Any Band Geeks? What did ya play?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by jorod74, Jun 16, 2009.

  1. Grimlock_13

    Grimlock_13 Currently facepalming at your post

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    Played piano and violin growing up, clarient in middle school, bass clarinet freshmen year of high school and switched to drums and played in the drumline through the rest of high school and college. Now I work on the side teaching and writing music for a couple local high schools and Boise State University. Don't really practice that stuff much anymore though, I was always more of a drumset player anyway and have played on a couple albums that have seen national and worldwide release. But I guess that's for a different thread.
     
  2. Dachande

    Dachande MULTI-QUOTE- USE IT. Super Mod

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    Bus trips were what made marching band fun.
    From my sophmore to senior years I had a back seat. The guys I hung around with (percussion and low brass) were sort of the 'in crowd' and were allowed to bring a stereo. So, we brought some big speakers and a car battery. Yep, the tunes were playing hard. There were three of us that it was 'cool/desirable' to sit with, so we pretty much ran the show.

    Fun stereo moment- Around 12:30 at night, everyone's either dosing or asleep. Except the back of the bus. My friend shows me the Whitesnake tape he's putting into the player. I smile and cover my girl's ears as the opening rift for "Still fo the Night" blasts out at 747 volume.
    We got detention for a week.

    Fun disturbing moment- We took a charter bus to Toronto. Early evening, my buddy who had been sitting under a blanket with a 'girl of ill repute' from the majorette line was called up front by a chaperone. So he promptly stood up and proceeded to wipe his fingers on the carpeted ceiling as he strolled to the front of the bus. The girl was horrified and turned red. Those of us in the know had a good chuckle.

    Fun field moment- I nailed a judge with the back of my shoulder-mounted tuba as I brought it to my shoulder and turned in formation. The guy hit the ground and nearly got trampled by the woodwinds. We heard his recording from the show, and he blamed himself for being in my way. heheh
     
  3. Shin-Gouki

    Shin-Gouki Retired Admln Veteran

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    My favorites were from my Sr Year, I was 1st chair Tuba in the band. We did our last parade and it was me and a freshman who just started playing. We told him not to play in judging. We got a superior rating and the only slightly negative comment was that "The Tubas were almost overpowering the rest of the band" IT WAS JUST ME! I blew out my lip just after judging but it was worth it.

    Earlier that same year we did our combined Christmas Concert. (As a Sr I had only Electives left to take, so I was in Band, Orchestra, Jazz Band and Choir) The Concert was split up into parts for each group, Band, Orchestra, Sr Choir, Jazz Band, Choir and a combined finale. I was in 5 out of the 6 (Band: Tuba, Orchestra: Bass, was not in the Sr Choir, Jazz Band: Trumpet, Choir, and in the combined Finale I sung a solo). True story, I would finish one group and then have to quickly change jackets or put on a Choir Robe and come right out. It was crazy but it worked out.
     
  4. guard convoy

    guard convoy The Big Daddy

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    lol i know how you are when it comes to overplaying the band lol they use to stuff a shirt into the bell of my bass clarinet cause i was too loud, he gave up and sent me to the back row with the tubas so the wimpy clarinets could be heard (i got a long history hating them good for nothin clarinets, won't even play on the marching field, i had to always pick up their slack)
     
  5. KidDynamite

    KidDynamite Do good recklessly Veteran

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    7th and 8th grade I played bass drum or tri-tom in marching band, mostly because they were heavy and I was stronger than the other drummers. Outside of marching season I played various percussion and snare.

    9th grade I moved to a school that didn't use freshman in marching band so I wasn't in that. I played mostly timpani and snare and a little percussion.

    10th grade I moved again and played snare at marching band camp, but quit band before the school year started. Our halftime show was to be The Wiz. Yes, The Wiz. If you are not familiar with The Wiz, it was a disco musical version of the Wizard of Oz made in the 70's starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson. It sounds like a joke, doesn't it? But it's not. Oh, it's not. Look it up.
     
  6. battleboy

    battleboy Admiral of Awesomness

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    I played alto sax in Jr High then I quit. No band camp, no bus trips. After HS i became an electric bass player and got my BA in music.
     
  7. Ravenxl7

    Ravenxl7 W.A.F.F.L.E.O.

