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JeffCvt
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Band

Post by JeffCvt »

A topic made entirley for people who are in or have been in a band. (School or any other kind)

A place where you can talk about what your band has done, where they have gone, how good (or bad) they are, or anything else band related.
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Re: Band

Post by Coatl_Ruu »

"This one time, at band camp - "

But really, I do have a bunch of marching band stories. A couple of them are actually forum-appropriate! P'raps I'll share one or two of those, if anyone's interested. But anyway. My name is Coatl Ruu, and I play the trumpet.

... And if this were my school's marching band, this would be the part where you all say "Welcome to AA." =P Hooray, band-geekery.
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Re: Band

Post by Shirosune »

Hmm...one does wonder...does having been in a choir count? Have my doubts, but figure I might as well ask.
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Re: Band

Post by Sleet »

I was in marching band all four years! I was a percussionist and I played everything. The marimba was my specialty.

Then I was in jazz band in college, playing piano/keyboards and occasionally bass.
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Re: Band

Post by Wanderer »

I'm OK at my instrument. But I was never really that involved in it.
I'm the best in my section which is absolutely hilarious because I barely practice.
I probably should've joined marching band... whatever.
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Re: Band

Post by JeffCvt »

Shirosune wrote:Hmm...one does wonder...does having been in a choir count? Have my doubts, but figure I might as well ask.
Ummm... Sure. I'm not, but it is still a group of people that make music.
Sleet wrote:I was in marching band all four years! I was a percussionist and I played everything. The marimba was my specialty.
Cool, I'm in the drumline too, but I've only played cymbals.
Wanderer wrote:I'm the best in my section which is absolutely hilarious because I barely practice.
I'm the best cymbal player in the band, even though there are only five. And despite not practicing as much as I should, I'm usally the only one who remembers the music.
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Re: Band

Post by Tiggy »

I was in choir for ~1½ year.

Was the only boy.
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Re: Band

Post by Sleet »

JeffCvt wrote:Cool, I'm in the drumline too, but I've only played cymbals.
Our drumline didn't have cymbals. A few members of the pit played cymbals in parades, but our show didn't involve them.
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Re: Band

Post by Seth »

I used to play clarinet in Middle school band. I thought about high school band but it was too much work and I didn't care enough to make that kind of commitment.
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Re: Band

Post by Dissension »

I played baritone (and marching baritone) for both years of middle school (6th & 7th grades), both years of junior high (8th & 9th), and all three years of high school (10th - 12th). We pretty consistently had seven baritones (We were pretty low-brass heavy in general, but there were dozens and dozens of high brass, woodwinds, percussionists, etc., too.). I tended to be one of the last couple chairs through middle school and junior high, but I got tired of it my senior year and apparently shocked everyone by ranking second chair and fending off all challenges.
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Re: Band

Post by KJOokami »

I was in a choir once or twice. I was pretty awful back then, though. No range or control whatsoever. :B

I also did corral in my first semester at college. It was basically the college's choir's little brother that didn't require auditions and didn't do any traveling. I was tempted to audition for the actual choir the semester following, but never did because I have commitment issues. And because they only really travel to churches, and that didn't interest me. They sounded pretty legit at the on-campus stuff I went to though.
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Re: Band

Post by RandomGeekNamedBrent »

I played tuba in concert/symphonic band and sousaphone in marching band all through high school. we didn't really have chairs because all tuba parts were the same, but when the music said to only have one tuba playing, it was usually me for the last two years I was there.
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Re: Band

Post by Sleet »

You didn't have beautiful four-part tuba harmony?

