Post INMBC

Like usual, our indoor marching band classic this year was a nightmare and I really didn't want to go because we basically play once, then sit around for five hours and watch the rest of the shows in the Cedar Rapids area. This year I didn't get hit by a flag, but we had to scrunch up enough that the whole right side of the field was basically of by a yard line.

Prior to us marching the show, our band director had warned our drummline not to cover up the band. But since they were drummline the indeed played as loud as they do outside, inside, while all the rest of us were playing softer.
We got the loudest applause of any band there, besides Iowa State, and I think our show went pretty well, though we sucked compared to how we normally do. The floor was slippery and basically no one was paying attention to the drill, because we were all trying avoid back marching into a solid concrete pillar. This is probably the worst location to have a marching band show and everyone hates it every year. It doesn't help that once you get near the end of the show, Iowa State comes on the floor and playing another freaking hour, then afterwards we all play a horrible rendition of "America the Beautiful" it sounds more like a mush of notes, because the cellular center is really boomy in the inside and echos. That brings me back to my last point of why it sucks, because the inside of the Cellular Center is really boomy, you can't listen to anyone, you have to watch the drum major, which is kind of hard to do since we are marching backwards for a while.
So basically the entire night sucked, it was hot and sweaty inside, we were all tired but we couldn't sleep, it was cold outside, and it took our buses another hour to get to the US Cellular Center after the show was over. So I got home at like 10:30, did my homework til 12:30 and had to wake up at six the next morning.

INMBC

The indoor marching band classic, a dread to all the people in the Cedar Rapids area that must play in it. We have to shrink down the show from a beautiful football field sized picture to a small distorted, chaotic mess. When you shrink a show down really small, it gets messy and dangerous, this year will be no exception. We have to make sure we don't march straight into humongous pillars that would hurt a lot if you hit them. When i say hurt a lot I mean hurt a lot! I ended up hitting one freshman year and I thought I got a concussion.
We have color guard in our band and there was this part in last years show where we had to walk straight through a line of them doing their routine. I've always been afraid of getting hit by them since they swing about two inches away from me on all sides. When we shrunk the show down, we were forced to march through them still and every single time we practiced the show I got hit. Twice in the arm, once in the side of the head and once on my leg. I was totally freaked out when the time for the actual show came, not just the practice. I knew I was going to get hit, but I didn't know how hard or where, so i was determined to keep that flag away from my vital areas. My heart was pounding and I was flipping, little did I know that the changed the flag part in the show and when it got to the time for the chaotic pass, i flinched back fearing the flags and took tentative steps forward. A flag came near me, but never touched me, I was so confused that I missed my closing spot and was out of the line by about four feet, but no one said anything to me so it was fine.
This year, we have a very similar pass and I am hoping very much that we change it, because I have been hit already this season, both times in the head, and I really don't want to get hit again.

Past marching band shows

I was on YouTube a few days ago and i was watching some of our old marching band show. I found some really old and also one from a few years ago. Chronometry was the name of the show. I watched it like four times and I realize how much better we have gotten since the past shows we have done.



Ya now that i'm thinking back to about the past shows that we've done I've decided tht we are so much better and more condifent. I knew this show a ton better than i knew my fresman year show, "Tempered Steel." I like my freshman year drill but not the music for tempered steel, it was kind of boring and left you say, "is this it?" Last years show was by far the best we have ever done. We did a Carimina Burana based show and it was amazing. It left me speechless when we watched it on the t.v. in our band room after the competitions. We had amazing tone and the style that we placed the music in made me have chills.
Saying that last years show was better than this years show is not at all because I think that this year's show was bad, because at ankeny we played like we had never played before. I'm just saying that this was a little slope down from last years show, but not at all as bad as tempered steel. Simply put, in my opinion Carimina Burana> Star Wars> Tempered Steel and that's how many of my friends feel as well.

Ankeny

The past two weekends the John F. Kennedy High School Marching band has gone to Ankeny and Des Moines and our last stop is at the indoor marching classic at our home town of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I have my complaints about the indoor marching band classic but those complaints will be saved until and undetermined date. Our show at West Des Moines Valley, as I addressed earlier was not the best show that we have had and I was definately not satisfied by the results of our competition there.
This past weekend we went to Ankeny and everyone took this show seriously and I didn't say a word until our band director spoke. We knew that we had done a great job and the feeling that we would score quite high was definately a mutual one amoungst me and my fellow marching band friends. The show from my perspective was flawless and it was definately the best time that we had ever done it, except for a few flags that had trouble with the wind but that is quite unavoidable since the wind was blowing quite strong. I was just absolutely speechless at the end of the show and I don't think I took another breath until my band director spoke. Of course she had only good things to say and I was very pleased.
When it came down to that last moment where we all were waiting for our placing I had a bad feeling, that feeling started to ease as more and more places were announced. Suddenly they anounced Cedar Rapids... my heart jumped and i'm thingking no we got fourth this year, crap no! no! no! ... John F. Kennedy High School and everyones heart sank. We worked so hard and got so little from it.
All our band director said was, "We worked so hard..." and the feeling was the same through out the entire group.

My Final Season (Maybe)

Now that marching band is almost over it feels really weird. Since I'm considering this being my last year in band and thus might be my last year marching, I'm not sure whether to feel relieved or having feelings of regret for not giving my best efforts this year.


Last year after our big marching band competition at Valley, the feeling was extreme exuberance, everyone knew that we had done as well as we felt. It was almost like we were floating on clouds and we could never come back down. That feeling was the what I have decided to base all of my Valley experiences on. We ended up coming in 4th place, the highest we had ever gotten. I remember clearly many people crying and my best friend, who was a senior last year, was balling her eyes out also. But this year the story was quite different. As soon as we had gotten on the field and we started playing I felt like three different tempos going on. The rest of the show, besides the closer, was not that bad, but the opener was definitely horrible. We got off the field and our stupid drummline that we have this year wouldn't shut the hell up. They know that they are supposed to be absolutely quiet, or else our band director will beat the crap out of them. We all knew that we did horrible, well at least I did, until our band director came out and told us that we had all done a wonderful job this year and that we should expect a high score. Well obviously she was wrong, because we ended up scoring sixth place, yes it was out of fourteen bands, but I still knew that we were going to do horrible no matter what she said. I wasn't surprised at what we got as a score, but I was surprised at how badly we had done during our show, many people missed their spots and how so many people got out of step and totally lowered our marching score.
All I know is that this week we our going to have to work quite hard to get into the condition that we need to be in, or else I'm going to be very disappointed because I don't want my possible last marching show to be uterly crappy.