Winter Percussion

Though for most kids the busy season is over, our award-winning winter percussion has been hard at work. This year's show is entitled "Free." This past week alone, these dedicated students worked on Friday and Saturday.

While they were at practice on Friday, the rest of the band kids were playing in the pep band cheering on the boys basketball game. The Winter Percussion rehearsed from 2:00PM-9:00PM.

On Saturday they spent ten hours rehearsing in order to hold up their reputation as one of the best Winter Percussion groups around.

Build the Band Campaign

It was a lot of fun to perform the show music one last time tonight at the winter band concert, a big thank you to everyone who came out. Check back here in the future, we'll be doing our best to give you Winter Percussion and Winter Guard updates as the season progresses.

On a more serious note, you probably noticed a few students were performing our show music without instruments this evening. This is because our school instruments are older than the students playing them and are constantly in need of repair or no longer work. We are now working towards a solution:

Kamiak is in need of some new instruments. Because of this, the boosters has partnered with the students to create a student-led fundraising campaign we have decided to call "Build the Band." Our goal is to raise $100,000 for instruments over the next several years. Tonight we raised $1,112.30! On the Build the Band Facebook page you can view a brief history, mission statement, donate, find out information about upcoming fundraisers, and track our progress.

Support us by liking our campaign on Facebook

Thank you to everyone who donated tonight, we are very excited to continue with this campaign!

Show Band Awards Night & Season Wrap-Up

Wednesday was the annual Show Band Awards Night in the Kamiak Commons. At the beginning of the evening, we watched a slideshow featuring pictures from throughout the season that was put together by Alex Brinkley. Then each student was called up and received a Participation Award from Mr. Bathurst, and the drum majors were thanked. The Student Leadership Committe was also called up to be recognized.

Our head chaperone and the band liaison both took time to recognize our wonderful parents, boosters, and volunteers. The staff thanked the parents for trusting the staff with their children, and for allowing us to have such a successful season.

Colorguard Awards were given next, by guard director Jon Brown. This was followed by the percussion staff and percussion awards. The visual staff, brass staff, and woodwind staff also gave out awards.

Many awards were given out to the colorguard, percussion, and winds, including Most Improved, Best Marcher, MVP, Most Inspirational, Most Outstanding Section (shout out to the Lowheads!), and awards for Most Outstanding in Class.

Mr. Bathurst called all of the staff members up to be recognized and gave them giftcards. The students also had a surprise for the staff. They wrote little thank you notes to the staff to show appreciation for their dedication to the show band this year. Each staff member was presented with a ring of thank you notes.

It was great to get together as a band for the last time. It was fun to eat cake, see the staff dressed up, and recognize each member of the band. We ended the night by watching our finals performance from Championships. Some of the sections gathered together with their staff afterwards to thank them one last time.

SEASON RECAP & HIGHLIGHTS:

• Band Camp was August 13-17, 2012. A very successful camp, a great time, skit night was awesome, the dance was incredibly fun!
• This season we had the hardest-working show band ever to pass through the halls of Kamiak High School
• September 14, 2012 - First pep assembly day and first football game!
• September 22, 2012 - Goddard Day & Alumni Reunion! We were very excited to reveal our show to the parents and the community.
• September 26, 2012 - The Homecoming Parade!
• Our first competition was the Sunset Classic in Hillsboro, Oregon on October 6, 2012. We placed fourth in finals with a score of 77.05
• On October 13, 2012 Kamiak took the Sweepstakes award at Tumwater High School with a finals score of 87.4, also taking the awards for Best General Effect, Music, Marching, Colorguard, and Percussion
• Our third show was the Puget Sound Festival of Bands in Everett on October 27, 2012. Kamiak took second overall with a score of 87.08 along with the awards for People's Choice, High Colorguard, and High Percussion.
• Championships weekend was November 2-4, 2012. Kamiak took fifth place in Championships, competing against the best bands in the northwest and received a score of 87.45! This is the highest Kamiak has ever placed at the NWAPA Marching Band Championships.
• November 7, 2012 Kamiak Show Band Awards Night
• For photos and videos from the season check out the Photo Gallery

DATES TO REMEMBER:
November 13 - Winter Percussion Open House
November 14- Jazz Night
November 15 - KPAB Booster Meeting
November 20 - Winter Percussion Open House
November 27-29 - Winter Percussion Auditions
December 6 - Band Concert
December 16 - Messiah Concert

Championships Recap

Bus One leaving Mukilteo on Friday (photo by Cynthia Davis)

On Friday after school we loaded the buses and trailers for our trip down to Hillsboro. By 3:30PM we had left the school and were on our way to Oregon. We hit traffic, so we were a bit late to stop for dinner at Exit 108. Our original itinterary had us stopping for dinner at five, but because of the traffic our dinner break was from 6:15-7.

