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NEW BAND ROOM!

In just a few short weeks, we'll be moving in to our NEW BAND ROOM!
I got to take a tour of the construction site today, and I thought you'd like to see some photos. 

North corner of the building. For those who haven't seen it in person, you should know that this is all BAND ROOM -- you cannot currently see any other part of the school building in this picture.



South corner of the building. Just to the right you see where it attaches to our current auditorium.



Loading dock on the southeast side

So, let's go inside!

Looking from the band room towards the front entrance of the school.  Where you see concrete block on the left will be a wall; this will be the hallway leading to the existing auditorium and the new band room.

Looking into the band room from the hallway.  The room on the right will eventually be piano lab.

The piano lab.  The windows on the left look out into the main rehearsal hall

The main rehearsal hall

New band office :)

Here's me putting my hard hat to good use in my new office.

Just to the right of the band office is the instrument repair area, which will have cabinets and a sink.  Students will go through this hall to get to the instrument storage room.

Instrument storage room - which will be outfitted with Wenger lockers

More storage

This will become a door with backstage access to the auditorium.

Bathrooms!  We have our own bathrooms!

(This is the men's room.)

Upstairs (yes, upstairs -- there are two staircases and an elevator) we have a HUGE amount of storage space, which we will share with the rest of the school.  Here's a look at the upstairs area.  The construction site superintendent is giving Dr. Walters (Superintendent of Schools) and the me a tour of the facility. 

I think this "stitched together" photo (it's actually three pictures put together) gives you a pretty good idea of the size of the rehearsal hall.  I was standing with my back against the wall in the front of the band room when I took these pictures.

From left to right, you see the entrance to the hall that leads back to the front of the school, the window and door into the ensemble practice room (can you say jazz band?), the door and window into the music library, the door and window into the office, and in the center is the doorway into the instrument repair area that leads back to instrument storage.  On the far right is the doorway to uniform storage and the loading dock (which you can also access through instrument storage), and the door to the men's room.  (The ladies room door is just around the corner, so you can't see it in this picture.)

For a better look, visit my photo album.

Pretty cool, huh?  :)

It's done!

....well, mostly.
The parts aren't ready to print yet, but other than that, the show is done! You can listen to it on the right.

Notes on the latest additions:
- the beginning of You'll Be In My Heart is a mello solo.
- Trashin' the Camp includes solos for trumpet, mello, and trombone, both at the beginning and at the end.

It's a long show -- just over 8 1/2 minutes worth of music. (Our Wicked show was also 8 1/2 minutes.) Transitions will have to be extremely efficient -- but we can do it!

I'll send an email to the email list when parts are ready. In the meantime, enjoy the mp3's!

Opener

As you can see to the right, the opener is done!

Yes, there is a trombone (could be baritone) solo in there.

Basically, ignore the percussion parts -- especially the fills. I just threw something in there; the people who are writing the actual drum parts will write something much better!

CLOSER!

You can listen to the computer's rendition of the closer using the player to the right. (I know, the widget/gadget doesn't fit, but if you resize it, it still doesn't look right. If you know of one that will work better, post a comment and I'll check it out.)

Keep checking here for show updates. The opener should be ready in a few days; the rest will follow soon!

Some things to note:
- Yes, the beginning of the closer is all woodwinds (and tubas), including solos for flute, clarinet, and soprano sax (yes, I did say SOPRANO sax).
- Yes, the trumpets and mellos will need straight mutes. I have a few ideas on how you can carry them, and I'm interested to hear your ideas as well.
- MOST of the stuff that sounds like it's in three is written in 6/4; this should help us stay in step. Some of the 3/4 is actually written in 4/4, which would make it a hemiola.

Leave your comments or ideas by clicking on the "comments" link below!

Minutes from June 9 Band Booster meeting

Thanks to all who attended Monday's Band Booster meeting!
The minutes to the meeting are now posted online:

http://groups.google.com/group/lchstrojanband/web/minutes---june-2008-booster-meeting

Drum-A-Thon!

We raised over $400 for the American Red Cross. Not bad for a rainy day! In case you missed it, here's the local news coverage of the event:



Click here if the video will not play in Blogger.

Gatlinburg!

We found this awesome street band while visiting Gatlinburg!



[Click here if you can't view the video in Blogger.]

(Sorry for the poor quality video -- it's from a cell phone.)
I wish you could see the guitar player's teeth! :D

If you have pictures or videos you'd like to share, email them and I'll post 'em right here on the blog!

What did you do for Christmas?

(or Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa, or Winter Solstice, or whatever else you may have celebrated)

Use the "comments" link below to tell us what you did, where you went, etc.

Awesome Birthday Present

For those of you who missed the XBox presentation, I described it for my family here.

Thanks again to everyone who contributed. The XBox is awesome, and Guitar Hero II is great, but I appreciate the thought even more. You guys are the best!

Rain-A-Thon

Today's Play-A-Thon became a Rain-A-Thon, but the rain didn't dampen our spirits! We raised over $300 towards Heifer International. Here's some highlights:

Ever wondered what $330+ in coins looked like? Ever wondered what it felt like? Let me just say that there's a reason that tub full of coins is on a hand truck! This is our load of Penny Wars coins just before I deposited them at the bank this morning.

GREAT JOB EVERYONE!!!

NOTE: Anyone can comment on the blog! Just click the word "comments" below.

Great idea!

This is a really neat idea Mr. Carter. I can't believe a gator fan thought of it.

PENNY WARS!

In case you missed the email, here's the results for Penny Wars 2007:
- 1st place: 7th period (DRUMLINE!) with 21 points
- 2nd place: ADVISEMENT with -1110 points
- 3rd place: 2nd period (Symphonic brass) with -1266 points
- 4th place: 6th period (Wind Ensemble) with -1397 points
- 5th place: 1st period (Symphonic woodwinds) with -2515 points

5th period also receives an honorable mention with $121.15 in PENNIES. Yes, there is a prize for honorable mention, so come hungry on Monday!

In all, we raised over $443!

When I got home, Mrs. Carter told me that according to the news, Toys for Tots was delivering their toys TOMORROW! So we decided to go ahead and buy the toys tonight. We went to Wal-Mart (where we ran into Austin W.) and picked up SIX bikes and two remote-control Hummers.

Here we are getting ready to check out with six bicycles!

Then we had to get them into our SUV! We had four bikes in the back, the remote-control cars on the seat next to Jacob, and two more bikes on the roof:

(sorry about the poor picture quality - it's a phone picture at night)

You should have seen the looks we got as we rolled through Wal-Mart! Thanks to everyone for being great sports and having fun with this. Start saving now for Penny Wars II, coming in 2008!

Why a band blog?

Thanks for asking!
Here's a few reason:
1. We used to have a website, but this is easier to maintain (and it's free).
2. You can participate by adding comments!
3. We can put important information and calendar events on the blog, so you'll have it for easy reference.
4. Mr. Carter is crazy.

A few guidelines for everyone:
- Please keep everything positive. This is not the place for gripes and complaints.
- If you need to mention a student's name, please use first names only, or first name and last initial.
- Get involved! Comments are on, so add your comments. Captains, if you did not receive an invite to be an author on the blog, it's because I don't have your email address. Email me and I'll add you as a contributor.

So, what to blog about today?
Today was a great day. First off, I am now the proud owner of an XBox 360 and Guitar Hero II! I really was surprised. Thanks to everyone who helped to make it happen -- especially Matt. Someone was taking pictures and/or video of the presentation; if that's you, I'd love to have some of the pics.

More to come, so stay tuned!