End of Year Updates!

Hey guys, it's been a while since our last talk on here, but there's a lot of news and happenings in the percussion-world we should all be aware of as second semester approaches (10 days :O)

First, a final congratulations for what can only be described as an epic marching season. Kimball and Jeremy threw some crazy stuff at us this year, and we still had time to figure out some Katy Perry lot jams (obviously as essential element to any successful program).

Now, a lot of you probably still reminisce about the good old days, re-watching USSBA videos on loop and quietly sobbing into endless boxes of Kleenex extra-soft tissues, dreaming of next year's show. Pretty close? Understandable.

Fortunately, we have Indoor Percussion AND Wind Ensemble to focus on!

A lot of you have been showing some serious enthusiasm in the couple indoor rehearsals we've had, which is fantastic. If everybody's not having fun with it, we're not going to be successful. Remember, until we set parts, everybody who is interested is invited, so keep on dragging your friends to Tuesday and Thursday after-school auditions. They'll have fun, we all know it.

HOWEVER, please make sure you're not ignoring Wind Ensemble. Just because we're standing in one place and not blowing people's faces off doesn't mean it's not important. Everything we do at Panther Creek goes toward our reputation, and a ridiculous fall season doesn't mean much if we can't transfer those skills to the band room.

All right, enough of that! Every one of you is smart enough to know how to act, and when. Except...nah, it's everybody.

Okay, wrapping up! Please practice Indoor music and techniques over Christmas Break! If you don't come back better and ready to work, it will set a awful tone for the rest of the season. We have an amazing opportunity to be extremely successful. It's all hinging on how hard you want it, and how hard you are willing to work for it.

Thanks guys (and gals :D). Have a super shweet break, see you Dec. 2,

Eric

Hello Again! Updates And Such

What's up gang? Hope everyone's summer is going smoothly and slowly!

Well, it's an early Tuesday morning, which means?

Yup, another summer update and report on our brave instructor's journey through time and space.

Obviously, he went prepared to practice in even the most adverse conditions, and while we won't quite be battling dinosaurs, he has the right idea! Although I haven't talked to Daniel since the 2nd, as far as I know, all three battery sections have had at least one sectional since school got out, which is a great sign. Hopefully they helped everybody realize the completely different challenge presented by having to play perfectly together with 2-4 other players, and you will start practicing to that level of expectation. As Forrest hinted at last week, a full sectional is certainly in the works, so be on the lookout for an email or phone call from Kimball, Forrest, myself, or your section leader! Pool, anybody?

We are less than a month away from our first step-off of the 2011-2012 marching band season :O While super exciting, this is also a great marker to make sure we've all stepped up our exercise and practicing routines in prep for the coming months. While running and lifting weights everyday probably isn't necessary, you have to understand band camp is extremely physically demanding and HOT. Hydration will be key, and you should get in the habit of drinking multiple bottles of water a day.

Don't kill yourself out there, be careful and enjoy your summer, but please come on the 26th ready to work. Set a goal: run a certain distance, do a certain amount of pushups, plank for a certain amount of time, ect..and shoot to reach it before the season starts!

I can't stress practicing more than Forrest already has, but I do want to touch on it really quickly, because it's too important to ignore. The dangerous thing about long breaks between organized drumline sessions is that you will not feel your hand losing muscle memory, technique, or chops, but it absolutely will happen if your not legitimately practicing daily. Please don't come to camp unprepared for the inevitable hours of reps and exercises. Reasonable endurance, and well as near perfect technique (especially on all of our basic exercises) is expected. I hope I'm not scaring anybody, but it is definitely an experience that is worsened by poor preparation.

On that super positive note, I will talk to you guys (+ girl) lata :D

Be sure to text, email, call, sign, smoke signal, morse code (verb?), or page any questions you have to Daniel, Forrest, Kimball or myself.

Love you all dearly,

Eric

Practicing, among other things

Hello everyone. Hope you've all been having a great summer break so far and all that stuff. It's Friday once again, which means it's update time. :D

Ok. So practicing. Everyone should have at least glanced at the music at this point. If for some reason you don't possess any music, feel free to ask me, Eric, your section leader, Kimball, or anybody else who might have it. Same goes for any questions you might have about the music. Feel free to ask away.

