Regular Band: Don't fold over folders
Week 2. We did not have to queue up this week in order to enter. In fact, I don't know that there was anyone waiting to talk to any band members out in the hallway, at least that I saw when I arrived before 7. Perhaps everyone showed proof of vaccination and it didn't matter?
A few more people were back this week, including D in the flute section, C in the trombone section, K the elder in the sax section, and a special visitor, M in the clarinet section--formerly Marian the Librarian, I believe. This is how bad my brain is these days, that I'm *pretty* sure I called her that, but not 100%. She had moved out of state to be closer to her daughter and grandsons, but came back to visit. There was a man sitting in the doorway the whole time and I thought it was someone else's husband, but I realized, no, he's with M.
D's return caused a bit of an issue. I got there and immediately set about getting the right amount of chairs in the front row. Whoever sets us up is not following our current band line-up, and there likely isn't any sort of sheet showing who should be where. D must've shown up while I was doing that, because I waited until I was done to go grab my folder...and it wasn't there. The poor, put-upon band manager happened to be walking over and I asked if perhaps she'd taken the folder, and she said as far as she could recall, she hadn't touched them. Hmm. Weird. And folder 5 was in the wrong slot as well. When I went back to my seat, I saw D was there and I went, what folder do you have? Aha, she had mine, and was like, oh, I didn't realize it was yours. ...Only for like nine years now. I went and grabbed her folder 5, so I could get mine back, and around that time the night's schedule was getting written on the board--but folder 5 didn't have any of the music in it. Uh-oh. E showed up with folder 4--technically D's folder anyway--and we figured we could ask the band manager to make copies. We'd also mentioned the situation to our section leader, who'd said, don't bother the manager with this; I can make the copies. (Eventually it dawned on me that she was helping the band manager out, bless her. She's a retired band director and has lots of experience with this.) When E and I started looking through our folders for music to copy, not to mention finding the music so we were able to play, we started finding duplicate copies. That's when the section leader went, I thought we made enough copies for everyone! And part of the confusion is that we have our regular folders, plus the paper folders, plus the manila envelopes. I ultimately put everything new into the paper folder, because that's small enough to put in my flute bag to take home. The black folder is too large to fit anywhere and has to be carried separately. I never made copies last weekend so I hope to get to that in a few days; that way I'll always have my own music. Not that I want D to take whatever folder she wants (and she's been in the band longer than I've been alive; you'd think she'd know she's assigned to a specific folder), but she could at that point.
AD2 was only up briefly, running her faster song, then had to go apparently. We only worked a small section of it, too. AD1 was up next and we worked on the French horn solo, which definitely has errata in places (I should be writing this down to add to the music wiki), but for whatever reason I haven't been writing anything on my music. It's brand new. It's like I don't want to mess it up or something, I don't know. I'm usually fine with that, too. I just want to wait for my personal copies for whatever reason. And then AD1 worked on a second piece, and when we did it I was like, oh, yeah, I *do* remember playing this last week! So, yes, AD1 does have two songs he's working on.
When the director came up, we worked on about a half-dozen pieces, though I think only one, the drum number, was something we'd run through last week. At least this time around we didn't turn anything in. We are also doing a musical medley of a show that involves phantoms and operas, heh. This was Two-Chairs-Down's signature piece, because halfway through there is a theatrical scream, and she was the screamer. It's bloodcurdling. Even knowing it's coming, if you sit anywhere near her, you still pee your pants a little. Alas, she is not currently involved in band, so someone else will need to scream. Nobody volunteered on Monday. The trick is to be able to do it without losing your voice. It needs to be full-throated and piercing. The only other thing I remember from that piece, and the only other thing that sticks out from rehearsal, is that the flutes have a little melodic line, a bunch of 8th notes, and there's supposed to be a fermata on the last one. The director blew through it. It appears I wasn't the only one concerned about it, though I'm the one who verbalized it, and we were told that yes, he plans to conduct it--but we'd run it again next week. Okay, fine.
E and I talked before and after band. Beforehand, she was saying that she talked to Fancy Band D that, hey, I hear you know so-and-so! He was all, oh my gosh! Yep, I wasn't kidding about being in band with the two of you. She said she was telling him how she keeps thinking I'm all proper and stuff, and then I'll say something completely not-proper and I'll crack her up. Like, yeah, I totally look like I'm a librarian, but I certainly can do a 180. Subverting expectations since 1977, that's me. Then, after band, she started talking about masks. She leans more conservative, and in our area there's been a big uproar over masks vs. no masks. There was a ruling recently regarding wearing masks in schools, and the people who want no masks have been protesting districts where there are mask mandates, claiming that because of this ruling, they don't have to wear masks (when actually it only pertained to the people who were included in the lawsuit, from what I understand; it didn't cover everyone carte blanche), and she really wants the kids to have the option to take them off. I see where she's coming from, but at the same time I see the reasoning for keeping them on, and while I didn't say this to her, if the kids are whiny about wearing masks, it's because the parents are whiny. The families that just accepted it as this is what we do to keep ourselves and others safe, they're not the complainers. I do believe her district has now gone to masks optional, so we'll see what happens with that.
