Thank you for taking the pencils off!!!!!!!

Music Woman
(breathing a sigh of relief that there are still almost four weeks before school!)

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Music Woman
(breathing a sigh of relief that there are still almost four weeks before school!)

School started here in Seminole County, Florida yesterday, July 31. Luckily for my son, we moved from Seminole to Volusia County, Florida, so he got a one-week reprieve and starts August 7th.

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Because I hadn't created any themes for August (not a single one!), it skipped through that month and started executing the code for September 1st. Sorry for the false alarm, but that theme was WAY too early for most people! =)

What!??? No August themes!?
Ryan, i'll have to fix that for you. At least once.

*nods*

CQ (off to brainstorm ideas)

I went to band camp too--sort of. I was color guard. Those girls in the hot-pants who wave the flags! :-) We marched and marched in the hot sun at Campball College in NC (now Campbell University!) I did it for two summers in a row during high school. (I was the leader and had to go to camp to learn new routines and skills with that flag! :-)

Only two girls on the squad went, me and my second in command. We would come home and work with the band leaders to create the routines for their music and then teach the routines to the rest of the squad.

It was a lot of work and it was always terribly hot. That's pretty much all I remember about camp. Being tired all the time and being hot all the time. Laying on the top of your dorm room bed because it was too hot to get under the sheet even! And marching towards the water fountains on the ballfields and if we messed up, they would march us in circles until we got it right and then we could march straight to the water fountain. UGH!

I don't know if people were hooking up, I know my friends and I were too hot and sweaty to even think about getting close to a guy! Ewww!

-Amanda from Seattle

ah. Color guard. I was on Color Guard last year. No fun. I remember last year during the summer band camp thinking about how hot it was and tiring it was. and then during competition in October in the cut up tank top and black capris (our theme was rock and roll, our costumes were awful) grasping on to a freezing metal bar and tossing it in the air wishing I was warm. I think i'm going to like playing Piccolo this year a lot better. You get to wear a nice warm band uniform. ^-^

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grasping on to a freezing metal bar and tossing it in the air wishing I was warm.

I was in a parade at Carolina Beach, NC one summer and it was so hot and I was sweating so much that I made a move with my flag and it totally flew out of my hands --they were so wet with sweat-- My best friend played piccolo and she was marching right beside me and she cracked up laughing so hard that she couldn't finish the piece they were playing. I retrieved my flag and just kept marching as we were laughing our heads off!

-Amanda from Seattle

once, for a Christmas parade, we used swing flags and I beaned a saxaphone player in the head. he didn't like me very much for it.

We actually used to go away for band camp. The bands around here just have "camp" at school each day. There was one week of "pre-band camp" when we learned the music, then the week away to learn the routines and practice the music, and, of course, to spend plenty of spare time doing things we shouldn't have been doing. 8-) I was a drummer in marching band, and we had a great time--although those drums can get pretty heavy, especially in August in Georgia!

My sister has all the drill team horror stories--but she loved it so much that she spent 4 years at UGA twirling flags for the Redcoats. She built up some great arm muscles.

Booknut

All this talk of band camp is bringing back memories of long long ago!! I too played the piccolo in band-what a fun instrument-unless you are playing Stars & Strips Forever!!!! That's the biggie!! Of course only piccolo players probably know what I mean!
Good Luck PMOD....
:)

I like my piccolo (I just got it for my birthday) but I have to say I enjoy playing my flute alittle better, I like the tone. And I've never playing Stars and Stripes for Ever, but having heard the song, I can imagine the sheet music.

I wanted to play the flute, but the band teacher told me I had to play clarinet. :P So I did...for 7 years. And I was in the marching band. But we never had band camp. We had enough trouble getting enough band members to show up in the summer for the 4th of July parade.

TG

We had band camp at our school for one week, a couple of hours each evening. I hated it, but I look back now and kind of miss just getting to hang out like that learning new things with my friends.
I remember I wanted to join the Jazz Band really badly, but I played clarinet and there wasn't enough music for it, so the teacher gave me an alto saxophone a week before school started and told me to learn it. Luckily it wasn't too different and I ended up switching to tenor, which I loved!
I live a couple of blocks from the college here and they have band camps every week for different high schools. It's nice to sit outside at night and listen to the drums and trumpets (for some reason they're about all I can hear). Gives me a nice summer feeling in my heart ; )

Moonduck

I get very nostalgic hearing bands play-in fact, I frequently will tear up at parades or concerts when the band plays for reasons unknown! Shhhh-that's a deep dark secret.
Now katwrangler is in the band and loves it-except she did not follow my path with flute or piccolo-oh no, she went the route of trombone (and is very good with it I might add) and is now experimenting with the French horn-Thanks to summer band camp last week!!!
Being a band geek has it's advantages-fond memories!

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Being a band geek has it's advantages-fond memories!

Yes...like the marching band cruise to the Bahamas my junior year in high school...and some not so fond ones...like marching the Indy 500 Festival parade in 95-100 degree heat. UGH!

Thank goodness I teach elementary and middle school! I don't have to be back in school for summer band camp!

