Getting Settled

The first night of the high school band camp was Monday night and it was a lot of fun! We started off with introductions and then moved out to the turf field so that the students could get a review of/introduction to the basic marching techniques and commands, such as at the ready, falling in, dressing right/left/down, marching forward/8x5s, etc... It was a whopping slice of déjà vu for me and made me miss my high school marching band. Once dusk came along we moved into the field house to have the students find their spots for the opening and second setups, and worked moving between those two until the end of the rehearsal so that they'd at least have a start on the drills. Then last night we reviewed the first two sets of the drill and added one more, and ran the music at the end of the rehearsal. Tonight we're combining instruments with the drill :)

I had my first instrument repair issues, too! Unfortunately, I was not able to fix them in the few minutes I had to meddle with them. A trumpet player's valve got stuck down and would not come back up. I took the bottom cap off the valve and pushed it out that way, but then the valve was difficult to put back into the casing without forcing it. We put some valve oil on it which helped minimally, but I really think the student just needs to clean it and try again. The amount of green gunk on the inside was a bit concerning. Then last night, the baritone player could not make a noise on her instrument. I tried to make sure the valves were aligned correctly, but it looks like the first and second valves spin within their casings, so we gave it to the high school band director to take a look at.

We had our first sectionals last night too, and I got to work with the sousaphones, baritones, trombones, and tenor saxophones. We had a half hour to work on the opener music, and it didn't go too badly. This was when the baritone incident occurred, so I was lucky that one of the drum majors was in my group to help out. He conducted the piece for me throughout the rehearsal, and while I was working with the baritone he led the sectional, then we sort of co-ran it for the rest of the time. The students were pretty great to work with overall, though I did have a few chatty members of the section. I tried to reign in their focus without being too overbearing, especially since I have only had a couple of hours total with the students so far, so I am still working on finding that balance of being the teacher and friendly but not a friend. I also understand that this may be the first time some of these students have seen each other since June, so as the week goes on I expect things to settle a bit.

In the meantime, I have emailed all of the fifth grade teachers to set up times and days for instrument demos for their students come August 29th and 30th. I am extremely lucky to have the previous elementary band teacher still in the district, he has been an absolutely essential and tremendous help to me in starting to organize everything. Once the teachers confirm everything, I will be trying to get in touch with the principals to double check that the times we have chosen are okay, and settling on a space to perform the demos in. Both of the band directors and every teacher I have met so far have been unequivocally supportive and welcoming; I am so lucky to be working with such amazing colleagues.