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Who here has to attend band camp? I do, it's from 8:30 to 12:30, on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. It's pretty boring. We have to march a lot, and it tends to get hot. I just found out that our rival school has it from 8am to 8pm for 5 days! And I though we had it bad! But it's cool to see your friends before school starts.

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Don't know if you know what Drum Corps is or not, but I just got finished with tour. Any day of Drum Corps - which is essentially professional marching band with no woodwinds - was generally 6 hours if we had a performance that night, 9:00-4:00 or so with an hour for lunch, or 10 hours, 9:00-11:00 or so with an hour for lunch and the same for supper. Before that we had 11 hour days, from 8:00-11:00, every day for three weeks straight in 95-degree heat - which wasn't as bad as Oklahoma, where temperatures reached 115 degrees with 90% humidity. 23 people went to the hospital that day from the heat!

Now, though, I'm in band camp with my college band, which is 9:00-10:00 every day this week, but it's not hard-corps lock-down the whole time like drum corps. The only thing that's really tiring me out is the fact that I'm the band "screamer" in the trumpet section, and playing double f's and g's all day like that gets painful by the end of it. All-in-all, though, I'd say that the longer rehearsals are definitely worth it when you get to perform the kind of product it creates. The crowd really digs it, and there's no better feeling on earth than listening to a standing, screaming ovation from 20,000 people and knowing you created it.

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I totally miss those days (yes, it IS possible to miss 10 hours/day in scorching sunlight and humidity).

Band camp was some good times, for sure.

Those "one time, at band camp" people do get on my nerves, though.

I think I enjoyed high school band more than college band. Either way, though, those were some of the best times of my life. I'd give a lot to go back and relive them.

Dozer, I didn't know you marched drum corps. That's mega-cool. It's almost "Interruptor Jones" cool. Almost.


In other words, the way the world should be.

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If you can't fix it with a hammer, you have an electrical problem.

I don't know what kind of band camp you went to, but we go from 8:00-4:00 with a lunch break, then six to nine.

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Funny thing about that: My last name just happens to be Jones.

I marched with a corps called Southwind the past three years, but next year I'm auditioning for The Cavaliers. I'm 99% sure I can make it, considering I've beaten one of their best players in competion before.


Eeeexactly.

(Late Reply = I read your post, then forgot about it until I just got another email )

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That sounds like our band camps.. Fall in at 630, Breakfast at 7, on the field by 800. We'd go til 9 or so. Then have section and band meetings, then in the rooms at 10:30, lights out at 11.

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If you can't fix it with a hammer, you have an electrical problem.

You had a move-in band camp in high school? I've never heard of that. I never slept with the ensemble until I started corps. You must have had a pretty close-knit band after that sort of camp.

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We had some band camp type stuff for my high school band last week. Of course, the janitorial staff conveniently scheduled the cleaning of the music department for those two days, so we didn't get to any playing, just lots and lots of marching practice. We're pretty small as far as HS bands go, I think we only have 31 people this year, so we don't need as much practice as some others
Speaking of drum corps, I'm planing on joining the CT Hurricanes next season (Octoberish). I'm going for marimba, so I guess I'm lucky marching-wise...

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It's been my exprience that any kind of move-in camp (be it band, football, basketball, chess, whatever) usually works to make sure you learn the things you're trying to learn by eliminating distractions (such as the outside world). You get more accomplished.
Not as close-knit as you'd think. There were still all sorts of cliques within the band. Then again, it WAS high school.

When I work a camp, I try to make sure that the room assignments break up cliques while keeping sections together (section togetherness takes precedence over breaking up cliques). Of course, there's that whole "keeping males and females in seperate rooms" thing.

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If you can't fix it with a hammer, you have an electrical problem.