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    I was in band from the fifth grade all the way threw high school, adding up to a total of eight years. I even have a plaque for the four years of HS band. Played percussion for all eight years, and still have the drum pad and xylophone we got (not sure where it is, but I do know it's broken). Only used that for practice for the first four years. Played cymbals, and then base drum for the marching part of HS band, and played various instruments for the concert part of it. We really didn't go to band camp, just practiced at the school for almost a month before school started each year, and each year we went up to Cedar Point to play in the parade they have every year. The bus trips were fun, and it was nice when we got the new uniforms. The old mostly white one's were falling apart, and needed replacing badly. I'm also glad I never had to wear the hat. The percussion section always wore berets. I played in the alumni band last year, and would have done so two years ago if they had enough extra percussion instruments to go around (the schools percussion section barely has enough instruments for itself). My father and both my sisters were in band, though my father and I are the only ones to have gone all four years in HS (he got a trophy for it). He still has his trombone and plays in the alumni band almost every year (it's only one game each year, so it's not hard to keep up with).

    So, yeah, I'm a band geek :dunce 
     
  8. Cujo

    Cujo United States Air Force

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    ours was
    freshman: Beatles
    sophomore: Chicago
    junior: journey
    senior: Harry Potter/Lord of the rings
     
  9. Grimlock_13

    Grimlock_13 Currently facepalming at your post

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    Sweet man I never knew you played percussion :thumbs2: 
     
  10. Eric

    Eric VOTE.

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    I played the baritone. :p  It's like a mini tuba.
     
  11. Star Sabre James

    Star Sabre James The JUICE

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    I played trumpet in fourth grade, too bad I had (and still have) no musical talent at all.
     
  12. J.H.N

    J.H.N the HARSH one

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    Tuba, Trombone, bass.

    I enjoyed it, it was and easy A ;) 
     
  13. TheIncredibleHulk

    TheIncredibleHulk Bad Luck Incarnate

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    I played piano/ keyboard in 7th and 8th grade. Chorus in 8th and 9th grade.

    Only signed up for Chorus in 9th grade because we were going Six Flags in Georgia.
     
  14. darkmgmstr

    darkmgmstr Blue Lantern Corps Member

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    Went from Clarinet in 7-9th grade, Alto Sax in 10th, Tenor Sax in 11th, and finally Bari Sax senior year in high school.
     
  15. Optimus Kharnal

    Optimus Kharnal Well-Known Member

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    Saxophone.. Played through middle school, marched in Highschool and Marched in the University of Texas Longhorn Band. I was decent but I didn't practice much I probably could've been better. I now only play once a year at the UT alumni band game.
     
  16. Optimus Kharnal

    Optimus Kharnal Well-Known Member

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    Bari Sax was always my favorite concert horn. I played Bari in HS Jazz, College Jazz, basketball, and concert bands.
     
  17. jorod74

    jorod74 Psycholagnist (Ret.)

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    2 favorite memories:
    We played The Senior Bowl in Mobile- and there was like 5 inches of mud on the field. We were marching like T-Rexes on a frozen pond trying to play and not fall, but college band that played before us danced to C&C Music Factory and Hammer like it was nothing.

    Our Senior Trip was a week at Disney World and Universal Studios. We had a parade to march in, and our director made us march 5 days a week for 2 months about 2.5 miles playing "Zip a dee doo dah" (no joke) endlessly. Then a week before, we learned that we couldn't play that at Universal Studios (a Disney thing) so we had to learn new music- and the Bataan Death March went on.
    we got there, we marched all of 1/8th of a mile and were done.

    The worst part was the ride down- our A/C broke in our charter bus down to Orlando and for almost 3 hours we had no air circulating on the bus. we get to Orlando and our hotel and the band director tells everybody to stay on the buses.
    we see palm trees bending over in the wind and we bail. even the hot chicks on our bus were so sweaty and nasty, we didn't want to touch em, lol. the rest of the trip was a blast!
     
  18. Boulder

    Boulder Rock Lord

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    Trumpet. And I was so good at it that my teacher suggested I play tuba. I think I'm partially tone-deaf so that doesn't help. (I can tell two half notes apart, but I can't distinguish which is higher.)
     
  19. jqciaomama

    jqciaomama LD Master

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    Played Trumpet from 7th to 10th grade.
     
  20. Eradicator

    Eradicator I am Antithesis

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    I played trombone from 5th grade to tenth grade. I really only stopped because i hated the director. I kind of regret that. I still have my trombone too. I still need to get some sheet music for Star Trek themes or something like that and start playing again.