So far we are still finishing up the marching band season. Just got back from the NWAPA PNW Championships and took first! With every caption as well. Got another competition this Saturday. Looking to continue the undefeated season😎
I’m marching band we’ve got a good show, the source material is like electric counterpoint and yyz so it’s pretty cool, in concert band it’s random stuff
This is the story about how my marching band banned soap on our trip. Yes, the staff banned soap. So in Junior High/Middle School, I was in a community marching band for Junior High students (grade 7-9). Each year the band takes us on a trip, and that year we went to Seattle, where we stayed at the University of Washington dorms. That means 200 kids aged 12-14, away from their parents in a foreign country for two weeks (I'm from Canada), most of them for the first time ever. They dorms were run more like a hotel, and the staff gave each room 2 bars of soap. Well, one of the boys on my floor realized, "Hey, if I hide my soap, the staff will give me two more bars, even if I didn't use it." So they started collecting bars of soap. And other boys started to collecting soap. And it turned into an all out Soap War. Boys formed alliances and cartels with girls on other floors to collect their soap. I think one boy claimed that by his estimations he would have over 500 bars of soap by the end of tour. It was absolutely intense. But then some people started taking it too seriously. Members would steal other member's room keys while they were in the shower to break into their rooms and steal their soap. One member (that no one really liked) claimed that a group of members broke into his room and threatened him with makeshift weapons for his soap. And the dorm staff talked to the chaperones about, "Hey, you guys are going through way too much soap." So they had to ban collecting bars of soap and told us we would get in serious trouble if they caught us with a copious amount of bars of soap. So that ended the Soap War, by declaration of the United Nations (i.e. the staff and chaperones). Some of the boys took their extra soap and arranged it on the floor of the hallway to spell "SORRY" (very Canadian haha). And that's the story about how middle schoolers were banned from having SOAP on a band trip.
Not “weird” per se, but around Christmas, our jazz band went to a concert. We played a couple pep tunes, some jazz, and some Christmas music, and I got to play all the marching drum solos on the drum set; just alternating between the kick drum and crash, toms, and snare. Most fun I ever had in middle school
I was in 8th grade when our band got to go to Disneyland. We had 3 performances: marching in a parade, a recording session in a studio behind ToonTown, and a concert band performance in one of the plazas. Everything was super fun, I marched bass in the parade and played Timpani in both the recording session and the concert. Here's the thing, this was the day I learned to keep a straight face when you mess up. We were playing a medley of themes from Hunchback of Notre Dame for the concert. It was pretty straightforward, a little challenging but nothing absurd. I'd been practicing for months. Chiefly because there was a Timpani solo in the last four bars of the piece. I had been nailing it at every rehearsal. Anyways, we begin playing the piece, it's going perfectly. We get to the solo and I'm hyped to do it. I get halfway through and click a rim so hard that the mallets fly out of my hands. Instead of just continuing through the best I can, I physically and aggressively reacted like I'd messed up, telegraphing to anyone who was paying attention to me. I've never seen my band director be more upset, it was mortifying. Anyways, he talks to me later and says to not worry, pep talks me and says that mistakes happen but the mark of a professional is keeping your cool even when they do. Never let the audience know you messed up. I took that to heart and learned a lot from it. THE WORST PART THOUGH! A parent had video tapped the performance. On the bus ride to the airport, we were watching the concert on the TV's in the bus. This parent....focused on me during the solo. So my entire band got to see me, a emotional 8th grade percussionist, flip out on stage when I messed up my solo. The whole bus laughed for like 10 minutes. It honestly felt like something out of a childhood nightmare. It got brought up for WEEKS afterwards. Until we played Havendance and I kicked so much butt on the Timpani part that people stopped mentioning it.
My school went to music in the parks at HersheyPark. Good times were had by all on those trips. Our performances went really well from what I remember. It was always exciting to hear that "superior" announcement
Hey that’s Abram’s Pursuit! Our band played that for a competition this past year and our band director always talks about his countless sleepless nights and immense hair loss brought about by trying to teach us it. Many other band directors told him not to play it but he thought it’d be best and it was as we got all superiors. Moral of the story, it’s a very good piece o’ sound!
Wait a minute…. My band played Abram’s Pursuit for competition last year, and my band director says the same thing all the time. You aren’t from North Carolina by any chance are you?
Lol my band director and upper class man keep talking about abrams pursuit and how they should replay it some time so I hope that counts as we played it to even tho I wasn’t there lol
Another story video, yay! We didn't do the parks thing in Virginia, and I honestly can't even remember if we did a theme park trip in band. I do, however, remember the year in high school when several trumpets just flat out didn't show for Festival, the yearly graded performance (Superior every year!), and our director was TICKED. He didn't move any of us off our parts, just told us to play as normal, and of course we were called out for it in the judging.
This definitely brought back some memories....my school did Music in the Parks, but I think it was at Hersheypark when we did it. Maybe Busch Gardens VA and/or King's Dominion?