It had been raining pretty hard, and after the staff checked out the field at Tenino High School where we were supposed to rehearse, we decided to skip it and push through to Hillsboro. We had a quick bathroom break about an hour after dinner and arrived at Glencoe High School in Hillsboro at around 11PM.
After unloading the buses we had a quick meeting with Mr. Bathurst to discuss our plans for the evening. Lights out was at 11:45PM.



Back of the line for breakfast!

Wake-up call was at 7:30AM, followed by breakfast at 8:30. By 9:30 we were headed to Hillsboro Stadium for an early warm-up block since we had missed our rehearsal the night before.

Our morning rehearsal/warm-up block at Hillsboro Stadium (photo by Stuart Pitts)

After our morning visual and music warm-up block we headed to lunch. At 1:15PM we were back at camp, changing into uniform for our Prelims warm-up. At 2:00 we walked to our warm-up area. Our Prelims performance was at 3:45.

Headed to our prelims performance (photo courtesy of Stuart Pitts)

We did not feel great about our prelims show. The whole show had just felt a bit off. After going to the awards ceremony, we received fifth place with a score of 86. Only .5 away from Evergreen High School! We had never placed this high before and were very excited to perform in finals.

Dinner was cooked by our lovely parent volunteers. We ate burgers, salad, veggies, and pudding. A few alumni even stopped by the camp to say hello.

As we prepared for our finals performance there was a lot of excitement in the air. We were ready to give it our all. We headed to our last warm-up as the 2012 Kamiak Show Band.

Nick says a few words before we head to our finals performance (photo by Stuart Pitts)

We walked off of the field after finals feeling great about our performance. It had definitely been the best run of the season. We circled up to listen to a words from Stuart Pitts, Nick Benson, and Mr. Bathurst. All of them were very excited and very proud of what we had accomplished this year. A lot of tears were shed. After this we broke off quickly into sections and subsections, thanking the staff and each other for everything put into this program.

We changed out of uniform and headed off to the awards ceremony. We were happy to learn that our score had jumped to 87.45 and we had finished fifth, higher than the show band had ever placed!

These seniors got Nick Benson a birthday cake, since his birthday was the day after Championships.

At around 11:20PM we left Hillsboro Stadium and headed home. We stopped twice for bathroom breaks. One in Toutle Creek. We arrived safely at Kamiak at around 3:00AM (because of daylight savings time).

Thanks to everyone who supported us this year. Every staff member, chaperone, roadie, volunteer, and fan means the world to us. We could not do it without you!

Check the Gallery for more photos from the weekend.

CHAMPIONSHIPS WEEKEND!

3:30PM The buses have left Kamiak
7:10PM Reloading the buses after dinner break.

11:19PM We have arrived at Glencoe High School
8:24 Waiting for breakfast
9:30 On buses headed to morning rehearsal
12:13 Lunch time
11:10PM Kamiak placed fifth (THE HIGHEST IN KAMIAK HISTORY!) with a score of 87.45. We are so excited about this show and feel great about our performance.
More details in a recap tomorrow. We're headed home!
3:15AM Home safe and sound

Last Thursday Rehearsal & Senior Ceremony

Practice began at 5:30PM as usual. We were lucky enough to have the turf field, which isn't soggy, and the weather held up too.
We worked through basics, and you could feel the excitement in the air. After basics we headed to music warm-ups, brass and woodwinds separate. During woodwind warm-ups, they did a round where just the seniors played, since it was their last rehearsal ever. The brass were reminded that this was the last time this group would ever rehearse together at Kamiak.

Everyone joined again to work on choreography with some of our visual staff. We then set to work on the Closer and the end of the show, working hard to perfect it. Half of rehearsal was spent on this portion of our show, because up to this point it was the weakest. After spending so much time running it this evening, and having Nick Benson on the field, we feel a lot more comfortable with the section and are excited to perform it this weekend.

We also worked on the Ravel (the middle of the show). Our show improved a lot musically today, and our dynamics are better than ever.

At 8:20PM we did our last full-run at Kamiak.


SENIOR CEREMONY
At around 8:30PM the seniors left the field and went into the stands to watch the rest of the band perform the Closer without them. The seniors made sure to cheer very loudly.
After the brief performance the students met on the track, seniors on one side, everyone else on the other. Mr. Bathurst began this part of the ceremony with a speech, thanking the seniors for all of their hard work and leadership over this season and over the past four years. Stuart Pitts, a brass/visual technician also gave a short speech. He had been the head drum major when the seniors were freshman. He talked about how much they had done for this program, how proud he was of the show band,and how far the band has come. He thanked the seniors and said that he was honored to have had the opportunity to work with this band.
There were tears on both sides of the form as everyone met in the middle to hug the seniors. More hugs were given at this senior ceremony than any other in the past. The band truly has become a family this year.

