Tomorrow is Allentown–the final big regional of the summer before Finals week. Regiment has been in hiding this week. We’ve made a lot of changes and adjustments to the show and are ready and raring to go.
Our rehearsals this week have been great. We spent some time performing for our fellow hornline members in small ensembles, as well as marching sections of the show in small groups. Everyone is ready to have a show. Since Denver, we’ve been gaining momentum and getting better and better.
The countdown is on–there are only 5 more opportunities to perform our show in uniform. Each and every day has become more and more important. We’re enjoying our last week together. My friends here are some of the most incredible people I’ve ever met. I’m going to miss them like crazy.
Hope to see you at the show tomorrow–if you can’t make it in person, be sure to check out the live stream on DCI.org.
SUTA
Emily
It’s everyone’s favorite time of the year.
The hornline is louder, the show’s getting cleaner, and it’s Regional time tomorrow!
I love drum corps in July. We’ve been on tour for three weeks now and are getting in to the groove. The Regiment has taken the west coast tour this year, with stops in Phoenix, San Diego, Portland, Boise, Ogden, and now Denver. It’s been a hot tour, but we had a great time working our way out here. The scenery on the west coast is fantastic, and the California weather was good to us as well.
Today we are in Denver, getting ready for our first Saturday show in July. Drum corps seasons are marked by Saturday night shows–each week becomes more and more important until we reach Finals. I know that we are all extremely excited for the show tomorrow. If you happen to be at Invesco tomorrow, keep your eyes out for a very obvious visual change…
These are the days that make or break a season. Know that we’re pushing hard and can’t wait to perform for you each and every night.
SUTA
Emily
Welcome to tour!
The Phantom Regiment is finally on the road and off to a great start. The competitive season began last Saturday night at Show of Shows. The Regiment home show is always a great show for us, but there couldn’t have been a better way to debut our 2008 production. Many alumni of the corps came out for the show and I can only hope that we made them proud.
We had four show days in a row leading up to today. We got to head north to Minnesota and South Dakota. I know that the members enjoy being on tour because we have a change of scenery every day as well as the chance to see our friends in other corps. Today was a rehearsal day in the stadium we performed in last night. We re-staged part of our closer and got a lot better.
I hope that you are able to follow us on tour, and look forward to seeing you at a show!
Goodnight from the back of bus 2!
SUTA
Emily
Hey Hornline fans! Sorry that it has been so long since there’s been an update—we’ve been busy working hard and learning our show.
We are now moved in to Winnebago High School in Winnebago, IL. The next phase of our spring training is underway and it feels more like drum corps, as we are now all sleeping in close quarters in the café-torium.
The hornline has gotten a lot better over the past two weeks. The brass staff has been hard at work developing exercises and new techniques to help us better our playing. What began as Freddy Martin’s balloon exercises has now evolved into a complete pedagogy, encompassing breathing, articulation, and sustain. Freddy, Chip, Taylor, Andrea, and Mason (our fantastic staff) are continuing to challenge us to be smarter and more musical players every day.
An exciting tidbit—the Phantom Regiment mellophones are now new and improved! Thanks to the teamwork between King and Regiment, a slight change to our horn has been developed to keep us better in tune. The mellophone is a tough instrument—there were so many tendencies of intonation to remember that King decided to fix the problem for us! JD worked in correlation with the engineers at King to create the best product possible. Mike Corrigan, the Horn Doctor, stopped by rehearsal on one of our last days at Rockford College to actually make the repair. A longer first valve slide sure has gone a long way for us!
Tonight was our first public performance of our 2008 production at Sinnissippi’s annual Concert in the Park series. We traditionally kick off the summer series, and we had a great time performing both our encore program as well as the field production. Look for a recording of the concert, to be released this summer!
We are all looking forward to Dress Rehearsal this Sunday and then Show of Shows on June 21st. Hopefully, you can get a chance to check us out!
Thanks again for reading. If you get a chance, be sure to check out Courtney’s Chronicles on the Regiment website for a day-by-day update of the corps’ happenings!
SUTA
Emily
It’s Day 5 here in Rockford and we are off to a great start.
The hornline moved into Rockford College on Tuesday night and began rehearsals on Wednesday morning. Our rehearsals for the past 5 days have been solely brass intensive, with JD and the rest of the brass staff on hand to help out.
We have been waking up early, to stretch and run before breakfast, and then rehearse during three main blocks during the day. Our mornings are mainly conditioning and technique focused, with warm-up and of course, some tracking. We’ve spent a lot of time in the tracking block this week, building up endurance and becoming more comfortable playing on the move. The afternoon block consists of subsectionals (trumpets, mellophones, euphoniums, and tubas) with emphasis on our show music. Our evening block is structured in the same way as the afternoon, but we spend time focusing on our encore music.
We have worked through the entire field show and four encore tunes as well. I know all of you ‘06 fans out there will really enjoy our encore this year…. We got to perform in front of our first audience last night, when we had a show and tell for the drumline and colorguard. I can confidently say that this year’s hornline is a great one–the performance was amazing and a lot of fun as well. Not only did we sound great but we looked pretty great to, thanks to Mike Kamphius who stopped by Boot camp this week and dropped off some awesome Kings of the Field t-shirts–thanks, Mike!
Brass boot camp is a tough week–it pushes everyone to their limit and demands perfection on every level. The membership this year has definitely stepped up to the challenge. I am proud to say that I am a part of it.
Tomorrow is our first public performance–if you are in the Rockford area, be sure to head downtown and see us in the annual Memorial Day Parade! I’m really excited for the parade. There is nothing quite like putting on the uniform after such a long time.
I’m looking forward to another great week, with the full corps in attendance. I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes!
SUTA
Emily
It’s almost drum corps season.
Even though it’s cold and rainy, we’ll be starting spring training in just over a week. I know everyone is excited that the countdown has finally reached single digits.
Spring training is unlike any other part of the season. We will be practicing for 10-12 hours everyday, putting together our 2008 production. The hornline and colorguard will be moving in to Rockford College, while the drums will spend some time in Texas before we all come together as one corps.
We have a bit of a head start on all the work to be done, with two successful drill camps under our belts. The music ensemble was joined by our beautiful colorguard last camp, and we had the chance to meet new friends and work together as a complete visual ensemble. Hopefully, all of you got to take a sneak peek into the 08 show with DCI.org’s wrap up of the Countdown Classic. There are some great excerpts of our show music as well as a chance to meet some of our members.
If you didn’t get to see it the first time, the video can be found here:
http://www.dci.org/news/view.cfm?news_id=77cab47d-1e96-49d4-b04c-383adb3aa541
I hope you are excited for the summer–I know we are ready to get on the field and start the season off right.
SUTA
Emily
Hello Everyone! My name is Emily, and I am extremely excited to be writing for King this summer. As a member of the Phantom Regiment, I will help you experience all that being a part of the corps entails–this is my version of On the Road.I thought I would write an entry today, in anticipation of our camp coming up this weekend. We will all converge on the city of Rockford around seven o’clock tomorrow to put in another weekend of hard work, in preparation for the coming season. This weekend marks our first full marching camp–we will be learning part of the on-field production, and putting it together with music and drill for the first time. Drill camps are always fun–it’s our first chance to get a feel for what we will be performing each day of the summer. The membership is just beginning to come together as a whole corps, and this is also a great way to learn teamwork. I hope that this blog will be a fun way for you to stay updated on the progress of the corps, as well as the drum corps activity as a whole. Like I mentioned before, I can’t wait to write to you all summer long! I’ll be sure to let you know how camp goes this weekend, too! SUTAEmily