DCI.. again

I have posted before about what DCI is and how intense it is. On Wednesday I went to a presentation and the sawgrass movie theatre, it was a compilation of drum corp shows from past years and it was meant to hype up the fans for the upcoming season which begins very soon. It got me VERY hyped up and got me thinking. For a while now I've been thinking about marching a drum corp after I graduate but after seeing this presentation I am really convinced that I am going to try out the summer after my senior year. I am going to start practicing a lot more on reading rythms and getting better overall, because drum corps are the best of the best of the best... with honors. SIR (Men In Black joke..) But they really do train extremly hard and they are are so passionate about their show, which is why there shows are so good.

Here are some videos to show you what I mean.

Even deeper than before

So I decidided that I was going to do the "Personal Learning environment" project for Mrs Stoklosa's class and I decided to do it on percussion. I chose percussion because there are so many things within percussion. There is:

Concert percussion
Marching percussion
Drum Corps
Mallet percussion
Drumset
steel drums
world percussion

There are so many things to delve into, I can't wait to begin this project because I have always wanted to investigate the parts that I have never had a chance to get to. I think its also going to be a very good demonstration of a more real world project opposed to the standard projects that are mapped out exactly with rubrics.

I will post links to all of my resources once I begin the project.

Training

If you have been keeping up with this blog, you know that I have had pretty severe shin splints and had to stop running for a while in order to keep marching until I finished out the season. Well the season is over and now I'm starting to get in shape for the upcoming season. I recently started biking and today in PE I had to run the mile. This was a disappointment. I finished in the required time,, but only slightly. I came in at around 9 minutes. Not only that, I was EXTREMELY winded and dizzy. So it was a real eye opener that I need to begin training before we get to the end of the summer where we have our 9-9 band camps and march for almost 12 hours straight. If anyone has some good tips on getting back in shape fast please let me know. I need all the help I can get. I don't want this set back to set the mood for my senior year of marching band.

New Freshman!

Its always a lot of fun. One season ends and we immediately start training for the upcoming season. Practices for the next season have began this week and we have our new freshman. :D. This upcoming season is going to be very weird beccause there is going to be so many younger players on the drumline than there ever has been in the past. Its going to take us a little while to pick back up where the previous season left off, but i think we will be back there before marching season is over and the new indoor season starts. I'm really excited to be a part of the line my senior year since there was so much confusion on whether I was going to do it or not and now its kind of like a weight thats been lifted off of my shoulders. Next week starts the leadership camp which I am also excited about because like I explained in a previous post, this year I am going to be the captain of the bass line. I will keep updated on tryouts etc in the weeks to come.

Rediculous Cymbals

So while in Ohio watching all of the world class groups I saw a bunch of really good cymbal lines. One of the I saw up close in the parking lot before the went in to perform and I was in awe. They have so many notes at such a fast tempo, its incredible. It really inspired me and I'm starting to think about marching a really good cymbal line one day after high school. Heres a video of just the cymbal line. Fast forward to 5:50 to see the cymbal feature.

Bass Captain

So the other day, I went to talk to the percussion director Mr. T about next year. I was unsure about some things of what position to play and practice etc. If you have been keeping up with this blog, you know about all the confusion with the school assignment last year and the interference with tryouts. This year I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to do band due to grades, money and other issues that would need more attention that I could not give them while doing band. But today I talked to my councelor and I figured out that I can take a class online, a class at BC and hopefully atleast one other class during the summer. That will leave me with only 2 more classes to complete during the year (keeping up with the standard of having a minimum of 5 classes in the senior schedule in order to maintain a "strong senior schedule".

So back to the main subject; I talked to Mr. T, and he told me that he would like me to be the bass captain next year which I am very happy to hear because even though I am so introverted, I love being in leadership posistions. The workshops for next year begin next week. I'm so excited to start the new season.

On Your Videotape

One of the groups that performed in Ohio in world class was Infinity Percussion. They are a independent world class group based out of Orlando. There show this year was called On Your Videotape and was based compltly on the concept of "big brother is watching". There whole season was documented on their blog www.onyourvideotape.com as well as different information about survalence and other videotape related things. 

