Penn State Blue Band!

This is about my time at Penn State University. At then end of most days I write about what happened that day. I don't have time to to write every day but I'm going to try and write as much as possible. I'll give you some back story.

I have always wanted to go to Penn State since before I can remember. I can remember going to football games when I was a kid and going to see the Penn State Blue Band. I always went to games with my Mom, Dad, brother Aaron, Gram, Pap, and Uncle Brian. I loved to watch the band come out of the tunnel during pre-game. And I knew that I wanted to do that one day. Then years passed and I was done my junior year in High School. I was an accomplished musician and was planning to go into the music education field. I knew I wanted to go to Penn State. I said that I wanted to go to other schools too, but I knew that Penn State was IT. I wanted it so bad. I auditioned for the Tuba/Euphonium studio on the Euphonium, and I was accepted. I knew that my dreams had come true. But there was one small catch. A Marching Blue Band Audition. I had done everything that I had to do. And this is what happened...

Penn State University

Day 1

August 17, 2010

Wow, It’s finally here. My mom, dad and I got on campus around 11 o’clock on Tuesday morning. We checked in at the blue band building and I saw a familiar face. Elly Graham, whom I had met a few years prior at Penn State’s summer music program, was one of the officers that was working as I walked into the building. She made me feel very welcome and quickly thrust a bunch of papers into my hands. I then proceeded into the hallway past the reception area and registered myself into the Blue Band Database. It was almost surreal, thinking that this was the beginning of my lifelong dream to come to Penn State and march out of the tunnel. I felt confident that I would do it. Before I left for Penn State people would constantly ask me if I had made the Blue Band. I was almost getting tired of explaining the audition process. Like a robot I would rattle off the schedule. “Tuesday August 17 I leave and go do a music audition and then Wednesday I have 3 three hour sessions on the marching and fundamentals that the Blue Band uses. At the end of that day is when most of the cuts are made. Then Thursday is the final day of rookie training/first day of Blue Band Camp.” I knew what I had to do. Clearly. I intended to treat it like any other audition but my brain thought otherwise. I was feeling nervous in the morning and as the audition time grew closer, I could feel my stomach turning over itself. But I didn’t let it bother me, yet. We got to my dorm, Pinchot, and started to unload everything out of the car. We even had these nifty handcarts to help out with the big stuff. Well about 10 feet out of the car disaster. My dad had spilled his box of hangers for my dorm room and as I went to help him, my cart went started to roll and hit a curb. Of course all of my stuff went flying. My desk lamp, broken. Damn. So after embarrassing myself in front of possible friends we finally made in to my room. 403 Pinchot Hall (the T is silent by the way). I walked in and I said to myself, I could dig this. I have suffered through worse conditions, such as my own attic J. After everything was in the room we decided that we hungry so we went to a sports bar that we had eaten at before. I remember what I got there before and I wanted to get it again. Then my stomach gave me a sign that it probably wasn’t a good idea. I wasn’t really hungry so I just ordered a appetizer of chicken fingers with a side a ranch dressing. The food came and there were 5 chicken fingers. I ate the smallest 2 and told my mom I was full. She looked at me with the most quizzical look that she had ever given me. She said really? Are you feeling ok? I quickly replied no. I felt sick. ME. SICK. At an audition. I couldn’t be my usual cool calm collected self today. My brain knew what was going on. This was something I wanted since I was a fetus inside of my mom. After I got a box for my leftover chicken fingers, we went to best buy to get a cable wire for my TV and an Internet wire for my computer. Well, my Internet still doesn’t work but that’s a different story. I went back to my dorm and set it up, then my parents said bye and I met up with some friends at the Blue Band Building. I practiced for a while and soon it was 3:55. Time to go. I went in. I did well. After I played my Etude out of my book, the auditioner said ‘ok, breath’, I was so nervous. The sight-reading was ok. So overall I felt good about it. I then waited for all of my friends to get done their auditions then it was time to find some food. Now that I was done auditioning I realized that I was STARVING. So my friend Eric and I set off to find some food. We went to my dorm in East Halls, to his dorm in South Halls, up to a different commons building, back to the East commons building, back down to the HUB, and finally ended up at the Creamery. All of these places had one thing in common. There was no food to be found anywhere. We finally had a dinner of Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches warmed up in the Creamery microwave and some lemonade for dinner. Ugh. So by this time it’s 7:15 and we have a meeting at the Blue Band Building at 8. We didn’t feel like waking farther than we had to, so we figured that we would just go straight to the meeting and show up early. The meeting was really informative and interesting. Dr. Bundy explained the ‘cuts’ process and why he couldn’t take everyone. After his speech, he turned in over to the officers of the Blue Band. The first thing the officer said was to get our phones out. Once out he said shut them off. Then they shut the lights off and told us to close our eyes. We did. He said “imagine that you just got done playing in the Bryce Jordan Center on game day, no game NIGHT. You are marching over to Beaver Stadium. People on both sides of you are all in WHITE. Screaming and cheering. I mean screaming. It’s Ohio State. People are going crazy As you enter the stadium you see people all around you. Now you are in the stadium, in the tunnel. The student section is so loud you can’t even hear yourself think. And then you hear this”… and then started a video of the Penn State Blue Band coming out of the tunnel for pregame during a whiteout game against Ohio State from 2007. Now during this whole thing, every hair on my body was at straight up at attention. My friend Nancy and I laughed the whole time. I couldn’t stop smiling. On my way back to my dorm I found another friend of mine Curtis whom I know from Region Band this past year. We had a good conversation and then I went up to my dorm and ate the rest of my chicken fingers because jimmy dean didn’t satisfy my hunger needs. AND THAT’S JUST THE FIRST DAY!

