For whatever reason, the ...dary of legend...dary didn't end up in the post below where it should have ended up, because that's how I timed it with the posting and such. Oops.
I'm sure you all worked it out regardless.
Don't forget to use the tinyurl thingy for next rehearsal.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Marching in March (Gosh, I'm funny)
FUN FACT!!!!! (You can tell I'm excited about this) There's an actual contraption purpose built for removing the mouthpieces from brass instruments should they become jammed in permanently. HOW COOL IS THAT?!?!?!?!?
This post is dedicated to the memory of Shane's hair. Whilst we may not miss it as much as his pants, there was something to be said for the hair.
Anyway, here we go again.
This month it rained. A hell of a lot. It was actually faintly ridiculous just how much it rained. As a result, we didn't go onto the field at all for the entirety of the weekend, making do with a couple of passes around the school buildings when the weather was favourable enough. Which was seldom. Regardless, we soldiered on (I'm really on a roll with all these marching puns. Yes, I know. I also want to be me when I grow up.) for a marvellously productive, if somewhat damp weekend.
Saturday started with a rehearsal for a recording of our music for Ka, which showed us that just because our drumline is incredibly talented, it doesn't mean they are in any way able to use a rainstick. The sheer extent to which the humble rainstick seemed to mytstify them was somewhat humorous, leading to Greg needing to overdub onto the recording the sound of a rainstick in bar 3 of Battlefield.
After a few runthroughs of Opening Production and Battlefield, we recorded the tracks when the rain wasn't too noisy. Although we didn't end up hearing the end product of Opening Production, we did hear the Battlefield recording on sunday... but more on that later.
After that, we got to learn about the innumerable joys of 7/8 marching. 7/8 marching is the kind of thing which puts the Fun into Fundamentals. It's like marching in 3/4, but with occasional slo-mo sections. Fun times.
Moving on, once we had mastered the concept of 7/8 marching, we formed up under the COLA to work on the drill for the end of Battlefield, which as it turned out was to be the drill which was filmed to send off and get us performances. And so we spent an hour (and then another hour and a half after lunch) forming a big triangle, then splitting down the middle and spinning around to another triangle, then making a big square around what will eventually be the drumline, but in the case of this rehearsal was really just empty space, filled temporarily by colourguard for the course of the filming.
This then flowed on into sunday, which was exponentially more rainy than saturday. The sheer amount of fluid which descended from the heavens (and the ferocity with which the descension took place) was staggering. But being the tough cookies that we are, we managed to film our drill and run through some new music, all of us managing to memorise Pump It after playing it twice. Snaps for us.
We began by splitting into three groups and practising the fundamentals of parade marching under the close scrutiny of the Drum Majors and the teaching staff, before forming into a full parade block and gallivanting (And by gallivanting I in fact mean marching in formation) about the school grounds to the tunes of I Am Australian [Cadence] Road to Gundagai [Cadence] Great Escape [Cadence] and so on in endless progression.
Then followed more practice of the end of the Battlefield drill, a pursuit made all the more enjoyable by watching the Drumline playing whilst in flair. Special mention must go out to the basses, who really got into the spirit of things, and of course Shane, who was as always, violently enthusiastic.
After we'd been drilled to Katrina's satisfaction, we settled in for a look at Pursuit, another movement from Ka, and some new music: You Are The Sunshine Of My Life by Stevie Wonder, and something (the name of which escapes me) which was basically just little bits of Black Eyed Peas songs. These will apparently come in handy if (although judging by the level of awesome we brought to the filming, I probably ought to be saying when) we end up doing an NRL gig. Go figure.
Before the judging of the Circus themed dress-ups, the drumline, featuring Shane, came up the front to show what they were doing during battlefield. It was greatly entertaining. The dressing up was dominated by the trumpets, and was won by Mini Winnie (Kirsten) of the colourguard and Ben M of the trumpets. There was then lunch, during which we got changed into our Arts Unit Blacks in preparation for the filming.
This brings me to an important point: uniform. People were without belts, without shirts, in one case without shoes, and often those who had shoes hadn't polished them. We're bound to be lectured on the topic at the next rehearsal, but I'll start it off: make sure you have all the stuff you need for ANZAC day. Seriously. Anzac day is the day when we march around the city looking decidedly awesome, and part of that awesome is the fact that we're so neat and tidy. So if you do nothing else before the next rehearsal, at least polish your shoes. It's not that difficult. And if it turns out you lack a certain piece of the band uniform, email the boosters to organise them ordering it in for you in preparation for next month. mmbboosters@gmail.com
Back to the rehearsal, we filmed several times from differing angles, including Greg standing on a car; Dane walking through the band with a handcam after the final halt, filming our stillness and my personal favourite, Katrina conducting with such intensity that first we laughed, then she did, somewhat detracting from the intensity with which she was conducting.
After filming, we changed back into our clothing and settled down in the hall to watch some footage from the DCI (Drum Corps International) competition, to show us just how amazing marching bands can be. I have nothing to say about it but for Wow. That was insane.
There was a final assembly, wherein we were taught how to operate the new online paperwork thingy, thus eliminating the usual papertrail of an MMB rehearsal. Huzzah. The theme for the dress-ups was also announced. Easter. Get planning.
