This
week began with a two day break of school. I left to go back to
Brentwood that Friday Night. That night, it was probably the first time
that it would stay cold for a long time. I didn't do much over the
break. I pretty much slept in as well as get to hang out with my
family. What we did do was what we usually did: Take care of the dog-a
black lab/pitbull/border-collie mix whose name is Knuckles, take out
the trash, do dishes, go hang out at Brixx Pizza (where my brother works
at), and play some video-games and watch TV. The weekend went by
pretty fast, I had a chance to practice for the show on the next
Saturday: October 22nd, the Contest of Champions.
Contest
of Champions occurred the past Saturday. It is the oldest competition
in the United States as well as the world, on its 50th commencement. If
anyone was wondering what all of that music that sounded like bands and
drums playing anywhere on campus this last Saturday, that was it. The
Band of Blue was host to this event. The 380+ of us had jobs and shifts
to do that day; my shift occurred at 7:00 at night at finals, but I'll
get to that later. Since my job was later, I had a chance to do my
morning work, the Drumline was going to get together for the costume
contest. A little back-story: since Contest of Champions is near
Halloween, everyone in the band dresses up in a costume; the different
sections- the Snares, Tenors, Basses, Cymbals, and Multi-toms- in the
drum-line have their own theme. My section- the tenors- came up with
our theme the Friday night before Contest of Champions, and our theme
was Ghostbusters.
We had four Ghostbuster costumes, so two of us had to be the monsters
they go up against in the movies. One of them was the Slimer, and I
"drew the short straw" and was the "Stay Puft Marshmallow Man", which I
thought was hilarious seeing as how certain characteristics about me
would make it all the more funnier (in a nutshell, a lot of makeup). It
was 2:45 and we made our costumes. We then headed to the other side of
campus to go warm up for the costumed show. The other costumes that
the drumline had were: Green Army men-Snares, Amish men- the Multi-toms,
Colonel Custard's last stand-The Bassline, the zoo- Cymbals. The band
of blue did both parts of the show for the Band students that competed
in the preliminary round of the Contest of Champions, followed by the
fight song. After the show, the announcement of the finalists- the top
8- was announced and an exhibition band. The finalists bands were: Halls
High School, Brentwood High School, Franklin High School, Columbia
Central High School, John Overton High School, Siegel High School,
Barren County High School, and McGavock High School. The Exhibition
band was Decatur County High School. On the way to my first shift, I
saw a number of people I knew from Music City Drum Corps, as well as
from Governor's School for the Arts, and from Ravenwood HS. My job was
front ensemble entrance monitor. I didn't stay there for long, since
the drumline had to go to warm up. We wore our regular uniforms for the
night show which was more formal than our usual halftime show. The
drumline marched towards the front of the field, and we played the
cadence as the rest of the band marched into the back of the field. At
the end we went to our opening set. After we did the show a second
time, the crews set up the field for the finalist bands. Each band did a
passing review, where they march on the front of the field as they are
announced and play a segment of their show for the crowd. The bands
then lined up on the field. At the center of the field, there was a
platform that the drum-majors of the finalists stand on, in placing
order. The other drum-majors and their band directors from the
non-finalists were there for the awards ceremony, since many awards were
given to non-finalists from prelims. The results: In 8th place-Barren
County High School, 7th Place-Columbia Central High School, 6th
Place-Brentwood High School, 5th Place-Halls High School, 4th Place-John
Overton High School, 3rd Place-Franklin High School, 2nd Place-McGavock
High School, and 1st Place-Siegel High School. The contest ended with
the groups breaking ranks, which meant the bands could meet with the
other bands and vice versa.
After
the concert last week, the Symphonic Band has new music we will be
working on, one of the pieces I played in my high school Wind Ensemble
called "Night Dances for Wind Ensemble". Another piece we are playing is
Vaughn Williams's "English Folk Song Suite. We might be playing more,
that is to be determined.
We began to get more music in the Band of Blue for the Veteran's Salute
show in a few weeks, we plan on playing the themes to the different
branches of the Military: The Army, the Navy, The Air Force, The
Marines, and the Coast Guard. As well as other Patriotic songs. We are
still doing our halftime show "Soulsville" for the other games as well,
including this one next Saturday.
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