Now it's time for sectionals. So far, tenors are the only section to actually get together and work on music. Each section should have at least planned a sectional by now. As of now, there is a bass sectional scheduled for July 2nd. No word on snares yet, however -_-. There is a possible full battery rehearsal in the works at the moment. Not too sure of the specs yet, but spoiler alert - a pool will be involved. Get pumped.

As for other things to get pumped about, there are 31 days until the awesomeness of marching season starts. Now is the time to start running and doing other strength-building exercises, especially if you aren't used to getting a lot of regular physical activity. Everyone should also be practicing. I cannot stress enough how crucial it is that everyone be practicing as often as possible. I'm sure everyone has heard the phrase "You're only as strong as your weakest player." Everyone's number one goal on the first rehearsal day back from break should be to not be the weakest player. This should also be a recurring theme throughout the entire season as well. But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. As for now, everyone's main concern should be to focus on technique, ability, and music.

Speaking of music. Here's some more preseason jams. Enjoy.

Love you all. See you soon.

Forrest

Hello Children

Hello my drumline brethren. Welcome back to another weekly installment of the 2011 drumline blog. Summer still going all right? Perfect.

To keep in tradition, let's start with practicing. All of you should have had Chaos and the opening hit for almost a week now. If you were completely unaware of it's existence, you're cut, but make sure to email me at EGDekker@gmail.com for a copy asap and get yourself caught up. Otherwise, I hope all of you realize how big of deal having our music this early is. "But Eric, we have all summer to learn this" is the opposite approach that you should take. Legitimately sitting down and practicing even a small section each day is a must for a fast-paced, successful early season. Nobody wants to be the one of ten players unprepared for his/her part. Especially with the opening hit available, there is no excuse for not being miles ahead of everyone else day one of band camp. This is serious guys, any vet will tell you that their worst experiences were those they forgot to prepare for. Let's all avoid those experiences all together :D

Don't forget the five M's of practicing! met, music, mirror, marktime and...met.

Next, just another friendly reminder to watch your food and drink intake. I know some of you, especially those with a handy dandy driver's license, have been replacing breakfast or lunch for a daily RooCup slushie, or as I call it, the devil's chalice. That icee cup of syrupy deliciousness will be your downfall come July 26th, I guarantee it. It be hypocritical of me to demand you cut every drink but water out of your diet, but it's not a bad goal to work up to towards the last few weeks in July. You will be working harder and getting less water breaks than everyone else in the band, and you're expected to be physically prepared for that.

Almost there. Sectionals! They are important, and a pretty fundamental supplement to practicing on your own. Nothing will sound good as a line if a section sounds bad within itself. I know Forrest and Dylan held their first sectional today, and snares have one lined up. A section leader's primary responsibility is to put together sectional practices, both during the summer and mid-season. However, Forrest should be sending everybody contact information for the entire drumline in the coming minutes. Anybody is always free to contact me, Forrest, or their section leader if they have complaints, suggestions, questions, ect. Communication is key guys, never let yourself be in the dark about anything, especially if you're new to the marching band scene.

Make sure you treat this weekly blog seriously. It might sound overstated, but Forrest and I wouldn't waste out time writing things we didn't mean. You should be excited and intense, not scared :) Forrest is absolutely correct, the best is definitely yet to come.

Love, from the deepest chasms of my soul,

Eric

P.S. If you haven't seen the Brass blog, go check it out. They made "flat Jon" versions of Jon Swofford that are traveling all over world and country with various brass members. Fortunetly, we have space shuttles, air planes, control of physics and a time machine at our disposal, so this summer, the real Kimball will be traveling the universe. Please enjoy tracking his progress. His first destination was, of course, Mars.

It Begins Again

Hey guys (and Daniella), welcome to the first weekly drum line blog update of the 2011 marching season. How's your summer going? Good? I thought so. Now that the boring stuff is out of the way...

First order of business. Practicing. Very crucial to everyone's success as a member of this drum line. If you haven't touched your pad, drum, or sticks since last rehearsal, one, you're cut, and two, do it. Right now. Speaking of now, now is not the time to even think about getting slack on practicing. This is mainly for the rookies; we vets have all done this before, and any one of us will tell you stories about kids who haven't practiced and how many reps of push-ups we have done. Don't be that guy (or girl). Please. I've seen little bits and pieces of the music, and it will be challenging for everyone. Even the vets. The more prepared everyone is, the more enjoyable of an experience camp will be.