Ah yes, band trips were always the BEST! Our middle school band didn't go anywhere but high school, well, I could write a book about the exploits in HS Band. From our days at band camp, where we went away for a week, essentially unsupervised (just our band directors and some college student instructors), to football games (our fb team was really good - we went to every game, FREE), marching band competitions, pep band for basketball games, to concert band, which also included traveling to distant places on chartered buses. Ah the good life... I still get together with some of my classmates as we reminisce about those trips. Of course they were 45 yrs ago, so I'm sure my memory is now somewhat selective, like freshman hazing. But it was all in good fun and when I became an upper classman we got to initiate the new freshmen... Anywho another excellent and entertaining video! Cheers, Doc
High school had a lot of crazy stories that could fill up a whole book, so I'll focus on middle school. We played some competitive pieces, but the big concert was what was called "mass band" where all middle and high school bands play pieces, all the instruments get shown off, and everyone plays a really easy 6th grade piece together, fun for the 6th graders, snooze for everyone else. Little background info, I did percussion for a year in 6th grade but then switched to euphonium because they were dicks and we had no euphs. Anyways, all the bands played their pieces (which I had a non glock/pad part for because I was good), and our section played the underground Mario theme, but then we had to play everything together. Most of it went good, but when we got to the last piece I was on drum pad, and thought it was a brilliant idea to go nuts on the last roll. I thought I was cool because I saw pit players keeping time, but theres a difference between "pit member moving to keep time" and "6th grader jumping around like an idiot". Luckily there was like 500 kids playing so the only person who noticed was my dad.
For one of my middle school band trips, we had two busses on the way out, but only one showed up to take us back. We all had to squeeze into the one bus. One of my friends had to sit on my lap, and the aisle was full of people standing.
Band fields trips are some of the most fun I've ever had. One time we went to this water park called Typhoon Texas. It was so much fun. We also played the Star Spangled Banner at a Houston Astros game. We spent around 3 months practicing the national anthem, and it finally did pay off.
In middle school band we went to Cedar Point a few weeks after our competition. But the thing is besides joining with the 7th graders we also merged with the choir and orchestra. It was super fun though. And in marching band this year we’re going to Universal Studios Orlando. Super hyped for that trip.
I loved how you played "Abram's Pursuit" during the video! Anyway, I have quite a lot of stories from when I went on band trips, but one that came to mind was Disney World back in 2018. We were waiting in line to head back to the bus parking lot at the end of the day that we had our marching band parade, and I was talking about how if the head director would've liked if I called him by a pretty well-known nickname that the band used for him. It turns out that he was right behind me, as pointed out by one of my band friends. I got so nervous, but I don't think he heard me talking about that topic. But I casually turn back to him, and I tried making small-talk. I then proceeded to ask him if he wanted to hear my Mickey Mouse impression. It went pretty good, because I made him laugh a bit. So, that was certainly something I will never forget about the biggest school trip I have ever gotten to attend. Another story I have from that same trip, was that on the last day, we went to Universal Studios, where we got to see the Blue Man Group perform at the very end. But my little group of band friends and I all walked over to the spot where we thought we were supposed to meet, but we were wrong. I hadn't noticed that other people in the band and my section were texting me, asking me where we were. I then get a phone call from a number I don't know. That number calls again. Both times, I didn't answer. And then my younger brother, who also attended the trip, called me. He was asking where I was, and I explained what happened. I then hear another voice on the phone...it was the head director! I froze, and I was shaking from head to toe. I explained to him about the situation, and luckily, he wasn't angry at all. So he and the entire band just came to us. It was an experience that, truly, I'll always remember from my time in the marching band.
Lol, in middle school one of my friends dropped the cymbals onto the stage and inverted both of them, so we didn't have a cymbal part after that. Just remembered it after hearing about the brake drum
I didn't go on a band trip in middle school but I did take one sophomore year of high school. We went from Omaha, Nebraska all the way to Orlando for the week of Thanks giving. We only played our instruments one time that week and it was for like five minutes of marching down the main street at Magic Kingdom. We got spend time at three of the four Disney parks, one afternoon at Universal, a bit of time at SeaWorld, Downtown Disney, and the Space Center. But I remember more about how the bus I was on blew a tire on the drive down and we were stuck on the side of the road for like two hours in the non smartphone days when iPods were still a thing. We passed the time by seeing how many people we could cram into the bathroom in the back of the bus and then when our bus adult got mad about that, we scrunched our way down to the floor and played Apples to Apples. It was awesome.
I don't know if anyone from my school is gonna see this comment, but I remember in 8th grade we were doing region band auditions in Texas and everything went well to where I got 1st chair in 1st band. Not to mention it was also my birthday so I was really hyped and pumped. So about 20 min goes by and me and this guy were messing around with a water bottle pretending it was a football. At the time I was really really stupid, so I ended up starting to play basketball with the water bottle. What I mean by that was I dunked the full water bottle....inside a tuba. Now again at the time my school had the tubas to where you can take the bell off, but this tuba was the persons personal tuba that he apparently got from his uncle or something. And I thought I was cool with the guy and everything, until that day. The water bottle got stuck in the tuba and this guy was furious. He was also a bit...crazy, so he pinned me against the wall and was actually about to beat my ass. Luckily, some people were around to help me, so I ran away and I just stayed hiding in the bathroom stall. I went out again and he was yelling and screaming outside of the High School and even causing a commotion in the HS. So our whole entire program was asked to leave the HS after everyone was done auditioning and my band director was absolutely furious. Luckily, nothing really happened to me after that. All that happened was I had to write a letter to the head of the contest and apologize for the commotion I had caused. And the next week I went to go perform the region band contest and I had some cool snare parts and even a jazzy vibe part. P.S. They got the water bottle out of the Tuba.
Eric's Super Powers! 5:25 "Oh Crap! I'm not supposed to do that in public!" *So hard to post a comment before watching the entire video* I have noticed in the last few videos that Eric is using height changes on his characters. Linda and Rebecca are so much taller than those little 8th grade kids! 😂😂🤣🤣
Alright, here's a weird story, When I was in 6th grade band, we had a ton of these performances right? In total the class has like 14 people in the drumline, we hadn't been joined with the band yet, so we were just the drumline for now. Then in the middle of the school year we have a performance in the morning at 7:00 and nobody shows up! except me and a few other people, and it was quite awkward because I had to play tenors which I wasn't used to yet because I was a bass, but it turns out I really like tenor drumming! And its way more entertaining than bass drumming, because I actually use my hand eye coordination!
