BD- Band Director DM- Drum Major
I read a lot of these and I just HAD to make one. Most of these relate to me and the marching band i'm in and some other ones I took from other people. I'm an oboe player, but for marching season and pep band I end up doing percussion and my best friends are in guard and drumline. Oh yeah, one of my good friends is a DM too! The rest are just regular band student... so yep I know like everyone's pain...
1) You play the song "Sweet Caroline" for pep band and hate the cymbal part because your arms hurt like hell and the song is really long
2) You talk to your non-band friends about band and they smile and nod but don't seem to care
3) Your instrument has a name
4) Your in gym class and your roll-step instead of walk/run
5) Your in gym class and when your teacher tells you to backwards skip or backwards lunge, you relave instead
6) Someone calls you a "band geek" and you just smile and nod.
7) Someone calls you a "band geek" and your proud of it
8) Your marching shoes all of a suddely become comfortable
9) You have been hit with a flag/instrument more times than you can count
10) You don't mind the taste of your reed
11) You freak out if someone moves your instrument the billionth of a centemeter
12) You urge youreslf to go to school just because band always makes your day
13) Every person you want to date is in band
14) All of your friends are in band
15) You complain all the time about how terrible marching season is, but once it's over, you miss it
16) You pass people in the hall and you don't know them but you know they are in band, but once you get to band class, you talk to them like you've known them forever
17) You know what everyone plays and what grade their in, but yet you do not know their name
18) You spend your week days at school practicing and your weekends at competitions
19) You spend all of your free time practicing
20) You love to mess with the BD
21) You want to freaking push Dr. Beat off a cliff
22) You can do your whole show in your head
23) You can play every single note correctly, march exactly where your supposed to go, and can do every visual 2 months after marching season ends
24) If you are in pit, you try every possible way to hide behind the DM so the sun doesn't get in your eyes while you play
25) The drumline has made their own song up by using repetitive lyrics
26) You absolutely HATE the other band in your division, but yet you wish them luck when you pass them (We're a Class AAAA division; I know the pain when other schools ** wins cause there just that good)
27) You cheer when your band gets last place in your division
28) Someone has stolen valve oil and sprayed it all over the band room
29) The football field is no longer for football- it was made for marching.
30) Half time is the "big moment"
31) "One more time" NEVER means "One more time"
32) You see your section more than your own family
33) You store EVERYTHING in your band locker
34) Your fingers freeze to the position you play your instrument at night rehersals
35) Underarmour is your best friend during band camp
36) Band Camp is the highlight of your summer
37) Sunglasses are your best friend during sunny rehersals
38) Water is your life saver
39) In your freshman year, you go to your first day of school and you know a lot of people because of band camp
40) One of your best friends is an upperclass man
41) Your summer consists of band camp and your school days consist of band
42) You hate concert season and only do it just to see what next year's show is
43) Solo and Ensemble is a waste of your weekend
44) You hate the people who can care less about learning music/band class
45) The best meal you can get at a football game is a cup of hot chocolate and a bag of skittles
46) Your lucky if you get to eat dinner at home on a day of a football game
47) Your Ipod is filled with this year's show music
48) You swear your uniform is bullet proof because it's so thick
49) You call your hat a "helmet"
50) Your band and the opposing band always has a competition to see who's band is better during football games
51) "Dynamics" are another word for "suggestion"
52) You play the loudest you can until your BD yells at you
53) You have attempted to shoot your annoying instructor with a airsoft pen XD (this one's an inside joke)
54) The whole band has many inside jokes
55) Your nervous for every competition- except state
56) State is the most fun comptetion
57) You own at least 3 band shirts
58) You keep an extra set of warm clothes in your band locker just for marching season
59) You own at least 10 heat warmers for competitons
60) You wear your uniform's jacket when your cold after you performed at a competition
61) You freak out when someone has your instrument in your hands until you remember that you had them hold it for you
62) Every Friday is "band shirt Friday"
63) You have done more push ups than the football team
