MusikalGeenyous

Saturday, October 02, 2004

Today is the third day in a row where I had a performance with the band. We went to the Mesquite Marching Festival... the first time the entire band played in front of judges. I was really nervous, but then again I always am before we play for people. I got to school at 12 so I could clean my drum and tape my sticks and make everything look all pretty. At 1 we went into the parking lot to warm-up and play through the show. We couldn't get on the JV field because people were having a football game. It was kinda bad because that means we had to play our show cold (well.. for the marching part anyways). Eventually we finished the run-throughs and got on the busses and left. When we got to Mesquite there was some free time.. so we just kinda stood around, ate crackers and drank bottled water, annoyed Jon while he tuned the tenors, and talked about the upcoming performance. Soon it was time for our final warm-up before we played, and then we actually had the performance. I thought it went pretty well. There was a tempo tear in the opener between the drums, pit, and band but I knew I was right because I was staring at Tyra's hands the whole time and I was on. Besides, the tubas always seem to have problems with that section of the music and staying in tempo. Grr to them. Also there was a moment during the closer (after the bass solo..which by the way kicked butt) where I backed into Brett M. It wasn't too bad.. I had just turned my head to see where the other basses were so I could get in line and I could only see the third bass... I was thinking to myself "Uh, okay where'd Brett go?" and then I bumped into him and found the answer to my question. You really couldn't tell from the audience's perspective though.

All in all we played pretty good.. the drumline didn't suck too bad and the band was ... eh. So we walked off the field and I was feeling fairly confident about what we just did.

The rest of the day was spent watching other bands play, until 8:15 rolled around. It was the ... (*dramatic voice*) announcement of ratings and awards ceremony.

For those of you who aren't familiar with UIL ratings, bands get a number (1-5) based on their overall performance. A 1 is the best and a 5 is like.. wow.. I can't believe I just watched that pile of crap.

They called out the names and we got a 2 which is kinda sad because I've never gotten a 2 before. Well, individual judges have given us twos but when they're averaged together it's always ended up as a 1. McKinney North got a 1. Yay for them.

But then they got to awards. They announced everything for 2A and 3A, and then 4A came around and we all got really nervous.

"Best percussion in 4A...McKinney!" (short pause to see if 'North' was going to be added to that) (when they didn't say anything else... much celebration and rejoicing)

Kelly and I were freaking out, screaming like little kids at an *NSYNC concert. This was the second year in a row that we won Best Percussion at the Mesquite contest. I think it needs to become a tradition.

Anyways I'm really happy because of that. And this is a really long entry, so I'm gonna go now :)

Lauren out-drummed everybody at |8:44 PM|

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