I'm an orch dork. Violin.

Well, yesterday we had to play in 3 assemblies for Remembrance Day.

The guy who played the Last Post on trumpet screwed up tremendously. It was embarassing.

^awwww

Marching band is completely and totally over. We got runner up to a band who got 5th at BOA at our last comp, so that's like winning.

Concert band is boring, so I can stop constantly talking about band now

I think I'm going to switch to oboe..

Ugh, don't switch to oboe. Oboes are unfortunate.

They sound really pretty when they're played correctly though. My beginning band director said I'd be an amazing oboe player if I ever made the switch.. so I think I'll learn. I'll probably stick with clarinet though because I can never give up marching band.

im a band weenie for life!!! i play the clarient and im starting to learn how to play the tenor sax!!

Yeah, but few oboe players actually sound decent. Go for it, though. We have plenty of people who march one instrument and play another in conert band.

Very true. And you're right, there are very few decent oboe players.. but luckily at my high school the four oboe players we have are wonderful.

We have one who's really good, I think. We used to have a great one (the current one's older sister) but the younger generation doesn't care as much about band. We have 6 oboes total, and while they're not terrible, the fact that they play oboe makes them horrid. If that makes sense. They spend like half the class periods messing with their reeds and trying to get in tune.

Yea, after this year, our one oboe prodigy will be leaving. She has made all-state so many times, but she'll be going off to college. And then another oboe will be leaving, so we'll be left with two other good oboes.. but I'm not sure about the kids coming in. The younger generation really doesn't seem to care about band as much. It's sad.

OUr younger ones should actually be getting better, because the middle school direction is better than it used to be (heart Mr Henson). I think one of the top band's oboes is a freshman, and the middle one has a serior who transferredd from another school. The concern is the bassoons, because we had really ggood ones, and we lost one and the other is graduating, which will leave us with one bassoon who doesnt't even like band.

If I could I'd give you some of our bassoons. Our best one is a junior, and we got a LOT of new freshman and they're all fairly decent players.

Our best was a junior, but she moved to Missississppi. Then came back. Then left again. Pooh. The senior is great too. We didn't get any freshman this year. and the sophomore is meh. Nice guy, though.

How big is your marching band?

5A.. about 200 kids. I think this year we had a little over 200 kids.

Ah, so no wonder you have big numbers that are actually good. We have well over 200 in concert bands, but we only march around 150. It's still 5A or open class, though

If I could I'd send you some recordings of our UIL performances for concert season last year. They're beautiful. I wish I had last year's UIL marching performance... it was one of the best shows ever.

Actually.. I found some of the old music files online from our percussion director. Unfortunately none of the video files work, but it's still cool to listen to.

Niagara Falls

Cool, I'll listen!

Does you band do BOA?

Sadly, we've never gotten that far. We've come so close... but not yet. Next year though, we plan on getting there.

What do you mean? You don't really have to qualify for it. We don't do it because our BD doesn't want to put forth that much effort into marching band. We probably wouldn't get enough support from the school, either. And we'd never make finals. I went and watched the Atlanta Super regional and it was really fun. Great bands, but we'd get owned and so many of them basically had props as their shows.

I'm not sure. I have no idea how well we'd do.. but I think we haven't done anything with BOA because we haven't made State yet. We fall one place short every time they hold State. We should have made it last year.. but we fell short by 8 points. Next year it might happen. I think my director just wants us to make State first.. and then move on to bigger things.

oh, I see. We don't hate state in Georgia. We'd probably make it, but wouldn't be at the top, because the BOA bands in GA are really good. No one but Collins Hill did grand nationals this year, though, and it
s not over yet, but I don't think they even made semi-finals. Lassiter would win the whole thing, probably as they havein the past, but they only go every 4 years

Yea. Here in Texas.. we have really excellent bands in West Texas.. and then we have excellent bands in my area, but I'm not sure about the rest of Texas. It's so huge it's hard to keep with with who all is good.

Ohh, Texas. You have BOA regionals all to yourself. Of course there's tons of great bands! All the good GA bands are in my ralative area, because most of Georgia's poplation is in one place

Tons of great bands and loads of fierce competition. We're a great band.. but not compared to some of these other marching bands in Texas. It's just like... wow.