The show has music from radiohead including singing. Its a great show and one of my favorites this year. On the website is videos of the show from different perspectives. A girl walking around the entire show holding a camera, and several other cameras that serve as props to the audience but are actually recording the show. 

Video 086 from TCI on Vimeo.

Back to reality

Ohio is come and gone. Back to Florida. Hot weather, rain and school. But the trip to Ohio for the WGI world championships was AWESOME. I'll start with the bad news, we got 15th in prelims. We were .3 points away from making finals. It was close and  a little of a let down but it was a great end to a great season. We had the same judge that dumped us in Pensacola, so if we had a different judge, the outcome might have been significantly different.

So we got up to Ohio on Wednesday. (I almost missed the flight because I woke up late.) We checked into the hotels, and went to a school to practice for 3 hours. Then we had a good sleep, and on Thursday practiced twice for 2 hours each time and again a good sleep. Friday was the big day and we performed at around 2pm. After our performance we hung out at the hotel for a while after watching the rest of the people in our class perform. Then on Saturday, we watched the world class finals which were PHENOMENAL!!! There are no words to even describe how good some of these groups are.  Then we flew back on Sunday and I slept almost all of that day, and all of Monday. And all of Tuesday. I also have a little bug which I'm not surprised with all the people in the airport etc.. 

I enjoyed this season so much and no matter what I'm doing band next year even though I had been considering not to in order to concentrate more on other things but there's no way in hell i could give this up. Videos from the competition will be up soon. 

What am I going to do?!!

My leg pain is getting worse. It started in my shins, moved to my calf's, and now it affects my thighs and arches as well. It seems to be a radiating pain coming all the way from the bone at some times even when I'm just sitting down. I hope I can finish out the season, I have to finish I can't let everyone down.

But what about next year. My senior year not being able to march? All this hard work to get to where I am to just be thrown all the way back to where I started. I want to figure out what is affecting me. I don't know what to do if I can't march next year. Hopefully I can get to a doctor soon and get to a specialist who can tell me whats wrong. I need to fix this problem but it's only getting worse.

Bus ride back.

So I'm on the bus back to cypress from Pensacola right now. It's 6:40 pm. We left at around 7am. But Pensacola is an hour behind so it was really 8. So we got sixth place in Pensacola :( but it was all because of one judge who gave us bad marks. It's hard to type on this phone though, I'll edit this post later.

Alright so yes last place is disappointing. But I myself and kind of happy that we did this poorly at the competition. That may sound very negative but let me explain. I feel as though some of the members of the group coast through and "go through the motions" as our instructor says all the time. I think that this placement will cause us to wake up a little bit and begin to work a little harder for our national competition which is in just one month!! I hope that I'm right and it INcouraged, because if I'm wrong, it will be the opposite and everyone will be DIScouraged.

Walking the tight rope

This is in follow up to my post about my depression. I have figured out a very good analogy to explain how I feel. 

I am walking on a tightrope. When I'm on the tight rope, I feel great. But sometimes I loose my balance and I can be hanging off of the rope. Sometimes I have a better grip than other times. And sometimes I fall to the ground. But theres no safety net anymore. He past away 3 years ago. So when I hit the ground, I am down for a while before I get back up. Once I do get back up, it still takes me a while to climb back up the ladder to get back to the rope. I just got back on the rope, and I feel ok right now. I just need to find a balance pole or a safety net before I fall again. 

The eX Factor is finished!

Not completly finished, we still have to add little details here and there. But all of the music and all of the drill is on the floor. We now have all the different sections of our show: exhale, express, exterior, excite and exit. The show is around 6 minutes long ITS RIDICULOUS!! I love percussion. This upcoming weekend, we will be going to Pensacola for another regional and there will be 5 groups including us, all of which are high scoring and at a very high level. So finally we have some competition that we can compete against.



I cut my hair so I don't look like a girl anymore like in this^

It will be a long weekend:

Friday March 13,
2009

1:00 pm – Load
Truck/ Bus
2:00 pm –
Depart for Pensacola

We will stop on the way for dinner

11:00 pm – Arrive in Pensacola/ Check-in to Hotel
11:55 pm – Lights Out!! Get Some Rest!!

