Anyone in Band?

[Dan Turpin]

So I was just curious, anyone here in or used to be in band, like a school band.

Just wondering because I myself am a "band nerd." I play the euphonium/baritone

-Edits past this point-

Yeah Im a 10th grader in High School, love marching band, best time ever.(Especially when your band is the best in the state!!:cool: , for 4-A atleast) Concert season is fun right now and we just had UIL today. Fun times

[Emmanuel Cruz]

Ah, a brass player! And a Baritone player to boot!:) One of my best friends is a Baritone player.

Anyway, I've been in Band since 5th grade (I'm in 10th now.) I originally played Alto Sax in 5th-6th grade, then played Tenor for 7th. I started playing the Baritone Sax in 8th grade and I'm staying with it. I love the Bari Sax. I'm in my school's Symphonic and Marching Band. (BTW, this was my 1st year in MB, and we won the championship for the 1st time in 13 years. Trying to get a point through:) .)

I enjoy Marching Band a lot, because although it's tiring, it's loads of fun and all the kids are great. Only thing that bugs me is my Sax Captain (I've know the kid for years, but he just isn't the type of guy you would want as a captain. Push-over type.) I have a deep respect and admiration for the Brass Section of the band. I dislike the Woodwinds, because they are all boring and stiffs compared to the Brass. (Only good thing about the Woodwinds is that most of it is made up of girls;) ) The Brass section is really good, but they have fun and have a good time. I was even allowed to practice with the Brass instead of the Saxes. The Low Brass captain is a Tuba player (I LOVE THE TUBA!) and he made me an "honorary member" of the Brass section.

-Emmanuel:bosko:

[Sailor Chibi Otaku]

I was in the high school band for four years playing the clarinet. :)

I play bass guitar and am wanting to form a band or a tribute band. :)

I SO want to play the violin!!!!!!

[Dan Turpin]

Only thing that bugs me is my Sax Captain (I've know the kid for years, but he just isn't the type of guy you would want as a captain. Push-over type.)

-Emmanuel:bosko:
I know what you mean. The majority of our band is seniors, so theyll be gone, and we dont have that many juniors, so our "leaders" wont be as good.

And the woodwind thing....... :D

[Emmanuel Cruz]

Quote: Especially when your band is the best in the state!!:cool: , for 4-A atleast


My band is in Division 4A as well. We are the 2003 USSBA Division 4A Champions!

What band association is your school in? And does your band have a website? Mine does, http://www.ehsbands.org (http://www.ehsbands.org/)

-Emmanuel:bosko:

[Emmanuel Cruz]

I know what you mean. The majority of our band is seniors, so theyll be gone, and we dont have that many juniors, so our "leaders" wont be as good.

And the woodwind thing....... :D
There is only about 10 seniors in our band. Out of 92 kids.:eek:

Most of the band is made up of juniors and sophomores. (Like me!)

My captain is a Sophomore too, but he's younger than me. That bugs me.

And the Lo-Brass Captain, the Tuba player, is a senior. It's too bad he's gonna go. He's very enthuastic, and cheers and likes to have fun. He's like an older version of me.

-Emmanuel:bosko:

[Dan Turpin]

Woah, only 92 :eek:

Ive got about 120-150 in mine, and we have about 45 Seniors and only about 20 juniors. Considering that we have around 50-60 sophomores, thats not alot of leadership, so us 10th graders will do basically everything.

ANd i dont know about our association, but i do know that we'll be moving up to 5-A next year.....

[Mackenzie Rainelle]

Graduate, actually. Spent seven years as a flutist for the school band.

[AndreaBeaumont]