MW

Theme idea: All the above are good. Here's one at our house:
Cats all laying around stretched out in the shade looking like long ells except when they put their heads up, they are panting. There is just something funny about a panting cat!
(yes, we have plenty of fresh water and shade for them-it's just dog gone hot!).
;)

2 years ago, I needed an after school activity, and they started a jazz band. so I went up and joined. I taught myself how to transpose music and turned the sax music into flute music. I played with the jazz band at that years concert and got a solo which was fabulous. then the next year I got kicked out, cause they turned it into an actual class, and I was told, Flutes weren't jazzy enough. so yeah. but it was fun while it lasted.

The Pink Muffin of DOOM

That's a sad story!
And you should ask the band director if he/she's ever heard of Jethro Tull's flutist Ian Anderson who plays rock n roll flute! I know I just dated myself, but the point is it's not good to stereotype anything-just look at what we would be missing if we did.....Hopefully if someone told Ian Anderson a flute wasn't rock n rolly enough, he just didn't listen!
You just play that flute how ever the mood strikes you! It sounds like you are very creative and inventive with it already!
If you know any "really old folks" with a "record" collection, they may have some Jethro Tull and you'll know what I mean!
And, it sounds like your first year in the Jazz band you really learned alot!! That is a VERY cool opportunity!!
kwm
anyone else out there as old as me? :)

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If you know any "really old folks" with a "record" collection, they may have some Jethro Tull

I'm not "really old" (mid-twenties) and I adore Jethro Tull. I played flute in high school and college and was super excited to see one of Ian Anderson's flutes at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City. Jethro Tull rocks! They even beat out Metallica for a Grammy for Best Heavy Metal Album!

I still dream about being able to play the flute like Ian Anderson. *sigh*

Thank you for making me not seem so dated! You definately are not old!
There is something odd about Jethro Tull competing against Metallica and the category being Heavy Metal.....
Good Rock N Roll never dies!
I now have the "priviledge" of sharing it with my kids and telling them to notice how good the music still is even if it's 30+years old!!
Of course, there is good music being created everyday too!
;~)

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then the next year I got kicked out, cause they turned it into an actual class, and I was told, Flutes weren't jazzy enough

I'm so sorry, that's lame! My junior and senior years we had German exchange students who both played flute in the Jazz Band. They too learned how to transpose (which isn't too hard once you get the mindset) and wow, they were awesome! We found music that they could play solos in as well, and they just blew everyone away!

Besides, flute music isn't really rock and roll, but I think Jethro Tull is really entertaining and I can easily jam out to some Aqualung any day!

Moonduck

I am not very old and I don't think liking Jethro Tull dates anyone! I guess I should have read all the posts before I responded before. JT is pretty timeless I think! I listened to them in high school in the 90's!

Altho, I will say, I'm sorry that they won the Heavy Metal grammy b/c Metallica's album was better. While JT has some great music, I've also heard some real crap from them too, mostly in the 80's. Of course, I've heard some not so great stuff from Metallica, but they're still rocking.

What I really want? A new GOOD Van Halen album.... preferably with David Lee Roth. I miss Van Halen. A lot. That's some music everyone can listen to in the car and not complain. David Lee Roth put out a bluegrass style album recently of Van Halen songs.... Jamie's Cryin' literally made me cry.

Moonduck

anyone else out there as old as me? :)

YEP! and my young adult children like Tull also.

Eaglewatcher who once toured with a college performance group

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I miss Van Halen. A lot.

Too bad you're not in the Rock 'n Roll Legends PLB Ring. My stamp is called "Eddie, Alex, Michael, David" (notice that it's not Eddie, Alex, Michael, Sammy!!!)

One of the "rules" for the PLB Ring was to include an CD. I was hoping to burn a CD with my favorite Van Halen songs (pre-Sammy of course), but I ran out of time. So I put in a greastest hits CD and told everyone to only listen to the David songs. :)

If there are pages left in the logbook when the ring is over, maybe I'll open it up to the public.

Ahhhh Sammy is very talented!

Van Hagar was sooooo much better!!

David was on Craig Ferguson and Leno several weeks ago. Sammy was on just last week. The difference was jaw dropping... besides the fact that David Lee Roth was singing "JUMP" to a bluegrass arrangment. ICK.

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Ahhhh Sammy is very talented!

Van Hagar was sooooo much better!!

You can't be serious...
classic Van Halen (with David) is on a whole other level than post-1984 Van Halen. Nothing could top it!

CQ-
quick, get the ether. I have another guinea pig for your dungeon o'torture!

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Van Hagar was sooooo much better!!

Say it ain't so! I quit listening to Van Halen when they became Van Hagar.

I have to agree with that ICK for a bluegrass version of Jump, though. That's just wrong!

Knit Wit

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David Lee Roth was singing "JUMP" to a bluegrass arrangment. ICK.

I wish I had seen that. :)

Have you ever heard of Hayseed Dixie? They do bluegrass arrangments of AC/DC .

Shiloh

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David Lee Roth was singing "JUMP" to a bluegrass arrangment. ICK.

I wish I had seen that. :)

Have you ever heard of Hayseed Dixie? They do bluegrass arrangments of AC/DC .

Shiloh

No you dont.... this wasnt even a GOOD arrangement.. He was still singing lounge singer type rock with a bluegrass backup.
I do like some bluegrass in small doses... (Allison Krauss, etc).. but this was truely a disaster.

I've heard OF Hayseed Dixie, but not heard anything by them.

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He was still singing lounge singer type rock with a bluegrass backup

In that case...sombody shoot the boy and put him out of his misery!!!

Shiloh