In my band camp this year we played a super cool song called "The great Locomotive Chase" and I think the percussions parts make a super cool effect to the theme of the song.
I've only been on one band trip so far due to being young, and it was for an honors band festival at Bridgewater State University. It was only 6 or 7 girls on a small bus so it wasn't too chaotic. We practiced for 3 hours on the actual stage in the auditorium. After lunch, we had to move all the percussion instruments up 2 flights (Thank goodness there were no bass drums , marimba,or any other huge percussion instruments) of stairs to the ballroom and practiced another 2 1/2 hours ihere. I got to play the symbols for 2 songs, the tambourine, the toms, and the triangle for 2 other songs. I made friends with two of the other percussionists and a bass clarinet player. We played Afterburn: Relaunch, Summon the Heros, and In the Shining of the Stars. I'm sad it's over, but I'm auditioning for Jr SEMSBA in February. Can't wait!!!
for all new young kids coming to percussion, dont despair, hang in and practice practice practice. my first time making the all city band 7-12 graders, middle and high school together, my whole family came and watched me an 8th grader only play the Claves to the song "Syncopated Clock". Did not get to all city snare until 10th grade and played "Bugler's Holiday". By that time I was comfortable with reading new music and nailing it the night of the shows. Now 20 years later I play mostly in studio sessions, sometimes working 2 days for a 15 second jingle for a radio commercial. Love it. If you get a chance find the documentary movie called The Wrecking Crew. They are the musicians who played on famous albums in the 50s and some in the 60s when all the rock stars were not that good on their instruments or a singing group did not have a band. Later in the 60s and 70s the rock stars were incredible musicians and played on their own in the recording sessions. ♫♫♫♫♪♪🪘
Bro everybody has these fun stories about marching band and band in middle school and high school, my school was tiny, we had 7-12 in the same building, about 20 kids in band in total. We had one trip for marching band other then for local parades, and that was our one band show. We didn’t stay anywhere, it was only two hours away, we usually had some sort of last minute change, it always sucked. Bus rides were always freezing on the way back because it would be mid October (and I live in a colder area) and for some reason the bus driver some years didn’t turn on the heat.
We have the exact same thing as music in the parks. But we go from Indiana to Kenosha Wisconsin to preform then go to six flags great America. It’s very fun. The ride home though was crazy as hell though
I remember my junior year of high school during pre uil, I had one of those crappy stands, the problem was I didn't find out until midway through the first song, when all my music fell off, because we couldn't stop between songs, I just looked to my left and played the music from my friend since we had the same part, all while all of my music was just on the floor with the judges staring at us.
I remember just wanting to go to the park honestly lol. I think we did pretty well in the actual competition, but I was just excited for rides haha. I actually went to the Washington twp school system too and did the same trips. I think I was between 3 or 5 years behind you actually cause I remember your name being mentioned. Anyway awesome to see someone from my area do so well on here!
I've played a few one-note concerts in my days. My first year of high school I played the triangle part for Variations of a Korean Folk Song. Then several years later in my university's concert band we played it again, and I played the suspended cymbal part, which wasn't too different than the triangle part lol. Good times
Due to Covid, I was not able to go on the two band trips planned. 7th grade was supposed to be Silver Dollar City, and 8th grade was supposed to be a competition in Dallas followed by Great Wolf Lodge
In Florida middle school bands can perform at Universal which is rly cool. I did it in 7th grade and 8th grade. The employees gave us all Harry Potter glasses because we were playing the theme from Harry Potter. I had a glockenspiel solo during that song so super fun
We also had this in the pacific northwest last year, my band had a piano solo but they didnt have a piano there, the pianist played the solo on a keyboard set to acoustic guitar. The trombone section (2 people) forgot all the sheet music. We still won the whole competition somehow.
My HS Show Choir does Music In The Parks but we go to Hershey. This year, despite being the smallest group there (a show choir of 14 people, one who was out so 13) we won both Overall in Highschool and our group size category!
As a neurodivergent teen: I am extremely interested in band, and due to my ADHD, I am very obsessive, I really enjoy this type of stuff. Thanks for making something I can watch to pass time from now to marching band!
Our High School went to Music in the Parks, we went to Hershey Park, PA. It was a blast! When I was in Jr High I had no confidence and always played the auxiliary parts but I learned every other part for the songs I just didn't have the confidence to try for the best parts. Well one concert, the other drummers had decided to "strike" and not show up, because as a section we rarely got any attention in band class so they threw a fit. On the concert, only I and one other auxiliary drummer showed up and we did all the parts. He played bass and auxiliary parts, I played snare and auxiliary parts. That we when the band conducted learned that I had all the parts for all the songs memorized, accurately. That was also the start of me playing lead parts in band and not just auxiliary parts.
I don't have any memories from middle school band, but in high school I have a couple. One was at my first football game of my freshman year (2014). Apparently the drum line wasn't watching the drum major/band director at some point during the game. The band director called out the entire drum line and chewed us out for not watching. In my junior year (2017), we were on the way to a playoff football game and one of the drum line bus broke down. We had to combine busses to go the rest of the way. The second bus ran over a nail or something, so we had to pull over to the side of the freeway. So most of the drum line didn't get to the game until about half time. For the first half the drum line had only one snare, one bass, and a few cymbal players.
I felt it when he said there were only two people playing for percussion. My last year in marching band (meaning I was a senior) I was the only pit player for my marching band. Let's just say I am very good at a lot of instruments.
