The Journey Continues – December 6-7, 2008

The wintry weekend weather couldn’t keep us from celebrating our 2008 season at the annual Kiltie banquet. Nor could it put a damper on the official launch of the Kilties 2009 season.  The corps emerged from the weekend poised to build on our 2008 season, continuing our journey to excellence.

The weekend began with new and returning members meeting at Gilmore Middle School at noon on Saturday.  After signing in and doing a little socializing, we moved over to the theater where corps director and program coordinator Scott Stewart welcomed us and distributed 2009 Kiltie Guidebooks.  Then he spent some time explaining the “Kiltie Philosophy”, which centers on the fact that the Kilties exist for the benefit of the participants. Our intent is to provide a positive environment that promotes character and social development, encourages a deep sense of camaraderie within the group and presents a positive image to all outside the group.  Performance excellence is achieved by executing an exciting, entertaining program design produced in an efficient manner and within the time frame of an all-age corps. Scott also explained that we always strive for both excellence and enjoyment, and that the two are not mutually exclusive.

Then Scott introduced our 2009 production which will be a sequel to our 2008 production of “Renaissance”.  The recording of the show music which was spliced together from both original material and midi files of the portions of the show that have already been arranged was greeted with enthusiasm and applause.  Stay tuned for an official show announcement when all of the music rights and permissions have been granted. Until then, suffice it to say that this show is going to pack some punch!

Following the announcement of the 2009 creative team which has not changed from 2008, all the first year Kilties headed off to the cafeteria to take care of paper work and equipment assignment while veterans stayed behind in the theater.  Scott told the vets that he was relying on us to provide leadership and guidance to our new members, and to make sure that they all feel at home in their new Kiltie family.  

Then we split up into sectionals with the guard heading off to the gym, the battery taking over the theater, the pit assembling in the atrium and the brass line arcing up in the cafeteria. Being a member of the brass line, I can report first hand: Staff members Bobby Lindsey, Mike Taylor, and Matt Billock were introduced, and then Bobby spent a little time explaining how brass rehearsals will be conducted this year.  He covered everything from how we will warm up, tune and rehearse, to our warm down.  One of the things that struck me as having great potential to take us to another performance level was what will be our new emphasis on playing on the move. Drum corps, after all, is an activity based on putting music together with movement, so we will be emphasizing things like marking time during brass warm up, and playing during visual basics blocs to better prepare us to execute while we are flying around the field.  It makes perfect sense to me, and I look forward to reaping the benefits of this new emphasis.

Then Matt Billock covered the visual basics of the horn arc, including how we hold the horn, how we bring it up and down, hand and arm positions while playing, and body carriage at attention and parade rest.  Matt also covered how we mark time. The horn arc was looking pretty good by the time Matt was done with us.  Our brass ensemble session continued with 5 minutes of breathing, 30 minutes of warm ups, and then we played down a couple of our Kiltie signature songs, Kenny Norman’s classic arrangements of “Auld Lang Syne” and “Scotland the Brave”. 

At 3:15 the full corps assembled in the theater once again, where further details about the upcoming season like schedule, financial obligations, conduct policies, etc. were covered. The schedule will be similar to last year, with an added May camp weekend, and an extra Friday rehearsal included as part of our Minnesota tour weekend.  The performance schedule includes a total of 22 appearances: 12 field shows, 6 parades and 3 concert performances.  From a financial obligations standpoint, we’re still the bargain of the activity at $300 which covers most meals while we’re together, all transportation to out of town gigs, equipment, all but a few inexpensive uniform parts, and housing at all out of town gigs except DCA Championships. All that plus some of the best instruction in the business makes membership a great bargain!

Day one of the open house concluded at 4PM, which gave us a couple of hours to get ready for our annual banquet at South Hills Country Club.  We had a wonderful time celebrating the 2008 Kilties and welcoming many of the new Kiltie family members into the fold. As always, our wonderful dinner was followed by an awards segment hosted by our very on “Moon” Johnson. I don’t know how Moon comes so many unique awards, but they were greeted with a combination of laughter, applause and a groan or two. Then we watched the 2008 Kiltie Family video which was produced by Beth Landbo. It captured so many great memories of the 2008 season and it left us all smiling and a little misty eyed.  Then we watched our 2008 prelims performance on the big screen.  It was my first viewing of the performance, and after viewing it, I couldn’t be more proud of what we accomplished.  It was one fine show, worthy of the Kilties long history and great tradition! Special thanks go to Shirley Johnson and her banquet committee for another wonderful event!

Sunday ushered in an improvement in the weather, and we met at Gilmore for 10AM Kiltie breakfast and 11AM rehearsal.  The Sunday rehearsal began with full corps stretch in the gym. Then we broke into sectionals once again. The brass line began with a marching sectional.  Matt Billock took us through the basics of step-offs, halts and marching style as we marched around the second floor halls in squads of 3.  Marching in the halls allowed us to march longer distances than we could in the gym and I thought the marching session went very well.

Then the brass line assembled back in the cafeteria where breathing and warm-ups were followed by the distribution of the 2009 opener. For now I will simply call the opener “Movement I” until our official show announcement.  It is a powerful piece of music full of interesting meters and individual section features, in the same vein as our 2008 opener. First we broke the brass line down into sections in order to woodshed our new parts, and then we put it all back together with arranger Rick Kirby taking us through the movement in sections.  Finally we played the piece down top to bottom and I was pleasantly surprised at how well it was played.  This brass line has oodles of talent but most surprising to me was how well balanced we were at this early juncture. 

Then Bobby Lindsey gathered the brass line around him and told us that since we were going to be spending so much time together in 2009, it would be nice if we all got to know each other a little better.  Everyone in the brass line got a chance to introduce themselves and share their music and marching experience as well as what they do outside of corps.  It was really cool to see the diversity in this great group of people that share a common passion for drum corps.  I can already see that it is going to be fun pursuing excellence with this group.

At 2:15 we all met back in the theater for some final comments from Scott and a report on where we’re at numbers-wise.  Our intention is to march the same size corps as 2008, maybe slightly larger.  Guard numbers look solid with 21 on hand and a couple applicants that couldn’t make it to the open house. We’d like to go out with a guard numbering in the mid 20s so there is still room for a few more.  The pit looked solid with 12 or 13 on hand for the weekend. The battery was solid but numbers and positions have not been set.  I counted 18 people in the theater banging away in the battery.  We’re still looking for a few more, possibly even a couple more snares. Brass line attendance was in the mid 30s. The baritone line is looking particularly strong.  Ideally, we could use a few contras, sops and mellow, but we’ll still consider you for a bari spot if you have the desire. Final numbers will be set at the January 24-25 camp.

Finally, we all headed to the cafeteria where the brass line played “Slow Syne” for the rest of those in attendance as is our tradition.  It made me proud to reflect on our past and readied me to continue the journey to excellence.

Til Next Time,
J.C.