All Hail Kilties
April 25-26, 2009
The local weather found every duck in Southeastern Wisconsin rejoicing this past weekend, until they were pelted unmercifully with hail. As you may already know, the 2009 Kiltie membership roster does not include any ducks, so we found the great outdoors to be down right uninhabitable. But a corps with the battle cry “Wea Winnea Bea Daunted” doesn’t roll over and play dead when the going gets tough, so we invaded the great indoors and went with “Plan B” which included a little more music and a little less drill. Even so, by late Sunday afternoon we were performing Movement I of “Renaissance Le Parte Due” in the Gilmore gym.
April camp began on Saturday morning with breakfast in the cafeteria. Fruit Loops and the plump, juicy purple grapes were the biggest hits. At 10AM sharp, the full corps assembled in the gym for stretch, once again fronted by our very own Amber Jarosz. The session was capped off by none other than veteran Kiltie keyboard player extraordinaire Anna Hyatt leading “Shakey Shakes”. Great job girls! After stretch, we headed outside where 2 fields had been “chalked”, one in the Gilmore parking lot, and one down the road on the Wadewitz Elementary School playground. We figured we’d get a significant amount of drill learned even though the forecast called for late afternoon storms. I know you’ll find this hard to believe, but for the first time ever, the weather forecast was wrong. Just about the exact time that the horn line arrived at Wadewitz, the skies opened, and our chalk field melted into the storm sewer.
We quickly took cover under a metal overhang/walkway and Bobby Lindsey warmed up the horn line. Then, newly appointed 2009 Kiltie Drum Major Kurt Klingenmeyer took over and we worked Movement I of the show. Kurt is a local music educator who teaches at 3 elementary schools in Racine. He has an extensive marching music resume that includes both marching band and drum corps experience as both a performer and an instructor. His command of both the music and the horn line was immediate. He could not have made a better first impression! After about 20 minutes of work, the heavy stuff arrived. Chick-pea sized hail started pelting the steal roof. That and the thunder claps made it so loud that you couldn’t hear much else. We wisely decided to head back to Gilmore and reassemble the horn arc in the cafeteria where we worked indoors until our 1:30PM lunch break.
Lunch was fabulous! Danny Johnson, Kiltie Jr. alumnus, charter Kiltie Sr. member, and owner of locally renowned “Danny’s Meats and Catering” on the corner of 4 Mile Road and Charles Street in Racine donated the food and catered the affair. Hot juicy ham, Danny’s famous baked beans, fruit salad, pasta salad, and all the accoutrements made for a spread that only Danny can pull off! Danny’s is celebrating 20 years in business this year, and was voted "Best Meat Market" in the Racine Journal Times Best of Racine survey for 2003, 2005 and 2007. Check out http://www.dannysmeats.com and see what Danny has to offer, you won’t be disappointed!
The ugly weather never did let up, so “Plan B” became “Plan A”. The afternoon found the brass line working marching basics in the cafeteria. Chris “Scooter” Jacobson introduced some drills that are among the most difficult I have ever attempted in my drum corps career. They are designed to teach us control at slow tempos and how to transfer kinetic energy while changing linear velocity during tempo changes. These drills pretty much kicked our patoots, but there was noticeable improvement throughout the session. I believe these drills will pay big dividends going forward, especially if we all practice them at home between camps.
Then the full corps (sans pit) invaded the gym where the staff was able to mark off the equivalent of a field segment between the 30s and from the front side line to about the back hash. We learned the first seven sets of drill. Our opening formation consists of a bunch of 4 or 5 person “pods” that move independently and trade musical features until we form our first full corps formation and present our first big musical hit at set 7. We concluded the day with the guard learning equipment work in the cafeteria, percussion in a sectional, and the brass learning from set 15 of the opener to the end of the movement. The last 30 counts of this section are fast and furious, with subsets hitting every 3 counts. It’s going to be get the crowd’s full attention :-)
The Sunday weather was much improved for the local water fowl population. There was no hail. For the local human population, it was another great day to be indoors. Cocoa Krispies and bananas were in vogue at breakfast. The 10AM announcement that we would indeed spend the day indoors was met with great enthusiasm, so after Amber and new Drum Major Kurt fronted stretch and “Shakey Shakes” respectively, we split up into sections.
The brass line warm up was followed by intense work on the opener featuring near death by “Dr. Beat”. The thing I hate most about Dr. Beat is that it never lies, and as good as our brass line is, we still have work to do when it comes to holding tempos. The natural tendency for any wind ensemble is to drag tempos. It’s just the nature of the beast. We made great strides, and now we all need to make sure that we reinforce that progress by going home and practicing with a metronome. Metronomes don’t lie either.
Lunch featured baked ham (Danny sent a ton of extra on Saturday), turkey, salami and/or peanut butter sandwiches fruit, chips, cookies and more. It served as a great base for afternoon drill rehearsal. The brass line completed opener drill in the gym, the guard completed opener equipment work and started in on Movement II work in the cafeteria, and the percussion finished the camp in music rehearsal. At 4:30 or so, the guard and percussion watched the brass line perform a playing run-through of the entire opener drill. It went extremely well, and was met by lots of clapping and cheering.
Corps Director Scott Stewart pulled the corps together for announcements and told us that he thought we had all done a fabulous job and had accomplished all that could be expected despite the weather. Our goal going in had been to be performing complete full corps run-throughs of the opener on Sunday afternoon. While we still have to fit the battery into the opener drill, Scott assured us that the weather would indeed be better in 2 weeks, and we’ll have the drums in the drill in short order. The goal for next camp will still be to have the first 2 show movements on the field. We won’t miss a beat.
We closed the camp with our customary playing of Slow Syne, conducted for the first time by Kurt Klingenmeyer. Having a new DM out front made me think of the long line of Kiltie Drum Majors who have conducted that song through the decades. It served to gear me up for next camp, and it kind of reconnected me with the long plaid line of Kilties past and present. But on this day, the playing of Slow Syne for me was dedicated to the memory of Dennis Heusdens. Dennis was a former Kiltie Jr. alumnus and a charter member of the Kiltie Sr. corps. Dennis passed away unexpectedly at his home on April 13. We had all just seen Dennis at our March concert, smiling, cheering and giving us all encouragement after the show. It was a shock to hear of his passing. He will be greatly missed, and he will never be forgotten by his Kiltie family. Please keep Dennis and his family in your thoughts and prayers.
Til Next Time,
JC
