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!

End of Week Deux

What a week! We accomplished so much, the most I have ever seen accomplished in one week in my four years!

We were able to memorize all of the music we have up to this point, put drill to almost all of it and meet all of the goals for the week. Friday's goal was "Push to the End" and that we did (the football pep performance was great everyone)!

Last night right before rehearsal ended we did two full runs of the La Vie en Rose (Intro) and the Intro the the Ravel on the field, and the staff were very pleased with the way that it looked and sounded!

Overall, we had a great week of rehearsals, got so much done and made some great memories. Calvin singing during morning block, anyone?

Hope everyone has a very restful weekend and comes back ready to work hard for 4 (deux squared) more days on Monday!

Emma

P.S. Nick posted next weeks schedule, check it out please!

https://sites.google.com/site/khsshowband/updates/week3schedule

Thursday Evening Rehearsal

Due to freshman orientation and other conflicts, there was no rehearsal this morning. We got together at 5PM for a four hour rehearsal. Music was added to our drill and practiced over, and over, and over. It is sounding great so far, and is improving every day. The staff members seem pleased with our work so far this season, and if we continue to rehearse this well I know we will go far.

Look we're in the beacon!
http://mukilteobeacon.villagesoup.com/schools/story/un-deux-trois/887281?cid=2343376#.UDZ8WVrGOH4.facebook

Lianne

Wednesday

My feet hurt and my lips are chapped. Today was a productive day at band.

During morning block we practiced our basic exercises and reviewed the drill we learned yesterday with Calvin and the rest of our field staff. We also learned where some of the music matched up with the drill.
We met up on the field again after lunch for music rehearsal. Woodwinds and brass were separated at first for warm-ups and review. From the brass arc we could hear loud counting and we looked over to see the woodwind staff members doing pushups. A little while later the brass and woodwinds combined for music rehearsal. We were productive and engaged throughout the afternoon block and it really paid off.
At 6:30PM, after a delicious dinner (maybe that's just me), the winds gathered to rehearse the music and begin tracking out our final music for the week. Although we hit a rough patch during the middle of the block, after a reminder from Nick we were able to be much more productive.

Rehearsal tomorrow starts at 5PM. With the morning off, hopefully we can accomplish today's daily goal of retaining information!

Lianne

First Day of Drill

Today's goal: Be Engaged

Today was one of the most exciting days this season. At 9AM this morning we met in the PAC to take a class on learning drill taught by our coordinator, Nick Benson. From 9 until 10:45 we learned how to read our coordinate sheets, which tell us exactly where we need to be at any given time. We then headed to the field with our visual staff to test our new knowledge, and learned the drill for the intro.
After lunch we met again on the field to continue learning drill and finish off today's coordinates. This was followed by brass/woodwind sectionals where we practiced marking time to the drill while playing the music.
Following dinner the winds came together for more tracking so that we are prepared to put music to drill tomorrow! The music is sounding better every day.

It is so exciting to have drill on the field this early in the season, and if we keep up the hard work it will definitely pay off.

Day deux of week deux: Complete

Lianne

Back at Kamiak!

Goal for the day: Do it right the first time.

Today we had our first day of rehearsal at Kamiak. At 9AM we had a meeting in the PAC where we were introduced to most of the staff members and discussed the schedule for the week.
With our visual tech, Calvin, we reviewed what we learned at Fort Flagler and pushed ourselves even harder. We started tracking the music in preparation for our drill learning block tomorrow. Tracking is when we march in straight lines and play through our show music so that we can adjust to playing the music on the move before we learn the drill.

Lianne

A few things...

Hope everyone is ready for camp to begin once again tomorrow!

And I hope that everyone will come prepared with binders filled with music, instruments and lots of water and sunscreen (we're hoping for nice weather!)

If you happen to have a moment throughout these next couple days of music and visual rehearsal, drill learning and registration for school, take a look at the skit night video that our wonderful band president, Alex, uploaded. It brings lots of laughs, I promise!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok1Q09Wofc8&list=UUKgrpt6a6q9Anf04XtHB95Q&feature=plcp

You could also check out a video of our run through at Fort Flager on Friday, it's sounding great already!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdiT9w8IDaU&feature=youtu.be&hd=1

See you all in the morning!

Emma

Goddard Day & Alumni Reunion

Please join the Kamiak Show Band at Goddard Memorial Stadium for this special presentation of this year's show, DeuX. The band will then be joined by alumni for a unique performance of the Kamiak fight song. Everyone is welcome and this is a FREE event!

Questions? Contact, Liz Ferry at bandliaison@kamiakarts.org

Band Camp Wrap Up

The past week has been incredible. We have come so far as individuals and as a band. The days were hot, but we worked hard, and it definitely paid off. After our final run-through at Fort Flagler this morning, the staff said that they were excited for the season and to see how far we will go. Next week will be an exciting one, as we will start to put our first drill onto the field.