Following the senior ceremony, most people broke off into subsections. It was a fantastic night, and one that will be hard to forget. We are very excited to head down to Championships tomorrow and give it our all.



These three seniors wore the show shirts from their freshman year, "On the Edge"

More photos hopefully coming soon!

A Little Love

This week the Show Band recieved one of the best presents we ever have! The dance team took time to make and sign posters for us thanking us for supporting them and playing for them following our half time shows at football games.

 

The band loves learning new songs for the dance team, new music is always awesome, and we were glad that they enjoy it as well.

 

Some of the great comments included their love for our uniforms, particuarly the overalls, and that they enjoy watching our halfime show.

 

 

Thanks for your support dance team!

Last Tuesday Practice

Today was the last Tuesday practice of the season. Unfortunately, the rain was not on our side today, but we were lucky enough to have indoor space.

We started off with split music warm-up. The brass were in the PAC Auditorium with Nick. The woodwinds were in a PAC classroom. The band room was occupied by the battery.

Mr. Bathurst was able to gain use of the Auxiliary Gym, so after music warm-ups we had a choreography session with the visual staff from 6-7:15. We learned a lot of new choreography for the end of the show that we are excited to put onto the field on Thursday.

From 7:30 to 8:30 we all gathered in the PAC Auditorium to rehearse the music and put the minor adjustments together. It was pretty loud sometimes!

Hopefully the weather will be a bit better for Thursday's rehearsal before we head down to Oregon this weekend.

Puget Sound Festival of Bands (Everett Show) Recap

A video of our Prelims performance yesterday at the Everett Show.

Video and photos courtesy of Cynthia Davis

Traditionally, the Puget Sound Festival of Bands is a favorite among students. Because we do not host our own show and this one is so close to home, we think of the Everett Show as our "home show." Many former band students come out to watch us perform each year. From 1994-1997 the PSFOB was actually held at Goddard Memorial Stadium, which goes to show how meaningful this perfomance is for Kamiak students (for a history of PSFOB click here).

At 9:00AM we showed up at Kamiak for a morning rehearsal on the turf field. It was raining pretty hard, and we were a little worried about how the weather would be for our performances. We ended practice an hour early, at eleven, so that we would have time to dry off before leaving for Everett.

At 1:30PM the buses departed for Everett Memorial Stadium, and by 2:30PM Kamiak was in uniform and ready for warm-ups.

Our prelims performance was scheduled for 3:54PM, and we walked off of the field knowing that it had been our best perfomance in uniform. After our performance we took a group picture. Prelims scores were announced with Kamiak taking second place both overall and in the Open Class, receiving a score of 85.05. We also received the awards for High Percussion and High Color Guard.

Dinner break was until 7:15. Our finals performance was at 8:24PM. Warm-ups went really well and there was a lot of excitement among band members. We felt good about our performance.

After finals we returned to camp briefly to put away our instruments and then headed out to full retreat. We received medals for second place which were given to us by members of Cascade's band.

Sweepstakes- Central Valley 89.35
2nd Place- Kamiak 87.08
3rd Place- Sunset 86.08
Kamiak also took the People's Choice award and the awards for High Colorguard and High Percussion.






Thank you to everyone who came out to the competition!

Everett Show

This post will be updated throughout the day.
9:00AM Rehearsal at Kamiak on the turf. Worked through the closer, the intro, and a bit of the Ravel before a full run.
11:15AM Rehearsal ended a bit early due to the rain so we have time to dry off before we leave at one thirty.
1:37 Buses leave Kamiak
2:00 Buses arrive in Everett
5:25 Kamiak placed second (only losing to Central Valley) with a score 85.05. We took high percussion and best colorguard. Our finals performance is at 8:24PM

Kamiak finishes with Second Place, High Percussion, High Colorguard, and the People's Choice Award. Thanks to everyone who came out to support!

Friday!

Tonight we hit the field on a Friday for the fist time in a long time.

Nick Benson met early with quite a few of our members to work on choreography. It was definitely much improved and should look great tomorrow!

Most of rehearsal was spent reviewing and perfecting the Closer. This was followed by a quick music warm-up. Calvin, one of our favorite staff members, came in from college and showed up at our rehearsal tonight. We are thrilled to have him back for the weekend. After music warm-up we moved onto the turf to finish off the last half hour of rehearsal.

Tonight's rehearsal was definitely not our best, and it was frustrating for everyone. Nick gave us a talk before our run-through and we are ready to show up tomorrow morning and have the best rehearsal and performance yet.

We are very excited to be hosting Central Valley High School for the competition this weekend. CV took first place at the NWAPA Championships last year. Each of the Kamiak sections put together treats for the corresponding CV sections as a way of welcoming them to our school. We also invited them out to watch our run-through at the end of the evening, and allowed them to use our field for their senior ceremony. We are excited to cheer them on tomorrow and to watch one of the best bands in the northwest perform!

