Hey, glad you’re having a good time. I agree - not sure why it’s so quiet these days on this forum. It used to be a busy place, sometimes quite animated. Oh well, maybe one day it will pick back up, with the right people who don’t act like angry 12-year olds, and I’m talking about more than just you know who! There were several trouble makers before him.
Anyway, the perc at the hs is going as well as can be expected, given the bad middle school years and demographics of the area. I just picked up a new kid yesterday and he has some great promise, just like a girl who signed on at band camp, and they’re both seniors! For the smallest band in the county, it’s amazing how many times that’s already happened in 3 years. I’m up to 6 in the perc now, with one more girl who also joined and said she would help move equipment (they call them pit monkeys) but is too shy to actually play. Oh well, that’s better than what I started with. None of them can read and none of them have any marching experience. In 30 years of teaching, this is the first time I’ve ever had this happen. But we’re making progress. Too bad the judges won’t know how far they will have come when contest time is here, but at least we know. This is one year that I must resign myself to truly not care at all what rating they give us. When I was thinking about last year and how we went to that one competition at Chocktawhatchee, and how this well-known judge (most or all judges were flown in, which speaks volumes about why I tried to talk the head director to not sign us up for that contest) gave my 5-person perc section a bad rating, I did a little math in my head and I realized that anytime I had a drumline with at least 4 snares, We never got less than a superior. 3 or less has always been hit or miss. And they say size doesn’t matter!
Our McDonald’s All-American Band reunion is about to happen in St. Louis, so I’m happy about that. I’ll let you know how it went when I get back. We hired a videographer, so there will be some good footage!
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