For Whom The Bell Tolls

As I pulled into the church parking lot a few weeks ago, this song by Metallica was playing on my car radio. Fitting, as I was arriving to my first bell choir rehearsal. Thus begins yet another musical adventure. We'll be playing at this Sunday's service, and I'm looking forward to it. I'm just glad that they placed me on a base clef part. That helped me get up to speed in a hurry, which was great. 

The Marching Ravens deal is still going great. I missed a game last week, and I was really missing it. I kept looking at my watch, wondering what the band was doing at that moment. I found myself whistling the fight song as the start of the game neared. I was asked to give a little feedback at the rehersal before the game I would miss, as I had to sit out of the drill. It was neat being back on that side of things, even for a day. I got to see a lot of great things going on, and saw the director and drum major's view, which helps put the entire picture together. It was eye opening in a positive way. I personally hope that we can improve as the season goes on. How good can we be? If our performances were being scored, would out scores go up throughout the season? Would it be worth it to have our performances on video to review? Recorded to hear? How many of us would work hard to improve? Personally, I want to be a guy who is a professional representative of the Marching Ravens... Professional in work ethic at rehearsals and during performances, musicianship and teamwork. Most importantly, I just want to be better tomorrow than I am today, and better today than I was yesterday. 

End of the Pre-Season

After two performances, the Marching Ravens are now looking towards the home opener for the regular season on Monday Night, September 10th against Cincinnati. Before we close the books on this pre-season schedule, I wanted to take some time to let you all know about my experiences thus far: what I loved and liked, as well as what I didn’t (that list is short.) 

First: What I loved/liked. I have to say that the group of trombone players I’ve gotten to know so far constitute a really fun group of people to be around. Better yet, they can all play. Musically sound and a hoot to boot. You just can’t beat that. 

Along the same lines, I have enjoyed our musical selections to date, but I wish we had more of an opportunity to play during the game. I know that will come when we play halftime shows starting in September, so I’ll hold off judgement on that one for now. 

Along the not so much lines, there are only two things: Rain and being out of shape. Rain is self explanatory, but foul weather comes with the territory. Concerning being out of shape: It is my personal opinion that being in a marching band constitutes a varsity sport. At my high school, we lettered in band, and for good reason. Look at our game day schedule: Rehearsal, break for food and to change, concert, march and play to stadium, short break, pre-game show (which are just as long as my college halftime shows oh by the way), into the stands. By the time I get to the stadium, I’m already tired, and my right arm feels like rubber. If I play again next year (and by all means, I hope I will be a part of this group for a long time to come!) I will be in better shape when the season rolls around. 

So, why am I doing this? For the games? No. Not really, although the seats are amazing!. Instead, I’m doing this more out of a love of music, a love of marching, and an admiration for the band that I’m playing for. This experience has reminded me of two things. 1) Why I wanted to play trombone in the first place (We get to do all the fun stuff!!!) and 2) why I play music at all. After the last game, we lined up and headed back to Camden Yards to change and ultimately go home. Good performance and the Ravens won too, so it was a great night overall (More Ravens scores mean more playing = Happy T-Bone). I was marching in the very back row of the band on the left corner. As I was going through the Ravens Walk area, a little boy (8 or younger, but over 5 I would guess) came up right in front of me and started walking along side the band. Cute kid, yeah, yeah. Then, he started swinging his arms like he was playing with the drummers. I thought to myself, wow. There it is right there. Maybe this kid wants to play the drums like I wanted to play trombone after seeing the Duke Pep Band at a Duke Basketball game. While I wanted to say something to him to help him avoid such a horrible fate as becoming a drummer (just kidding) I could not help but be in awe of that portion of the work that we do as an organization. We add to the game day experience: Here’s a tune or two or three... Baltimore Ravens let’s go, and move the ball across the line... Yea! We work alongside the cheerleaders, Poe, and even Rise and Conquer to do that. (It was great to see Rise and Conquer at the game last week! Real Ravens at the game! AWESOME!) But we can also inspire others to want to play in a band, to want to learn how to play an instrument, or to sing a fight song. That’s worth it right there.