Someone else talking about the same thing. And I'm quite familiar (from having seen the performance she describes multiple times) with the band her son is in (which was nicely choreographed and had great music selections).
I'll add this — one of the reasons Margie and I volunteer to assist at performances is because, if we're going to get up that early anyway and feel like we should be at the show, it's a lot more fun (and work, and exercise) to be working in support of the band (pushing equipment, helping them get tidied up, making sure they have water, etc.) than to sit in the bleachers for hours. It helps us meet a lot of Kay's cohort, too, who are damned good kids.
(h/t Stan)
The joy of being a band parent
Being a band parent used to be easier. In elementary school, it was mostly listening to a fifth-grader attempting to coax sound — any sound —
I'll read the article later — as a grown-up band kid who teaches sax & clarinet as well as helping in the cacophony of fifth grade rehearsals with my daughter, I hope I'll be in your place as a high school marching band parent in a few years' time. 🙂
It's funny — I can remember the pain of the first 7th grade band concert I attended, but "it does get better."
The guys I still talk to from my fifth grade band still remember the joys of those squeaks and squawks. I think I may have missed out on something big when I dropped out of music education grad school — all I hear is the improvement. The clarinets and saxes at my daughter's school played Hot Cross Buns the other day in sectional and the teacher and I were all "Oh my goodness! You played a song! That was amazing!!!"
+Mary M. Cooper Oh, it's amazing, no doubt of that. Painful at times, but the two go hand-in-hand as a parent.
By the campest of designers. Who was high on acid… (However the ‘Loo brush’ plume used by the Russians is a sight to behold.) During the War of Spanish Succession one French brigade has sky blue coats with pink turn-backs (cuffs and collars). Think you should suggest it for next year’s uniforms.
@LH — … or maybe not. 🙂
Danish mercenary artillery- purple with green?
18th century, when people decided soldiers had to look FABULOUS darhlink.
As a former band parent and now a band grandparent I want to assure you, the excitement and appreciation never go away.