Solo contest redux
One of my projects on my to-do list is to finish writing up solo contest from last month. I have a little book where I keep my contest info and I want to put it away. Some of this stuff is likely duplicated from my original post but I'm not going to worry about that.
--One of the judges was sick. This was a former student of Mr. C's who is ten years older than me. She got the flu, he was unable to find someone on short notice (because of course they're all, why didn't you call me in the first place? Or else they were busy), so he had to judge.
--I was back in the second grade classroom I've been in before--the teacher was the mom of one of my students. I love her room. :) I had a break in the afternoon and started poking around a bit. She has 17 kids in her class, with most born in 2009 (!). There are three months where the kids do not celebrate birthdays--January, September, and October. I haven't talked about him in a while, but she has a photo memorial card of Michael, my student (our student?) who died while I was teaching. He was just a year younger than her older son. They both played trumpet. There is also a memorial plaque for Michael in the front hall of the school.
--Mrs. N, the school secretary, had us all set up with a ton of pencils on our desks. I had 20 of them! Alas, I bring my own, so I really didn't touch them. She'd also sent in a baritone player named Jack with a bottle of water to give me, which was kind but I didn't need it. She insisted, and it was kind of the boy (I think he was a fourth- or fifth-grader, not someone I already knew), so I just accepted it…and I did eventually drink it. Jack was part of a group of three baritone players out of five or six total. Phew. (Another baritone player in that group was very fidgety and noisy, though thankfully not so much while the others were playing. He got on my nerves. I think this was the kid who wore his jacket the whole time. Not gonna lie, I was happy to ding him for that.)
--My first group didn't get in until 8:05.
--Contest started at 8, and on the half-hour when the groups change, the score sheets are supposed to get turned in. I ran long at 9 so my sheets did not go in at 9:30--and no one was out in the hall to give them to, so I had to hold onto them. I think that next group had only two kids or something, definitely on the small side, so as soon as I finished with them, I ran my sheets up. Sure enough, they were looking for them. I'd made sure to separate the 9 and 9:30 sheets so the earlier ones would get checked first. This would happen again later, too; guys, you might want to hang out by the rooms where you didn't get anything, or at least come back in a little bit. It means it takes longer for the players to get their scores back when the sheets don't get turned in on time. (You play, you wait a little bit, and about a half-hour after you're done, your score gets posted, or at least that's how I remember it. It's torture if it takes longer than that.)
--We have a little trombone player at camp who's a pretty good player. He'd be in A Band this year. Turns out he has a little sister who plays flute. I'd love to see her at camp.
--I'm sure I mentioned my little tenor sax player (buddies with the little trombone player from camp, actually) and his sax issues. Funny how much better his solo sounded once his sax started working again!
--Some of the older band members, plus graduates, were solo sheet runners or brought the next groups of players to the rooms. There was a trumpet player named Sean I knew from camp who was a runner--and his right arm was in a sling. What did you do? I think he said he tore ligaments in his right hand while playing basketball. Ouch. Hope you heal up well! Other runners included the daughters of one of the camp dads--his older daughter was a rookie counselor last year on flute, and the younger one was first chair clarinet and should be a counselor this year.
--There was an interesting issue with one of the solos, maybe Janus, the clarinet solo. I saw this happen twice. Mr. C has copied and copied and copied again some of these solos so that the notes have started to fill in. A half note is an open circle with a line on the side; a quarter note is a closed circle with a line on the side. A few of the half notes had circles that were so thick that they about looked like quarter notes--and that's how the kids played them. Janus is a waltz and should be in 3, with 3 beats in every measure. However, it's a first-year solo, so your average first-year player isn't sophisticated enough to realize that. They just see what looks like two quarter notes in a measure, play two quarter notes, and move on. Two separate kids did that. I'm kind of surprised Mr. C didn't catch it. He's slipping. I made sure to comment on it to the kids, and I wrote it on their sheets, but I can't take points off for it; they're playing the music to the best of their ability. And for the most part, their solos were fine. This was just a quirk.
--I likely already mentioned that Mrs. N does not care for the creepy dad from camp. His daughter graduates next year and Mrs. N is not unhappy to see her parents go. (They think they're being helpful. They're not. They're like this at camp--and only the dad goes, but the mom had been a camper.)
--One of the other runners was a daughter of the camp mom, Mrs. S. This is the mom with four daughters total. Her youngest graduates this year, and because her high school's camp conflicts with our camp, she can't go. This is what happened to the next-youngest daughter, who's a wonderful percussionist (and who acted as a runner). The oldest daughter is my oldest counselor…or was; she graduated from nursing school and passed her boards, so she'll likely have a job and not be able to make it. This is not a surprise as she kind of prepared us for that last summer. Still a bummer because she's awesome, but time marches on. The last daughter, second-oldest, should still be able to make it and is looking forward to it.
