District Band

Yesterday was the day of district band. I woke up at about 5:00 in the morning, practiced a little bit, and then left for school to depart at 6:30.

I have been preparing for this day since last June...it’s kind of intimidating to work for so long for one moment...but I had been playing Concerto for Trombone by Rimsky-Korsakov and 15 major scales and the chromatic scale for a long time, so I felt prepared.

This audition was the first time I wasn’t completely nervous! It was pretty amazing...I didn’t even tear up (I usually come close or do cry)! Plus, afterwards I was really pleased with how I did, which I thought went pretty well after having to wait two hours to even begin to audition.

However, I was upset that my score was 53.15...I mean, it went up about 13 points from last year, but I really liked my solo this year. The music was excellent for the trombone...but it turns out a lot of people got low scores this year.

This year they combined “upper” and “lower” trombones (“upper” & “lower” refers to the school...though, I don’t know what exactly it means because my school is in the lower part of my state, but we’re an “upper” band), so the judges had to sit and listen to approximately 70 trombones, and my director says judges usually don't do so well mentally after having to listen to the same thing that many times. I went towards the lower half of the trombones, but I tried to go earlier.

Although I didn’t make district band, I did place 14th out of all the trombones...and guess what? The took the top eleven...

...so I’ll have to wait until next year, and make sure I’m one of the first fifteen to go...because I’m sure all the ones who made it were some of the first to go...

But, anyway, out of the eight from Camp Hill that auditioned, three made it, and one made it to District Orchestra, which only the top four or so of each instrument get to do, so she was really happy. Three more people were signed up to audition, but they didn't come, including the one person who made it into districts last year...strange, huh?