Winding Down...

I missed blogging last week due to band camp. I look forward to band camp every year...taking time off from work to work harder than I work at work. :) It's definitely worthwhile if you have the energy to keep kids focused on goals instead of each other for 12 hours a day. The show is coming along great, the student leaders are really stepping up and taking ownership of the program, and we're having a good time. It's nice.

As for drum corps, we've had two shows since last I wrote...one in Scranton, PA and one in West Haven, CT. Scranton seems like a month ago, so I don't know how much I can really write about it. It was a very cold day and night. It was awful for tuning, because the temperature kept fluctuating...but we had a solid show and gained back a bunch of ground that we had lost with our lack-luster performance in Kingston. The corps was really satisfied with the effort and had a great rehearsal in Weeeeeeehawken, NJ on Sunday.

This past Saturday we landed in West Haven ready to go. We had a great day of rehearsal and really had a pretty darn good show on Saturday night. There was a lot of energy being exchanged between the corps and the crowd, who gave us multiple standing ovations during the performance. That's one of the best feelings as a drum major...to be standing in the middle of that energy exchange...it's amazing. I can't even describe it, but in that 10 minutes I remembered exactly why I do what I do.

Drum corps is powerful when it's emotional.

We did not score as well as we had hoped. The fact is that we leave too many points on the table. The design is there, but we give away the little things. Horn angles, uniform approach to dynamics and articulation, etc, etc. We're good at all of that stuff...but we're inconsistent. Other corps are not. That's fine. We have 3 rehearsals and 2 shows left to get the details nailed down...and then let the chips fall where they may.

Sunday was our family day in Weeeehawken. A good amount of people showed up to watch the corps against the backdrop of NYC. This has been a very long season. With all that has happened, it's amazing that we are where we are. I'm looking forward to championships this weekend to see which Bushwackers drum corps shows up.

I plan on rehearsing this weekend as if it's my last. You never know where life is going to take you, and at my age with my number of years of service, my arthritic back and deteriorating rotator cuffs that probably need surgery in the near future...who knows what 2008 will hold for me. I hope the rest of my corps rehearses that way too...with a sense of urgency as if it is the last time they will ever march in a drum and bugle corps. I just hope we can throw it down two times and get the crowd up...make a few fans for the Bushwackers, and represent ourselves and our alumni well. The funny thing about alumni is that someday we'll all be one. I respect all of them for their contribution, and I hope that they can check out the scores online on Sunday or maybe make the trip to Rochester to see us and will cheer us on as we roll it out there for the 26th year.

As I say to my students, we can see the finish line...and now the decision must be made to walk to it or run like hell. I intend on running.