By Jamie Yarbrough
Seattle Cascades Jared Reno’s note: Jamie Yarbrough is a freshman at the University of Oregon where she plays mellophone in the Oregon Marching Band and the Oregon Basketball Band. This is her first year with Seattle Cascades.
Unfortunately, Jared was unable to make it to this camp. He’s in the infamous Green Garter Band at the University of Oregon, where he had to play shows all weekend. So I, Jamie Yarbrough, also a mellophone player with the Cascades, get to stand in and speak about this past camp. The energy was definitely in the air this weekend. With many schools coming to an end soon, and the long awaited tour about to begin, we were all ready to work hard and learn a lot. Friday night we started with basic music, working on slurs, articulations and tuning our ears. Unfortunately, we lost some focus during rehearsal and ended up doing a bit of running around the entire school, which consequently did wake us up. We practiced until 12:30 a.m., and we were all in bed by 12:45 a.m. The next morning we were up at 8 a.m. running. By 8:58 a.m. we were dressing the arc, ready to begin the morning block of music rehearsal. The visual staff thought that we needed more visual work, so we spent until 10:30 a.m. working on basic marching technique, which was needed. We were also introduced to two new visual techs, Brad, who marched the Cavaliers, and Lee, who marched with the Cadets and the Blue Devils. With them around, we were a lot more efficient and were able to get more accomplished. After basics, we came back and worked on the show music, focusing on “Harp Concerto,” which we were going to be learning drill to during camp. We also went over “Libertango,” which we got at the previous camp. However, it wasn’t as prepared as it should have been, and we subsequently did a few push-ups because of it. But everyone quickly learned that it’s more difficult than they expected, and by the next camp, it will be a lot better, with more individuals having practiced on their own.
After music block, which ended about 20 minutes late (Todd didn’t know when lunch was, so we kept playing!), we had a very quick lunch and loaded up to practice drill at Mariner High School. We proceeded to learn nine pages of drill for the “Harp Concerto” and worked on cleaning up the opener. We accomplished what we set out to do, and after dinner, we were ready again to practice more music with the entire ensemble outside. We worked on “Harp Concerto,” “Huapango,” and “El Salon Mexico.” Afterwards, we had a snack and a meeting about the upcoming tour. Handbooks were handed out as Jimmy Fursman, our manager, told us about some of the details of this up-and-coming summer. We had to wake up at 7 a.m. the next morning so that we could start at 8 a.m. at Mariner High School, working on learning more drill and cleaning up the opener some more. By lunchtime, we were all exhausted and hungry. After a quick bite to eat, and having put more sunscreen on, we were out again working on adding music to the drill. With the camp nearing the end, people were really pushing themselves, wanting to be finished, but working right up until it was over. We had our last run through of the camp, with music and drill to “Huapango” and the “Harp Concerto,” and we were all very excited with the outcome. With everyone putting in hard work and willingness to succeed and strive for their personal best, it will be another amazing season for the Seattle Cascades.
