Rhythm of the Rainforest

I sure like taking pictures of this band.  I wish that every viewer could each see these pictures like I do.  They are complete with surround sound and wide angles.  If you were there I hope that they bring those things to your mind as well.  Thank you band, for letting me be a witness to your amazing journey.  No matter what happens at St. George you can be incredibly and forever proud of what you have accomplished together this year.  I hope that when you look at all the pictures I've captured it will help to bring back to your hearts the good feelings of a job well done, the pride of belonging to something momentous, to fond remembrances of shared laughs and inside jokes, to the surety of strengthened confidence, to the sound of harmonious musical beauty, and especially to the tribal call that is the Rhythm of the Rainforest.

A Really Cool Band

I've said before how tough this band is.  The last few practices of the year have been in some chilly and wet weather.  The Cleaning Camp performance was cold for the performers and the audience alike (although it could have been warmer for some if they were wearing more than shorts and a t-shirt.)   It was a great blessing to the band that the major storm had rolled through earlier than predicted, dumping it's cold slush on the fields and then opening up the sky for the sun to melt that at least.  A small shower kept the band in for 30 mins is all and they were able to show off their show for family and friends one last time under clear skies.  We were grateful that it was not raining of snowing but that didn't keep more than a few bare-armed pit and guard members from visibly shivering as they help position at the first notes of the shows began. The temps dipped even lower quickly in the last minutes of the show.  As the pit and band dads scrambled to clear the equipment off the field they found that frost was building up on the cords and tarps.  I think that everyone was thinking happily forward a few days to when the pit will be fighting the sun's heat on the electronics and the sight of sweat stains under drum carriers is seen again.  Bring on the sun in St. George
!!

Shot in the Dark

 My camera is not as nice as I would like it to be when it comes to capturing images in the dark.  The shutter speed isn't easy to change and I don't know enough about other settings to clean up the light noise in the background.  I can add some filters after the fact to make it look better but not until I get time to play with it in Photoshop.  In the meantime, I've been trying to use the blurring that sometimes happens when I'm not patient enough to get some shots with artist effect like these photos that show the motion and energy of the Color Guard in 2 of my favorite moments... as they spin around Sam during the beautiful flute solo and the chaotic tossing of the flags at the beginning of the storm.

Moves

I really like to watch the guard practice.  They have great an intensity and focus.  Their flipping rifles and whipping flags are exciting  to watch as they count through their fast moving routines.  I like to be around the girls too because they like their photos taken and have great smiles.  I'm afraid that I get them in trouble tho when I'm there while they are practicing because they have a tendency to lose their focus as they try to see if my lens is pointed at them.  I'm thrown out quite a few good shots because they are cutting their eyes at me and because those spinning props are hard to catch at just the right time.  At the practice before Davis I captured a bit of their routines on video.  p.s. there are about 4 people keeping time for different sections of the guard and band in the background.  Impressive that they can dial into just the one meant for them.

Clean As A Whistle

It is a hard thing to go through a long day at school and then right after began a 6 hour practice.  The band does 4 of these “cleaning camps.” The band works on “cleaning” the show which means to fix little (and sometimes big) things that will make it look and sound better.  It is the nit-picky stuff that the judges have been giving feedback on.  They make sure that lines are strait, that visuals are being done uniformly, and they work on intervals intervals intervals!!  Intervals are t

he spaces between band members and even whole lines.  The make lines look strait from multiple angles and keep an eye from being drawn to that spot like a flaw.

As Mr. Beach keeps telling the kids, “This band knows how to work!” and it is true.  They go over and over each part again and again.  They make minor adjustments to sometimes one person and then the whole band does it again to form muscle memory and practice is perfectly.  I am always (and I mean evey single practice) about how uncomplainingly and with energy the band does this over and over.  It proves to me how much getting better means to them as a whole.  It reinforces to each person how very important they are to the success of the entire show that they really are.  It makes my heart just swell with pride at what a fantastic team they are as they work together to get every detail just right.

In addition to the little things, the band sometimes makes major changes to the show.  For example,  a new visual was just added to a part of the show just last week.  I am very excited that the band will be performing their show for the student body at this stage in the season.  I highly recommend that if you haven’t seen the show exept at the first of a season that you make a point to watch one of their later performances   You will be amazed.  This band's 2013 show was great before and now it will blow your socks off!  This band has worked hard to finalize the creation of this show and it is like they are a whole different band now compared to when they started!!  Their performance level is peaking just in time for the Red Rocks State Championship and BOA Regional performance finales of the season! Greak work and Good Luck!!

Guard Bus

As predicted, traveling with the guard bus was very different from the others.  They were very defiantly more chatty and squeely.  *shrug*  I was curious about how they would do a “run through” of the show for silent bus.  I wondered what their traditions were.  Turns out they do not do those things - they have rituals of a different sort.  They don't need to do a run through to "put on their games faces" because they are literally put ting on their game face.  I thought that taking photos on a moving jostling bouncing bus was hard but it is nothing compared to what these girls can do.  They were putting on mascara and curling eyelashes at 65 miles an hour.  It was incredibly impressive.  Then there are the hair-doing and face painting that they help each other with.  And their painted lines were so strait!!  These girls have got talent!