Thursday Night Football (Last Game)

Our last official football game was tonight, and it was by far the most memorable game! The Kamiak football team beat Snohomish 35-21 in a well-played game.

Because the game was on a Thursday night, the student section was a lot smaller than usual, but the Pep Band had no problem stepping it up. Despite the smaller crowd, this game was particularly rowdy and was the highlight of four years of football games for most seniors. We were on our feet the enitre time, and joined the cheerleaders in cheering our team to victory.

Our halftime run-through was one of our best football performances, and we are getting excited for the Everett show this weekend! After a well-deserved third quarter break the pep band returned to the stands and Mr. Bathurst graciously allowed the seniors to pick their favorite songs for their final quarter. Two of the tunes chosen were "Louie, Louie" and "You Can Call Me Al."

After the game while students were packing up, a few Snohomish football players spoke with two band members. They said that our band was very good, that we were better than many of the other pep bands, and that they enjoyed our playing. The seniors were the last to leave the stadium. Several stayed behind in the stands to reflect on their experiences over the last four years at Frank Goddard Memorial Stadium. Another group of band kids were having a dance party in the parking lot to celebrate. Overall it was a great night for everyone who attended and is something we will all remember for years to come.

For more photos from tonight's game click here.

Choreography

A handful of our winds showed up today at 4:30 to learn choreography for the end of the show with Nick Benson. It was really helpful because we were able to focus on dot cleaning during rehearsal.

At five thirty we started practice with a warm-up lap and basics block. We quickly moved into visual sectionals, where we learned choreography for the beginning of the show. This was followed by a brief music warm-up in sectionals. The remainder of the evening was spent cleaning up the first half of our show. The weather held out for rehearsal.

We have a football game this Thursday. Our next rehearsal is Friday.
Saturday is the Everett Show.

Football Game

Yesterday was our fourth fooball game. The band arrived at around 6:15 to change into uniform and warm-up. We then marched into the stands to take our usual place next to the student section. Since it was Senior Night, we waited while they recognized all of the senior football players and cheerleaders. We then played The Star Spangled Banner followed by the Kamiak Fight Song to kick off the game.


It wasn't raining very hard, so we left the stands with about five minutes left in the second quarter to warm-up for our halftime performance. As we marched onto the field they announced the names of the Show Band seniors. For the past three games we have performed the Intro and the Ravel since the entire show is too long. This time we peformed the Ravel, the Tango, and the Closer. It was very exciting to show the school a different portion of our show. As soon as we had finished the show the dance team joined us on the field and we played "Runaway Baby" by Bruno Mars for their routine.

We took third quarter off to get dinner from the weenie wagon (thanks parent volunteers!) and to take a break from pep music. We finished off fourth quarter by playing some of our favorite pep tunes such as "Land of 1000 Dances" and "You Can Cal Me Al."

Kamiak ended up winning the game against Cascade. The student body stormed the field and then the football team came and joined us for the fight song.

Only one more football game left this season!

For more photos see the Show Band Gallery

Rainy Practice

The colorguard rehearsing as the band shows up at 5:30PM

Our first rainy rehearsal of the season! It was just starting to rain at around 5:30 when practice began this evening. We moved into basics block, and worked on our slides for about thirty minutes.

By the time we were on the field and learning the new drill it was starting to pour.
Nick was teaching us the end of our show, which is a short, post-show movement that comes after the Closer. We pushed through the first hour and a half of rehearsal, working until we had learned the last few sets. As soon as we had learned the drill we had quick rehearsal wrap-up and were excused at around 7:15PM.

Tomorrow we have a football game!
Make sure everyone has a rain jacket for future rehearsals!

Drill Cleaning

Colorguard joined us today for a full rehearsal. The band worked on cleaning drill and added a new piece of woodwind choreography alongside the colorguard.

The battery spent most of tonight's rehearsal reviewing tempos throughout the show.
We ended with a quick music warm-up and a full run of the show at the adjusted tempos.

Tumwater Recap

Kamiak did very well at Tumwater. I heard a lot of good comments from parents. After a quick morning music rehearsal in the PAC we headed off to the competition. Immediately after we arrived we unloaded the buses, dressed in our uniforms, and went off to warm-up for prelims. It was very wet, but our perfomance was pretty good overall. We ended prelims with first place.

After the prelims awards ceremony we headed back to camp for a 5:00 dinner. The hot spaghetti and meatballs were very delicious since the weather was a bit miserable. Since our finals performance wasn't until around 8:30, we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to watch the first few finals perfomances. At 6:30PM we headed to warm-ups. Our finals performance was also very good. We had a quick wrap-up after finals with the staff and rushed out for full retreat.

