So. It’s been a while!
These last 2 weeks have been packed for me: leadership/percussion/guard camp, newcomer camp, and then full band camp. It’s been crazy, but fun.
It was weird being in charge for the first time. Even weirder, I hired a percussion tech from a nearby university and it was bizarre being in charge of him, while just last summer I was in his place! But things went smoothly. The choir teacher, who is also my guard instructor, was a huge help since she already knew how some things work with this band. All the students were also very supportive and receptive to learning new ways of doing things!
We didn’t have any drill to learn, since I just got my instrumentation on the Monday of full band camp. This caused a few unexpected situations: first, we have our marching fundamentals DOWN. We know exactly what is expected when we are marching. We also know the music pretty well, since a day of rain let us have basically 5 hours of sectionals and full band rehearsal. This paid off, since the music sounds so much better now! Hopefully when the drill gets here, they’ll be so comfortable with the other stuff they won’t struggle with drill as much. That’s what I’m hoping, at least!
Some of the kids seemed a little off-put by my ways of doing things, but that’s okay. At the end of the week, they almost all had accepted what was changing, and I was very respectful of traditions they had that they wanted to keep. I also managed to get my office mostly put together, as well as my music library organized!
A helpful student also started an instrument inventory for me, since one didn’t exist before. I plan on finishing that up sometime this week. Overall, I’m sunburned, my feet hurt, and my voice is hoarse, but the band looks and sounds great. This was so much fun, and I feel so relieved knowing that things went better than I expected! I can’t wait for our next rehearsal. First, though, I have “new teacher training” on the 1st with the district. I can only imagine how that will go, since I’ve already been at the school for 2 weeks getting things set up! I’m so excited to see where this year goes, and band camp went smoothly.
My final tips: wear lots of sunscreen, don’t be afraid to make some changes, and RELAX. If you make every surprise a huge deal, they will be! Just go with the flow and you’ll have a great time. Next post? One of those big surprises….
Being the Band Director 