We're Home!!!!!

As we pulled in to the TC parking lot, a couple thoughts came into my head.
1) Dang, it's cold. Get me back to Florida!!
2) We have the best of the best kids in our band.

Not a single student got out of line the whole trip....the security guard reported no problems though each night, and said we were a very easy group to care for. Everyone was on time to each event...there was no waiting involved. They played at a very high level just to be accepted to Disney, and they carried that high level to their concerts at the parks. It is an absolute pleasure to care for and work with these young people every day. I can't wait for the next trip, wherever it may be.

Church and Hollywood Studios 2/15/09

We have gone on three band trips, all of them to the south. Of course, we always go to church on the Sunday we go home, and one thing that always strikes me is how welcoming people are to our kids, and to a group as large as ours. This was no exception. The church actually had to cancel their youth Sunday school to get prepared for us. The congregation, pastor, and music team could not have been nicer...they went out of their way to show the students they were happy they were there. The youth pastor really showed his pride in their church when after the service, he took me in the back in their brand new wing and showed me the room he was preparing for teenagers and their needs in the church...it had arcade games, a old style jukebox, everything. The old saying "southern hospitality" really is not just a saying.
We finished our time in Disney at the Hollywood Studios, formerly MGM. I think the kids liked this park the best, mainly because of the thrill rides Rock n' Rollercoaster (accelerates 0-30 in less then 3 seconds) and the Tower of Terror (drops you in an elevator shaft over and over until barf ensues). The shows are great too, with the the car stunt show and the Fantasmic show being highlights. We left at about 8:30 to head home.

Slideshow for 2/15/09

Cosmic Ray's Performance 2/14/09

The thing I think the jazz kids (and myself) were looking forward to the most was their performance at Cosmic Ray's in Magic Kingdom. Allow me to set up the venue for you. There is an anamatronic DJ performing for the crowd most of the day. Then, at periodic intervals, the entire stage lifts up into the ceiling, with another stage coming up out of the ground, with our jazz band on it already performing. The jazz band got to go underground and see the behind the scenes area of Disney...there is a minature city under the park, with restaraunts, malls, roads, etc. under the park for the over 60,000 workers to use. When we got to the stage, we all piled in and got set up. Becky Visser even got to operate the levers to raise and lower the stage. The restaraunt was crowded, as it was at dinnertime. Once our band was announced, the crowd went crazy, and our band kids in the audience really helped give the jazz band an adrenaline boost with their screaming. The band played a nearly flawless set, and the soloists all sounded incredible. When we finished and were lowered into the ground, the faces on the kids said it all. A quote from Michelle Ditchfield..."Let's go up and do it again!!!" It was a highlight of the kids musical lives, and a pleasure to be a part of.

Magic Kingdom 2/14/09

We had a great day at the Magic Kingdom today. A huge park with much to see, the kids had a great time on rides like Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, and Thunder Mountain. The park is also filled with some interactive rides and shows, like "Mickey's Philharmagic", a 4-D movie involving Donald Duck stealing Mickey's baton. The fireworks over the castle were breathtaking. But, the highlight for many of the kids was seeing, talking, and shaking hands with Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. A quote from Aaron Snoeyink..."I am never washing this shoulder again."

Downtown Disney Performance 2/14/09

The weather could not have been nicer for our lone outdoor performance. The stage overlooked the dock, so the audience got a beautiful view of the water as they were watching us play. The stage was amazing, and the acoustics were spectacular...every little noise could be heard with ease. The percussion equipment was amazing too...they loved playing such high quality gear. The performance went good, though we had to persevere through some adversity when the sax player's instrument broke during her solo and nerves got the better of the band for a few minutes. All in all, the crowd was good and enjoyed our show, and kids will probably never play at a place that nice again.

Slideshow for 2/14/09

Jazz Clinic 2/13/09

Tonight we had a cool opportunity to work with one of the top jazz artists on the Disney property. He was a smokin' trumpet player who does about everything in and around the Magic Kingdom. His clinic consisted of working with the band on some different styles of jazz in a Disney song-setting, making the kids solo and be recorded, and recording a difficult song similarly to how we did yesterday, where we laid the background music down to a clip of a Disney movie, this time "Kiss the Girls" from Little Mermaid. He also had a question and answer session where the kids picked his brain about life as a musician on the Disney property. He even let me play a bit. :)

Slideshow for 2/13/09

Slide Show of 2/10/09

Slideshow of 2/12/09

Epcot Center: 2/13

Today we spent the bulk of our time at Epcot Center, home of such rides as Test Track and Mission Space, and 4-d show "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience". Test Track treats you like a crash test dummy, Mission Space spins you round and round until you don't know which way is up, and the "Honey" show involves you being shrunk down to the size of a cocktail wienie and sneezed on by a dog. Real fun.
Seriously, the park is great, and the kids got a chance to see some great music all through the different parks. I saw two that were great....a percussion trio that played in the style of Stomp, and a rock/Celtic band that had a bagpiper called Off Kilter.

You're Instrumental!!!! 2/12

4 years ago on TC's first band trip, we did a clinic called You're Instrumental, which proved to be one of the kid's and my favorite things we had ever done. We did this clinic again this year, and I am happy to say it was just as good this time around. What the clinic entails in a cool way is what it is like to be a professional musician, and the mindset you need to be able to do it well. The clinician Allan (pictured) took the band through some Disney songs, sightreading them like a pro would, correcting errors in playing and thought, and moving on. The clinic culminated with a quick rehearsal of the music behind "The Little Mermaid", followed by a real recording session where we put our music behind the movie. We got to watch the finished product on a enormous screen, and though it was far from perfect, it was great to hear the kind of thing a group of high schoolers could do when they really focused. we got a copy of the DVD, which we will show at our next concert.

Some real highlights for me were watching the teamwork aspects of the band...section leaders were making sure everyone in their section knew the tricky rhythms and notes, percussionists were cuing each other, it was neat to sit back and see someone else work with my kids, and be so complimentary afterwards.

Animal Kingdom 2/12

We got down herea little smelly and unkempt but ready to have some fun. Our first park was Animal Kingdom. There are some great rides here...favorites of mine were Dinosaur!, which takes you through a Jurassic Park kind of scenario, and Everest!, which is a rollercoaster that takes you forwards and backwards, trying to get away from the Abominable Snowman. We even met up with TC Band alumni Trevor Van Dahm, who is working there on internship.

Well, we are here safe and sound. The 20 hour bus ride was uneventful, though I have come to realize that freshman boys may be their own subspecies of human...unlike the rest of us, they do not need sleep. When we stopped for breakfast, a plot to raid the free continental breakfast at the local Day's Inn was averted, and everyone piled in to the local Waffle House and my family restaurant, Shoney's. We are so close to Florida we can taste it.

Destination in sight 2/11

Well, we are here safe and sound. The 20 hour bus ride was uneventful, though I have come to realize that freshman boys may be their own subspecies of human...unlike the rest of us, they do not need sleep. When we stopped for breakfast, a plot to raid the free continental breakfast at the local Day's Inn was averted, and everyone piled in to the local Waffle House and my family restaurant, Shoney's. We are so close to Florida we can taste it.

TC Band does pre-trip concert 2/10

The TC Band got its trip week off to a good start by doing our "Disney Set" for the HS student body Tuesday afternoon. It was good practice for us to do exactly what we are doing down in Florida for a live audience. At one of our performances, the entire set can take no more then 25 minutes, with changes between pieces, so getting that down has been a challenge to say the least.