As you all know, Jumble recently attended Bands of America Grand Nationals in Indianapolis, Indiana. She had a great time, over-all. These are some of the ups and downs:
1. Down: waking up at 3:00 a.m. so she could meet at the school by 4:15 a.m. (For me, waking up at 2:00 a.m. and not going back to sleep before the alarm went off at 3:00 a.m.!)
2. Up: Seeing the little town of American Fork, Ut awake, alive, and excited at 4:00 a.m. as 250 students made their way to the high school.
3. Up: Missing two days of school and going on an adventure with good friends!
4. Down: Long, boring plane rides and lay-overs when you are exhausted from getting up at 3:00 a.m.
5. Up: Marching onto the Colt's football field in Lucas Oil Stadium and realizing that you are really at Grand Nationals.
6. Up: Knowing that the entire American Fork High School student body and all of your families are watching your preliminary performance as it is broadcast on every T.V. in the school.
7. Up: (for us) Getting everyone ready for school and then hurrying over to American Fork High School band room at 8:00 a.m. to watch your daughter and her band perform at Grand Nationals in a packed room filled with other cheering band families. (for Minnie and Jet) Getting to miss the first 45 minutes of school so you can watch your sister's band perform.
8. Up: Out of 92 bands, being one of the 32 that qualified for semi-finals.
9. Up: (for us) Going back to the band room for the the semi-finalist announcements that evening and cheering with all of the other band families.
10. Up: Buying clarinet earrings and a teddy bear with your band name on it.
11. Up: Performing in semi-finals, and coming off the field knowing that your band performed the very best that they could and was darn near perfect!
12. Up: (for us) Back to the band room at 8:15 Saturday morning to watch the semi-finals performance and seeing them give their best performance ever (along with hundreds of other cheering band families.)
13. Up: Having a Bands of America judge tell one of your directors that you are "solidly one of the top 5 bands here and will qualify for finals--without question!"
14. Down: Feeling stunned and devastated by not being one of the twelve bands chosen to advance to finals, despite what the one judge said. (For us) Back to the band room Saturday afternoon and finding out that you don't get to see your daughter's band perform one more time in finals.
15. Up: Watching some "legendary" bands perform in finals and realizing that their shows are not nearly as difficult as your music and drill. Realizing that your band really is as good as the "legends," just doesn't perform in a theatrical style, which evidentally more of the judges prefer.
16. Up: Knowing that your band had the most difficult drill (over 90 sets) and one of the most difficult musical repertoires, and you still managed to do both of those things together and do it almost perfectly.
17. Down: Realizing that some judges are wowed by props and other gimmicks and don't notice difficult music and drill.
18. Up: No one in your band had their instrument lying in the grass while they were doing weird dancing moves at any time during your band's show.
19. Up: Your band's show did not include any weird chanting narration that made it impossible to hear the music you were playing.
20. Down: Having one judge comment that "the band played for too much of the show." Huh?!
21. Up: Finding out that you finished 6th in preliminaries, and 14th in semi-finals and only missed making finals by a fraction of a point.
22. Down: Seeing that your music scores were much lower than other bands who didn't play very much, and what they did play was easier, was played while the bands knelt on one knee rather than while performing difficult drill, and was nearly impossible to hear with the weird fractured narration going on during the show.
23. Up: Being one of only 3 bands that recieved a standing ovation from the entire stadium crowd during the semi-finals performances.
24. Up: Being told by other bands that they couldn't believe you didn't make finals.
25. Up: Having a band director who sets a good example of being a good sport even when things don't go the way you hoped and felt they should have. Having a band director who is dedicated to music that challenges your musicianship and drill that requires many hours to master. Having a band director that ensures that you all come home feeling like winners, despite the disappointment.
26. Up: Meeting and competing with some of the best bands in the country.
27. Up: Coming home and telling your family all about your adventures and having them want to hear about every last detail.
3 comments:
GOOD JOB!! What a great experience even with the disappointment, it so good to see the good and move on! Not many people can say as much!!!
Made me think a lot about my trip to Washington DC with band--except we didn't have some of the disappointments... But I could relate to those as well from some of my and Orem High's Drama festival experiences. (My favorite was the time a judge made the comment about Orem's one act play: "I've seen this play performed by college students, and this is the best I've ever seen," and then the same judge rating it as average...
Sounds like it was a wonderful, positive experience in spite of the disappointment. We are proud of Jumble and excited for her!
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