From Pekin

Well, even though it's early on we had a good showing at Pekin this year. It was a nice little festival. El Paso-Gridley ended up taking the music, visual, and winds captions as well as first place. It's nice to recognized for all the hard work we do. I'm pretty proud of those kids.

Anyway, I promised pictures so here they are.

Rain Delay

It seems like hurricane season is causing quite a bit of trouble for the Central IL marching bands. I've been talking to other directors and they're having the same problems we are. It's shocking just how much we can be affected by this weather.

Just about the time we have practice it pours. I think I've spent more time repainting the lines on my practice field than I have teaching sets. It doesn't exactly feel productive. However, I tell my band to be flexible and I guess I need to learn that I can't control the weather.

We had a pretty good music rehearsal this morning. The dynamics need to stick in our playing though. That's my biggest complaint at this time. Now I hope we retained the sets we learned last night. We've only got three to go, but I figure I'll be reteaching some of the stuff were should already know just because we aren't getting enough reps in on the field!

Well I guess I should get ready tonight's game. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the rain to stop long enough to play. Let's be honest that's all any musician wants to do. I'm no different. I really see a lot of myself in my students. I wonder if that's part of the reason I care so much. I hope I never get too old to remember that they aren't having an easy time.