Video of the bands at full retreat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3lXj457s1M&feature=plcp

Video of the awards ceremony:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJtcGBwz7co&feature=plcp

Here are the results for Open Class:

Open Class

	Prelims	Finals	Average
Kamiak	86.5	87.4	86.9
*Newport	77.9		39.0
North Kitsap	73.7	73.9	73.8

 (Wenatchee is AAA Class but took second overall with a score of 81.9)

Open Class Caption Awards:
Best General Effect	Kamiak HS
Best Music	Kamiak HS
Best Marching	Kamiak HS
Best Color Guard	Kamiak HS
Best Percussion	Kamiak HS
Best Drum Major	*Newport HS

Sweepstakes Winner

Frank Minear – Sweepstakes

Kamiak HS

Tumwater School Dist Leadership Team

Kamiak trumpet section got up early and met at Denny's before the show.

Tumwater Show

8:00AM Morning rehearsal in the PAC.

10:00AM Buses have left Kamiak.

3:16PM Our prelims performance went well. We received a score of 86.5 (this is not a circuit show).

5:00PM Dinner! Spaghetti and meatballs!

8:30PM Finals performance

9:55PM Just got back from full retreat. Kamiak takes Sweepstakes!

12:10AM Buses arrive at Kamiak.

Competition Tomorrow

Our second competition is tomorrow. Although rehearsal yesterday was a little rough, we are very excited to go to Tumwater and show off our new choreography.

We have a rehearsal at Kamiak at 8:00AM.Our Prelims performance time is 2:15PM hope to see you all there! We estimate that our finals performance time will be around 8:30PM and will be followed by the awards ceremony. Last year we received first place in our division and second overall.

This show is much closer to home than our Oregon shows, thanks to everyone who is coming to support us!

Chilly Rehearsal

It is definitely getting colder outside. Don't forget to bring jackets to rehearsal!
We received a few inspirational speeches from the staff, and are ready for a fantastic rehearsal this Thursday.

Tonight we focused on choreography throughout the Tango. The choreography is in pairs for the most part and it should look really cool in the show. We had a short music warm-up, but the choreography took most of the evening to learn. We are very excited to perform it on Saturday in Tumwater.

Sunset Show Recap

Our first show yesterday went very well. We gathered at Kamiak at 5:30AM, loaded the buses, and headed down to Oregon. After sitting on buses for four and a half hours, we arrived at Hillsboro Stadium at around 10:30AM. We were exhausted but excited. We quickly unloaded the buses, changed into half-uniform and went to warm-ups.

We had a short visual block followed by music warm-up. This was done in sectionals before we came together to play as a full ensemble prior to our gate time. We put on our jackets and went to the gate. Our performance was at 12:50PM. Following every performance we circle up so that Nick can talk to us. Prelims had gone well, but we didn't feel that it was our best performance. We changed quickly and headed to the awards ceremony where it was announced that we had scored a 74.4 and received third place.

Dinner was at four, provided by our wonderful chaperones and parent volunteers. Chicken and potatoes, yum!

By five o'clock we were changed into our uniforms again. Our horns were polished, and we were ready for a great warm-up and performance. We performed at seven and walked off of the field feeling great.

The awards ceremony was at 8:20PM. We received a score of 77.05 (big jump!) and placed fourth overall. We are very excited about this score because no Kamiak band has received a score this high at the first circuit show of the season. We know that we went to Hillsboro and gave it our best.

Here is a video of our finals performance. It was very windy, but it was a good performance.

Video by Cynthia Davis

Thank you to all of our chaperones, staff, and volunteers who made this trip possible!


Get excited for Tumwater next weekend!

IT'S A SHOW DAY!

We will do our best to make updates to this post throughout the day. Thanks for supporting us!

5:40AM We arrive at Kamiak to load the buses. Lots of excitement in the air!

6:13AM Buses depart Kamiak for Hillsboro.

9:30AM Bathroom break at a rest stop about ten miles from Vancouver.

10:26AM Arrive at Hillsboro Stadium. Pumped to unload and get ready for our first prelims performance.

1:30PM We have finished our first show and are sitting in the stands getting ready to watch a few bands. Our prelims performance was decent, and we are ready to come back tonight and give it our best.

3:08PM Kamiak places third in the Open Class prelims performance with a score of 74.4. We perform eighth for finals. Our gate time for finals is 7:00.

7:47PM We walked off of the field feeling really good about our show. We are headed to the awards ceremony now.

8:39PM Kamiak takes fourth place with a score if 77.05

9:15PM After a short pow-wow, Show Band departs for home!!

1:30AM We arrive at Kamiak after a long day.

Four of the senior girls show off their footie pajamas at the rest stop on the way to the competition.