I just did my band tour a few hours. We played at 5 schools each school 4 songs. The bus was crazy on the way back to school. Our bass drum player was trying to break our tenor players kneecaps, our tenor player was trying to take off a snare's shoe and more crazy stuff
On one of my band trips someone fell off of one of the drop towers and died. We got to see the ambulance going to get the body/see if they were still alive
Music in the parks is awesome! We did 2 songs and then went to Hershey park. Amazing! Our band got 3rd place, however if was rlly fuj, and we got to skip school but yeah super fun! (I live in shippensburg Pa
My school has Music in the Parks at Silver Dollar City, and the most interesting parts happened on the bus rides to and from. On the way there, a kid pooped on the bus and on the way back, another guy opened one of the emergency exit doors. I regret picking bus 4 for me and my friend
I had LGPE (Large Group Performance Evaluation) and it was really fun, we preformed, sight read some stuff, and then ate Pizza Inn which was really great
"this one time at band camp" was funny because it was TRUE. In the 90's I marched in a drum corps based in Orlando and we played many shows at the Disney parks (and some of our staff were in future corps) so we'd get a free day to run around with our pals and such. BUT The best was to spend the day with a corps member whose friends worked there and could get us cuts in line wooo!
We do that same kind of thing in Texas as Music in the Park but the people who run it reserve some kind of area in Six Flags Fort Worth to give the trophies after we go on rides and perform and stuff
We have a trip at my middle school where mostly 8th graders and certain 7th graders all get on a bus or two and drive to Galveston to go to Schlitterbahn. It’s like 3 hours west from where we are.
1:35 YES!!!! As a Symphonic Low Brass Section Leader (not really lmao), We played this at Regionals for Concert Band and might play it in our Spring Concert this year.
I don't remember much about my middle school band years. For a time, I was nicknamed "Scoo" due to a typo on the roster. I only remember one adventure trip where we went to an amusement park after a competition, and we all pretty much got to go our separate ways. My highlight was when I rode this ferris wheel type contraption, only you sat fully restrained in an enclosed cage. It had a bar that you could pull that would lock the pivot point and let you go fully upside down if you wanted (or leave it alone and it was a normal ferris wheel ride). I loved that thing, until I got off and later realized my backpack had been tossed around to the point my lunch was squashed. XD That was in the early 90's. It was the only time I'd seen such a ride until a couple years ago when I saw one at a traveling fair and I rode it for old time's sake. Only this time it was sans backpack. Lol
My band did this, and I also went to Dorney Park. I got lost, and almost didn't get to the rest of the band in time at the end, but it was very fun. I also somehow lost my instrument
What songs are you playing in band rn?
Alien invasion concert music
So far we are still finishing up the marching band season. Just got back from the NWAPA PNW Championships and took first! With every caption as well. Got another competition this Saturday. Looking to continue the undefeated season😎
rick roll
High School Cadets
I’m marching band we’ve got a good show, the source material is like electric counterpoint and yyz so it’s pretty cool, in concert band it’s random stuff
EMC is definitely one of the percussionists of all time
Definitley one of the percussionists yeah
As a percussionist myself, I can confirm, he is a percussionist.
i agree, he is also one of the chicken man’s of all time
@@pulsar-_-4504 most definitely
one of the eric’s of all time
This is the story about how my marching band banned soap on our trip. Yes, the staff banned soap.
So in Junior High/Middle School, I was in a community marching band for Junior High students (grade 7-9). Each year the band takes us on a trip, and that year we went to Seattle, where we stayed at the University of Washington dorms. That means 200 kids aged 12-14, away from their parents in a foreign country for two weeks (I'm from Canada), most of them for the first time ever.
They dorms were run more like a hotel, and the staff gave each room 2 bars of soap. Well, one of the boys on my floor realized, "Hey, if I hide my soap, the staff will give me two more bars, even if I didn't use it." So they started collecting bars of soap. And other boys started to collecting soap. And it turned into an all out Soap War. Boys formed alliances and cartels with girls on other floors to collect their soap. I think one boy claimed that by his estimations he would have over 500 bars of soap by the end of tour. It was absolutely intense.
But then some people started taking it too seriously. Members would steal other member's room keys while they were in the shower to break into their rooms and steal their soap. One member (that no one really liked) claimed that a group of members broke into his room and threatened him with makeshift weapons for his soap. And the dorm staff talked to the chaperones about, "Hey, you guys are going through way too much soap." So they had to ban collecting bars of soap and told us we would get in serious trouble if they caught us with a copious amount of bars of soap.
So that ended the Soap War, by declaration of the United Nations (i.e. the staff and chaperones). Some of the boys took their extra soap and arranged it on the floor of the hallway to spell "SORRY" (very Canadian haha). And that's the story about how middle schoolers were banned from having SOAP on a band trip.
This is the most American sounding Canadian thing I have ever read.
They dropped the soap
This is why band is the most fun activity
This is why people hate band kids
This is what band is about. The silly weird antics that are much healthier than drugs and underage sex.
Not “weird” per se, but around Christmas, our jazz band went to a concert. We played a couple pep tunes, some jazz, and some Christmas music, and I got to play all the marching drum solos on the drum set; just alternating between the kick drum and crash, toms, and snare. Most fun I ever had in middle school
Our school doesn’t have a jazz band, we have a bluegrass band
Dude, I think you just mastered the art of telling band/band camp stories. Good story and the reenactments were a nice touch too.
