Well, July 4th has come and gone. The Temecula All-city Community Band marched its smallest band yet with only 7 musicians!
As I started this year, I was burnt out on the idea of running the band. I talked to my assistant director about not running the band this year, and she said “If you don’t want to do it, then don’t. Take this year off.” Yet, as I looked at my journal from previous years, I noticed a trend. Initially, I put a lot of prayer and faith in to the running of the community band. It was difficult, yet fun. We marched with 45 musicians in 2002. Each year since then, my prayers got to be less and less, to the point that God was on the sidelines. In 2003 we marched with 35 musicians. In 2004 this decreased to 30. Then in 2005 numbers dropped dramatically to just 15 musicians. That year we had only one of the four families that had been in the band return. 2006 had a further decline to only 12 marching. This year, the numbers dropped to only SEVEN!
So, this year I asked God to send me a sign as to whether I should run the band or not. No long after that prayer I got an email from a music company that said “Your order has been shipped”. Since I had not ordered anything, I thought this to be quite strange. Yet a couple of days later, two tenor saxophone reeds arrived. This was a sign I thought. But then again, it turned out that I had ordered these reeds a year earlier and they had just shipped having been on back-order for nearly a year. Then I got a call from a musician asking about the band. Okay, this was definitely a sign! So, I got started on getting the band together.
With only seven musicians, it was disheartening to try to put together a show. However, the musicians have impressive amateur credentials including two drum majors, six honor band musicians, and five section leaders in award winning bands. Yet most important was their desire to get out there and PLAY! So, for the remainder of the rehearsals, I prayed for God’s help. The Band turned out to be the only band in the parade so the people appreciated our appearance. With God’s help we can grow this band in to a real, year round marching show band. Pray for us and with us to get God’s gift of music out to the people!
On to the events of this years parade: Parade day was warm with temperatures around 80F (27C) at check-in time. By the time the parade stepped off at 10:00 AM the temp had climbed to 93F (34C). Then a nice off-shore breeze came over the mountains and kept the temperature at 97F (36C) for the duration of the parade. Later in the day temps climbed to 104F (40C) and the breeze stopped. Humidity was 14% so it was quite dry. By the end of the day humidity had climbed to 39%. I am quite pleased that the humidity did not climb during the parade as this would have made for a miserable muggy march.
Just before stepping off I noticed that my silver-plated C-Melody saxophone was quite warm to the touch. At the same time, my Alto player told me “cover your mouthpiece”. As I covered the black plastic, I noticed it was hot to the touch. So, I had the band circle up and re-tune as our instruments had become quite sharp due to the heat and warming of the instruments. Not to worry, this small band of musicians all have good ears and kept in tune with one another!
Well, we stepped off with
a Flute leading the way and taking point in a small formation. The second rank included a Trumpet, Bass
Clarinet, and Bb Clarinet. The last
rank was the power rank made up of an Alto Saxophone, C-Melody Saxophone and a
Bb-Tenor Saxophone. People
applauded as we played “
We got the privilege of marching behind “Pole Position Racing Karts” which featured several quick go-karts zipping around in their formation. However, one kart driver decided that it would be fun to run his kart THROUGH the band on two occasions! The flutist said he scared the daylights out of her! But the band just kept on playing and marching. After all, in a marching band the rule is “the show must continue, do not stop for anything!” Parade officials and judges will take care of anyone needing assistance. The band support crew will pick up any dropped items, so keep on marching!
All had a good time and
used their God given talent to entertain the people lining the streets for the
parade. All in all, it was a very
good day! I would like to thank
“The Californian” newspaper for its great support of this band
since its founding in 1999. Also, I
would like to thank the City of