--I had small groups after lunch, mostly just in 2s. I was done with judging by 3:10.
--Mr. C had brought in an example of the camp fliers. Fancy! They're in color! They also had a direct link to my photo album on Flickr, which is okay. Mr. C is totally a "do it now, apologize later" sort of person. Once contest was over, we made sure to count out 300 fliers for Mr. M (which was basically the remainder in the box--the kids get fliers stapled to their score sheets, I think), and I grabbed one and Mrs. S grabbed one. Incidentally, I was told by Mr. C that it was a pain for him to grab pictures off my website. I had told him he could ask me for help and I'd send him pictures, but I guess he did it too late at night or too close to his deadline that he couldn't call me. Okay, whatever.
--Mr. M's contest isn't until April. (He still hasn't confirmed a date.)
--Mrs. S got a text from her husband in the morning; she read it at lunchtime. Her oldest daughter had a…female question. This is the child who caused her mother's maternity leave, providing me my teaching position, which was 13 years ago now. Perhaps you see where this is going. Let's just say it was a good thing it was a Saturday, not a Friday, and her daughter was able to be at home to deal with her new circumstances. Mrs. S felt bad that she couldn't be there, but I could hear her giving instructions over the phone, so I'm sure it all turned out okay. Mrs. S had kind of gone over things starting last summer, so her daughter knew where to find supplies at least.
--Mr. C's friend, Mr. P, had been in band with me; he's not any longer and spent much of his time around me bad-mouthing the band. Bitter much? I'm not sure I mentioned that I have a spy in his current band and it appears he's not having any problems with them. Hopefully he learned from his mistakes. Sometimes you have to rein in your personality to fit in with others.
Some of the solos I heard:
--Wooden Shoe Dance (clarinet)
--Fandango (baritone)
--Carnival of Venice (trumpet)
--Golden Dreams (flute)
--My Buddy (baritone)
--Tulip (alto sax)
--Clarinet Waltz (clarinet)
--Pied Piper (baritone)
--Janus (clarinet)
--Pahokee Polka (clarinet) (probably my favorite solo name of the day)
--Crown Prince (flute, most likely--this was my first-year solo)
--Springtime Waltz (alto sax)
--Hokus Pokus (flute) - Played by one of Mr. D's students; she got my highest score of the day, a 29 (out of 30), and needs to work on articulation; she "ha"s her notes instead of tonguing them, but otherwise she's a pretty good player.
--One of the judges was sick. This was a former student of Mr. C's who is ten years older than me. She got the flu, he was unable to find someone on short notice (because of course they're all, why didn't you call me in the first place? Or else they were busy), so he had to judge.
--I was back in the second grade classroom I've been in before--the teacher was the mom of one of my students. I love her room. :) I had a break in the afternoon and started poking around a bit. She has 17 kids in her class, with most born in 2009 (!). There are three months where the kids do not celebrate birthdays--January, September, and October. I haven't talked about him in a while, but she has a photo memorial card of Michael, my student (our student?) who died while I was teaching. He was just a year younger than her older son. They both played trumpet. There is also a memorial plaque for Michael in the front hall of the school.
--Mrs. N, the school secretary, had us all set up with a ton of pencils on our desks. I had 20 of them! Alas, I bring my own, so I really didn't touch them. She'd also sent in a baritone player named Jack with a bottle of water to give me, which was kind but I didn't need it. She insisted, and it was kind of the boy (I think he was a fourth- or fifth-grader, not someone I already knew), so I just accepted it…and I did eventually drink it. Jack was part of a group of three baritone players out of five or six total. Phew. (Another baritone player in that group was very fidgety and noisy, though thankfully not so much while the others were playing. He got on my nerves. I think this was the kid who wore his jacket the whole time. Not gonna lie, I was happy to ding him for that.)
--My first group didn't get in until 8:05.
--Contest started at 8, and on the half-hour when the groups change, the score sheets are supposed to get turned in. I ran long at 9 so my sheets did not go in at 9:30--and no one was out in the hall to give them to, so I had to hold onto them. I think that next group had only two kids or something, definitely on the small side, so as soon as I finished with them, I ran my sheets up. Sure enough, they were looking for them. I'd made sure to separate the 9 and 9:30 sheets so the earlier ones would get checked first. This would happen again later, too; guys, you might want to hang out by the rooms where you didn't get anything, or at least come back in a little bit. It means it takes longer for the players to get their scores back when the sheets don't get turned in on time. (You play, you wait a little bit, and about a half-hour after you're done, your score gets posted, or at least that's how I remember it. It's torture if it takes longer than that.)
--We have a little trombone player at camp who's a pretty good player. He'd be in A Band this year. Turns out he has a little sister who plays flute. I'd love to see her at camp.
