn our parts quicker because we spend more time on it. What they don't know is pretty much every note excluding runs is an interval or chord. We have at least twice as much to memorize, and it's not like we can look at our music and play at the same time. It takes rigorous, mind-numbing repetition.

/bitchbitchbitch
Yeah. We're also missing parts because we don't have enough people in the front ensemble.

Hmm. Oh yeah, right.
I play 2- and 4-mallet marimba, basically the whole show. I always play keyboards, because I'm the best
I love it. Sooooo soso sos os much.

How good are you?

[Prime8]

Re: Band Camp

We had 2 carts to pull stuff, but every now and then, they'd either break or someone would take them from us to carry the water jug thing to the field, so I know all too well the pains of having to go back and forth from the band hall to the field carrying cymbals and such.

I usually got stuck having to haul the timp cart, as well as lift all the keyboards up from the field onto the track (which at certain stadiums/schools, it is a total ****ing nightmare). It doesn't help that our equipment is older than our school either lol. We had money to purchase new keyboards, and they promised us they would, but the money seemed to just "vanish", as they put it, so we got screwed.

Yeah, no one gave a crap about us either. Everyone just thought we were the lazy asses who got to sometimes rehearse inside. Our percussion section always got our music in late, but were expected to jump right on it, read through it like a flip-book, and learn it right on the spot. Then we'd go outside after spending half the day learning the 1st movement, only to go through the 1st 8 measures (when none of us plays) because everyone else is failing so hard at learning their sets. People also don't realize all the extra hours we have to put in simply because of putting up equipment. Having to be there earlier than everyone else and then having to stay way later to put things away or load the trailer.

Since we had way few people than we needed, everyone had to double/triple/whatever up on parts, myself included. In our last year's show, I played about 13 different instruments, while still doing all of the main marimba parts. It was pretty funny how we sometimes had to improvise, such as learning to do a run with one hand so we can use the other to do a sus roll or something.

/bitchbitchbitch as well

I was always put on main marimba just because I can learn music up to tempo a lot faster than the rest of us. I'm glad about that, because our timp player sucked and they considered moving me to that, but I'm just about tone-deaf when it comes to tuning, so I convinced them otherwise. I don't consider myself "good" at marimba, but I was undoubtedly the best we had, so I guess I would be good in comparison. I still think I'm bad at 4-mallet, mainly because I had to teach myself how to play it, and I still from time to time fall back into bad habits. 2 mallet, I can be a beast . Then again, it's been about 2 years or so since I've even played since I'm now in college and not in band, so who knows what I've retained lol

[Seefu Sefirosu]

Re: Band Camp

One of my good friends is a beast on marimba.

Some guy went up to her at District tryouts and said "How did such a hot girl get stuck on an instrument like this?" She beat him senseless with both mallets.

It was great.

[tha Guardians]

Re: Band Camp

I usually got stuck having to haul the timp cart, as well as lift all the keyboards up from the field onto the track (which at certain stadiums/schools, it is a total ****ing nightmare).

I know just what you mean. We're about 5 people short to be hauling the timpani drums out, but the rest is still a major strain.

It doesn't help that our equipment is older than our school either lol. We had money to purchase new keyboards, and they promised us they would, but the money seemed to just "vanish", as they put it, so we got screwed.

Yeah. Our equipment is about 15 years old. We finally got good strings on the marimba. It might have another 5 years on it maximum, but no longer. The vibes are already shot. The pedal is completely broken. All the accidentals and the lower 6 naturals ring, and the rest clunk. The motor that made it vibrate broke about 5 years ago, and it FELL OFF last year.

People also don't realize all the extra hours we have to put in simply because of putting up equipment. Having to be there earlier than everyone else and then having to stay way later to put things away or load the trailer.

Yeah. We never stop thinking about our music because we rehearse 4 days a week on top of class. We have to be an extra 15 minutes early to everything; we have to be back at the school 45 minutes earlier than the rest of the band to load equipment on game days. Then we spend 45 minutes after games unloading everything, and by that time you're already exhausted. It's past midnight and you feel like you're going to die. Yet, we go inside and do 10 minutes of wallsits if we weren't set or off the field on time. Then we do 5 pushups for every note we miss. I would normally do like 20, but everyone has to do at least 100 as a minimum.

Since we had way few people than we needed, everyone had to double/triple/whatever up on parts, myself included. In our last year's show, I played about 13 different instruments, while still doing all of the main marimba parts. It was pretty funny how we sometimes had to improvise, such as learning to do a run with one hand so we can use the other to do a sus roll or something.

We had the perfect amount of people last year, but that's how it's going to be this year. It's not going to be fun

I don't consider myself "good" at marimba, but I was undoubtedly the best we had, so I guess I would be good in comparison. I still think I'm bad at 4-mallet, mainly because I had to teach myself how to play it, and I still from time to time fall back into bad habits. 2 mallet, I can be a beast . Then again, it's been about 2 years or so since I've even played since I'm now in college and not in band, so who knows what I've retained lol

I know I'm good. I went from being apprehensive at 16th notes to being able to do 4-mallet sextuplets at a 152 tempo in like one month my freshman year. I started second semester of my eighth grade year, and I was better than everybody else in pit by the time school started my freshman year. This excited me. There probably better around here my age, but I try really hard.

I also taught myself 4-mallets. I use a very untraditional traditional grip, lol. It's very easy for me though. I can isolate mallets and do very fast runs without much trouble, and I have a very expansive range for chords.
Does your college have a marching band?

