Day 23

Date: June 7, 2011

Time: 12:59am

Playing on iTunes: "Appalachian Spring Suite: Very Slowly" by Aaron Copland

Today was Iris' BIG DAY! Iris is a member of the pit who plays rack. She marched here last year. Today was the big 21. HAPPY BIRTHDAY IRIS!! Obviously the pit has to celebrate by giving her the birthday glasses in which she has to wear all day. She definitely seemed to enjoy her birthday. I caught her saying multiple times that this has been the best birthday she's ever had. Glad she could spend it with the Cadets pit!

Along the same lines as birthdays...the pit was surprised with some presents! NEW SPEAKERS!! On the cart below you have 2 main speakers, 2 subwoofers, and 2 monitors. All Yamaha instruments. THANK YOU YAMAHA!!

Main speaker on top, sub on bottom

Each main speaker has two 15" wide speakers in them, the two subwoofers have two 18" wide subs in them, and the monitors have one 15" wide speaker in them. Our sound guy Jerry Miller help us set them up. The old speakers went back in the boxes and shipped back to Yamaha.

To the right you see the main speaker and the subwoofer. The main speaker to project all of the miced instruments and the subwoofer to project all of the bass sounds. The subwoofer is my favorite and from what I've learned seems to be George Hopkins' favorite as well. What's drum corps without sub bass notes?!

Below, the monitor speaker is used to aid the electronic players. They need to be able to hear themselves playing. When in the back row of the pit, you cannot hear yourself playing since the main speakers are in front of you projecting the sound away from you. So the monitor helps by playing what the main speakers are playing...but behind you. Probably one of the most essential tools to being an electronics/synth player in the pit.

Monitor speaker

THE BUSSES ROLL IN...sort of. Well, at least the admin bus rolled in. The other busses will be here on Wednesday before we leave for Allentown, PA. The admin bus is "gold" from what George told us, but personally I would call it a grey, or silver. The member buses are going to be two white and two black, going along with the angel and demon theme for the season.

The pit with one of our sound guys Bob

A lot of organization of the sound equipment with the pit thus far has big a great help from a man by the name of Bob...not sure what his last name is, but he's a great man. He has come in and helped us organize how we work our sound so that we are more efficient and have the least amount of cables running everywhere. Bob told us that he did all the work that he came here to do and tonight was his last night with us until he comes to see us at Nationals. Thank you so much Bob for all the work you have put into helping this pit become more efficient and help us become the smoothest running pit in all of drum corps.

So I realized that I have never given an explanation to my Thoughts of the Day, where they come from and such. When starting this blog I wanted to have something new that I've learned each day and it is very easy to learn something new each day here with the Cadets. But my goal was to summarize what I had learned that day and make that a message to all of you. So when I write the thought of the day, it is either a summary of what I have learned that day or something I heard someone say that really spoke to me or a bible verse that really meant something to me.

ATTENTION!! The Cadets will be giving their first public performance tomorrow night (June 7th) from Johnstown, PA before we head out to Allentown on Wednesday. If you'd like to see the performance, there will be a live broadcast from Johnstown. Go to www.yea.org and there is a link on the main page to watch the live broadcast. Tune in at 7p on Tuesday June 7th! 

Thought of the Day: "No matter where you go, what you do, someone will always be there for you."

FHNSAB