Contests Contests And More Contests, And Stuff- The Longest Post

Contest season is WELL underway. We have had a mixed bag to this date.
The Moore contest was good and ok. Prelims went well and finals was, ok.
Putnam City, a contest I knew we wouldn't final in, was ok. We were the defending champions at the Konawa contest. It was OK. We defended a portion of our title. We repeated as class champs but that was it.

I'm not mad or even disappointed. I'm sort of in a state of limbo. The kids haven't really fired on all cylinders at contest yet. Any performance really. Audiences have YET to see what I get to see everyday. Yes there are times when it is average at best. There are also times where I would be honored to take them to Grand Nationals in Indianapolis.

I have a young band. A very young band. A majority of my students are in the 8th and 9th grades. I challenge ANY band to compete on the level that we compete on with the same population my band has. I am extremely pleased with what our band does. We do not have 100 kids. We barely have 50. We do not have an abundance of talent. We DO have great students. We DO have great attitudes. We DO have dedication. I'll take my group any day over 200 students and the headaches that come with them.

We are currently staring OBA in the face. We have one tune to put on the field and three weeks to do it. We may not climb in the standings. We will probably drop. That's cool. OUR band has come a long way this year. We actually learned something this year. We learned some responsibility. We learned how to function as a group. A pretty large group of 8th graders came in and learned how to march AND play at the same time. At a pretty good level too.

Our composer, Peter Felice and brother Mario, visited us just before the Konawa trip. He came to our football game and went to contest with us. This cat is IN to music. He has a pretty good concept of what he wants to do with it too. I was impressed. The dude seemed to have a good sense of humor too. I spent a fare amount of time ribbing he and his brother and they took to it quite well. They're Simpsons fans too. Be still my heart.

I think we have next years show sort of nailed down. This is a first for me. Usually I wait until January to seriously consider projects. We conceptualized it in the van rides to and from Konawa and in the club at Peters hotel....

COLOR GUARD IS GETTING BETTER!
They had really good scores at Konawa. Fires me up!

I am currently very grateful to the kids. There has been so little complaining. There have been so few problems this year. If we can grow the Tuba section up; get them ALL to pass classes, bring their music, act older than 10 etc.. we'll be in pretty decent shape. Of course Peter, the Euphonium player, wants more Euphoniums. I agree. I need bodies though.

I am starting to think that I see the corner we need to turn. We're not there yet, but we're getting pretty close!

7th grade continues to get better. I'm not quite sure yet but I think they may end up better than last years crew. It's going to be close. They have responsibility issues. Forgetting music and supplies etc.. A really talented group though. If they'll get an urge to practice they'll be GREAT. Not good but great.

6th grade continues to get better as well. I've been able to LISTEN to them for over a month now. Beginners can be tough on the ears for quite some time. this group was tough for about 2 weeks. THAT"S AWESOME!

Our trumpets are pretty sweet, our Flutes a really good, some of our Clarinets are REALLY good- too many are so-so, percussion is good for the most part, and Trombones are pretty decent too. Usually the Trombones are pretty awful. Not so this year. There's some good talent in there.

I wish I had ALL the students every day. This is a battle that I must win. Sports at Harrah has too much of a stranglehold over the schedule. Athletics are wonderful. I was an athlete and my kids are now. I love athletics. They should not be part of the schedule at the middle school level though.

In an era of low test scores and foreign countries outperforming Americans in ALL educational measures, we have sports as a class in middle school. I don't get it. Schools with WAY more athletic ability than Harrah have their middle school teams meet after school.

Shawnee-Tulsa
Guthrie-Jenks
Carl Albert-Union
Yukon-Broken Arrow
Mustang-El Reno
Putnam City-Chickasha
Edmond-Enid
Norman-Stillwater
Kingfisher-Cashion
Clinton Deer-Creek

Yes, some of these are 6A powerhouses. If Jenks and Union can meet after school we can too. THEY have won the 6A titles for 10 of the past 11 years. We can do it too!

Band kids, you rule!

No fear, no regrets!