I was in 8th grade when our band got to go to Disneyland. We had 3 performances: marching in a parade, a recording session in a studio behind ToonTown, and a concert band performance in one of the plazas. Everything was super fun, I marched bass in the parade and played Timpani in both the recording session and the concert. Here's the thing, this was the day I learned to keep a straight face when you mess up.
We were playing a medley of themes from Hunchback of Notre Dame for the concert. It was pretty straightforward, a little challenging but nothing absurd. I'd been practicing for months. Chiefly because there was a Timpani solo in the last four bars of the piece. I had been nailing it at every rehearsal. Anyways, we begin playing the piece, it's going perfectly. We get to the solo and I'm hyped to do it. I get halfway through and click a rim so hard that the mallets fly out of my hands. Instead of just continuing through the best I can, I physically and aggressively reacted like I'd messed up, telegraphing to anyone who was paying attention to me. I've never seen my band director be more upset, it was mortifying.
Anyways, he talks to me later and says to not worry, pep talks me and says that mistakes happen but the mark of a professional is keeping your cool even when they do. Never let the audience know you messed up. I took that to heart and learned a lot from it.
THE WORST PART THOUGH! A parent had video tapped the performance. On the bus ride to the airport, we were watching the concert on the TV's in the bus. This parent....focused on me during the solo. So my entire band got to see me, a emotional 8th grade percussionist, flip out on stage when I messed up my solo. The whole bus laughed for like 10 minutes. It honestly felt like something out of a childhood nightmare. It got brought up for WEEKS afterwards. Until we played Havendance and I kicked so much butt on the Timpani part that people stopped mentioning it.
I feel bad, atleast going to Disneyland was fun. My 8th grade years was covid season lol, we didn't even get to go to Six flags.
we have the Great East Festival coming up and we're going to Six Flags
bit late xdd
We went to the master class thing at disney and it was so fun!
My school is going to Disneyland in may 6-8
My school went to music in the parks at HersheyPark. Good times were had by all on those trips. Our performances went really well from what I remember. It was always exciting to hear that "superior" announcement
omg so did mine!
Hey that’s Abram’s Pursuit! Our band played that for a competition this past year and our band director always talks about his countless sleepless nights and immense hair loss brought about by trying to teach us it. Many other band directors told him not to play it but he thought it’d be best and it was as we got all superiors. Moral of the story, it’s a very good piece o’ sound!
Wait a minute…. My band played Abram’s Pursuit for competition last year, and my band director says the same thing all the time. You aren’t from North Carolina by any chance are you?
@@bend1707 Sadly not😆. I’m from Georgia but that is pretty cool though. I guess band directors really just love torturing themselves.
Lol my band director and upper class man keep talking about abrams pursuit and how they should replay it some time so I hope that counts as we played it to even tho I wasn’t there lol
So all band teachers tell their students that they give them hair loss… i thought mine was just that odd
You can say that you played an entire concert perfectly
as someone who lives in new jersey, this is relatable as i recently went to dorney park after a special trip to another school.
Abram's Pursuit is a great piece! Awesome piece to have in the background lol
Music in the parks is actually an insane experience, went on my first loop and corkscrew on that trip
talking about your "music in the parks" thing, my middle school would go to a waterpark, swim for a few hours, perform then leave. it was so much fun
Abram's Pursuit playing in the background! Played that back in high school. Brings back memories...
Another story video, yay! We didn't do the parks thing in Virginia, and I honestly can't even remember if we did a theme park trip in band. I do, however, remember the year in high school when several trumpets just flat out didn't show for Festival, the yearly graded performance (Superior every year!), and our director was TICKED. He didn't move any of us off our parts, just told us to play as normal, and of course we were called out for it in the judging.
This definitely brought back some memories....my school did Music in the Parks, but I think it was at Hersheypark when we did it. Maybe Busch Gardens VA and/or King's Dominion?
Ah yes, band trips were always the BEST! Our middle school band didn't go anywhere but high school, well, I could write a book about the exploits in HS Band. From our days at band camp, where we went away for a week, essentially unsupervised (just our band directors and some college student instructors), to football games (our fb team was really good - we went to every game, FREE), marching band competitions, pep band for basketball games, to concert band, which also included traveling to distant places on chartered buses.
Ah the good life... I still get together with some of my classmates as we reminisce about those trips. Of course they were 45 yrs ago, so I'm sure my memory is now somewhat selective, like freshman hazing. But it was all in good fun and when I became an upper classman we got to initiate the new freshmen...
Anywho another excellent and entertaining video!
Cheers,
Doc
Good morning! This is video number 18 of me asking Eric to make a set of tenors out of differently sized snare drums.
High school had a lot of crazy stories that could fill up a whole book, so I'll focus on middle school. We played some competitive pieces, but the big concert was what was called "mass band" where all middle and high school bands play pieces, all the instruments get shown off, and everyone plays a really easy 6th grade piece together, fun for the 6th graders, snooze for everyone else. Little background info, I did percussion for a year in 6th grade but then switched to euphonium because they were dicks and we had no euphs. Anyways, all the bands played their pieces (which I had a non glock/pad part for because I was good), and our section played the underground Mario theme, but then we had to play everything together. Most of it went good, but when we got to the last piece I was on drum pad, and thought it was a brilliant idea to go nuts on the last roll. I thought I was cool because I saw pit players keeping time, but theres a difference between "pit member moving to keep time" and "6th grader jumping around like an idiot". Luckily there was like 500 kids playing so the only person who noticed was my dad.
My school is going to the Dorney park thing too! What a coincdence
For one of my middle school band trips, we had two busses on the way out, but only one showed up to take us back. We all had to squeeze into the one bus. One of my friends had to sit on my lap, and the aisle was full of people standing.