I was in my HS band for 3 years, the best year was my sophmore year. I didn't quit because I suddenly got too cool for it like some people do...they ruined it. Anyone here ever heard of a little program called Small Schools? It's Bill Gates program he started in which he gives a school district 1 million dollars to break down their schools into SMALL SCHOOLS. They took Amelia HS and Glen Este HS and broke them each down into 5 smaller schools, Communications And Technology, Scientific Studies, WECIPA(blahblahblah Preforming Arts School), etc. 10 different schools on each campus...which would have been fine and dandy if they knew what they were doing when the did it. It was so rushed that its just like regular school except everyone's confused as to what they're supposed to be doing within the schools. Students are now allowed to change campuses of the RIVAL schools and go to whichever school they want...GE or Amelia. They kept seperate football, basketball,...if it was a sport they kept it seperate. But the arts got screwed. If you're not IN WECIPA(on GE's campus) you can no longer take Choir or Band during the school day...if you want to that bad..after school they ship to whichever campus is having practice that day and from 2:15- whenever it is...YOU HAVE TO BE THERE...because technically its a "class" but at the same time its after school hours. And all the committed kids joined Wecipa so the after school band is crappy and the in school one is good. But the Amelia kids would have had to switch campuses to be in the good one. Same went for choir. Now here's the crappy part....Amelia(where I originally went) was always known for their kick ass marching band, The Rhythm In Blue, we went to state 10 times out of like 12 years or something crazy...we had the absolute best band director, James Pease, who was ancient, and taught their since my Mom was in HS. We competed in OMEA competition group. While GE's was small and sucky and changed band directors every year and competed in a smaller competition group. GE was known for their glorious choir though, that went to Austria every 4 years to preform and compete, and blah blah blah. Well GE worked it so WECIPA was on their campus so all the choir kids could be in it easily and they kept their choir. Amelia got screwed though with MB because, 1 they combined the bands and did away with Amelia's prestigious name and reputation. OMEA kicked us out because they thought we doing it to try to make a "SUPER BAND" plus it was in the rule book we couldn't do it. So we ended up competing in the smaller competition group. They also forced our awesome band director into retirement because 2 band directors was too many and GE's was younger. So needless to say everything went downhill, everyone dropped out and it sucks now. The alumni from Amelia used to come every year to the homecoming game, they had alumni night, and play with the band during the game when they're on Pep duty. Generations would come, mom's, dad's, complete strangers to any of the band members but were at one time band members themselves. All of them knew and loved Peaser. And now they no longer have a band to come back to. It's not their band anymore.

And that's the sad story about how I was robbed of 4 good years of Marching Band that I had been looking forward to since I was 7 and my older sister was in it.

Sorry for the vent:sweat: ...the years I did spend in Marching Band will always be the most memorable of my younger years. :anime: I loved it very much. I played Trumpet and had a great time, but they killed it. If you ever hear any news of the Bill Gates small schools project rearing its head near your school, I suggest you fight tooth and nail to stop it. We didn't know till it was too late...oy.:sad:

[Fernus]

I'm in the band, and I have been since the sixth grade. I've played the Baritone Saxophone since late seventh, all the way up until now in my late tenth grade year. I will probably find myself with it until I graduate. I like playing Saxophone, and being with the low brass/woods is great especially when it comes to what the band is all about: Drums, Woods, Saxs, Trumpets, Pit, or Lows. While I enjoy playing it in Symphonic Band, the instrument becomes a pain in Marching Band. It's caused bruising around my neck more than once, weighing about seventy pounds (we have to use the nice one to march with). I could not put up with that this year, so I may find myself switching to another instrument just for Marching Band next year.

[Taikyo]

I played the alto saxophone during middle school and most of high school. *Shrugs.* Kinda gave up on it after that. My sister, who plays the clarinet and is in the Marching Chiefs, now has my saxophone.

My favorite song we played during concert season was "Pageant" by Vincent Persichetti during my high school Junior year. Great song!

My favorite marching season was also during my Junior year. We played music from Chicago.

Good times!

[Speedy Boris]

I was in band for 8 years (middle & high school) as a Trombone and Baritone. To be honest, I didn't like marching band that much (mainly because we usually marched in warm weather), but I liked jazz band and concert band. Pep band was fun as well, but playing the same songs over and over got tiresome.

I'm currently not in band at college, though.

[Damien]

I played trombone all through middle school, then switched to chorus for high school. Now that I'm in college, I concentrate on writing and acting classes.