Day 2

Wednesday August 18, 2010

Last night they told us to be at the Blue Band field about 30 minutes early to make name tags and stretch and warm up. The initial report time was 8:30 so that pushed in back to 8. So naturally, my alarm didn’t go off and I woke up and looked at the clock. 7:49. After saying some expletives I found all my stuff and ran to the shower and got dressed and showed up at the field at 8:13. Good thing it seems like a lot of other people seemed to do the same. So then marching came. WOW. It was so hard. The first session was very intense. Just marking time in place. High step marking time. We learned facing commands and other stationary commands. It was so hard because you weren’t moving forward or backward and you were using the same muscles constantly. After the first session I ate at Pollock Commons Dining Hall. It was the only dining hall open on campus. I then went to my friend Ali’s dorm. North Halls. Where I WANTED to live. Let me tell you. It’s beautiful. Air conditioning, private bathroom, tons of storage, new desks. Beautiful. Then came Marching session 2. This was still very intense but the marching part was starting to become easier. Probably because we were moving forward and using different muscles. After some intense marching we broke for dinner. I went with my 2 music major friends and my other friend Eric and went and got my books at the bookstore. And after dropping some serious cash I left there with 60 extra pounds to lug around Penn State. After that we went back to Pollock to eat. After dinner I went back to my dorm to try and figure out my Internet. I went to my commons and sat down and picked up wireless. NICE. Opened the Internet up. Still wouldn’t connect. AHHHHH. It’s so frustrating. I went back to my dorm and put my computer away and then went up for the final marching rehearsal before cuts took place. I had the mindset down. And my stomach was settled unlike my first audition. So we get to the field and immediately go into sectionals. We worked for a while and then we just sat down because there was nothing that we could have done. We then started talking. Just about random things. Then we noticed that they were getting near. And it had been a while since we played. So we all got up and started warming up again. Then Dr. Bundy came over and said ok. Here we go. Got on my line. Tap tap tap tap Up 2 3 lift play. We were playing the music that normally comes right after the flip when the drum major does it during pregame. High stepping and playing is not a good combination but I feel like I did well with it. Then we sat and waited some more. Waiting and waiting. Clarinets and Piccolos went and then they called us into out block and told us to sit down. I imagine that Dr. Bundy hates this part of his job. I can’t imagine being the person that tells someone no to something that they want so badly. He started with the woodwinds. Piccolos, clarinets, and saxes. I was happy to hear my friends last names being called for clarinets. The sax section was sitting right next to me and I could obviously tell who had made it and who hadn’t. The girl next to me didn’t. I almost cried just by looking at her. Then trumpets, mellophones, and trombones. Then Baritones. This was it. The moment that I had been working toward for the past 2 days. The following baritones are being asked to report to band camp tomorrow in no particular order…. Bonner… BOOM mini explosion in my head. I didn’t even hear the other 3 or 4 names he called. He repeated them… BONNER. It was even better the second time. I could hardly move. I was numb with joy. He then read off the Sousa list. My friend Eric made it as well. He then reminded us that there could still possibly be cuts tomorrow and that we should come prepared to march and hit the ground running. Then he dismissed us. I walked home and talked to my mom on the way. I told her that I made the big cut and have Penn State Blue Band camp tomorrow morning. Then I came back to my dorm to rest my shock absorbers, I mean toes and feet.

Day 3

Thursday August 19, 2010

I woke up this morning and got a shower and sat in my room until it was time to leave. I met Ali and we walked over together. We talked about or chances about making. I walked into the blue band building and saw a friend from Schuylkill County, Mike Fries. He went to Pottsville and his father was the band director. I then went out on the practice field where we did some warm-ups and then we started fundamental marching. Ugh. High step marching is definitely one of the harder things to do. We were marching with returnees who knew their stuff. After a few different drills we stopped and Dr. B started talking to us. Then he said ‘this will be the 2010 Penn State Blue Band’. He said to come back at 2. Giving us an extra long lunch break. Thank the Lord. Then the baritones had a little meeting and decided to go to lunch together. We went to a great chain restaurant called Chipotle. It was so good. I had a chicken burrito with rice and beans. So good. Then we went back to the Blue Band building and waited for rehearsal to begin. We then started to learn pregame. This is what I’ve been waiting for! It was very cool. We didn’t start in the beginning but we started in the middle of pregame, going into the PSU. I’m the second person on the left line of the U! Then we started the Floating Lions Drill. It was so cool to be a part of the floating lions and the rest of pregame. Then I went and ate dinner and then came back for more rehearsal! YAY!

The Next 2 days basically fell out the same way as Thursday did. Sunday we had off. Kinda. I slept in (which was AMAZING). Then went to some meetings for the School of Music. Ali and I had to leave early to go for uniform fittings. It took me a long time to get fitted. Afterword, we had a performance at Be A Part From The Start or BAPFTS. I wore my Penn State Blue Band Shirt and Blue Band Wind Pants. Verrrryy Classy. It was basically a way for freshmen to get involved in different campus activities. It was fun playing the different fight songs and other stand music that the blue band plays. Like Hey Baby and Living on a Prayer. After BAPFTS, myself and other baritone players went out for ICE CREAM at the Creamery. Great stuff. Then I went home and got myself prepared for my first day of classes at PSU.