Band fields trips are some of the most fun I've ever had. One time we went to this water park called Typhoon Texas. It was so much fun. We also played the Star Spangled Banner at a Houston Astros game. We spent around 3 months practicing the national anthem, and it finally did pay off.
@EMCproductions I highly recommend you check out the sheet music for "Pirates Cave". The Glockenspiel part is amazing!
In middle school band we went to Cedar Point a few weeks after our competition. But the thing is besides joining with the 7th graders we also merged with the choir and orchestra. It was super fun though. And in marching band this year we’re going to Universal Studios Orlando. Super hyped for that trip.
Thank you so much for using Abrams pursuit for the back track!! The nostalgia 🥹🥹
Wonderful background piece! We are playing that in my schools wind ensemble!
Oh man! I remember I was able to do music in the park when I was interning with the middle school!
my school is doing music in the parks for the first time next year!! hyped, glad it gets to happen at my school before i graduate
I love all of those roller coasters you mentioned in the video
I loved how you played "Abram's Pursuit" during the video! Anyway, I have quite a lot of stories from when I went on band trips, but one that came to mind was Disney World back in 2018. We were waiting in line to head back to the bus parking lot at the end of the day that we had our marching band parade, and I was talking about how if the head director would've liked if I called him by a pretty well-known nickname that the band used for him. It turns out that he was right behind me, as pointed out by one of my band friends. I got so nervous, but I don't think he heard me talking about that topic. But I casually turn back to him, and I tried making small-talk. I then proceeded to ask him if he wanted to hear my Mickey Mouse impression. It went pretty good, because I made him laugh a bit. So, that was certainly something I will never forget about the biggest school trip I have ever gotten to attend.
Another story I have from that same trip, was that on the last day, we went to Universal Studios, where we got to see the Blue Man Group perform at the very end. But my little group of band friends and I all walked over to the spot where we thought we were supposed to meet, but we were wrong. I hadn't noticed that other people in the band and my section were texting me, asking me where we were. I then get a phone call from a number I don't know. That number calls again. Both times, I didn't answer. And then my younger brother, who also attended the trip, called me. He was asking where I was, and I explained what happened. I then hear another voice on the phone...it was the head director! I froze, and I was shaking from head to toe. I explained to him about the situation, and luckily, he wasn't angry at all. So he and the entire band just came to us. It was an experience that, truly, I'll always remember from my time in the marching band.
my band did the same thing with playing in front tof judges and we also played air for band and honest to God I played cymbols for that song
Keep the great content up
I had this trippy Dream where this Cat was drinvin' me around in an old Converteble
Later it turnt into a VW Van and near the End, it was more like this Spaceship kinda Thing
Lol, in middle school one of my friends dropped the cymbals onto the stage and inverted both of them, so we didn't have a cymbal part after that. Just remembered it after hearing about the brake drum
0:29 omg same!
Yeah your not an enthusiast buddy
When I heard you say that you played Air for Band, I literally jumped! I played Air for Band last year. I am now a senior in high school.
I didn't go on a band trip in middle school but I did take one sophomore year of high school. We went from Omaha, Nebraska all the way to Orlando for the week of Thanks giving. We only played our instruments one time that week and it was for like five minutes of marching down the main street at Magic Kingdom. We got spend time at three of the four Disney parks, one afternoon at Universal, a bit of time at SeaWorld, Downtown Disney, and the Space Center. But I remember more about how the bus I was on blew a tire on the drive down and we were stuck on the side of the road for like two hours in the non smartphone days when iPods were still a thing. We passed the time by seeing how many people we could cram into the bathroom in the back of the bus and then when our bus adult got mad about that, we scrunched our way down to the floor and played Apples to Apples. It was awesome.
Let's go, I remember these days
I don't know if anyone from my school is gonna see this comment, but I remember in 8th grade we were doing region band auditions in Texas and everything went well to where I got 1st chair in 1st band. Not to mention it was also my birthday so I was really hyped and pumped. So about 20 min goes by and me and this guy were messing around with a water bottle pretending it was a football. At the time I was really really stupid, so I ended up starting to play basketball with the water bottle. What I mean by that was I dunked the full water bottle....inside a tuba. Now again at the time my school had the tubas to where you can take the bell off, but this tuba was the persons personal tuba that he apparently got from his uncle or something. And I thought I was cool with the guy and everything, until that day. The water bottle got stuck in the tuba and this guy was furious. He was also a bit...crazy, so he pinned me against the wall and was actually about to beat my ass. Luckily, some people were around to help me, so I ran away and I just stayed hiding in the bathroom stall. I went out again and he was yelling and screaming outside of the High School and even causing a commotion in the HS. So our whole entire program was asked to leave the HS after everyone was done auditioning and my band director was absolutely furious. Luckily, nothing really happened to me after that. All that happened was I had to write a letter to the head of the contest and apologize for the commotion I had caused. And the next week I went to go perform the region band contest and I had some cool snare parts and even a jazzy vibe part.
P.S. They got the water bottle out of the Tuba.
Eric's Super Powers! 5:25 "Oh Crap! I'm not supposed to do that in public!"
*So hard to post a comment before watching the entire video* I have noticed in the last few videos that Eric is using height changes on his characters. Linda and Rebecca are so much taller than those little 8th grade kids! 😂😂🤣🤣
Alright, here's a weird story, When I was in 6th grade band, we had a ton of these performances right? In total the class has like 14 people in the drumline, we hadn't been joined with the band yet, so we were just the drumline for now. Then in the middle of the school year we have a performance in the morning at 7:00 and nobody shows up! except me and a few other people, and it was quite awkward because I had to play tenors which I wasn't used to yet because I was a bass, but it turns out I really like tenor drumming! And its way more entertaining than bass drumming, because I actually use my hand eye coordination!