 

Big Day Tomorrow

We have the whole show off of the metronome. Today's half-day rehearsal was very exciting and we took some big steps towards a successful season. Our show chairs arrived as well. The colorguard and some of the winds were able to rehearse with them after our lovely parents put them together. Although the rehearsal was long, we were able to maintain focus and end with a successful run.

Tomorrow is our first show! We are very excited to perform our completed show for an audience for the first time. At five thirty in the morning we will arrive at Kamiak, board the buses, and leave for Oregon by six.

Our prelims gate time is 12:40PM at Hillsboro Stadium. Thanks for all of the continuing support!

Goodbye Metronome

This evening we said goodbye to Dr. Beat for two thirds of our show! We are very proud to say that our entire closer is met-free. At tomorrow's rehearsal we will pull the metronome off of the Tango and our show will be complete.

At 5:30 we jumped straight into music sectional warm-ups. We then worked our way backwards through the closer, until we we relied entirely on the hands of our drum majors. Tonight's rehearsal was one of the best rehearsals in a while. The full run at 8:30 was very exciting, and tomorrow's full run will be even better.

First October Rehearsal

This week is another crazy one! With our first show this coming weekend in Hillsboro, OR we still have a lot to work on before Deux is performance ready. There are three rehearsals this week in addition to music testing for the Tango.

Immediately following basics block we jumped into music rehearsal. We tried something new, warming up in a cricle. It helps us to hear the parts around us so that we can play more in tune and with better dynamics. We pulled the final part of the Ravel (one of our middle pieces) off the metronome. The winds started on the baseball field to make some minor adjustments and at around 8:00PM joined the percussion on the football field. Our final run through was pretty successful and we are excited to take the Closer off of the metronome on Thursday.

Today's The Day!

Today is the day! We finally have our entire show on the field! After a busy week for the show band and excellent rehearsals these past two days we are very excited to have this finished.

Today's rehearsal was from 9-1. It went very well despite the fact that we were missing quite a few staff members. We started in basics lead by our head drum major. We then transitioned into music rehearsal and then finally worked to put the closer music onto the field. We ended with a full run of our show, music and marching. The end of the run felt like such an accomplishment. So excited for our first show a week from tomorrow!

The football game was a lot of fun. The pep band choreography was awesome. We performed well and it was a very exciting game. Although we ended up losing, our team played very well and came back to almost win it. The final score was 20-21.

This week in review:
-Music testing
-Tuesday Practice
-Homecoming Parade
-Pep Assembly
-Thursday Practice
-Friday Practice
-Football Game
-Spiro's Homecoming Party

At the annual post-homecoming game Spiro's night.

 

Homecoming Parade

Today was the annual Kamiak Homecoming Parade! The parade is very short, and usually lasts around twenty minutes, travelling throughout the neighborhoods across from the school. Band kids love this parade because it is a chance for us to go all out in purple spirit gear. I think this year we had more spirit gear than ever. KAMIAK PRIDE! For more photos see the Gallery page.

Photo by Cynthia Davis.

Goddard Day

Yesterday was a long day for the Kamiak Show Band, but it was well worth our time.

After a late night at the football game we were back at Frank Goddard Memorial Stadium for 9:00AM rehearsal. Jack led us in stretches and then we did basic exercises with the visual staff. It was good to have Calvin Fackrell, one of our visual staff members, back for the day (he is currently studying to be a music teacher and cannot be at our regular rehearsals). The basics exercises are designed to engage our core muscles needed for marching.

Following this, we jumped right into drill with Nick Benson. We learned a lot of new choreography for the Tango, which we are very excited about! It still needs practice, but we were able to perform it at the end of the day.

We split off into music rehearsal in sectionals and subsectionals to work on the music for the Closer. Although there is still a lot of room for improvement, by the end of sectionals the music was sounding much better and we were able to put it together after lunch.

Lunch was absolutely delicious. We had burgers provided by our lovely parent volunteers, and desserts, drinks, and fruit provided by the students. Thanks to all of the parents who helped to feed all of the hungry teenagers!

After lunch we finished reviewing the drill. We worked on reviewing both the Intro and the Ravel, and combining all of the drill we have learned so far. It was hard work, but by 5:00PM we were very excited for our performance.

We changed into our uniforms for our the first reveal of our show. It was so cool to look up into the stands and see so many parents, friends, and alumni there to support us. We began with sectional performances by the colorguard, the percussion, and then the winds. All of the staff members were introduced to the parents. Then we performed a musical standstill, which was followed by all of the drill and music we know so far. At the very end we invited Kamiak Show Band Alumni down to perform the fight song with us. It was such a cool experience to see their continued support for the band.

The competitive season is so close, and we are excited to perform around the northwest. Soon we will have the closer drill on the field and in two weeks we have our first competition in Hillsboro, OR at the Sunset Classic!


Photo courtesy of Justin Gaceta

More Goddard pictures coming to the Gallery soon!

A Successful Night!