Saturday March 14,
2009

8:00 am – Wake Up Call/ Continental Breakfast at Hotel
9:30 am – Depart for Tate High School
10:00 am – Arrive at Tate High School/ Unlaod Truck and Set
Up Warmup Area
10:30 am – Warmup/ Rehearse
12:00 pm – Snack of fruit and snack bars
1:15 pm - PRELIMS
PERFORMANCE

After this we will go to a local mall and eat a late lunch/
early dinner. (Cordova Mall)
We will have another snack before we perform in finals.

8:00 – 9:00 pm - FINALS PERFORMANCE (TBD)

9:30 pm – RETREAT
We will begin loading before retreat and finish after it is
done.
10:30 pm – Depart for Hotel/ Eat sandwiches at Hotel if
hungry
11:55 pm – Lights Out!!!

Sunday March 15,
2009

6:30 am – Wake-up call
8:00 am – Depart for CBHS

We will stop for lunch and make sandwiches.

5:00 pm – Arrive at CBHS

The affects of depression

Alright so this is wayyyy of topic but I'm going to talk about it for a little while because.. well.. it's affecting me a lot right now. For the past few weeks, for no specific reason at all, I've been feeling really depressed. I've been trying several things like different foods, better sleeping habbits, but nothing seems to be working. All I want to do is sit on my bed. And do nothing. I don't really have time to do this becuase of my percussion schedule which is good becuase other wise I would probably never get out of bed. Right now even I just want to go to sleep. I am still thinking about whether I am going to do the comments for my blog. I know there are concequences for not doing certain things like finishing my blog for this week and to avoid those concequences would be really easy.. but I just find myself saying "screw it" all the time. I don't want to feel like this anymore. ajfklasdpnfisdafidnaf. Its very frustrating knowing whats right and knowing how easy it is to fix it but not being able to push myself to do it. And trust me I'm very good at pushing my self to the limits and this entire blog is proof to that, especially the recent post about my shin pain. But this just seems to be an obstacle that I cannot overcome right now and I feel very out of control of the situation and it is very frustrating. 

Edit: took about 10 minutes and tried to do some comments. I'm going to sleep. I can't do it right now.

WGI Orlando CHAMPIONS!

This Saturday we went to Orlando to compete in the Orlando regional that I mentioned in a previous blog. In our prelims show we had a few mishaps, collisions, falls, etc. but we still managed to place first in our class but only .4 above second place and about 2 points ahead of third. But we didn't see their show, we didn't know if they had a bad show too. So we went into our finals show pretty confidently and the show went great. There was so much energy on the floor at the end of the show you could really feel a strong force. Or maybe that was just endorphins mixed with adrenaline from the performance. But the good thing is the judges felt that energy also. And with our score or 83.2 we are now currently in the top 3 groups in our class around the nation.

This X was in the sky as
we were warming up to
perform

Here's an article on www.WGI.org written about our finals performance:

"The blue musicians in Cypress Bay HS (FL)(1^st: 83.20) really jumped out against the yellow floor as they formed an “X”. Appropriately, their show is entitled “The Ex Factor”, with themes of “exhale”, “expand”, “exterior”, “express”, and “exchange”. Even with a large front ensemble, the musicians really lock in together. It was clear the performers were enjoying themselves and were directly communicating to the audience through eye contact, and facial expressions. In turn, they were a fun group to watch, a performance one would label “exceptional”."

It was a great show and it was a lot of fun. I can't wait for our next trip in 2 weeks to Pensacola. And I definitely can't wait until the national competition in Dayton, Ohio in April.

This week we have practice on

Tuesday 5:30-9:00

Friday 4:00-9:00 :(

and Saturday 10:00-5:00

(not including concert band practices and performances/competitions)

It's going to be a long week but we are going to finish the last 2 minutes of the show(we currently have about 5 minutes completed) and we are going to add in a lot of the little details like little body details and such. I haven't posted a video yet because the instructor Mr. T doesn't want any videos circulating until after the season but I will have some pictures up soon and the video will come around April.