In my band camp this year we played a super cool song called "The great Locomotive Chase" and I think the percussions parts make a super cool effect to the theme of the song.
I went to Hershey world/park when my school did this!
I've only been on one band trip so far due to being young, and it was for an honors band festival at Bridgewater State University. It was only 6 or 7 girls on a small bus so it wasn't too chaotic. We practiced for 3 hours on the actual stage in the auditorium. After lunch, we had to move all the percussion instruments up 2 flights (Thank goodness there were no bass drums , marimba,or any other huge percussion instruments) of stairs to the ballroom and practiced another 2 1/2 hours ihere. I got to play the symbols for 2 songs, the tambourine, the toms, and the triangle for 2 other songs. I made friends with two of the other percussionists and a bass clarinet player. We played Afterburn: Relaunch, Summon the Heros, and In the Shining of the Stars. I'm sad it's over, but I'm auditioning for Jr SEMSBA in February. Can't wait!!!
We did that in Texas back in middle school where we would go to a comp, then go to a water park.
for all new young kids coming to percussion, dont despair, hang in and practice practice practice. my first time making the all city band 7-12 graders, middle and high school together, my whole family came and watched me an 8th grader only play the Claves to the song "Syncopated Clock". Did not get to all city snare until 10th grade and played "Bugler's Holiday". By that time I was comfortable with reading new music and nailing it the night of the shows. Now 20 years later I play mostly in studio sessions, sometimes working 2 days for a 15 second jingle for a radio commercial. Love it. If you get a chance find the documentary movie called The Wrecking Crew. They are the musicians who played on famous albums in the 50s and some in the 60s when all the rock stars were not that good on their instruments or a singing group did not have a band. Later in the 60s and 70s the rock stars were incredible musicians and played on their own in the recording sessions. ♫♫♫♫♪♪🪘
Bro everybody has these fun stories about marching band and band in middle school and high school, my school was tiny, we had 7-12 in the same building, about 20 kids in band in total. We had one trip for marching band other then for local parades, and that was our one band show. We didn’t stay anywhere, it was only two hours away, we usually had some sort of last minute change, it always sucked. Bus rides were always freezing on the way back because it would be mid October (and I live in a colder area) and for some reason the bus driver some years didn’t turn on the heat.
My band used to do this in middle school as well. We would go to Six Flags Great America. Those were good times.
Being from PA an hour away from Dorney it always boggles my mind when people are excited to go there lol
I went to Dorney park for choir last year. I had the most fun EVER!
We have the exact same thing as music in the parks. But we go from Indiana to Kenosha Wisconsin to preform then go to six flags great America. It’s very fun. The ride home though was crazy as hell though
I remember my junior year of high school during pre uil, I had one of those crappy stands, the problem was I didn't find out until midway through the first song, when all my music fell off, because we couldn't stop between songs, I just looked to my left and played the music from my friend since we had the same part, all while all of my music was just on the floor with the judges staring at us.
Awesome use of Abram's Pursuit by David Holsinger. I doubt many of the middle school bands were playing it at the festival.
I'm going into freshman year now and just had Music in the parks for the past two years so it's cool and stuff to see how long it was a thing for.
I remember just wanting to go to the park honestly lol. I think we did pretty well in the actual competition, but I was just excited for rides haha. I actually went to the Washington twp school system too and did the same trips. I think I was between 3 or 5 years behind you actually cause I remember your name being mentioned. Anyway awesome to see someone from my area do so well on here!
I played air for band in middle school. 1st clarinet. That year we went to Carowinds, which was nice.
I've played a few one-note concerts in my days. My first year of high school I played the triangle part for Variations of a Korean Folk Song. Then several years later in my university's concert band we played it again, and I played the suspended cymbal part, which wasn't too different than the triangle part lol. Good times
I love the vlog style video, you should do more of these!
6:10 just realized this was the competition I went to on Saturday and made finals in. Was honestly surprised to see it here lol
so cool that you used my bands regionals scores
Due to Covid, I was not able to go on the two band trips planned. 7th grade was supposed to be Silver Dollar City, and 8th grade was supposed to be a competition in Dallas followed by Great Wolf Lodge
I remember doing this in Grade 6 when I lived in Jersey, and if it wasn't Dorney Park, it was Hershey Park that we went to for our Music in the Parks.
me when i hear abraham's pursuit for bg music and DIE because that was our closer in my school's show last year- and we did SUPER well at that show-
I actually just played cymbals during Air For Band with my city’s concert band. It’s a great song!
In Florida middle school bands can perform at Universal which is rly cool. I did it in 7th grade and 8th grade. The employees gave us all Harry Potter glasses because we were playing the theme from Harry Potter. I had a glockenspiel solo during that song so super fun
We also had this in the pacific northwest last year, my band had a piano solo but they didnt have a piano there, the pianist played the solo on a keyboard set to acoustic guitar. The trombone section (2 people) forgot all the sheet music.
We still won the whole competition somehow.
We had this in Virginia but we went to Busch Gardens Williamsburg
And I didn’t get to go in 8th grade because my dad wanted to chaperone but he had to go out of town for work so I didn’t get to go at all. Super lame.
And i graduated high school in 2008 so this was spring 2003 and 2004
7th grade we played Pulsar, Gently Touch the Sky, and Fire Dance. 8th grade we played National Emblem, Gigue Francaise, and Rites of Tamburo.
I'm in jazz right now 7th, in Wisconsin where I live we do jazz in the park also were playing jamming with Charlie and another step towards the blues.
