It was an ordinary day; she did this five days a week every day during the school year. Teaching marching band was something the other teachers didn't respect as much as the music teachers did, and Maxine Densen knew this when she went into the job two years ago. She taught the brass section, and had been a member of the band she taught not long ago, and she was a brass player. She was outside, dressed in a plain t-shirt and a pair of capris, and she watched as the freshmen brass section do their basics. "come on I want to see the words 'hi mom' on the bottom of your feet. Don't bend your knees, I know its hard and it hurts but you cant bob! Seriously your sound sucks if you bob up and down." She groaned, since some kids ended up bumping into others, sadly it was the tubas… "alright, take a break for a few seconds. Soon we'll go back to chart 15 and go from that to 20." She was exasperated, and a few seniors knew it. The main director looked down at her from his spot on the lift, "hey Maxie, are the freshmen ready to go?"
"nej not yet. The tubas ran into the trumpets-" she stopped, hearing a gril cry out in pain, and she ran over. The girl was a young trumpet named Vallerey Atkins; one of the few female trumpet players. The poor thing had tripped over a laid down baritone and scraped her knee up badly. "hey we need a upper classman to come over here!" she yelled, and a senior tuba player named Zhjakary (pronounced jackary or Zjak ) Wint, came over. "hey, Zjak, can you take Vallerey to the nurse? She busted her knee."
"Yeah, no problem." He smiled, and helped the girl up, and asked her if she could walk; the answer was no, so he let her ride on his back.
Maxine was only 21 years old; she actually was a junior when Zjak was a freshmen. "Maxie, are they ready?!" the director, Roderich Edelstein, yelled down at her again, and again she shook her head, "no! the tubas still can't mark time, and can't march backwards, we need more time!" she yelled indignantly, and finally had a staff member help the freshmen brass while she went to the field and helped the sophomores , juniors, and seniors while they marched their spots. A set or partners, two mellophones name Calline king, and Jessie Davis, were switching out on a move, Jessie coming in from the sideline , and Calline going from the spot to the yard line.
"no! Jessie you have to be half way in 6 moves!" Roderich yelled down at the girls. Maxine looked at her chart binder, then talked to Jessie real quick before yelling back at him angrily, "She's past her spot!"
"what? No she isn't, she needs to go this way."
"NO. she is AT her spot way before 6 moves, she can't go 6 moves and be at the spot. She's only 6 steps behind the sideline!"
Roderich's face palled slightly, "oh… well then do what Miss. Densen tells you Jessie."
Jessie meekly nodded, on the verge of tears. Maxine had her go back to the front sideline, and told her to wait until she told her to go, and also patted her back real quick.
"okay let's do that again. Also sorry Jessie." Roderich said, and Jessie simply gave him a thumbs up from her spot.
"I swear I'm going to get grey hairs from you guys." Maxine joked with brass section alter that day, during the nighttime practice after school. "I think you already do Maxi." Toby Jacobus, a senior baritone joked, and ruffled the teacher's hair. Maxine glared at him, and then snorted, "whatever. Don't forget I saw you when you had a bowl haircut and braces your nerd." She joked, and then cleared her throat," alright! How do we stand brass?" she asked, and everyone stood how they had to , and then she raised her hands ready to conduct, "okay, the tuning exercise. Let's go.."
Everyone nodded, and she pointed to the tubas, "tubas!" the tubas raised their instruments to carry one at a time like a wave. Then she raised her hands and everyone brought their instruments to playing position; and hands went down again and the exercise began. Everyone played a concert F sharp, or G for mellophones and trumpets, and she had the tubas go up the scale while everyone stayed at the same F sharp. She went through that, until the trumpets, and after that she wiggled her fingers and the sound switched and got a nasty sound, but that was supposed to happen. She made a hand gesture and they went back to the last note they did, and then she wiggled her fingers again and once again the sound changed. She made a hand motion like she was cranking up some music, and the sound got louder slightly, and went back to the retained note (like a high c for trumpets) she did the finger thing again, and she made it look like she broke the cranks, and the sound got at least three times louder and she went back to the restrained note, and it sounded great. When she cut them off, some people cleared their spit valves, and others cheered.
"okay choral time!"
"what choral?"
"Praise god, from whom all blessings flow." She deadpanned, and sighed, and waited while everyone got it out, "play this loud! And also, if we do good I'll record us and put it on the webpage so everyone else will know how amazing we are!" she smiled, and had Alfred Jones, a staff member and a good friend of hers, hold up the metronome to her ear so she could get the right tempo. She lowered and raised her hands in time, and when she lowered them the fourth time, sound exploded from the metal horns all around her. She kept going, occasionally yelling at some third trumpets or baritones to play louder, and when they were all done playing the room echoed with sound still, "that….was….AMAZING! you guys were great! And third trumpets you almost played too loud!" she was so proud of her brass army, as she called them, and raised her hands, "one more time!" she had Monica Beldishmit record, and the brass played even better that time; when they finished, Roderich, whom was in the room in the doorway, was clapping. "that sounded great Maxi." The Austrian smiled, and she smiled back, "I know, its my brass section, or course it sounds great."
"oh whatever, you brass people are crazy."
"says you woodwhinner."
"shut it brassy-maxie"
"woodpussy."
"….. I swear I regret hiring you… but then again we've never had so many good tubas…"
"that's right."
"…" he started to leave, pissed off, but also trying not to laugh since it was rather funny.
. watch?v=2hEiZWL23DI (ßthe warm up and choral. We do this in my band too. And its so much fun)
