Day 56

Date: July 10, 2011
Time: 12:54pm (MST)
Playing on iTunes: "Spain" by Chick Corea


Location: Denver, CO Day 3


After a long rehearsal day yesterday, we complimented it with a short show day today. But today was no other show day. Today was the first big regional that we had. We had a regional back on the west coast, but this is the first big regional at a big stadium with more judges than before. It was a very important before that we needed to be prepared for.


Now the first step in that process is to make sure that the pit and the drumline are playing together as one section. This is what we call "Percussion Stadium" since the stadium is overrun by the percussion section. If you have never seen a drum corps or marching band show before, the drumline is march around the field left, right, back, and front. The pit needs to make sure no matter where the drumline is on the field, that they are playing together. The hard part is that due to physics and speed of sound, you cannot watch the drum major if you are in the pit because the drumline watches the drum major...thusly, if the pit is 40 yards in front of the drumline and they're both watching the drum major the pit will be early.

During percussion ensemble we focused a lot on the percussion feature since a big part of that production is the drum battle between angels and demons; both pit and drumline. Everything worked out great after a few repetitions. Colin McNutt, the percussion caption head (head instructor) helped us through the process of perfecting everything we needed to get done.


In between percussion stadium and full ensemble rehearsal, the pit sat down together and listened to a recording that Ian made the night before during the run through of different things we needed to work on. These are called "tapes". For all of our performances that are judged, there are what they call "judge tapes". All of the judges have a tape recorder where they say anything they think needs commenting and then they send that recording to all the instructors to listen to and take as needed. This is comparable to getting feedback from an essay you wrote in english class but the comments the teachers has are on a tape instead of in writing. Then you read the comments and fix what needs to be fixed. We definitely got fixed what needed to get fixed and everything sounded beautiful.


On a different note, I did get to talk to my aunt and uncle today. I've been trying to get a hold of my uncle since I haven't talked to him in a VERY long time. I finally reached him and it was great to hear from someone I love after a long time. He was with my aunt (his sister) at the time so I also got to catch up with her as well. It is so humbling and refreshing to catch up with family that you haven't been in contact with in a long while. Especially if they help you out financially with the Cadets!!

Off to the stadium for our huge performance. Our rehearsal site was in Fort Collins, CO but our show was in Invesco Field at Mile High. That is where the Denver Broncos play. It was an enormous stadium. I was getting goosebumps just seeing it from the outside. After arriving and setting up, we saw a big cloud coming so we put tarps over the pit just in case. Shortly after it ended up down pouring on the area. We were in a holding pattern for about a half hour. Although we were tarped, Ian wanted us to move our instruments under the highway overpass, and the Blue Knights (another drum corps) pit was right near us and they offered to help us move into the dry shade. 

Walking into that field was absolutely incredible. It was by far the largest crowd I've ever performed for. I stood there knowing that they were going to be blown away by the show they were about to see and I was ready to play my heart and soul out of our show. The crowd definitely loved our show. Aside from the enormous number of people (6,000 or so), they were not the most reactive crowd we've seen. The cheers were loud but not as many as have been in the past. But that didn't bring us down. We kept fighting and it paid off in the end. Great performance, great ending, great night. 

Drums Along the Rockies
1) The Cadets - 82.75
2) Blue Devils - 82.2
3) Phantom Regiment - 79.55
4) Santa Clara Vanguard - 79.2
5) Blue Knights - 77.25
6) The Academy - 73.75
7) The Cascades - 66.15

Thought of the Day:"This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." - Psalm 118:24