No More Flutes? Really????

Greetings from beautiful Winter Park, Colorado! I'm on vacation, but since I have internet access where we are staying - I thought I would add a new post.

Yup - the heading of this post is true. For the 2009 Brigade season there will not be flutes in the horn line. The reason I have decided to do this is not because I hate flutes - but because I love the sound of the flute so much (heck, my wife is a flute player!!). It breaks my heart each season to see our flute players work so hard to learn and memorize their music - and then pretty much not be heard on the field of competition. Yes, you can hear them a few times during the show - but the sound of a flute just CAN'T be heard that well (1) outdoors and (2) in a horn line with much louder instruments.

If you are reading this thinking I only have it out for flutes - please understand that there are many instruments we don't use in our horn line set up. Examples: oboes, alto/bass clarinets, baritone saxophones, french horns and trombones. People may think we are not playing fair when we make trombone players learn baritone - but often Brigade is all about the members learning new instruments to help flesh out our instrumentation. Take the pit, for example. Of the six pit members we had this year, only ONE of them was an actual percussionist! We had woodwind players playing brass instruments, percussion instruments or performing with the guard. We also had actual brass players switch to different brass instruments to help with the balance of our sound.

I can tell you from experience that switching from a woodwind to a brass instrument was a lot of hard work, yes - but it was also a ton of fun and it opened up my eyes to the world of brass warmups and building up my "chops". Flute players will have many opportunities with Brigade in the future. They can switch to louder woodwind instruments such as clarinet or saxophone. They can learn a brass instrument. They can see if the color guard would be something they would want to try. They can join the pit, try out for a battery instrument or even try out for drum major.

In 2006 we won championships with a brass line that was mostly made up of woodwind players who learned a brass instrument that summer. So - here are the "new" opportunities for the Lighthouse Brigade:

Horn Line:

Clarinet
Alto Saxophone
Tenor Saxophone
Trumpet
Mellophone
Baritone
Contra

Percussion:

Snare
Tenor
Bass
Pit

and of course, Color Guard or try out for Drum Major.

- Rex out

2008 - another season done!

Just as fast as the 2008 season started - the uniforms, instruments, equipment, and truck have been put away until the 2009 season gets underway. I was very happy with the field show production of "From The New World" and even though I didn't agree with some of our scores and even our placements - I could not have asked for more from our members, staff and parents. The show we "left on the championship field" in Traverse City was awesome and the crowd loved us. I am so very proud of our marching members and they improved their performances each and every night!

Lighthouse Brigade is a TEAM EFFORT and I would like to thank a number of people:

Racine Band Boosters - what an amazing group of parents who do everything from chaperoning, heading up our bingo games, preparing our awesome "Booster Dinners", organizing the home show, taking care of uniform fittings, fundraising, and a million other jobs. We would not be able to do what we do without your efforts and help! An extra shout-out goes to our executive board - Faith, Cheryl, Diane and Karen.

Brigade Staff - these are some of the most talented, dedicated and funny people I have ever had the pleasure to work with. I sometimes wonder if the members realize just how lucky they are to be taught by our staff. You inspire me each year and keep me young at heart!

Scott Musiel - not only is Scott one of the best truck drivers out there, he will do anything and everything for the Brigade and its members. We would be lost without him.

Gifford Elementary School Staff - they work hard to make us feel right at home.

Racine Unified School District - for their continued support.

Our Brigade alumni and fans - we always appreciate your support!

Our Brigade marching members - what you all did day after day and night after night this season was incredible to watch. I am so proud of all of you and I can't wait to see you back at the DVD release party!!

Believe it or not - I have already begun work on the season DVD and the music for 2009. Start making plans now to be a part of the 2009 (30th Anniversary) Brigade Season!!

- Rex out

Traverse City Update

Greetings from the Horizon Bookstore in downtown Traverse City!!

I would first like to say congrats to the Shadow Armada (Oregon High School) on their 2008 MACBDA Championship! It was a well earned victory and they did everything all season with class and great sportsmanship. Great job!

The Brigade had a thrilling performance last night in Traverse City and the members left everything they had on the field of competition. I am just SOOOO proud of them and how our show improved night after night after night. The large crowd in Traverse City loved us and I hope everyone remembers what it felt like when I gave my last speech to the members. THIS is why we all do Brigade year after year - that very feeling.

We came in third place and, to be honest, I did not agree with most of the scores. I have been telling the members all season that I would be very honest with them and if I thought they should or should not be winning certain captions I would tell them exactly that. I feel like we should have been higher in a few of our captions and other ones I was ok with us scoring what we did. Oh, well - all of this is out of our hands. We can't control how the other bands perform or what 6 judges do as far as giving us a score. If we just focused on that stuff - we would all go crazy. We can only make the commitment to come back to Brigade next year and do everything possible to make this organization stronger and keep moving it forward.

The weather here has really been great. We were worried about rain all weekend - but it has been sunny and not too hot. The members marched in the Cherry Royale Parade today and have the rest of the night off in Traverse City to shop, relax, have dinner, visit the Cherry Festival grounds and stay for fireworks on the beach.

