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!

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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!