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 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!

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!

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

 

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.

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!

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

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