Tomorrow we will clean up our housing site, go to the Grand Traverse Mall to relax and perhaps catch a movie, and then work our way back to Ludington, MI to pick up the SS Badger Car Ferry home.

- Rex out

Traverse City Update

Greetings from beautiful Traverse City!!

We are staying at Silver Lake Elementary School and the last time Brigade stayed here was 1999. Alums from that year may remember a certain room that became decorated with post-it notes.....well - that room is now housing the staff (Guy Gregg and Matt Koscinski are very excited about staying in this room again - but they are promising not to shoot off any fireworks out the windows this time!!).

We do not travel "down and around" Lake Michigan to get to Traverse City like the old days! We drive a couple of hours to Manitowoc and catch the car ferry - the SS Badger. We are able to load our busses, truck, Durango and Big Jake for the four hour trip across the lake. On board there is a nice restaurant, snack bar, quiet area, movie theater, bingo area, gift shop - or the members might just choose to relax on deck. The trip is really pretty smooth and it is only another couple of hours to Traverse City from Ludington, MI. This sure beats the heck out of those 16-18 hour trips on school busses back in the 1980's and 1990's!!

The weather here is perfect and we will be rehearsing today from 9-5. I'm giving the members free time tonight - they deserve it for all of the hard work they put in this season. For breakfast today we had assorted cereals, pancakes ala Kurt, sausages, juice and assorted Pop Tarts and the like. The annual staff dinner is also tonight and we are all looking forward to that!!

Look for another Traverse City report tomorrow!

- Rex out

2008 Season Update

Our home show finally had decent weather - maybe a bit chilly - but after some years of rain - we will take it!! The Junior Brigade looked and sounded fantastic and were a terrific way to start off the home show! When it was our turn to perform we were very fired up to march in front of our loyal and loud home crowd! I always expect the members to have shows that get better each time out and our show on the 3rd did just that. Many thanks have to go out to the countless parents who made the home show happen. I felt that everything from start to finish went off without a hitch and I think it is one of the best organized shows in our circuit! Great job Brigade parents!!!!!!!

As a staff we felt that we took a rather large step forward and two nights later, in Sun Prairie, WI we had our best show to date. To be honest - I was not pleased with the scores in Sun Prairie. I felt that they didn't reflect how we should be compared to our competition.....but what can you do, right??!! It can be easy to get down or frustrated about all of this - but in the end you really just make things worse - so we just keep working on the stuff we know is not 100% solid yet and keep adding cool stuff to make our show have that little extra something that makes everyone make sure they don't miss our performance.

Tonight, weather permitting, will be our last show before finals in Traverse City. We haven't performed in Sandwich, IL since 2006 and I hope that we can close the point spreads in all of our captions. I'm not saying I expect to be in first place tonight - but I AM expecting to be very competitive in all captions. I also believe that we should be winning the visual execution (marching) trophy and I also think we have a shot at the percussion trophy. We shall see, I guess. Kudos to the members for not letting the scores affect how they rehearse - I think most if not all of our members have bought into our thought process of working really hard, improving, always moving forward with our performance levels, and finally - not getting caught up in something we can't control (scores and how the other bands rehearse and perform).

Last night in Kenosha we were .01 away from the high percussion trophy! Maggie, our outstanding drum major, took the drum major trophy - so congrats to her - she certainly has earned it!! The Brigade also took the high visual execution trophy as well as the "People's Choice Award". This award is a traveling trophy and is my favorite one of the entire season so far because it sums up what we are all about - we work really hard to put on a great show for ourselves and our audience......and maybe even a little bit for the judges - but in the end - what really matters to us is your crowd response!!

I can't wait to go back to Traverse City!! It is really beautiful there and there are many cool events with the Cherry Festival going on as well as great shopping and miles of beach to explore and enjoy. I will be giving our members plenty of free time to just relax and chill out with their Brigade friends. I realize it is finals week - but I also want them to have some down time in addition to some really serious rehearsals leading up to the 2008 MACBDA Championships. I'll try to find internet access in Traverse to bring you daily updates if at all possible. Until then,

- Rex out

Season Update

"From The New World" is turning out to be a fantastic production for us! We have completed four field shows and the members have been improving each time out. To be honest - we don't agree with some of the scores (some scores we agree with - but others.....not so much). We have been telling the members that what a judge says or what score they give on any given night or how another band performs is out of our control. The ONLY thing we can control is how the Lighthouse Brigade rehearses and performs - and we are doing an amazing job each day and each show. I am already SOOOOO proud of the members this year and I hope the scores for our next bunch of shows reflect where I think we should be scoring.

I personally think we should be winning the visual execution caption and I feel that our percussion should be right up there with the other bands. It's hard to take the visual general effect caption when you are smaller than the other bands - but with our guard show being close to complete - I think that score can go way up. Musically - it is amazing what our horn line does with less members than our competition. They are asked to do so much with my drill and they are expect to play everything and never "bag out"! The quality of sound from them is really great. Our color guard should be more competitive this week - so I am excited to see where we end up. We don't do this just to "win" or get first place - but it's just more fun when you are in the thick of the competition.

See you at the HOME SHOW!!

- Rex out