A few more people were back this week, including D in the flute section, C in the trombone section, K the elder in the sax section, and a special visitor, M in the clarinet section--formerly Marian the Librarian, I believe. This is how bad my brain is these days, that I'm *pretty* sure I called her that, but not 100%. She had moved out of state to be closer to her daughter and grandsons, but came back to visit. There was a man sitting in the doorway the whole time and I thought it was someone else's husband, but I realized, no, he's with M.
D's return caused a bit of an issue. I got there and immediately set about getting the right amount of chairs in the front row. Whoever sets us up is not following our current band line-up, and there likely isn't any sort of sheet showing who should be where. D must've shown up while I was doing that, because I waited until I was done to go grab my folder...and it wasn't there. The poor, put-upon band manager happened to be walking over and I asked if perhaps she'd taken the folder, and she said as far as she could recall, she hadn't touched them. Hmm. Weird. And folder 5 was in the wrong slot as well. When I went back to my seat, I saw D was there and I went, what folder do you have? Aha, she had mine, and was like, oh, I didn't realize it was yours. ...Only for like nine years now. I went and grabbed her folder 5, so I could get mine back, and around that time the night's schedule was getting written on the board--but folder 5 didn't have any of the music in it. Uh-oh. E showed up with folder 4--technically D's folder anyway--and we figured we could ask the band manager to make copies. We'd also mentioned the situation to our section leader, who'd said, don't bother the manager with this; I can make the copies. (Eventually it dawned on me that she was helping the band manager out, bless her. She's a retired band director and has lots of experience with this.) When E and I started looking through our folders for music to copy, not to mention finding the music so we were able to play, we started finding duplicate copies. That's when the section leader went, I thought we made enough copies for everyone! And part of the confusion is that we have our regular folders, plus the paper folders, plus the manila envelopes. I ultimately put everything new into the paper folder, because that's small enough to put in my flute bag to take home. The black folder is too large to fit anywhere and has to be carried separately. I never made copies last weekend so I hope to get to that in a few days; that way I'll always have my own music. Not that I want D to take whatever folder she wants (and she's been in the band longer than I've been alive; you'd think she'd know she's assigned to a specific folder), but she could at that point.
AD2 was only up briefly, running her faster song, then had to go apparently. We only worked a small section of it, too. AD1 was up next and we worked on the French horn solo, which definitely has errata in places (I should be writing this down to add to the music wiki), but for whatever reason I haven't been writing anything on my music. It's brand new. It's like I don't want to mess it up or something, I don't know. I'm usually fine with that, too. I just want to wait for my personal copies for whatever reason. And then AD1 worked on a second piece, and when we did it I was like, oh, yeah, I *do* remember playing this last week! So, yes, AD1 does have two songs he's working on.
When the director came up, we worked on about a half-dozen pieces, though I think only one, the drum number, was something we'd run through last week. At least this time around we didn't turn anything in. We are also doing a musical medley of a show that involves phantoms and operas, heh. This was Two-Chairs-Down's signature piece, because halfway through there is a theatrical scream, and she was the screamer. It's bloodcurdling. Even knowing it's coming, if you sit anywhere near her, you still pee your pants a little. Alas, she is not currently involved in band, so someone else will need to scream. Nobody volunteered on Monday. The trick is to be able to do it without losing your voice. It needs to be full-throated and piercing. The only other thing I remember from that piece, and the only other thing that sticks out from rehearsal, is that the flutes have a little melodic line, a bunch of 8th notes, and there's supposed to be a fermata on the last one. The director blew through it. It appears I wasn't the only one concerned about it, though I'm the one who verbalized it, and we were told that yes, he plans to conduct it--but we'd run it again next week. Okay, fine.
E and I talked before and after band. Beforehand, she was saying that she talked to Fancy Band D that, hey, I hear you know so-and-so! He was all, oh my gosh! Yep, I wasn't kidding about being in band with the two of you. She said she was telling him how she keeps thinking I'm all proper and stuff, and then I'll say something completely not-proper and I'll crack her up. Like, yeah, I totally look like I'm a librarian, but I certainly can do a 180. Subverting expectations since 1977, that's me. Then, after band, she started talking about masks. She leans more conservative, and in our area there's been a big uproar over masks vs. no masks. There was a ruling recently regarding wearing masks in schools, and the people who want no masks have been protesting districts where there are mask mandates, claiming that because of this ruling, they don't have to wear masks (when actually it only pertained to the people who were included in the lawsuit, from what I understand; it didn't cover everyone carte blanche), and she really wants the kids to have the option to take them off. I see where she's coming from, but at the same time I see the reasoning for keeping them on, and while I didn't say this to her, if the kids are whiny about wearing masks, it's because the parents are whiny. The families that just accepted it as this is what we do to keep ourselves and others safe, they're not the complainers. I do believe her district has now gone to masks optional, so we'll see what happens with that.