64) During your freshman year, you don't think you can memorize your music, but then you end up memorizing the whole show in your head
65) The phrase "Armed Guard" means girls with flags, not guys with guns
66) The pit and the drumline has broken at least 3 pairs of mallets in a week
67) When your drumming and you drop a drumstick, you stare at it while drumming with one drumstick and using your fingers as a replacement
68) You BOOK IT to your instrument so you have time to play a song during pep band
69) There are these evil little things that you like to call a "dot book"
70) Most of your stories start with "that one time during band" or "today during band camp"
71) Your family and friends are past irritated with your band stories
72) There are 3 busses: the band bus, the drumline bus, and the guard bus
73) You sing your show during class and you get weird stares
74) Band is the highlight of your day
75) Band and candy canes don't mix
76) Keeping a "Nintendo 64" in your band locker is completely normal
77) You have a ton of leftover food from marching season
78) You try to hide your phone from your BD and text when he's not looking
79) You have thought about becoming a DM
80) Your rifle has a name
81) Quitting band is like commiting suicide
82) Bus rides are epic
83) Singing random songs after a competition on the bus is completey normal
84) Breaking a drumhead is completely normal
85) Music is your LIFE
86) Your band director knows just about everything about every band member
87) You can sleep right next to the drumline while there practicing
88) Your a master of sleeping on the bus in an uncomfortable position when it's really noisy
89) Your band marches better in the rain XD (My band does; we're masters at it)
90) You can change into your uniform in 2 minutes. Tops.
91) You and your friends plan weeks earlier to take your Nintendo DS's to a competition so you can use the download play to play Mario Kart or any other game (My friends and I did that and we had soooo much fun)
92) Being called a hooker isn't offensive
93) You heard the drumline play your show music so much, you can play/dance to your whole show by just getting the beat
94) Every section often has a fight about which section is better
95) After you try out for drumline and make it, you NEVER want to go back to pit
96) During concert season, the whole band actually tries when another teacher walks in the room, but when they leave, the band decides to suck at playing again
97) During concert season, your BD always complains that the band doesn't sound good and they need to try harder for your upcoming concert when you only play 3 or less songs
98) You automatically hate any band that is better than yours in your division
99) Your band locker is your second room
100) You took the time to read this list (I'm not stopping now though)
101) Your BD gets stricter on upcoming events
102) Band can get really boring sometimes, especially when whatever the BD talks about doesn't apply to your section
103) You have an A in band and F in math
104) The upperclass men make fun of the freshman just for entertainment, but the freshman know it's just a joke
105) Homecoming is coming up and your DM is being voted for Homcoming King/Queen and the band knows that your DM has the band behind them so they automatically win
106) The first day of band camp is super fun and the next day is tiring and boring as hell
107) The BD knows the band isn't paying any attention when the DM's call "set" and he takes a few minutes to admire whatever your looking at (Ex. Double Rainbows right after a light shower XD)
108) Someone calls "set" out of nowhere and your head automatically snaps up
109) Someone calls "Detail, atten hut!" and everyone in band shouts "Hut!"
110) During pep band, there's always one person who brings a portable video game with them and plays when you don't have to play music
111) When the pep band is practicing, right before the whole band is about to play, the percussion play the beat to the upcoming song and sing if there are lyrics to the song (Ex. *Plays beat to "Don't Stop Believin'* Percussion- "DON'T STOP BELIEVIN'!)
112) You go to bed really late, wake up really early, go to band camp, run only on water and a bag of snacks for the whole day, and yet you can last and play your instrument for the whole entire time.
113) Someone talks bad about band, you all of a suddenly become very defensive
114) You spend your lunch in the band room talking to your band geek friends and the BD
115) If the Jazz band starts really early, you are willing to wake up to play
116) The DM's have seniority over EVERYTHING but the BD
117) You are friends with one or all of the DM'S
118) Your summer life consists of: Wake up, do whatever, get ready for band camp, leave, play, come home, sleep
119) Being early means your on time
120) Being late means your dead. Literally.