[Emmanuel Cruz]

I'm in the band, and I have been since the sixth grade. I've played the Baritone Saxophone since late seventh, all the way up until now in my late tenth grade year. I will probably find myself with it until I graduate. I like playing Saxophone, and being with the low brass/woods is great especially when it comes to what the band is all about: Drums, Woods, Saxs, Trumpets, Pit, or Lows. While I enjoy playing it in Symphonic Band, the instrument becomes a pain in Marching Band. It's caused bruising around my neck more than once, weighing about seventy pounds (we have to use the nice one to march with). I could not put up with that this year, so I may find myself switching to another instrument just for Marching Band next year.
Yeah, the Bari Sax is great, but it definitely is a killer on my neck. But I got used to it, and I just love playing it. When I go to college, I'm gonna continue playing the Bari, and if they have one, I may play the Bass Saxophone or Contrabass for the regular Band. (I don't know of any Marching Band that has a Bass Sax in it.)

Low instruments are definitely the best. Low instruments are the foundation of the band, and I love low sounding voices as well as instruments. (A voice like Barry White's is one I love.) I'm a Baritone in my Chorus, so I'm able to sing low and play a low instrument.

Our Battery Percussion has won Best Percussion several times. The Battery Percussion is awesome this year. One of my best friends is a Snare Drummer, and he's really good.

And BTW, I technically started playing the Baritone Sax in late 7th grade as well. The 1st time I played it was for the 8th grade graduation in June (Not my 8th grade graduation). But my 8th grade was the year I went to Bari Sax permanently.

BRASS FOREVER!!

-Emmanuel:bosko:

[True Noir]

I played trombone all through middle school, then switched to chorus for high school. Now that I'm in college, I concentrate on writing and acting classes.I am in band right now. I've played trombone for two years. Last year I was in beginning band and this year I am in the top band in my school(symphonic band). I am gonna quit band and take art for a year in High School. Right now in band we are getting ready for a concert. We are gonna play Pirates of the Carribean, Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring and Two Towers, and Hunchback of Notre Dame. They are pretty hard but fun.

This year we went to contest and entered the hardest divisipn(first division) and got perfect score which was pretty amazing for us.

[The Frog]

Yes, there are other band geeks on this board! I've played flute for five years and am in marching band. My school has several thousand kids, but because marching band is voluntary, we only have around 120 kids in band and colorguard (or at least last year).
I still have no idea why I love marching band so much... It's just something about being on a scorching hot field for 3-4 sweaty hours and being yelled at by various band staff. Yay! Season starts May 1st!
Anyway, I enjoy being in band. All shall love concert and marching band music. :)

[Angel_Baby]

Of course I'm in band and chorus! Love 'em both! I play clarinet and bass clarinet in band and sing saprano in chorus. It really keeps me busy! I guess u can call me a band geek then! lol

~jenn :p

[Turtle25]

I've played trombone for quite a long time, and continue to do so now, right up past high school. I first signed up in grade 7... not even knowing what a trombone was. =) But it turned out to be quite the skill to have, when I started actually being able to play in grade 9. I gradually worked my way up to lead (1st) in the final two years of high school. No marching bands up here, more formal types of orchestral ensembles, about 100 people each (it's fairly big). I've also been in jazz ensembles, and those are great fun. To wit, my favourite piece recently is Charles Mingus' "Haitian Fight Song", particularly the Big Band version. I've played it many times... give it a listen. =)

[CookieS]

Trombone player for 3 years in high school. Unlike many of you, I hated the experience and was trying to get out of my PE credit via Marching Band. The mentality of the "band kids" drove me up the wall (of course this doesn't apply to anyone here since I don't know you). My band had too much pep and it made me be a downer to keep the sanity balance of the room.

[Shinten]

Hehe, I'm in marching band...well not right now since we're in concert season (most boring thing ever)
I've been playing the clarinet now for....almost 5 years. Count the broken reeds over the years :rolleyes: Yeah, We're a soon to be 5-A band since we have a massive wave of rookies we had in a while. I think we're expecting to have a mass total of up to 200 people. (i don't think that counts color guard!) :eek: We have a really big school (in fact, we're the 6th-7th largest school in Alabama...) and we already have like 160 people in our band total right now.

Wow. :eek:

[atari_14]

Yep... I am also a band geek, and I have no shame in it, not at all. :anime: I play the clarinet, i've played it for six years. I also love marching band, yep... it's my favorite thing to do. hehe. I plan to keep playing in college, and i'm also aiming to lean every kind of instrument. :D The main reason is I am planing on becoming a band director and head straight to teaching High schoolers. So what better to love then band if you're going into a carrer like what i'm headed for. :D