We have a grand total of four bassists in our whole jazz band, if you include myself. Obviously I couldn't play bass this semester (since I'm needed on keyboards), and the other three had to split between large ensemble and small ensemble, but I suggested a bass quartet. The professor didn't like that idea. :lol:
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Re: Band

Post by Coatl_Ruu »

Our marching band currently has about 40 people in it. It's a bit sad, really. By the end of last year we had exactly zero tuba players. We ended up being the second smallest band out of the 12 or so in our county ... Ah, well. It was still a lot fun! And I became an honorary member of the drum line this year, in addition to my role as supreme Cobra Commander of the trumpet section. x3
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Re: Band

Post by JeffCvt »

Sleet wrote:
JeffCvt wrote:Cool, I'm in the drumline too, but I've only played cymbals.
Our drumline didn't have cymbals. A few members of the pit played cymbals in parades, but our show didn't involve them.
Our Band dosen't have a pit. Or rather, not since my freshman year. I think I was the only pit my band directer ever had (Cowbell, Shaker, Tambourine)
Coatl_Ruu wrote:Our marching band currently has about 40 people in it. It's a bit sad, really. By the end of last year we had exactly zero tuba players. We ended up being the second smallest band out of the 12 or so in our county ... Ah, well. It was still a lot fun! And I became an honorary member of the drum line this year, in addition to my role as supreme Cobra Commander of the trumpet section. x3
Yea, our band is pretty big. Including Color gaurd and Dancers, we are something like 160-180 members. We are one of the biggest bands in our county, and the only band that can touch our field show isn't even in our county.
Of course, we do see some small bands that are really good, our band director would rather have a small, dedicated band then a large, undisciplined one if he had the choice.
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Re: Band

Post by Sleet »

How were you an honorary member, Ruu?

And you had almost 200 members but no pit? Really? o.o
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Re: Band

Post by JeffCvt »

Yea, our drumline has 8 snares, 6 bass drums, 5 quads, 5 cymbal players, and one bell player who plays the cymbals durring our drumline show.

We are pretty big.
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Re: Band

Post by Sleet »

Wow, that's impressive. Our drumline is typically 3 snares, 2 quads, and 5 basses. Then our pit is about the same size.
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Re: Band

Post by Coatl_Ruu »

Sleet wrote:How were you an honorary member, Ruu?
Oh! Story-time. See, it was an away game, and I was in charge of loading all the equipment on the bus, because the normal 'equipment crew' wasn't there. About ten other people in the band were away at some other event, including half the drumline. So, we brought along a few extra bass drums, a snare, one of the quads - so that, while we were playing in the stands, some of the other band members could learn a simple cadence or two and fill in.

Anyway, we got there, and I went to help unload the bus. When all the instruments were set out, I went to grab mine. It wasn't there. In short, I was in charge of loading everything ... and I forgot to load my own trumpet. *facepalm*

"Well. This might be bad." >_<

"Hey, who wants to play a bass drum?"

"ME." =D

The director seemed equal parts amused and irritated. In the end, she just told me to go line up with the drummers at half time. And so I did. ^_^
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Re: Band

Post by Sleet »

So did you play well?
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Re: Band

Post by Coatl_Ruu »

Not really. I learned a couple cadences, but at half time I had to fake it.
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Re: Band

Post by Sleet »

Bass players have to know how to count really well. I played bass one year.

Also it's so heavy. D:
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Re: Band

Post by RandomGeekNamedBrent »

Sousaphones are pretty heavy too. but yeah, those larger bass drums are probably heavier, while the smaller ones may be lighter.
and of course, distribution of the weight makes a difference.
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Re: Band

Post by Sleet »

I played the largest.

If anyone want to say this is evidence I'm a boy, I'm decently strong and there has been at least one other girl who's played that drum in our band.
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Re: Band

Post by Dissension »

RandomGeekNamedBrent wrote:I played tuba in concert/symphonic band and sousaphone in marching band all through high school. we didn't really have chairs because all tuba parts were the same, but when the music said to only have one tuba playing, it was usually me for the last two years I was there.
Our tubas were arranged by 'chairs' because we usually had 10-13.
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Re: Band

Post by JeffCvt »

Coatl_Ruu wrote:Not really. I learned a couple cadences, but at half time I had to fake it.
That's how most of our cymbal music at the begining of the year is created. Being the (kind of self proclaimed) "Cymbal Captian," the other cymbals all look to me to know the cymbal music.
I know it for most of our street cadences, but when it comes to show cadences or some songs, I just have to make it up in the begining of the year. After that, we play whatever I made up for the rest of the marching season. (I think that we have some songs that the cymbal music has changed every year for the last 5 or so years.)
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Re: Band

Post by RandomGeekNamedBrent »

Sleet wrote:I played the largest.

