So I auditioned at Damien High School and was pretty much going in blind. I auditioned on Trombone and Baritone and did well, ok...not as good as last week with my Bluecoat auditions. I definitely was more nervous for my blue devil audition and was just hoping for the best. I made a few new friends but hung out with Henri Richardson most of the time. Henri and I both made call backs but he was asked to be in the corps by John Meehan right on the spot. CONGRATS! One guy, his name is Casey Searless is from Oklahoma and marched with the 2007 Broken Arrow High School, one of my favorite high school bands! He played sax but was really quite good at baritone. He didnt make call backs and i was kinda sad but life goes on, we still talk on facebook.
So Jan camp was quite an experience, i drove up with andrew and thomas in thomas’ truck...i was a long ride but was really funny. We got to pleasant hill a couple hours early so we just got our room and hung out a little and we went to the biggest Sports Authority i had ever seen. I got a new pair of UA gloves for practice. We got to the school where practice was held, right across the street from Diablo Valley College. The DVC field is almost exactly like my home field at RCC but there is no big tiger head in the middle, just a big yellow circle PERFECT for “circle drill”. Circle drill is an exercise where everyone stands about a two step interval around the circle and we basically expand and contract the circle and also rotate it. It really helps with keeping consistent intervals and step size along with good shoulders.
Throughout the camp we (the callbacks) were being watched by all the staff. A very terrifying feeling because they wouldn’t say or give any hints on how we were doing, which was very nerve racking. I felt i did great visually and really bad at the musical part, just really new to this euphonium thing and just wasn’t doing my best mostly because i am so used to sliding around on the trombone and being constricted to only three keys. I am really getting a hang of it now though and am getting a lot better. We always start out with music rehearsal and were given “Asphalt Cocktail” and WOW! Wayne Downey did a GREAT job on it, it sounded amazingly awesome, but a couple weeks later it was taken away, because they found out that 4 other corps were playing the same piece. LOL Next we did visual rehearsal which was really fun and everytime i learn something new. We did Breathing Gym exercises before we play, which is really important and helpful, and we also do a lot of stretches and its so relaxing and fun, the blue devil staff knows how to make it a great time. I like that a lot! Sunday, the last day of the camp, i still didn’t know if i was going to make it or not but i was pretty sure my music audition wrecked it for me. I didn’t find out until late sunday into music rehearsal. It was the most nervous and nerve racking experience I have ever went through, and finally it happened. John Meehan called me, Jeremy Fallis, and Sean O’Conner to go outside real quick. I dont really remember anything before that because i was so focused on trying to figure out if i made it or who didnt make it from other peoples facial expressions. We were called outside the door and here he came. He just flat out said, “Well,...... Congratulations, we would like to offer you a spot with the Concord Blue Devils for this 2010 season”. I was like WHAT?!?!? I was so shocked that all three of us made it, OMG i didnt know what to do. I shook Johns hand and said thank you... haahah how noobish..neways jeremy and i were like trying to regain focus and a straight face, but i couldn’t resist, it was so exciting, feeling that i accomplished what every marching band kids dream is...AMAZING!
I went back in was just like WOW! IM A BLUE DEVIL! such a cool feeling, along side of me was andrew and he didn’t the cut along with thomas on mellophone. It was definitely an awkward drive home ahah...
We ended the night performing everything we knew, with only the EXCEPTED corps members and wow what an awesome feeling. Ill post some pictures of this weekend right below.
As a conclusion, it was a GREAT weekend for me!