Drum Corps International

So this post is a little off topic but still related. I thought that I would talk a little about another way to participate in percussion and that is by marching in a drum corp. Drum corps were started around the 1900's and have a very strong military history. By the 1960's they started becoming prize based copetitions and sponsorship opertunities. They have slowly evolved to what they are today, and that is well oiled machines to say the least. Drum corps are all about military precision. Everything from the hight that each foot comes off the ground to the angle of their instruments, everything that happens in drum corp is uniform and precise. 

To participate in a drum corp you must meet very specific qualification that are both mental and physical. Some qualifications include your sex, there are a few drum corps that are all male. Tryouts start around august and are usually only a weekend long but there may be several cuts depending on the corp your trying out for. Once you find out you have made a corp its around April and that when "move in" is. Basically after move in, you dont go home for the rest of the summer. Practices are in the hot sun usually 9am-9pm everyday except for Sunday which is laundry day. "Oh yea their just band geeks how hard could it be to go out and march for a couple hours". Most people that do drum corp loose 10 pounds. In the first week. Marching for a drum corp is EXTREMLY physical and demanding. You will see in the videos how much these people work(and how skinny everyone of them is). After about a month or so of this routine, the drum corp goes on tour. Just like rock bands, they go around the country playing shows. Except instead of luxury hotels, they sleep on gym floors.  

If you have never seen a marching band or never plan to, watch this video. It is amazing even if you know nothing about music or band. 

Cavaliers 2006 - "Machine" (Finals)

Percussion members for a drum corp are at the highest level. I think unless oyu know about percussion it will be hard to appreciate this video but its pretty cool anyway. 

Blue Coats- 2008 Drum Feature

Busy like always :/

So this week is again packed. Like always. Tuesday and Thursday I have drumline practice like always but I ALSO have concert band practices which go from 3:00 to 5:00. Drumline practice starts at 5:30. So in other words I will be at school from 7:30 a.m. until around 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday. YAYYY!! and then Friday right after school we have practice until around 6:00 p.m. Then short break to go home, shower... and then off to Orlando at 6:30 for WGI Orlando. We will get up there around midnight and check into the hotel. Then the next morning we go to the competition and unload the equipment, have a short rehearsal and then perform. (We automatically make finals because there are 3 people in our class.) We will have a short break and then have another short rehearsal and then perform our show in finals. After the final performance, we load everything up and then go to retreat(where they announce the scores and hand out trophies) after retreat ends at around 10:00 p.m. we will leave to come back home and get to cypress at around 2 a.m. 

WGI stands for winter guard international. Winter guard is the color guard version of our winter percussion but it was formed before percussion so they just added us on to their competition venues. WGI is international, meaning more people will go to these competitions. In the local circuit(SFWGA- South Florida Winter Guard Association) we are the only group in our class, which means we win by default every local competition. WGI regionals are a big deal because we actually have competition at these venues and have a little more push behind us the practices before because of that same reason. 

Lava Flow

So since concussion is over percussion class (4th hour) is going back to more of a curriculum type class in the way that we have assignments to prepare and turn in(or perform). My current assignment that i have a couple of weeks to do is a solo called Lava Flow and it's pretty hard for me. Playing a solo isn't what most of you think, there is a lot to playing drums. Technique, timing, different rudiments(sticking patterns) and a lot of control. It's more complicated than it seems. Here's a video of the solo i have to do. All of the flips and back sticking he does is written in, which means I will have to do it too :) yummy. 

I can't walk!!!

Well I can still walk.. but it hurts. A lot. 

Shin splints. Tendinidous. What ever name you want to put on it. It feels like knives are in your shins and calves, and whenever you take a step someone twists those knives. I've had this pain since last indoor season but it never was this bad. It hurts when I start doing anyhting physical, specifically marching up on the balls of my feet during indoor. The extra weight of a drum might help make them worse too. But they feel like a constant muscle burn.. times 30. When I finish marching the show I collapse because my legs hurt too much to put any weight on them anymore. 