--I'm sure I mentioned my little tenor sax player (buddies with the little trombone player from camp, actually) and his sax issues. Funny how much better his solo sounded once his sax started working again!
--Some of the older band members, plus graduates, were solo sheet runners or brought the next groups of players to the rooms. There was a trumpet player named Sean I knew from camp who was a runner--and his right arm was in a sling. What did you do? I think he said he tore ligaments in his right hand while playing basketball. Ouch. Hope you heal up well! Other runners included the daughters of one of the camp dads--his older daughter was a rookie counselor last year on flute, and the younger one was first chair clarinet and should be a counselor this year.
--There was an interesting issue with one of the solos, maybe Janus, the clarinet solo. I saw this happen twice. Mr. C has copied and copied and copied again some of these solos so that the notes have started to fill in. A half note is an open circle with a line on the side; a quarter note is a closed circle with a line on the side. A few of the half notes had circles that were so thick that they about looked like quarter notes--and that's how the kids played them. Janus is a waltz and should be in 3, with 3 beats in every measure. However, it's a first-year solo, so your average first-year player isn't sophisticated enough to realize that. They just see what looks like two quarter notes in a measure, play two quarter notes, and move on. Two separate kids did that. I'm kind of surprised Mr. C didn't catch it. He's slipping. I made sure to comment on it to the kids, and I wrote it on their sheets, but I can't take points off for it; they're playing the music to the best of their ability. And for the most part, their solos were fine. This was just a quirk.
--I likely already mentioned that Mrs. N does not care for the creepy dad from camp. His daughter graduates next year and Mrs. N is not unhappy to see her parents go. (They think they're being helpful. They're not. They're like this at camp--and only the dad goes, but the mom had been a camper.)
--One of the other runners was a daughter of the camp mom, Mrs. S. This is the mom with four daughters total. Her youngest graduates this year, and because her high school's camp conflicts with our camp, she can't go. This is what happened to the next-youngest daughter, who's a wonderful percussionist (and who acted as a runner). The oldest daughter is my oldest counselor…or was; she graduated from nursing school and passed her boards, so she'll likely have a job and not be able to make it. This is not a surprise as she kind of prepared us for that last summer. Still a bummer because she's awesome, but time marches on. The last daughter, second-oldest, should still be able to make it and is looking forward to it.
--I had small groups after lunch, mostly just in 2s. I was done with judging by 3:10.
--Mr. C had brought in an example of the camp fliers. Fancy! They're in color! They also had a direct link to my photo album on Flickr, which is okay. Mr. C is totally a "do it now, apologize later" sort of person. Once contest was over, we made sure to count out 300 fliers for Mr. M (which was basically the remainder in the box--the kids get fliers stapled to their score sheets, I think), and I grabbed one and Mrs. S grabbed one. Incidentally, I was told by Mr. C that it was a pain for him to grab pictures off my website. I had told him he could ask me for help and I'd send him pictures, but I guess he did it too late at night or too close to his deadline that he couldn't call me. Okay, whatever.
--Mr. M's contest isn't until April. (He still hasn't confirmed a date.)
--Mrs. S got a text from her husband in the morning; she read it at lunchtime. Her oldest daughter had a…female question. This is the child who caused her mother's maternity leave, providing me my teaching position, which was 13 years ago now. Perhaps you see where this is going. Let's just say it was a good thing it was a Saturday, not a Friday, and her daughter was able to be at home to deal with her new circumstances. Mrs. S felt bad that she couldn't be there, but I could hear her giving instructions over the phone, so I'm sure it all turned out okay. Mrs. S had kind of gone over things starting last summer, so her daughter knew where to find supplies at least.
--Mr. C's friend, Mr. P, had been in band with me; he's not any longer and spent much of his time around me bad-mouthing the band. Bitter much? I'm not sure I mentioned that I have a spy in his current band and it appears he's not having any problems with them. Hopefully he learned from his mistakes. Sometimes you have to rein in your personality to fit in with others.
Some of the solos I heard:
--Wooden Shoe Dance (clarinet)
--Fandango (baritone)
--Carnival of Venice (trumpet)
--Golden Dreams (flute)
--My Buddy (baritone)
--Tulip (alto sax)
--Clarinet Waltz (clarinet)
--Pied Piper (baritone)
--Janus (clarinet)
--Pahokee Polka (clarinet) (probably my favorite solo name of the day)
--Crown Prince (flute, most likely--this was my first-year solo)
--Springtime Waltz (alto sax)
--Hokus Pokus (flute) - Played by one of Mr. D's students; she got my highest score of the day, a 29 (out of 30), and needs to work on articulation; she "ha"s her notes instead of tonguing them, but otherwise she's a pretty good player.