I played digital prisms on baritone this year✋
Northern California also has music at the parks, where we went to great america after our performance
we went to six flags after and while we were eating there was a group actually marching! it was pretty neat, so yeah, music was in the park lol
My HS Show Choir does Music In The Parks but we go to Hershey. This year, despite being the smallest group there (a show choir of 14 people, one who was out so 13) we won both Overall in Highschool and our group size category!
As a neurodivergent teen: I am extremely interested in band, and due to my ADHD, I am very obsessive, I really enjoy this type of stuff. Thanks for making something I can watch to pass time from now to marching band!
I remember going to Dorney park for choir. It was like a cheaper six flags 😂
Our High School went to Music in the Parks, we went to Hershey Park, PA. It was a blast! When I was in Jr High I had no confidence and always played the auxiliary parts but I learned every other part for the songs I just didn't have the confidence to try for the best parts. Well one concert, the other drummers had decided to "strike" and not show up, because as a section we rarely got any attention in band class so they threw a fit. On the concert, only I and one other auxiliary drummer showed up and we did all the parts. He played bass and auxiliary parts, I played snare and auxiliary parts. That we when the band conducted learned that I had all the parts for all the songs memorized, accurately. That was also the start of me playing lead parts in band and not just auxiliary parts.
I don't have any memories from middle school band, but in high school I have a couple. One was at my first football game of my freshman year (2014). Apparently the drum line wasn't watching the drum major/band director at some point during the game. The band director called out the entire drum line and chewed us out for not watching. In my junior year (2017), we were on the way to a playoff football game and one of the drum line bus broke down. We had to combine busses to go the rest of the way. The second bus ran over a nail or something, so we had to pull over to the side of the freeway. So most of the drum line didn't get to the game until about half time. For the first half the drum line had only one snare, one bass, and a few cymbal players.
I felt it when he said there were only two people playing for percussion. My last year in marching band (meaning I was a senior) I was the only pit player for my marching band. Let's just say I am very good at a lot of instruments.
In Virginia we have this but we did it in high school for all the ensembles, so chorus, band, and orchestra, it’s wild
This man just summed up every band stereotype I’ve seen
My band is going to Hersheypark, I'm stoked cuz I love band (I play percussion) and I love roller coasters, so ultimate trip.
I go to Washington Township, I think the school you went to aswell right? I remember the Dorney trip, only a few years ago!
I just did my band tour a few hours. We played at 5 schools each school 4 songs. The bus was crazy on the way back to school. Our bass drum player was trying to break our tenor players kneecaps, our tenor player was trying to take off a snare's shoe and more crazy stuff
Behold! The Power If Editing!
At the time of this video’s publication, we were going to play digital prisms for my highschool concert band for the next concert
Lmao brought a new meaning to working *hard* for the band
On one of my band trips someone fell off of one of the drop towers and died. We got to see the ambulance going to get the body/see if they were still alive
Music in the parks is awesome! We did 2 songs and then went to Hershey park. Amazing! Our band got 3rd place, however if was rlly fuj, and we got to skip school but yeah super fun! (I live in shippensburg Pa
3:40 my band director has that comics and simallar ones hung up all around the band hall pretty cool to see that here
My school has Music in the Parks at Silver Dollar City, and the most interesting parts happened on the bus rides to and from. On the way there, a kid pooped on the bus and on the way back, another guy opened one of the emergency exit doors. I regret picking bus 4 for me and my friend
I had LGPE (Large Group Performance Evaluation) and it was really fun, we preformed, sight read some stuff, and then ate Pizza Inn which was really great
My school just hosted music in the parks last year and the bands went to dorney, so you might have been at my school like 20 years ago lmao
Best percussionist channel out there! By far
"this one time at band camp" was funny because it was TRUE. In the 90's I marched in a drum corps based in Orlando and we played many shows at the Disney parks (and some of our staff were in future corps) so we'd get a free day to run around with our pals and such. BUT The best was to spend the day with a corps member whose friends worked there and could get us cuts in line wooo!
in my state we do music in the parks too! i had to miss it from illness though :(
We do that same kind of thing in Texas as Music in the Park but the people who run it reserve some kind of area in Six Flags Fort Worth to give the trophies after we go on rides and perform and stuff
When my high school band went to dorney park, we didn’t perform apparently. We only had a fun day and we watch a few drum corps after in a stadium.
We have a trip at my middle school where mostly 8th graders and certain 7th graders all get on a bus or two and drive to Galveston to go to Schlitterbahn. It’s like 3 hours west from where we are.
Music in the park is a og fav, we go to Six Flags so it's fire
1:35 YES!!!!
As a Symphonic Low Brass Section Leader (not really lmao), We played this at Regionals for Concert Band and might play it in our Spring Concert this year.
I don't remember much about my middle school band years. For a time, I was nicknamed "Scoo" due to a typo on the roster. I only remember one adventure trip where we went to an amusement park after a competition, and we all pretty much got to go our separate ways. My highlight was when I rode this ferris wheel type contraption, only you sat fully restrained in an enclosed cage. It had a bar that you could pull that would lock the pivot point and let you go fully upside down if you wanted (or leave it alone and it was a normal ferris wheel ride). I loved that thing, until I got off and later realized my backpack had been tossed around to the point my lunch was squashed. XD
That was in the early 90's. It was the only time I'd seen such a ride until a couple years ago when I saw one at a traveling fair and I rode it for old time's sake. Only this time it was sans backpack. Lol
My band did this, and I also went to Dorney Park.
I got lost, and almost didn't get to the rest of the band in time at the end, but it was very fun.
I also somehow lost my instrument