I got really frustrated today though. About a week or two ago I went to the doctors for the second time for this problem(the first time he just gave me asprin and told me to sit in a wheelchair for 3 months if I wanted them to go away) and finally thought I was getting somewhere. He gave me a referal to a physical therapist and told me they would probably do ultra sound therapy and it would heal them reletivly fast. Well today was the physical therapist apointment and it did not go well. The paper said I had tibia tendenidous(tibia meaning leg). I sat down and the physical therapist asked me if i did anyhting to hurt me knee. I told her it was my shins not my knee and she said "OHHHH that's what tibia means". She takes measurements gives me a little rubber band and shows me some exercises that make it feel like I was just marching. She bbasically told me exactly what I already knew but I think she stole some of my brain cells in the process. Needless to say I'm not going back and still have shin pain. 

How I got to 5th

So I was on flubs for marching season :/ I wasn't happy about that but atleast I was with my friends at my school. So now marching season is over and winter season is starting. Yay I get to move up to a real drum finally after all my hard work.  ... or not? Two of the kids that were on the cybal line with me last year wanted to try out for bass. and they made it. I didnt get the chance to tryout.. again. cymbals. again. Ok I'm the section leader I'll make the best of it but its kind of tough because everyone is brand new. 

a couple weeks into the season now we already have a lot of the show learned. Zack, my friend from cymbals can't be in percussion anymore due to grades. His mother pulled him out. Theres no one else to play 5th except for me. So I'm finally where i wanted to be this whole time, but only because they had no choice. So I'm making the best of it. I had to relearn the whole show, learn all new music, and bust my butt. It's really hard. 

Back To Work

Concussion is over :( but we made over $4800 in ticket and concession sales :D. But now the fun is over and we are back to the hard work of learning more and perfecting our winter drumline show. So I never told the full story of how I got to where I am. So during the winter season of my sophmore year(last year) I played the cymbals. It was alot of fun and i really enjoyed it but after that season, I decided that I wanted to move up to a higher position.  I started practicing for the tenor drums but then my whole world fell in on me. They decided the boundaries for West Broward. And everything was over. All the friends I made. All the work I put in. Gone. I was going to west broward. But I decided i wouldnt let it happen. 

The reassignment process started online, you fill out the form and submit it and wait for a responce, I decided i was going to be the first person to enter my form, so I stayed up until midnight the day before it was going to open... it wasn't open. But i couldn't sleep, so I stayed up that night and kept checking. 1 a.m. 2 a.m. all night until the next morning. Finally its posted at 8 in the morning, I fill out my form and go to school. I feel fine, theres no reason they could deny me.. my father died shortly before freshman year and when i joined the band it was the first time I felt okay since he died. A month goes by and we get the letter. "Your child has been denied due to over population at cypress bay". I know it's overcrowded. But I have a reason, some people got reassigned because their siblings go to cypress... well between middle and high school you were separated anyway so why is it so important that you get reassigned and I'm still being ripped away and being thrown face to face with a meltdown. 

We apeal the decision and get a hearing date. I figured they appeal everyone just to see who is actually passionate about going.  When we go in and sit down the guy looks at us and says "I dont know why you are hear.. Cypress is full." He didn't read the letter from the school social worker, my mother or my percussion director. He just told us to leave. Some of the other people there told him wait read this theres a good reason and he just sshhhh'd them. I was once again heartbroken.

Go to psycologist, blah blah blah fast forward, another hearing, fast forward, I do band camp at both schools(which is extremly physical and burnt me up. Meet my girlfriend of 7 months and then comes the tricky part and the downfall to alot things. drumline tryouts. I still dont know where I'm going so I cant tryout for the drumline (NOOOOOOO!!!!) I'm heartbroken. Once again. It's my junior year and after all my hard work, I can't march. 

(I'm trying to speed up so I dont get boring)

My friends are also in the exact perdicament as me except they are bound for Western get denied, they are out of cypress... Crap what does that mean for me. I call the apeal office after our second hearing which i waited outside for while my mom talked so I didn't break into tears. They don't know yet. I keep calling and calling and calling. I'M ACCEPTED!! I'M GOING TO CYPRESS!! But the drumline is already set... My percussion director doesn't want to see me sit on my ass bored as hell for a whole season... he makes up drums. (By the way, if I had been able to tryout I would have made bass drum and had more experience) 

These are flubs. They are completly made up. (They are broken in this picture but i dont have any better pictures) I will finish this entry later on, its getting a little long.