121) If you mess up during a competition on purpose, you will have 6 band members run around with knives attempting to murder you, burning your body, then drowning your ashes. They will also make your soul do push ups as a punishment
122) If you mess up during a a competition on purpose, the whole band will blame you for the low score the band got and make you do said pushups in # 121
123) If you talk during a competition, be prepared for your death
124) Your BD sees EVERYTHING when you rehearse on the field.
125) Letters past G don't matter
126) Competitions are fun
127) You convince your boy/girlfriend or your best friend to join band so you can see them more often, but you end up not seeing them at all after they join
128) Marching season is the highlight of your school year
129) When your a freshman during band camp and don't know the school at all, by the time school starts you know the whole school because of sectionals
130) Someone unplugs Dr. Beat and plays their Ipod instead
131) After 2 competitions, Dr. Beat is officially useless for the year
132) The percussion gets many sets of new mallets for the year and they end up breaking by the time marching season is only half over (That happened to us and boy, was our instructor ready to kill us)
133) When someone messes up the order of the mallets for each instrument, you want to murder them
134) Hats/sunglasses are a MUST for marching season
135) After football season ended, you have absolutely nothing else to do on your Fridays
136) NOTHING matters after state
137) Everyone tries for marching season, but when it comes to concert season, nobody cares.
138) During concert season, the word "try" is equivilant to "fail"
139) You don't try out to be in the upper band because it requires a lot of work
140) The pit gets their fair share of marching by pushing all the equitment onto the field
141) When the sprinklers pop out of the ground to water the grass, the #1 goal for the pit is to cover the instruments and make a run for it
142) Your dot book is officially a part of your pants
143) If you play the sax, you shove your music into the hole so you don't have to hold it
144) For oboe players: other instrument players just don't understand how terrible it is when your reed breaks
145) You walk down the hall with your band friends and you can keep time with them
146) You HATE it when someone doesn't walk in time with you
147) You always start walking on your left foot
148) You know about everyone's love life
149) Everyone knows about your love life
150) You keep a part of your instrument with you at all times
151) You go through reeds like there's no tomorrow
152) Your lung capacity in band is HUGE, but when you get to gym class, it dies and becomes super small
153) You pass the practice field and think about how much you hate it
154) You pass the practice field and think of all your 'good' memories of it
155) When it rains, the drumline makes a giant pit of mud in one place
156) When a person on drumline play during concert season on a concert snare, they jam out on it and their teacher yells at them saying it's not drumline anymore
157) What's considered weird to your non-band friends is considered normal to you
158) All the seniors are depressed after state because they just played their last show
159) Sleeping on top of your friends on the band bus is totally normal
160) You try so hard not to mess up so you don't have to do the push ups that go with it as punishment
161) Your still reading this list
162) When you listen to the judge talk about what your band has done well, needs to improve, and what was bad, and he/she doesn't stop talking, you and your friends wonder if he/she even breathes
163) Your life can be depressing, annoying or irritating, and yet band class can cheer you up
164) You use proper names for instruments (Xylophone, Marimba, Vibraphone)
165) All pit players have to explain to their friends that not all of the instruments are xylophones
166) Having only 1 meal per day is normal
167) You hate the fact that your uniform is so thick and hot in the summer, but once it hits fall it becomes your life saver
168) There are earbuds hanging from the band room ceiling and your not going to ask how they got up there
169) There is a reason why the band joined band, not choir
170) Your BD tells the trumpets to play a certain part and you put down your instrument, saying "this will take a while..."
171) Sitting as a group and having your DM'S and BD talk to you during band camp or rehersal is reffered to "story time"
172) If someone in percussion forgets their drumsticks, you know there screwed for the day
173) Marching band will always be harder than football
174) The word "privacy" is non-existant
175) When two people are still in the band room while everyone is on the field, they come walking out and your BD threatens the last one with 10 push ups if they don't make it in time so they sprint so they don't have to
176) You have a beautiful "band tan" and your proud of it
177) Your BD tells eveyone that they have to have their music memorized by the time band camp starts and when it starts nobody has it memorized
178) You spend more than 12 hours at school
179) The "first day of school" is the same as, "welcome back, we haven't seen you for a whole week!"
180) You thought your band did really well in a competition and you listen to the other band in your division and say... fail...