That was one of the more eventful competitions I’ve been invloved in. And most certainly not in a good way.
The actual rehearsal was interesting. On Friday we gained a pit member. (He’s actually a trombonist, but he joined too late to march.) (He had been just coming to all rehearsals and competitions, but all he did was start/stop the Dr. Beat.) So as a result of this, we decided to create a part for Jake on mallets and let Mohammad (sp?!) have Jake’s auxilary part. Clayton spent a lot of the rehearsal working with Jake (the band was working on drill) and I spent a small portion teaching Mo what notes to hit (on the chimes) and when to hit ‘em.
The problem we ran into was the fact that we’re not to play when the band is fixing drill. This is so the DMs can hear when the staff is done and can kick off whatever we’re to play next. So, because of this, we got yelled at while Clayton was creating the part for Jake and when Clayton had Jake play his part to check and make sure he was still playing it correctly. (Well, those weren’t the only times we got yelled at, but those were more prominent.) After the last time of getting yelled at, Clayton got really pissed and just went to a cart and sat down.
Sigh. (Thankfully, he did cool down and came back and helped Jake w/o geting yelled at.)
This is where it’s difficult for the pit. (Well, other than trying to figure out who the hell we’re supposed to listen to or watch for time.) (I swear, if I count how many times we’ve been told conflicting answers in the past two weeks…) During rehearsals earlier in the season, the drill is what gets the most attention. As a result of this, the pit gets to stand and do nothing often. Clayton told me the reason for this is that King says as soon as the band gets their feet under them, the music will improve. Okay, that makes sense, but still…it’s frustrating to have things go wrong over and over and we can’t really work on them cause we can’t play.
I do know one thing: now that we finally have the pit trailer back, we will warm up before we come down to the parking lot. So, that will no longer be an issue.
So after the oh-so-fun rehearsal, we packed up our stuff (+ the drumline’s cause they can’t possibly do it themselves) and ate. After missing the pre-travel talk from King on account of helping put the drummers crap away, I headed out to the buses (w/the rest of the band) only to find out they’re all the way in the furthest parking lot. Apparently some neighbors called the cops because the senior bus was parked in front of a fire hydrant. So, that wasn’t too big of a deal…but it was only the beginning of the bus ride issues.
Before we even left North Side (we had just pulled onto State) (and I’m pretty sure this is when the following happened, it may have been a little bit later), the guard bus and the freshmen bus collided w/each other. So we sat in traffic (for waaay to long), and headed out to the bus place by Northrop. When we left there I do believe we were something like 30 – 45 minutes behind schedule.
(BTW, our bus driver drove crazy fast the entire time. When we crossed Lima, our bus flew over a bunch of bumps and we bounced all over the place!)
Then when we arrived in Elkhart, the 3 of the 5 buses went right on by Concord HS. That was great. So, needless to say, everyone was rushing about trying to get ready. Thank goodness we had left all the cymbals on their stands!
So, after a bit of rushing, the whole band was dressed and ready and the pit instruments and props were all loaded onto their carts. Only problem was, the pit crew was not paying attention and the band left w/o us. (Usually somebody comes and tells us to go, but there are competitions where we’re left to fend for ourselves.) So after rushing (practically aimlessly, since we didn’t even know which warm up we were in) to warm up, we made it.
So after all this rush, rush, rush…the actual show seemed to fly by like it never happened. It was weird, though, cause even though the show felt like it was over in a snap…it was comfortable. Comfortable as in, no huge honking mistakes happened (from what I could hear).
Hopefully, next weekend will go tons smoother. Cause I never want to do that again.