Second. If you aren't running at least ten miles a day, you're probably fine; that's kind of excessive. However, everyone's goal should be at least one easy mile by the first percussion camp day (July 26th). Push-ups, sit-ups, and planks should also be powerful weapons in your fitness arsenal. Starting to lower your amount of junk food and soda intake around now would also be an excellent idea. Some of you might be thinking, "But Forrest, I just bought a Roo Cup last week! I want to fill it up as many times as possible!" Unless you fill up your cup with water, (and really, who does that?) RELAX. The bulk of band camp will be done weeks before September 5th, so you soda fiends will have plenty of time to get hyped up on free carbonated deliciousness. Mmm.

Annddd lastly, in case you missed it at the top, the blog will be updated on a weekly basis, every Friday. As you can tell, we are already off to a great start, clocking in a nearly three hours late. Perfect. Please check back here as often as possible (can you say new homepage?) for updates, sectional announcements, and other drumming goodies. Speaking of sectionals, section leaders should already be in contact with their sections about getting together at some point(s) this summer. Drums don't necessarily have to be involved, but drumming does. Of course. If Eric or myself check with section members and discover that contacts have not been made, the pre-season throwing down will begin. And then we'll call the sectional ourselves. For another section. So either way, it's happening. 0:)

All of this may seem like a lot, and it is, but the key to this activity is to have fun with it. At times, it will be very difficult and tedious. Just remember that the best is yet to come. I promise. :D

Until next week,

Forrest

p.s. Here's some good summer listening material.

It's been a while- symphonic band updates, here we come!

Hey guys! So, I know it's been a while since my last post, but I'm definitely going to start putting up
updates and such more consistently, so really try and start checking this for news on a regular basis.

A few of you have been asking me about our audition for "chairs" and what we have to play. As of right now,
have the cuts for the all-district solo (I passed these out a while ago; if you didn't get them, see me) AND THE RUDIMENTAL SOLO ready and practiced. Not only is it a good idea to learn the basic rudiments, but it might take the place of scales for the test. Again, see me if you don't have a copy.
Don't freak out about the test! Just practice, all of you have played in front of people before...also, I keep getting asked for the day. No official date has been given for the test, I'll let you know as soon (if ever) Mr. Robinson sets one. It'l be a week in advance.

Hmm...now that we're sufficiently in concert season, and right now we're doing a lot of sightreading-esk stuff, really make sure to keep track of music. If you see some scattered, go ahead and at least throw it into one of our folders so it doesn't get lost in the endless void of the Panther Creek Band Room. Cool, neato! Samee thing applies to instruments; PLEASE take the four seconds it takes to put away the instrument you played, or cover the mallets or whatever.

All righttyy, sorry this was kind of just rules and info. Hopefully as we get into the swing of things, there will be more events as such..BUT, until then, I really hope you love symphonic band! :D

p.s. Go ahead and start thinking if you want to be part of the jam section for basketball games.

Anf if you're thinking about playing set for any/all of it, definitely check this video out first:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQGrM5HS8vU

Everything you ever need to know.

We got dat first place, EY! We got dat first place..

Hey, check out this adorable picture of a cat in a Bass Drum---^

Hello children + James
SO, obviously awesome job tonight. It would have been really easy, what with changes and last night's horrendous performance, to freak out and have a bad rep, but even in the lot, you could feel the intensity, focus and hype from everybody, and that inevitable nervousness (not from us, of course, but from those drumline's that watched us.) It was pretty freakin ridiculous. But, we're not a "only play clean in the lot because we have stands" drumline and pit . Way to carry the intensity all the way to the last down beat of the closer. Spot on.
That being said, I really wouldn't have cared if we had gotten the first place or fourth place spot tonight. Really, I know DR harps on it a lot, but who cares if a judge thinks we play to loud, or aggressive, or our snares are too wet or dry, or thinks that five snares is too much for a high school drumline, and takes off ten points on principle? (Okay, that last one was pushing it, but you get the idea). We all, as far I could tell, came out of that show feeling not only like complete bada**es, but also just proud of such a superior product.
I think at Wakefield, we were all still caught up in winning, starting the season out right, that we were playing to WIN, and not to perform. Okay, obviously we want to win, but tonight was a PERFORMANCE. We went out and laid down a ridiculous show, ridiculously well, and that's all we should ever strive to do.

PC Dline - 2 firsts, 0 seconds, 0 thirds.

Love,
Ewic
xoxoxo