Posture!!!!!!!!

Greetings, again, from Mitchell Middle School and day #2 of our horn line and color guard camp.  As you can see in my title for today - we worked on posture!  I kinda think this will be a major theme Matt will be preaching all season long.  Great posture makes everything better and easier!  I am very impressed with the marching.  It is only February, but our members are marching like it is mini-camp!!

The attitude of the members is GREAT!!  EVERYONE is working hard and I hope they are having as much fun learning the show as I am hearing it live.  Finally, after endlessly clicking the notes on my computer or hearing the MIDI version - it is awesome to hear it being played by actual humans!!  I think all of the members can hear what great music this is.  I hope that many of you go out and get the original recording.  It may even open your eyes to classical music.  There is classical music out there that will take you to places you have never even dreamed of before - and the New World Symphony is a nice place to start!  Classical music is called "Music of the Ages" for a reason!!

This whole season so far feels just like it did in 2006.  A bunch of veterans chose not to come back, but the people who did come were amazing to work with.  We fought through a bunch of early season problems but ended up with a very strong program.  It seems like the same is happening all over again.  We have some vets who could come back to march with us - but are absent so far.  We are dealing with weather issues - but we are working through them.  I can say that the staff is very excited for this year.  We learned in 2006 that having huge numbers is not the key to success.  What was great that year was the effort of the members and the talents of the staff and design team coming together.  Everything just seemed to "click" and I have that vibe right now!  We all also know how 2006 ended up - with the first Brigade championship in our history.

Now - if you know me at all, you know that simply ending up in first place is NOT the goal for this organization or myself.  If it was - the other 18 seasons I have spent with Brigade were a complete waste of my time.  The championship was the frosting on a terrific cake.  The true success was seeing the members perform the heck out of our show night after night.  We will see what happens this season.  I do want to be competitive.....but with ourselves first.

All is good in Brigade land.  I would still like to see a few more people join - but right now we have a wonderful group and the possibilities are endless for us in 2008.

A special "shout-out" goes out to the Brigade color guard.  Because of bad roads and Danielle having to get back safely to school - they were without an instructor for three hours.  What did they do?  They worked together on flag technique and got better.  Mad props to the guard!!

Today's marching member "shout-out" goes out to: Jamie (mellophone)