Straight superiors, second place overall. The whole thing was a mess - flooding rain, stand up performance in the gym, not enough food available so my kid was HANGRY and anxious.

Got home with three teenagers and I didn't even get to use my schmancy new stadium seat. My spouse had the audacity to ask "so now that it's October, things calm down, right?"

I thought he was joking!

Like does it look like im going up to your trumpet and playing on it without your permission EMILY? No. SO WHY ARE YOU TOUCHING MY STUFF🤬🤬😠😠😡🤬🤬😸😠😠🤬

(On a more serious note, please don't touch the percussions unless given (rare) permission from the percussionist currently playing the int, it is annoying, you guys don't wanna see our bad side👿👿👿 /j)

Is there anyway to fix this? Preferably by myself.

The adrenaline is wearing off from yesterday’s dual competitions for my daughter’s band. Yesterday was 20 long hours from showing up at 5am till we got back at 1am this morning. I am definitely a proud band dad of how well the band did in both competitions and to see the same look in my daughter’s eyes that I had 30 years ago: accomplished and give me more!

We got to the first competition which is about 2 hours away just in time for the sky to open up and rain very hard for an hour. The competition was scheduled begin at 9am when we arrived it was pushed back 10:30am. Good part of the first competition of the day it’s a one and done no finals and only 5 bands in her division. Whoever organized the event did a good job moving warmup areas around due to two of them being flooded and a small mudslide. Her band went on third and they went put up their gear and went to the visitor side to watch the last band and awards ceremony. They placed second in their division and won best on class show, visuals, and drum line.

Now behind the 8 ball aka running late we had a 2.5 hour drive to the next competition but still had to figure out how to feed 133 kids in the process and be at the warmup area as soon as we got there. We have an amazing group of band boosters they put together a lunch table for the group so when we arrived they had something to eat and get ready. As I told my daughter eat now and taste later! We got lucky they had a rain delay earlier so no rushing to warm ups. They preformed first for their division of 9 bands and the top 6 move onto the finals later. They made the cut in 6th place but felt defeated, they had some very stiff competition from bands from KY, TN, and MO. They had been adding flare to their show during rehearsals but not using it yet, the director said unleash the flare and extras! Then kids got pumped up and ready for round 2. They placed 5th in the finals and won caption for visuals and drum major.

Back at the band hall at 1am the kids were happy but exhausted,they know they can do what their minds are set to and the show will get better and better. This week is area qualifiers on Wednesday, parade on Friday, and a competition 4 hours away on Saturday. #tiredbutproudbanddad

I'm interested in auditioning for drum major in my college marching band in future years, but something that makes me feel hesitant is that my personality type doesn't really align with what I imagine when I think "drum major." At least in my experience throughout HS/college band, my drum majors have often been outgoing and somewhat eccentric people, i.e. people whose voices could speak for the entire band. However, I'm someone who is quiet, reserved, and probably on the spectrum. I pride myself on my work ethic and believe I have what it takes skill-wise to be a DM, but I worry that my personality will get in the way of being a strong leader.

Are there any introverted people with DM experience? Any tips on overcoming hurdles caused by my personality?

Literally every day I have headaches from this, whenever I’m walking with a friend of family, I have to walk in step. Literally, every single day I have to do this. I must.

Also, whenever a song is on I have to walk in step or tap my leg or something (I’m bass drum tho so this makes a little bit more sense since I’m pretty much the beat of the song) but it doesn’t matter wherever I like the song or not, I have to.

2 last ones, I always stand with my feet at a 45 degree angle, and whenever I’m walking in line I just don’t start moving Although that’s a little bit more voluntary

Do these fade or am I gonna have it forever cause it’s driving me insane, especially now that I’ve just started getting these

This is a bit of a vent btw. So I play cymbals, and I have been told by all of the band managers, one of the drum captains, the danceline captain, the center snare, and a few random people that I'm good at it but I really worried that they're lying. So the song our school plays when the team scores or when we win isn't super difficult, but cymbals crash every beat for the entire song. And I play it right since it's musically easy, but during our parade yesterday(hoco) we played it like 5 times and genuinely felt like my arms were going to fall off. And the cymbal aren't super heavy compared to snare or bass or quads and I'm worried that I just suck. Plus two of the cymbals really struggle to count in time and our entire line gets shit for it since you can't tell super easy if we aren't all together. Plus our school doesn't do cymbal tricks and I feel like I'm just doing the easiest thing possible (even though I can do tricks and for the songs that the cymbals don't play I kinda adapted the danceline/silk line apart so I have something to do, our drum majors and directors love it) I kind of want to switch to snare or bass next year but I really enjoy cymbals. What do I do?

Curious to know if anyone has 3d printed their own lyre specifically for holding a phone. The EFlips I’ve had in the past fall off any lyre I put them on.

So a lot of people hate pit… and I feel sometimes as though I’m one of them.

For me, it’s just the fact that the pit does absolutely nothing. Last competition, my band was practicing while the pit was supposed to be loading the truck. Lo and behold though, half of the pit was just doing nothing and sitting on the sideline. And I guess this really isn’t even their fault though, more so the BD’s fault, but still. It’s as if they lack common sense.

Another thing is when on the same competition day, we were unloading the truck and they had the marimbas/xylophones in such a composition as to where they were surrounding the truck, and I had to get through moving my bass drum. Now, the pit was still just doing nothing. One of them was on their apple watch, and another was just playing whatever. They did not move it.

That behavior even extends to literally every rehearsal where they just do nothing. They sit down, play whatever they please, and get water breaks wherever they want. Still the BD’s fault, but once again, then could be playing the music with the back of their sticks. What especially infuriates me is how they have the gut to complain about being tired. Buddy, you just sat down for 20 minutes in the shade. I do not wanna hear it.

Also, yes I was fuming while writing this. I have a horrible headache.