Highlights from Fort Flagler
Monday: Rookies met more staff members and the first visual rehearsal of the season.

Tuesday: New music! Start of the Cat-and-Mouse game

Wednesday: Band camp dance! Made excellent progress and reached 180 beats per minute at visual rehearsal.

Thursday: Worked on backwards marching during visual block. Skit night and other evening activities.

Friday: Ending the week right with a great run-through. Group lunch before boarding the ferry.

Enjoying the sunshine at a delicious chicken-wrap lunch cooked by our wonderful chaperones and parent volunteers before the Edmonds-Kingston ferry. The drum majors also gave out band camp awards.

Ferry ride!

On our way home!

After a week at Fort Flagler we are ready to get on with the show! We have bonded a lot this week and it is clear that we will go far this season if we continue to progress at this rate. So much effort and hard work has gone into this show already and I cannot wait to see where we end up. Special thanks to all of the chaperones, staff, volunteers, and parents who work so hard to support us!

Thursday at Band Camp!

Today's menu
Lunch: Tacos
Dinner: Burgers

Breakfast at eight this morning, followed by a morning visual rehearsal until lunch time.
We have made massive improvements this camp and it is great to see everyone stoked for the season. After lunch we had sectional time. Later we got together as an entire ensemble for the first time. It was exciting for everyone to see how the show will come together.
Skits tonight were awesome! We'll be home soon!

Day 3!

Sorry we didn't post yesterday but everyone is having a blast! We are improving very quickly. We have almost mastered forward and backwards marching and have moved on to slides! We even got up to 180 BPM.
We are working hard on our music in sectionals and ensemble rehearsals. Yesterday we received new music and have been working in sectionals on everything from fundamentals to memorization. Later this evening we will be gathering into sectionals again to improve the music. tov

The food is fantastic and the evening activities have been a blast. On the first night we did section cheers and goals. Yesterday we did unity games which included (among others) band pictionary, the animal noise game, and spoons. Tonight is the annual dance, and tomorrow night will be skit night.

I am already amazed at what we have accomplished and I can't wait to see where this season takes us!

Band Camp Day One

9:28AM THE BUSES HAVE LEFT KAMIAK FOR A WEEK AT FORT FLAGLER!

10:30AM Ahoy! We are on the ferry! Hopefully the other passengers don't mind the massive amount of band kids.

12:50 We have arrived at Fort Flagler! Everyone is excited, especially Emma.

Today we had visual rehearsal and checked into our dorms

Because the internet signal at Flagler is unreliable, we will do our best to make updates to this post today and other posts throughout the week.

The season has started!

It was great to see everyone at Pre-Band Camp on Friday! I know that all of the sectional leaders had a great time getting to know the rookies again and reconnecting with fellow vets.

Members showed great marching, everyone is looking awesome already! Nick Benson will be excited to see the progress have we made in such a short amount of time.

The music also sounded great! I can't wait to receive more music and start putting this whole show together!

I hope everyone is getting pumped for band camp tomorrow. It's going to be so much fun! Remember to be at school by 8:45 so that we can leave on time and get the season started off on the right foot (or the left, ha ha) And, don't forget to bring a sack lunch to eat on our trip over.

If you still haven't packed, or thought about it, take a look at this list to make sure you don't forget the essentials (towel, deodorant, clothes, instrument...)

http://www.kamiakarts.org/PDF/Band%20Camp%20Packing%20List.pdf

Excited to see you all tomorrow!
Emma

DCI Movie Event!

Hello!

Just wanted to remind everyone about the upcoming event this week. On Thursday, August 9th, the prelims for DCI Championships will be broadcast live in theaters. The closest theater to Mukilteo is the Regal Theater at the Alderwood Mall. It will start at 3:30 and go on for awhile, there are a lot of corps competing to be the best!

To find out more check out this link:
http://www.fathomevents.com/originals/event/dcibigloudlive9.aspx?CFID=13107788&CFTOKEN=b0cf95985651fab8-65FA68FF-1EC9-FE95-699FC374C0283849&jsessionid=8430b30d8cbd8565ac7a721a2e59426142d6

Hope lots of you can go and see what we are striving for!

Emma

Plus, don't forget that band camp starts with our Pre-Band Camp at Kamiak on Friday the 10th from 9-4!

It has arrived!!!

New show music has been posted on the show band website!

It looks great, hope everyone is excited to start learning!

Also, the schedule for the first week of band camp has been posted, take a look and get a glimpse of what is going to be the start to an awesome season!

And, don't forget that we have one day of Pre-Band Camp on Friday, August 10th from 9-4, at school, can't wait to see you all there!

Check out the music here...

https://sites.google.com/site/khsshowband/home/students

See you all soon!
Emma