What a great night for Kamiak High School! The football team won 35-14 against the Lynnwood Royals AND the show band had a great run-through at half time!

Time in class today was spent reviewing our pep music and working through more closer music...it's really starting to come together!

Then, this evening at the football game the band played in the stands and took the field at halftime. I heard from a lot of students that it was their best run-through so far, and that they can't wait to see the video on Monday and observe how the band did as a whole! We are fulfilling our goal of constant improvement. Whew!

We had the student section on their feet and cheering for us. What an accomplishment that is!

The woodwinds were told tonight during warm-ups that some of the sounds we produced were the best that our staff had heard all season. And, the brass was sounding particularly good, both in warm-up arcs and on the field!

Hope everyone is excited about the show reveal tomorrow! 5 pm at Goddard Stadium.

Hope to see you there!
Emma

Thanks to Stuart Pitts for providing great pictures of the Kamiak Brass Line

David Reeves Paid Us A Visit!

This evening's rehearsal went very well. Our music arranger, David Reeves came to practice to give us feedback. It was nice to have musical input from the arranger himself!
At the beginning of the evening we practiced the Tango choreography. It is starting to look a lot better, and by the end of the season we will make professional dancers jealous of our sweet tango skills.
We split around 6:15 into sectionals to warm-up and run through parts of the music. The brass split into subsectionals at 6:30 to work on music for the closer, which will be added on Saturday. Saxaphones are improving on their Tango section and working on the Closer as well. The rest of the woodwinds, clarinets and flute, were also able to work through alot of the Closer.
The last part of rehearsal was done in shakos and marching shoes so that we could get a better idea of what our show is like during a performance. We also took the majority of the Ravel off of the metronome and are ready to perform again at tomorrow night's football game.
At the very end of rehearsal we played a song for the dance team. Traditionally we play a song for one of their football game routines each year. It was fun to rehearse with them briefly!

Good Rehearsal

We spent most of the evening in sectionals. Lowheads and saxaphones were separate from the other winds.

The saxophones and lowheads worked very hard to perfect their music, and it has definitely improved. They were even standing on chairs and playing by the end of the night.

Nick Benson, along with some of our other staff members, taught everyone to Tango! The choreography is coming along nicely, and once we have managed to perfect it (we are in marching band for a reason, not dance), the middle portion of our show will leave a huge impact.

By the end of the evening we were able to put all of the parts of the Tango section together and see how the new choreography looked with the rest of the ensemble. It was definitely a challenging day, and the staff asked us to do things we have never done before, but it was well worth it. We are very excited to see how this section will fit into the rest of the show at Thursday's rehearsal!





Kamiak learns to tango.
Photo by brass instructor, Stuart Pitts.

First Full Fall Week Wrap-Up

This past week has been an incredible journey for the band. With a parade last Saturday followed by our Battle of the Bands fundraiser we had to jump right into this week. Here's an overview:

Monday: Practiced our show music at school.

Tuesday: Practiced the new music at rehearsal. We started to put the drill from the Tango onto the field.

Wednesday: At school we practiced our show music. We focused mainly on the first half of our music.

Thursday: We learned pep band choreography in class and worked on pep band music. We also reviewed football game etiquette and prepared for the first game. At rehearsal we learned more Tango drill and practiced our football game performance.

Friday: At the pep assembly we performed a portion of our show for the student body at a standstill. That night we performed at our first football game! It was definitely a different experience performing for an audience of that size, but it was a lot if fun!

Saturday: We had a successful rehearsal today. We now have 2/3 of our show on the field!

The entire band warms up before our entrance to the stadium.

The colorguard (in their new uniforms) awaiting our first public performance!

First football game

 

Drill Day

Most of today was spent learning and reviewing drill for the Tango. The drill is challenging at times, but every rep looks better. After all of our hard work has gone into the drill it will be incredibly rewarding to perform. We have not yet put music to this drill, however it is coming along nicely and we are extremely excited to see this drill progress over the next week.

The last fifteen minutes of this evening's rehearsal was spent in preparation for tomorrow's football game. We learned how to walk onto the football field for our halftime performance and we are very excited to perform publicly for the first time. In addition to our halftime show, we will be playing pep music throughout the first, second, and fourth quarters. The night ended with a partial run of our show and speeches from our staff members and drum majors.

Tango Tuesday

We returned today from a weekend full of Lighthouse Festival activities to our regular rehearsals. As always, we started off with basics which were led by one of our visual technicians, Ila. We rehearsed music in sectionals after basics until 7:30.
At seven thirty we put the drill from our new music on the field for the first time. The new drill calls for us to tango. We are so excited to see where this drill will take us over the next week!

The trumpets during brass warm-ups and sectional.

The entire brass line at music rehearsal led by our wonderful brass technicians.