We were then dismissed into the lack of rain, with instructions to memorise our music and keep fit so that we can be all perky and keen for the parade next rehearsal.
So practice, have fun and stay unmaimed, and get mad keen for Anzac day. Because like all parades we do, it's going to be legend...
...wait for it...
...wait for it...
This post is dedicated to the memory of Shane's hair. Whilst we may not miss it as much as his pants, there was something to be said for the hair.
Anyway, here we go again.
This month it rained. A hell of a lot. It was actually faintly ridiculous just how much it rained. As a result, we didn't go onto the field at all for the entirety of the weekend, making do with a couple of passes around the school buildings when the weather was favourable enough. Which was seldom. Regardless, we soldiered on (I'm really on a roll with all these marching puns. Yes, I know. I also want to be me when I grow up.) for a marvellously productive, if somewhat damp weekend.
Saturday started with a rehearsal for a recording of our music for Ka, which showed us that just because our drumline is incredibly talented, it doesn't mean they are in any way able to use a rainstick. The sheer extent to which the humble rainstick seemed to mytstify them was somewhat humorous, leading to Greg needing to overdub onto the recording the sound of a rainstick in bar 3 of Battlefield.
After a few runthroughs of Opening Production and Battlefield, we recorded the tracks when the rain wasn't too noisy. Although we didn't end up hearing the end product of Opening Production, we did hear the Battlefield recording on sunday... but more on that later.
After that, we got to learn about the innumerable joys of 7/8 marching. 7/8 marching is the kind of thing which puts the Fun into Fundamentals. It's like marching in 3/4, but with occasional slo-mo sections. Fun times.
Moving on, once we had mastered the concept of 7/8 marching, we formed up under the COLA to work on the drill for the end of Battlefield, which as it turned out was to be the drill which was filmed to send off and get us performances. And so we spent an hour (and then another hour and a half after lunch) forming a big triangle, then splitting down the middle and spinning around to another triangle, then making a big square around what will eventually be the drumline, but in the case of this rehearsal was really just empty space, filled temporarily by colourguard for the course of the filming.
This then flowed on into sunday, which was exponentially more rainy than saturday. The sheer amount of fluid which descended from the heavens (and the ferocity with which the descension took place) was staggering. But being the tough cookies that we are, we managed to film our drill and run through some new music, all of us managing to memorise Pump It after playing it twice. Snaps for us.
We began by splitting into three groups and practising the fundamentals of parade marching under the close scrutiny of the Drum Majors and the teaching staff, before forming into a full parade block and gallivanting (And by gallivanting I in fact mean marching in formation) about the school grounds to the tunes of I Am Australian [Cadence] Road to Gundagai [Cadence] Great Escape [Cadence] and so on in endless progression.
Then followed more practice of the end of the Battlefield drill, a pursuit made all the more enjoyable by watching the Drumline playing whilst in flair. Special mention must go out to the basses, who really got into the spirit of things, and of course Shane, who was as always, violently enthusiastic.
After we'd been drilled to Katrina's satisfaction, we settled in for a look at Pursuit, another movement from Ka, and some new music: You Are The Sunshine Of My Life by Stevie Wonder, and something (the name of which escapes me) which was basically just little bits of Black Eyed Peas songs. These will apparently come in handy if (although judging by the level of awesome we brought to the filming, I probably ought to be saying when) we end up doing an NRL gig. Go figure.
Before the judging of the Circus themed dress-ups, the drumline, featuring Shane, came up the front to show what they were doing during battlefield. It was greatly entertaining. The dressing up was dominated by the trumpets, and was won by Mini Winnie (Kirsten) of the colourguard and Ben M of the trumpets. There was then lunch, during which we got changed into our Arts Unit Blacks in preparation for the filming.
This brings me to an important point: uniform. People were without belts, without shirts, in one case without shoes, and often those who had shoes hadn't polished them. We're bound to be lectured on the topic at the next rehearsal, but I'll start it off: make sure you have all the stuff you need for ANZAC day. Seriously. Anzac day is the day when we march around the city looking decidedly awesome, and part of that awesome is the fact that we're so neat and tidy. So if you do nothing else before the next rehearsal, at least polish your shoes. It's not that difficult. And if it turns out you lack a certain piece of the band uniform, email the boosters to organise them ordering it in for you in preparation for next month. mmbboosters@gmail.com
Back to the rehearsal, we filmed several times from differing angles, including Greg standing on a car; Dane walking through the band with a handcam after the final halt, filming our stillness and my personal favourite, Katrina conducting with such intensity that first we laughed, then she did, somewhat detracting from the intensity with which she was conducting.
After filming, we changed back into our clothing and settled down in the hall to watch some footage from the DCI (Drum Corps International) competition, to show us just how amazing marching bands can be. I have nothing to say about it but for Wow. That was insane.
There was a final assembly, wherein we were taught how to operate the new online paperwork thingy, thus eliminating the usual papertrail of an MMB rehearsal. Huzzah. The theme for the dress-ups was also announced. Easter. Get planning.
We were then dismissed into the lack of rain, with instructions to memorise our music and keep fit so that we can be all perky and keen for the parade next rehearsal.
So practice, have fun and stay unmaimed, and get mad keen for Anzac day. Because like all parades we do, it's going to be legend...
...wait for it...
...wait for it...
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