The X Factor!!

So you all know what marching band is, a whole bunch of kids on the field playing instruments. Now take out all the boring stuff, make it a smaller floor and put it indoors. You have a winter percussion show. Winter percussion is a marching show that consists of only percussion instruments like the snare drums, bass drums, tenor drums and cymbals. As well as all of the non marching percussion instruments like xylophone and other keyboard instruments. We compete locally and on the national circuit and put a lot of time into our show. 

Here is one of my favorite shows. "Gone" by Rythme X. Click on the link and click watch in high quality if you want to watch it in better quality.

"gone" by Rythme X

This year, our show is "The ex Factor" Its a show based on words with the root "ex" excite, expand, exhale and a few others. For those of you who think its not that hard, I've seen the movie drumline and i can do that. Your wrong. We spend about 15 hours a week practicing and perfecting our show. It is the most demanding thing in the world to play music, carry the weight of the drum, remember where to move to, how many counts to move for and what the move is supposed to look like. 

The reason the blog is called Percussion from behind 5th is because this year in our winter percussion show I play 5th bass, the biggest and heaviest of the bass drums. I was on cymbals at the beggining of the season but due to another members complications I had to switch up to bass drum and relearn all the movements and all the music in a week for our first show. We have now gone through our first 2 competitions, this past saturday and the one before it. We are doing very well for this early in the season and we are all excited to see where we go with this show. 

Concussion

Stomp vs. Saturday Night Live

That's what our show named concussion is. Its a show put together by the drumline and other percussionist involved in Cypress Bay percussion and one of the most entertaining shows you will see(I have tickets for sale).  

We put together stomp like pieces like playing on trash cans, water coolers and stuff like that and add in hilarious skits, live bands and plenty of entertainment. Here's a clip from the show we did last year. 

Here's a few of my favorite parts, you can watch the whole show on youtube, just search cypress bay concussion 

2007.  I have tickets, the show is February 5,6 and 7th. at 7pm. On Saturday the 7th, there will also be a 1pm show.

All of the profits benefit the cypress bay drumline and will help fund our trip to Ohio for national championships in 

April. The tickets will also be available in room 150(the band room, just ask for a percussionist).

Peanutbutter skit

Construction Piece

The First Person to Dance

How it started

One day my sophomore year I went to a school football game. The kids playing the drums looked like they were having so much fun.  So the next day I looked up the name and email of the band director, I emailed him and he forwarded my email to the percussion director Mr. T. I had been friends with a rough crowd before percussion.  We ran around at 4 a.m. we broke stuff we were chased we got away.  We were always in something bad.  Its hard to believe that I was apart of that being as introverted as I am, but I think maybe that made it easier for me to just fall in with them. So I joined percussion in the middle of 1^st semester sophomore year.  I had practice every Tuesday and Thursday for 3 hours and all day Saturdays plus competition days.  I had no more time to run around with the old crew trying to see how many laws we could break without getting caught.  For a little while things stayed the same. Same friends, same music, same baggy pants, same earring, same shaved head and the same stay out of my way attitude.  But with time the old crew faded and the new friends were a little bit more inviting, I wasn’t being judged anymore.  The pants slowly started to creep back to my waist and the loud shirts slowly lost their voice.  The earring fell out and I didn’t bother looking for it. Also, my taste of music started to change; I still like a lot of the same things, but rock music was now appealing a little more. When I took a plunge into percussion I didn’t know it was going to become my entire being.  All of my friends are in band, my wardrobe has switched from pants at my knees and 4XL shirts(yes I REALLY wore 4XL) to tight jeans and shrunken shirts.  Shortly after I fell out of the old crew a couple of the kids I used to be “brothers” with ripped me off for money and then got arrested for vandalism.  Percussion has really changed my life and I am so grateful that I have the chance to be part of this awesome group: Cypress Bay Drumline.  

I currently play bass drum in our winter season and this blog will follow our season including all competitions and shows, I will also talk about how I got where I am and all things involving percussion. 

Its spelled bass but its not pronounced like the fish. Its pronounced like base. :)