It's been a long couple of months here since the end of the marching band season, and not easy by any means. Most of it isn't really worthy of space here, but suffice to say the holidays came and went without any real fanfare. It was nice, but there's just so much on my mind and so much going on that I'm not sure that I really was able to ever stop and just enjoy anything.
Some items of note...I started my first direct mail campaign ever, sending letters and fliers to a bunch of band programs trying to drum up some arranging business. I've always done the email thing, but my efforts have never really yielded any results. Spam filters gobble that stuff up, and it's easy for people to just hit delete. I'm sure that most of this mail I'm sending will hit the trash can, but it's worth a try. It's something I haven't done before, so I'll at least give it the opportunity to fail.
Ideally, I would just do this for the winter and spring...write. There are people who pull it off, and I'd certainly like to be one of them. I have a good group of bands that come back every year, and that's awesome, but I've always kept a 5 or 6 band cap on things so that I wouldn't get too overwhelmed. The one year I went beyond that I didn't really deliver the kind of quality I expect from myself because I was writing for 10+ bands and had a full time job and was dealing with a long distance relationship. Well, now I don't have a full time job and I'm married. I could definitely handle the volume, especially considering that the directors I work with now are all really on top of their stuff and get me writing in January.
On the drum corps front, we had our Open House for the Bushwackers and it went reasonably well...better than usual, which is a good sign. It's interesting, because I've been around the corps for 14 years now, so I pick up on trends and tendencies pretty quickly. What I'm seeing and hearing bodes really well for the corps. There are certainly more returning vets this year than last, the energy is more positive, and there is a pretty good influx of new people. Of course, we still have spots...few corps (really, only 1) in DCA don't have spots at this point. With the economy and the increasing laziness of our video game playing, brain cell killing youth, it's getting harder and harder to convince people that doing this every weekend in your summer is a good idea. Of course, they don't have the perspective of having a season under their belts and seeing...experiencing the benefits of doing this. Drum corps is not something that you can really explain to the uninitiated. You have to do it. If you don't like it after you've done it (and gone all in...no half-assing it), then walk away...but until that point, everyone owes it to themselves to give it a go.
...and I say do that with the Bushwackers. :)
I've been given the additional responsibility of staff coordinator, in addition to being the brass caption head this year. This doesn't really mean much until the summer when I'll be really just a facilitator of communication and the guy who ultimately compiles and enforces the schedule. Right now, it's just communicating with our composer (Key Poulan), and just generally hyping and talking to the staff.
The show is called "VOODOO," and is going to be pretty dark and aggressive...very Bushwacker-ish, but staying with the more fan-friendly type of programming that we've been into the last couple of years. We have a lot of new staff, but their all very talented and excited about the program. We have rehearsal this weekend, and we should be getting some music, which will be great. There's nothing like hearing your piece for the first time.
I've also taken the position of program coordinator with a DCI corps up in Canada called the Blue Saints. They've been around a long time, but have just recently come back to the DCI scene competing in Open Class. They brought me on a little late into the game, having already decided on the show music and whatnot. It was a little awkward trying to insert myself into this whole thing and get acclimated with the way things run, personalities on the staff, and getting used to trying to program this thing just on email and phone. I'm writing a bunch of the music myself, which is cool. I'm excited about the opportunity to get involved with the DCI end of things, and I'm pretty jazzed about working with a corps that's not even in this country. They have a long way to go, but the director is really easy to work with and they seem open to a lot of ideas. I really need to get a staff up there, so if you're looking for a gig let me know.
I'm writing an all original show for Penns Grove this year. Two years in a row they've had a pretty negative experience with trying to go after copyright permissions...even though they've been using a company who's job it is to do all that for you. Plus, they don't exactly have a budget fitting any competitive band, so they have to pinch the pennies where they can. I suggested that we go all original so they don't have to deal with all of that nonsense, and they agreed. I'm excited about it...I just hope that some brass players materialize from somewhere.
There are some other cool shows that I'm looking forward to digging into..."Grease" for Central York, and Crestwood always does something cool. Centennial has gone the way of wind band charts, so I'm looking forward to writing some more of that style...not something I get to do very often anymore.
That's about it. Camp this weekend, judging clinic tomorrow. My good friend Tina's mother unfortunately passed away, and her viewing is tonight. I feel really bad. There are quite a few people close to Dena and/or myself who are not doing so well right now, so we're saying a lot of prayers.
Hope all is well with y'all. Stay tuned.
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