Percussion Ensemble Dayton Regional Day 1

5:15 AM is awfully early. The kids were great though. We loaded the bus at 6:15 and ... the bus won't start. After ten minutes one of the snow plow guys realized there a switch set wrong. OK NOW we are off.

For those of you that do not know what an indoor percussion ensemble is, here is a little background. Outdoor field band season is late July through early November. So what do the 100+ band geeks do in the off season? They move indoors. There are three Band Boosters sponsored groups at Victor: Indoor Percussion Ensemble, Indoor Colorguard a.k.a. Winterguard, and a younger version for middle school kids called Cadet Guard. Between the three groups there are about 65 or 70 kids participating.

Percussion ensemble has 31 kids, 29 on this trip. They include drummers (snares, quads/tenors, and basses) as well as keyboard and mallet instruments. Plus there are guitars, timpani, cymbals and any other instrument that is played by using the hands to impact or strum the instrument to create the sounds.

I have two kids, both in the drumline. Emily is in her fourth season playing cymbals, and Danny is in his first season playing synthesizer. The group plays a show about 5 or 6 minutes long. It is typically in a gymnasium. The battery (drums cymbals) moves in a highly choreographed show. The pit stays put. The whole show is judged in competition with other schools.

Here is a YouTube video from last year's show. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSEv_3hiFMQ

Reputations for drummers are that they are the "bad boys" of the band. I have to contradict that. In fact this group of kids is the easiest bus load of kids to chaperone ever. These teens today played with Paly-Doh, played Risk, did Where's Waldo books. OK they made a big deal out of planning on doing kid stuff. But heck I'll take that any day.

This trip is a WGI regional competition, an early season event held after shows are typically complete but maybe not final. The kids are still learning and refining the show.

This is also our inexpensive trip. The kids are sleeping on a gym floor tonight. The bus arrived at the practice site, we unloaded, had some dinner and thay are rehearsing as we speak. They will probably go until about 10:30 or so. Then simply drop sleeping bags on the floor and pick up where they left off tomorrow.

The even tomorrow has a preliminary round where we perform at 11:39, and finals that start at 7:00. After the event it is back on the bus to drive home overnight.