By Andy Dittrich (with Rob Elston)
Capital Sound
romeoprovipimpcs@yahoo.com First complete week The show is done. Finally, the show is done.
This was our first week of weekday rehearsals, and they were pretty iffy on attendance. People that are still attending school were missing, so on Tuesday we had two bass drummers. Those were some sweet runs they were playing, trust me. Thursday I wasn't there due to orientation down at the University of Illinois, but things went the same. However, they were still productive rehearsals, since we were able to work in some of the people in the horn line that were missing over last weekend's rehearsals. This weekend was a great weekend for us, minus the rain on Sunday. We finished the show on Saturday, and did our first full run-through that evening. It is going to be a fantastic year for this corps. The show is so dynamic and mature, that people are going to be surprised, psychologically altered, and emotionally drained after they see it. The field cleanup crews will have quite a job to do, let me tell you. Whew ... Saturday marked the appearance of a drum corps legend on the Capital Sound rehearsal field, as one of the finest teachers and arrangers in the activity, Larry Kerchner, arrived to clinic the horn line. By the evening on Saturday, we could hear the difference, and I imagine that by Sunday it was even greater. While the horns were being worked with on Saturday, we did some cleaning in drum solo, which at this point means reps, reps, and more reps. We took the metronome away for run-through. Fortunately, Mary (drum major) and I have enough experience working together where it wasn't that huge of a problem. Sunday I missed yet another rehearsal due to my high school graduation. Due to the rain, we held it in the gym, and it was only about 200 degrees in there. So I'm a graduate now. Rob is going to report on Sunday's rehearsal for us: "I was hating life all weekend because I was sick, and Sunday I woke up with the "double fountain." Explanation later. First half of the day we ran visual through rain. We ended up eating lunch later than usual, due to some missed communications. After lunch we were inside for about
40 minutes working on our vocal parts for the ballad with Kerchner. After that, we were back outside to run sectionals for an hour or so, with some reps of drum solo with the pit. Coordination ran after that, with more rain than sun, and we did a run-through at 4:45 p.m. Overall, we had pretty bad weather, but the rehearsal was still productive." Thank you, Rob. Next weekend marks our first weekend of shows, with the corps' home show in Middleton, Wis., my home show in Oswego, Ill., and then two more. Again, thank you for your support, and don't forget to yell for us. Quote from this week, "See that tree over there? No the one way out there. I want a leaf from that tree, maybe then, you'll remember your set book." Andy Dittrich is the center snare drummer for Capital Sound, and is a fifth-year member of the corps. He is a 17-year-old senior at Romeoville High School in Romeoville, Ill., and he will be attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the fall, studying English. He'll be contributing weekly reports to DCI.org through the summer. Rob Elston is a second-year snare drummer in Capital Sound. He is a percussion performance and music education major at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Ill., and currently resides in Romeoville, Ill.
Capital Sound
romeoprovipimpcs@yahoo.com First complete week The show is done. Finally, the show is done.
Andy Dittrich
This was our first week of weekday rehearsals, and they were pretty iffy on attendance. People that are still attending school were missing, so on Tuesday we had two bass drummers. Those were some sweet runs they were playing, trust me. Thursday I wasn't there due to orientation down at the University of Illinois, but things went the same. However, they were still productive rehearsals, since we were able to work in some of the people in the horn line that were missing over last weekend's rehearsals. This weekend was a great weekend for us, minus the rain on Sunday. We finished the show on Saturday, and did our first full run-through that evening. It is going to be a fantastic year for this corps. The show is so dynamic and mature, that people are going to be surprised, psychologically altered, and emotionally drained after they see it. The field cleanup crews will have quite a job to do, let me tell you. Whew ... Saturday marked the appearance of a drum corps legend on the Capital Sound rehearsal field, as one of the finest teachers and arrangers in the activity, Larry Kerchner, arrived to clinic the horn line. By the evening on Saturday, we could hear the difference, and I imagine that by Sunday it was even greater. While the horns were being worked with on Saturday, we did some cleaning in drum solo, which at this point means reps, reps, and more reps. We took the metronome away for run-through. Fortunately, Mary (drum major) and I have enough experience working together where it wasn't that huge of a problem. Sunday I missed yet another rehearsal due to my high school graduation. Due to the rain, we held it in the gym, and it was only about 200 degrees in there. So I'm a graduate now. Rob is going to report on Sunday's rehearsal for us: "I was hating life all weekend because I was sick, and Sunday I woke up with the "double fountain." Explanation later. First half of the day we ran visual through rain. We ended up eating lunch later than usual, due to some missed communications. After lunch we were inside for about
40 minutes working on our vocal parts for the ballad with Kerchner. After that, we were back outside to run sectionals for an hour or so, with some reps of drum solo with the pit. Coordination ran after that, with more rain than sun, and we did a run-through at 4:45 p.m. Overall, we had pretty bad weather, but the rehearsal was still productive." Thank you, Rob. Next weekend marks our first weekend of shows, with the corps' home show in Middleton, Wis., my home show in Oswego, Ill., and then two more. Again, thank you for your support, and don't forget to yell for us. Quote from this week, "See that tree over there? No the one way out there. I want a leaf from that tree, maybe then, you'll remember your set book." Andy Dittrich is the center snare drummer for Capital Sound, and is a fifth-year member of the corps. He is a 17-year-old senior at Romeoville High School in Romeoville, Ill., and he will be attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the fall, studying English. He'll be contributing weekly reports to DCI.org through the summer. Rob Elston is a second-year snare drummer in Capital Sound. He is a percussion performance and music education major at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Ill., and currently resides in Romeoville, Ill.