[meatydude]

Re: Band Practice

in this day and age, why aren't we just using loudspeakers, eh? there's a professional musician out there, better than I, so why should I bother with making music on an instrument? lets just say, its a great team-building exercise. I'll give it that merit. You've bonded pretty closely with your fellow musicians, I can guess.

[Prime8]

Re: Band Camp

Yeah. Our equipment is about 15 years old. We finally got good strings on the marimba. It might have another 5 years on it maximum, but no longer. The vibes are already shot. The pedal is completely broken. All the accidentals and the lower 6 naturals ring, and the rest clunk. The motor that made it vibrate broke about 5 years ago, and it FELL OFF last year.

We went through marimba strings like once a month rofl. I was the main culprit because I tended to play over everyone else so they knew who to follow (as well as trying to hide other people's missed notes lol). Our marimbas, besides the bass one, had no problems with the keys themselves, but the frames and aforementioned strings were in bad shape. We did however have a nice $15,000 Malletech 5 1/2 octave that was basically worshiped by us. It wasn't used normally unless one of the upperclassmen needed to practice a solo or something that required that many octaves. Anyways, we were forced to bring it to one of our games. Even though we took everything meticulously apart, the frames and wheels got damaged in the trailer. Both of our vibes had broken pedals, and for the older one, we had to jerry-rig a small wooded board to act as a pedal. The other one fell out of our trailer a few years back because someone forgot to lock the trailer, so it flew out when the truck made a left turn. Both the motors work, but make the vibes sound worse haha.

Yeah. We never stop thinking about our music because we rehearse 4 days a week on top of class. We have to be an extra 15 minutes early to everything; we have to be back at the school 45 minutes earlier than the rest of the band to load equipment on game days. Then we spend 45 minutes after games unloading everything, and by that time you're already exhausted. It's past midnight and you feel like you're going to die. Yet, we go inside and do 10 minutes of wallsits if we weren't set or off the field on time. Then we do 5 pushups for every note we miss. I would normally do like 20, but everyone has to do at least 100 as a minimum.

Yep yep yep yep yep.

I know I'm good. I went from being apprehensive at 16th notes to being able to do 4-mallet sextuplets at a 152 tempo in like one month my freshman year. I started second semester of my eighth grade year, and I was better than everybody else in pit by the time school started my freshman year. This excited me. There probably better around here my age, but I try really hard.

I also taught myself 4-mallets. I use a very untraditional traditional grip, lol. It's very easy for me though. I can isolate mallets and do very fast runs without much trouble, and I have a very expansive range for chords.
Does your college have a marching band?

When I was a freshman, all the seniors were complete practice whores that spent SO many hours getting better and such. This was when I first learned about 4 mallet playing. They just seemed to "know" it, and I was afraid to ask them to teach me, so I just looked at their hands and tried to imitate it as best as I could. My weak point is outer mallet control, especially when it comes to chord changes. I really had to work on it for some of the solos I had to do. For UIL, I remember doing Yellow After The Rain, October Night, and Dream of the Cherry Blossoms. Did you perform any solos?

I go to Texas Tech, and they have a marching band, but I was under the impression (since I asked the student guide person about it when I made my campus visit) that there wasn't a front ensemble. Because of this, I didn't sign up for band. I found out later at the first football game that there is in fact a front ensemble. I kicked myself a lot after I found out. I still really miss playing marimba. I don't know the prerequisites of being in the front ensemble or perhaps just doing concert/orchestra.

[Seefu Sefirosu]

Re: Band Camp

We went through marimba strings like once a month rofl. I was the main culprit because I tended to play over everyone else so they knew who to follow (as well as trying to hide other people's missed notes lol). Our marimbas, besides the bass one, had no problems with the keys themselves, but the frames and aforementioned strings were in bad shape. We did however have a nice $15,000 Malletech 5 1/2 octave that was basically worshiped by us. It wasn't used normally unless one of the upperclassmen needed to practice a solo or something that required that many octaves. Anyways, we were forced to bring it to one of our games. Even though we took everything meticulously apart, the frames and wheels got damaged in the trailer. Both of our vibes had broken pedals, and for the older one, we had to jerry-rig a small wooded board to act as a pedal. The other one fell out of our trailer a few years back because someone forgot to lock the trailer, so it flew out when the truck made a left turn. Both the motors work, but make the vibes sound worse haha.



Yep yep yep yep yep.



When I was a freshman, all the seniors were complete practice whores that spent SO many hours getting better and such. This was when I first learned about 4 mallet playing. They just seemed to "know" it, and I was afraid to ask them to teach me, so I just looked at their hands and tried to imitate it as best as I could. My weak point is outer mallet control, especially when it comes to chord changes. I really had to work on it for some of the solos I had to do. For UIL, I remember doing Yellow After The Rain, October Night, and Dream of the Cherry Blossoms. Did you perform any solos?

I go to Texas Tech, and they have a marching band, but I was under the impression (since I asked the student guide person about it when I made my campus visit) that there wasn't a front ensemble. Because of this, I didn't sign up for band. I found out later at the first football game that there is in fact a front ensemble. I kicked myself a lot after I found out. I still really miss playing marimba. I don't know the prerequisites of being in the front ensemble or perhaps just doing concert/orchestra.

Said friend I mentioned (maybe not in this topic though) did YAtR for Honors Recital this year.

It's a bitch to play.

[dragonmegaXX]

Re: Band Camp

I got back from band camp 4 days ago.
6 1/2 hours of marching per day...
in the rain...
fun fun...