If anyone want to say this is evidence I'm a boy, I'm decently strong and there has been at least one other girl who's played that drum in our band.
I'm pretty sure I saw one of our smaller girls playing the largest. this isn't evidence at all.
Dissension wrote:
RandomGeekNamedBrent wrote:I played tuba in concert/symphonic band and sousaphone in marching band all through high school. we didn't really have chairs because all tuba parts were the same, but when the music said to only have one tuba playing, it was usually me for the last two years I was there.
Our tubas were arranged by 'chairs' because we usually had 10-13.
outside of marching band, each band (Freshmen, Concert, and Symphonic) had two at the most. And we kind of were arranged by chair, me being the first in each level I was in, but it had no effect on the level of difficulty of the music we played and we never had an actual "first chair tuba," we were all just "tubas"
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Re: Band

Post by JeffCvt »

Our band just has a low brass section captian for the marching season, and while the director puts them in chairs for concert band, the seating dosen't usally change from where every one usally sat.
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Re: Band

Post by BSAman »

i play trombone and i'm pretty dang good, but i'm last chair* even though i should be at least third

*story is that when we were doing the playing test, my trombone wasn't working right, then after i played, i switched my mouthpiece and i played perfectly fine
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Re: Band

Post by Sleet »

If the issue is just your mouthpiece, couldn't they have understood? Jeez...
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Re: Band

Post by Dissension »

They wouldn't have taken that into consideration here, but I would have been able to 'challenge' my way up however many seats I was capable of outplaying. = P Does your program allow that, by any chance?
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Re: Band

Post by BSAman »

Dissension wrote:They wouldn't have taken that into consideration here, but I would have been able to 'challenge' my way up however many seats I was capable of outplaying. = P Does your program allow that, by any chance?
nah, you get a seat in one playing test, you're there until the next
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Re: Band

Post by JeffCvt »

That just seems unfair.
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Re: Band

Post by BSAman »

it's fine, we have playing tests fairly often, so it's not like you're there forever
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Re: Band

Post by JeffCvt »

Oh, I thought you had them once a year or something.
Now it's not so unfair.

Hey! Does anyone have funny band camp stories?
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Re: Band

Post by Sleet »

I once got a 140% on a playing test in sixth grade 'cause I could play polyphony on the glockenspiel. And someone else got a -4% because he took a "retry" and then gave up, getting a 0 minus the retry penalty.

...Our grading scale was weird. In high school percussionists didn't do chairs.
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Re: Band

Post by JeffCvt »

Yea, mine dosn't either.
But we do have section leaders durring the marching season that are picked by the director.
Then we have our unoffical "Captians" that we pick ourselves who know the parts for each drum they are on.

As long as I have been there, there has been one snare who is a section leader, so by default they are the "snare captain."
The bass drum is usally whoever has the biggest one.
This year, the quads had the other section leader, so he was the "quad captain."
And being the only cymbal player who did not switch after a year or two kind of threw me into the "cymbal captian" position. It's kinda-sorta a funny story, but I'll save it for another day.
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Re: Band

Post by Sleet »

Our bass leader was traditionally the person with the smallest bass.

I was the assistant section leader in the pit simply because I had just joined the pit my senior year (I was on drumline the last two). If we did chairs I would've been first, though. The third-best marimba player and myself were so good they modified our parts so they're every bit as technically challenging as the lead marimba's part. It was basically unison/two-part harmony/three-part harmony the entire show.
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Re: Band

Post by JeffCvt »

I just found this on YouTube.
Now what do you all think of these two drumlines?
Based on the comments, they seem to be rivals.

Part 1
Part 2
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Re: Band

Post by Nitrosparxx »

I am a super band geek. Seriously, I'm in college now studying to become a band teacher! That's how much I love it.
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