Weekly Note

Are you ready for some Marching Band?!?!

I hope the brass and woodwind musicians have enjoyed their time off, but are anxious to get back to work. The colorguard and percussion have been working very hard the past few weeks in anticipation of the entire group getting together again.

If you are riding the metro, please note you will need to arrive early. Once you exit the Congress Heights Metro Stop, you will enter St. E’s through the security gate, take a left and walk about 5 minutes to the chapel. If you are driving, please enter at the gate just north of Malcolm X on MLK Blvd. Maps are located on the DCDD Calendar and in the Lambda Room.

The schedule for tomorrow will be a bit different from the remainder of the season. I ask that you arrive as soon as possible after 6:30PM so that we may hand out music, get settled in and use as much daylight as we can for running music. At some point after dark, we may move into the chapel, so if you prefer, please bring ear plugs. Remember, if you’re on-time, you’re late.
I plan to start warm-ups right at 7PM, so please make sure you are on-site and ready to play at that time. We will do little marching tomorrow, but mainly sightreading the music for this year. Rehearsal will end around 8:45PM and we will head to a location as yet to be determined for post-rehearsal refreshments.

Even though we will not be marching, you may be standing for an extended period of time, so make sure you wear comfortable clothing (changing facilities are available) and come prepared to work.

I can’t say how excited I am to officially start our full-ensemble rehearsals from this year and I expect and anticipate great things from the group!

From David H. (Percussion Caption Head)
Again, great consistency in the momentum! Try not to get frustrated with Battery Jam, it is really coming together quite nicely, you really can hear the progress. Don't forget to access me for individual or small sectional rehearsals, open and available time is my friend right now. For Monday, be prepared to perform Battery Jam for the full ensemble to show off all your hard work. Also be prepared to play through the Roll-of and Halt cadence. Begin looking for music lyres. We do have a few, but if you have any tucked away somewhere, please dig them out and we'll assess how many are needed. The new sticks/mallets/cymbal pads will be there Monday.