Be sure to check out the Show Band Gallery by clicking the link at the top of the page or by visiting www.khsshowbandgallery.blogspot.com

 

Lighthouse Festival Parade

We marched our first parade of the year today. As one of the last groups in the parade, the crowd was excited when they heard us play "You Can Call Me Al" when we marched down Harbour Pointe Boulevard. It was fun to put on our uniforms for the first time, but it was hot and by the end of the parade we were relieved to be able to take them off.

 

Tonight is one of the Show Band's biggest fundraisers, The Battle of the Bands at Rosehill Community Center. The doors open at 6:30PM. Many Kamiak students will be performing including quite a few students from the show band. Tickets are $10 at the door, hope to see you there!

First Thursday Practice

It is great to get back into the rhythm of school and the normal rehearsal schedule. Tonight's rehearsal was the first of many great weekday rehearsals. We started to pull drill off the metronome, and practiced our new music. Looking forward to an awesome season!

Band Camp is Over!

What a great 3 weeks it has been! The band has accomplished so much and come so far since that first day of Pre-Camp!

Today we were able to debut drill, music and choreography to parents that is the first few minutes of our show. And of course there was the annual moment of extreme confusion when the parents came onto the field to learn a little bit of drill. My personal favorites were a father holding a piccolo, two parents taking the back podium and combining forces to conduct, and a mom learning the play the bells in the pit! The chaos was wonderful and much deserved!

The rest of the day was spent in morning/afternoon blocks. Morning block was spent marching for the winds and battery, and warm-up for the pit (which I was able to sit in on, they were able to master all 12 major scales today, nice job!). Afternoon block was a re-warm for percussion and warm up for the winds, including a nice visit from our friends on the football and volleyball teams. Everyone then moved into full ensemble and we chunked through the show and were able to do a couple runs before most of the parents showed up! Then, we blew our parents away with our progress and got our show shirts (wheewww)!

Everyone has worked so hard for the last 15 days! We've survived heat, rain, and clouds, everything but snow (we live in Mukilteo, so don't hold you're breath though)! Rehearsal has been crazy productive and Nick continues to remind us that if we keep rehearsing the way we have been we are going to be unstoppable! This is so true! I know that every single member of the show band will be able to look back at the end of the season and be proud of what we have accomplished and how far we will have come.

For now rest your bodies and enjoy the next couple days off!!!
See you on Tuesday, I'll be ready, hope you are!

Emma

 

Parents learning how to march...something all the students love. We get to become the teachers!

The Last Full Day of Band Camp (Wednesday)

We started off in the PAC with plans to watch a drum corps video (Cadets, 2011). Due to technical difficulties we ended up on the field a little earlier than anticipated. Hopefully we can watch the video at another rehearsal!

 

As usual, we spent the morning in visual rehearsal with Calvin and the rest of our field staff. After basics, we were able to put the music to all of the drill we have learned so far.

After dinner we met for quick sectionals, and came together at around 7:15 for full ensemble rehearsal. Before full ensemble began, we sat down with our instructors and listened to a recording the new music we will be playing. It was a very exciting time and we made a lot of progress tonight.

 

We ended the evening with two full-runs of all of the music and drill that we have learned so far (about half of our show). There were a few parents and several students from last year who came out to watch us. Afterward, Nick Benson told us during wrap-up that we are on of the best rehearsing groups around and that if we continue to rehearse and progress like we are now, nobody will be able to stop us from reaching the top. Most sections broke off after wrap-up to talk about the evening and the season ahead. Everyone left the field on fire tonight with a common goal in mind.

 

Many of the seniors went out for Dairy Queen after rehearsal to celebrate the last full day band camp rehearsal ever.

The trumpet section gathered around Calvin, our field tech, to celebrate a great rehearsal.

Monday Rehearsal

Today's rehearsal went well. In the morning we worked on basics and reviewed our slides and backwards marching techniques. With Calvin and the rest of our field staff we were able to put a lot of new drill onto the field. After dinner we broke off into brass and woodwind sectionals and eventually into individual sections. Later, we rejoined as an entire band for tracking to prepare to put the music to the new drill tomorrow. Although we struggled a bit with focus towards the end of the night, a quick talk from Nick helped us to end the evening on a good note and prepare us for tomorrow.

Paint Crew

Most of you know that since Show Band, football, and girls soccer all need field time during the fall, the band ususally practices on the Kamiak baseball field. All of our shows, however, take place at high school football stadiums. Here's a look at how we transform the baseball field into a show band field.

Our paint crew (made up by members of the Student Leadership Committee) works hard to keep our field in marching condition. After use and mowing, the field can take up to an hour to repaint. The paint crew comes in before every practice to touch up the field so that it is ready to be used by 150 band members. This past Saturday, several of the paint crew members took time out of their weekends to get together and paint the field.

Special thanks to the paint crew, we couldn't do it without you!