I learned a lot of things during my time in this hairspayed clouded bus.  My favorite tip that I have been teased about not knowing before now (I'm now feeling a technology generation gap that i didn't think was there.)  If you are lacking a mirror and have a camera phone you can just flip the camera view so that it show your own face and use it to get a quick look.  I had never thought about using my phone like that.  Thanks ladies!  I’m so glad that I got to ride along with y’all!

The Competition

It is really nice for the band to be able to watch other bands perform.  The smaller and maybe less experienced bands really show them what SV is accomplishing with their hard work and dedication.  When they get to watch their competition they get to see that they are not some faceless opponent but musicians very much like them.

There are some really neat shows that we are performing with/against.  American Fork is a fantastic, large, high performing band.  They often sweep the caption awards and are soundly in the points lead.  Their show has some eye popping costumes and they are incredibly dedicated musicians.

Davis has a whole show that is a tribute to its school's 100^th year anniversary with highlights of history.

Mountain Crest has their Immmortals show with full length black trench coats and black sunglasses.  The vampire guard members dressed in blood red costumes and dark makeup are wheeled out in coffins with a spooky effect.

Lehi and Riverton bands have some fantastic elements and sounds.  Lehi’s pit/front ensemble is tremendous and blows me away everytime. Riverton has added a dubstep visual that is a real crowd pleaser and has a real solid show.

Bingham’s show has some of my favorite (after SV of course) elements.  It is an ocean theme and their movement unto the field is as if their band is a wave washing unto the field/beach with surf sounds in the background.  Their colorgaurd are dressed in sailor striped uniforms and their blue flags and band keep the wave motif through the show.

After watching the two other 5A bands that have been capturing scores higher than us, band members remarked, “I saw some drops and some lines that weren’t dressed right.”  The feeling was that “Hey, they aren’t perfect. They make mistakes too.  We have a chance to beat them.”  It also helped them to appreciate how very good their competition is at what they are doing well.  “Guys!  We need to step it up!”    

Bus Rides & Break downs

The bus ride home from BYU is a little painful for the band (and the supportive parents that come for pick-ups) what with getting home at 1:30am. But the students come prepared with pillows and blankets and the ride is usually quiet and uneventful.  It is long nighttime drives that make me very grateful that we have good and safe drivers that schlep us all around the state and the very good band dad drivers that haul the equipment trailers.

We have been able to shuttle uneventfully until with went to our Nebo competition. The guard bus hit a very large pheasant with a thump and then a few blocks later pulled off the side because we were leaking something badly.  It was a very good thing that we were still in the valley and only a few blocks from the bus depot.  We tried to limp back to trade buses but warning buzzers kept us from reaching it and the mechanics (thankfully again that they hadn’t gone home yet for the weekend) brought a new one to us.  We made a quick switch and were on our way to catch up with the other busses who had waited for us in Wellsville.

It made for a “To – Go” dinner run but we made it to our competition in time to warm up and the performance went well.

Our travel woes were not quite over as on the way home one of the equipment trailers blew a tire.  Thankfully they were able to pull off safely and after get the spare unlocked (thanks to cell phones) they were back on the road even quicker than it took to get a new guard bus.

Not very fun bookends but we are very glad that they didn’t cause us too much trouble or keep us from performing our show.  Make sure to thank our drivers and band dads for being integral to our show.  Without them getting us there all the hard work would be for naught.

BYU

Except for the 1am arrival time back home, I really really like to watch the band at BYU.  They always seem to play well at BYU.  It is a time in the season when they have worked a lot of the bugs out, have polished the show enough to be proud of it, and they have a really great crowd to perform for.  This audience applauds a lot (important) and loudly (even more important.) The shear size of this crowd lends an additional electricity to the performance and the audience’s excitement about band excellence helps the students perform well for them.

Byu is a neat venue itself.  There is an added anticipation because the 5A bands perform later at night than any of the other places that we have regular season competitions.  The dark of the night in the warm up areas seem to make the music travel easier through the air.  The imposing stadium glows with light.   And then there is the tunnel.  Former band members talk about waiting in the tunnel to come out.  They say that the field just seems so large and bright and the field seems bigger for some reason.  It is very exciting!

Then BYU adds the Jumbo Tron. It is great way for the crowd to get a close up view of what is going on with individual band members.  During a break while we were watching smaller bands perform the members of the band began a “wave” and they scored a camera pan across our group for the big screen.  It was fun for me to capture a few pics of our soloists as they were displayed larger than life there. So exciting!!  And probably a little nerve racking for a few of our more camera shy students.

BYU is my favorite place to watch the band perform for all of these reasons.  Great job band!!

Shako Hair

It takes some doing for girls to get their hair to stay put inside of a shako (this is what a marching hat is called. Did that get put that on the vocabulary list?)  Many girls with longer hair must go to some elaborate lengths (get it?) to pile it all in securely.  Here is a look at a sampling of "Shako Hair."