Countdown to the Spring

February sucks. It's worse than January because you get a few nice days sprinkled in with a bunch of days full of cold, rain, snow, and other nonsense. I love living in the Philly area, but seriously...my dream is to make enough money to be able to get on a plane every February and go somewhere warm for 2 weeks. That's all I want.

We had two camps with the Bushwackers during the month of February. They were consecutive weekends, which was unfortunate from a scheduling standpoint, but that's the state of the activity right now. What do I mean? Well...no one really wants outside organizations practicing at their schools, so quite often groups like ours are relegated to VFW halls, American Legion Halls, etc...and we're at the mercy of their schedule.

We are lucky, because we have a pretty nice facility. The VFW hall in Garfield, NJ is where we make our winter home, and while it doesn't have enough rooms to break up into sectionals and all that, it does have rooms more than big enough for each section of the corps...and one hall big enough for ensemble. The acoustics in there aren't bad either, so we're able to clean and actually hear parts. I much prefer this room over any gym or cafeteria I've rehearsed in before.

"Garfield. The Home of Champions". That's what the sign says right next to the VFW where we rehearse. That sure would be nice. We're working hard, and we're making great progress. I can't really speak for the drums or guard, but the brass is 3/4 of the way through the show. Key is doing a great job with the brass compositions (it's an all original show based around the theme of a psychotic circus). The drums are going to be very, very good. That much is evident. We need to fill out a couple of spots in the pit, but it looks like we have some good, young talent ready to step up there. The guard had their first rehearsal of the year on Sunday, and by all accounts they look to be setting up for another ridiculously amazing year.

The folks we have in the brass line have a great work ethic. Everyone has done a lot of work on the music at home, which is encouraging. All of the music we have (3 songs from the show, a parade tune, two pages of exercises, 4 chord progressions, and 3 lot/encore tunes) are memorized and sounding good. We need some people, which isn't unusual for us, but it's still #1 on my list of things that, when I'm ruler of the world, I would love to change.

Drum corps can be a hard sell. It's a lot of time (I guess...never really bothered me), and it does cost money. It's a sacrifice of comfort and of vacations and friends and girlfriends, etc, etc, etc. It's very hard for some people in February to see into the summer and realize how much fun this whole thing is when you put on the uniforms and get under the lights. People forget or have never experienced the rush of having the crowd on their feet before the show is even finished. They can't see the future performances where all 100 or so people are in sync and moving, breathing, working together as one drum corps for 10 minutes. They can't create the feeling they will have of marching off the field with the sweat rolling down your back knowing that you are a complete and total badass and are one of the best in the world at what you do.

...and how do you convey those concepts to people who have never done it? How do you convince them that the time they're going to give me on a Saturday and Sunday in February are going to put them in a position to be total rock stars in August?

It's hard, but it's the job we're faced with. We have spots, it's true. I'm not going to lie to you. We're not folding, we're not on the verge of folding, we're not even in the same zip code as folding. We have people, and what we have is good and solid. I just want more.

I want more people to share in this thing. I want to spread the love. I want to rock with more Bushwacker brothers and sisters. It's more fun that way, and we're more effective that way. Bigger is NOT always better. You can fill a corps with people holding instruments they can't play, but I have no interest in that. I want to teach people how to play. I want to challenge people who already play to achieve higher goals.

The fact is, judges hear with their eyes in a lot of cases. My 36 or 42 man horn line could sound like 55 because we play in tune with a uniform technique...and we work on playing at FFF with quality, while the Bensalem Buswashers could have 55 people out there with 10 of them just holding horns and everyone playing their horns like they're signaling the apocalypse. In many cases, people will see 55 horns and automatically think that they're better or more effective. It's a sad reality, but I get that.

What I want is a horn line full of people who want to be there, who take this thing seriously, and who want to be great and are willing to do what it takes to get there. I have a great staff, and we'll get them there if they want to go. This horn line right now wants it bad...we just need some more folks to fill it out and jump on the opportunity to be a part of something that could be truly cool and exciting.

This could very well be one of those shows that you think back on years from now and say, "Yeah, man...I marched Bush in 09. I was a part of that." Our 3rd movement alone (entitled "death defying feats") is one of the single coolest drum corps tunes I've ever done with anyone ever. The closer is supposed to be even more wild and awesome than that.

So, if you're reading this and you're thinking, "well, I don't know about those Bushwackers" or "I'd march, but..." stop yourself. Talk to me. I want every man, woman, and child...even some cats if that's what it takes...in a Bushwacker uniform this summer. Let's talk about what it's going to take to make that happen.

Money is not a reason to not march. We have fundraising opportunities, sponsorships, etc, etc. It's silly how cheap we are and how easy we make it to march here from a financial standpoint. It ain't free, but it's not hard to do either.

Transportation? I will pick you up myself if I have to. I don't care.

Woodwind player? Please. I'm the brass caption head and I'm a native saxophone player. Our high brass tech has a masters in clarinet performance from Ithaca. You can do it and do it well if you decide that you're not going to suck and that you're going to do what it takes to be the best at what you do.

I thought when writing this that I might come across as being desperate. Trust me, I'm not. I just really, truly, honestly believe in this corps, this staff, these members, and this show. I think this is going to be a great year. We're going to have a lot of fun, we're going to be rock stars, and we're going to be very competitive.

I'm excited about the year. I'm excited for the next rehearsal on March 21st. I hope to see some of your faces there.