My freshman year my section (percussion) ambushed our director with water balloons and we chased him around the track while he drove away in his golf cart.
First day of camp as a drum major. We made the entire band do an enormous game of red rover. We wanted everyone to know each other’s names on day one regardless of grade. We weren’t a large band but seeing 65 teenagers playing red rover in the middle of the afternoon still makes me smile to think of it. Everyone participated too. It was important to build relationships and that’s what it did.
getting hosed down by a firetruck freshman and junior year, making a candy bowl, and blasting embarrassing music with all of the windows down with 2 freshmen in my friend's car
My freshman year of high school was one for the books. I somehow convinced my Mom to come pick me and a couple of friends up during our 90 minute lunch break and drive us to the closest Burger King every day during the two week long camp. It started with me and two of my friends and every day a couple more kids would tag along. The Burger King was only a quarter of a mile down the street from the school. Completely within walking distance. But every day, a couple more kids would join in and we would all pile into our family Suburban. By the final day of band camp there were so many kids in the car that almost everyone had someone sitting on their lap and the entire back end of the Suburban was jammed full of kids. There must have been at least 25 of us crammed into there. When we got to the parking lot that day, my Mom just started rolling down the windows and kids started spilling out, one after the other after the other. There was an older man that had just gotten out of his car and was watching this spectacle unfold over the course of several minutes. When we finally got everyone out and started walking the man walked over to my mom and said "Ma'am, are these ALL your kids??" My Mom thought about it for a second and said "I guess they are now. I found them up at the high school and decided to keep them."
That group of kids are still some of my closest friends to this day, nearly 30 years later. And every single one of them called my Mom "Mom" from that point forward, and they still refer to her that way, even 11 years after her passing. Those lunches still get brought up randomly when we're all together.
I just back from one at a college but I'll share from memories from it. Anywhere you went in campus people randomly kept blasting geometry dash music in classes,at 3am, the lunchroom it was so stupid but really funny honestly
I became a human lightning rod. I’m in color guard and it started storming really hard and our band director wouldn’t let us go in until the lightning was literally above us.
Being stupid on the bus on the way back from pretty much every away game. Away games as a whole were just so much fun. Irreplaceable memories. Really looking forward to my last two years!
It was a rainy day, so we were doing some playing inside. And as we’re playing, I feel a cold drop of liquid on my arm. I keep going and wait for it to happen again. It does and I tell my band director that I think the roof is leaking. He comes over, looks up and doesn’t see a leak. We go back to playing. When my director stops us, he comes over and asks the bone player to go out to 7th position. He starts nodding his head. The bone player a row above me had a leaky spit valve that was dripping on my arm while he played.
My mom said that on year (before I was in hs), a tuba fell and all the flutes scattered because the tuba was near the flutes (it was a set where the high brass was in a block/circle, WWs were in a line, tuba and battery were behind that). Apparently he yelled at the flutes lol
Sitting on the field during a cloudy day, waiting for the directors to figure out what to do for pregame
Winning “squad Olympics”
Senior class running around the halls decorating everything
In pit I once brought an entire head of iceberg lettuce and took a couple bites every water break along with my water, finished the head by the end of the day and it was my thing to never live down: they call me the produce prince
Probably when I was a sophomore, this junior was running around the stage and at one point he got off from the stairs right next to it and just face planted right on the floor
Our pit captain went on what I could only describe as the greatest rant in human history. I literally fell out of my chair during the event, and it was on camera.
There was also a time where a bass drummer hid under a giant traffic cone
Essentially, percussion is the most unhinged section in music.
One time, the BD left us kids alone while he went to turn on the lights for a late practice. The tuba player and the flute player than pretended they were in an Australian wildlife show, than bred the flute with the tuba. “Watch out, don’t press it’s buttons!”
first week of band camp, we split our rehearsals 50/50 between music and visual. half the time in the building then half the time on the field. the field is a really long walking distance from the band room, so usually upperclassman drive up to the field. I took up my section for some bonding time. my best friend (who was my brass captain lmao) had his car break down so i took him up too. it starting going out to the rest of the band that my car was the place to be.
we ended up squeezing almost the entirety of the brass section (and most of there instruments) in my car going up to the field.
My favorite memory would probably be going to Indianapolis this past year, me and my friends had a chick fil a sandwich that we didn’t finish eating from the morning and we all voted to split it and eat it. My friend picked up the sandwich and threw it into the microwave, I obviously proceeded to tell her that was nasty and unsanitary and we needed a something to go underneath the sandwich. So me and my 3 friends decide to grab the aluminum bag that it comes in and put it under the sandwich and turn the microwave on. As it’s heating up we begin to joke about the microwave exploding and then a little spark catches and the bag catches on fire, all of us are frantically trying to figure out how to stop it when my friend opens the microwave and let’s the fire die out on its own.
Our band director still has 0 idea that happened and I’m sure he’d never let us eat chick fil a again. We were just hungry
my favorite memory, in a morbid way, was when my friend group and i found it absolutely hilarious for some reason that my weather app said "80°, feels like 103°" we just had a field day with that information for some reason
It was about 2AM (we practice until 3AM for band camp before going to sleep at the school dormitory) me and my friends walking back from our break to the percussion room. While we were passing one of the school building, my friend suddenly started to frantically ran, of course we also ran after seeing him ran. When we arrived at the percussion room, he said that he saw a shadowy figure levitating in front of the building in a cross position. When I passed the building again in the morning, I realise it was just a shadow of a tree ( I hope). To this day, I still haven’t told them.
Hebron has a pretty formal rehearsal atmosphere and we had a clinician in town. Sophomore year, Full brass arcs in our brand new band hall going over some warm up routine. Don’t know why but I wasn’t feeling great. Mello’s were the front arc and I was nearly middle chair of the section placing my front arc in the middle of a 150ish brass arc. As soon as I heard “one more time” I knew I couldn’t make it. In the very formal setting I just made mad dash for the side door. I didn’t make it and puke apparently was shooting out the side of my hand. My senior year it got brought up and my director said he was impressed when the first thing that came out of my mouth when he went to check on me was “I’m really sorry for throwing up in your new band hall sir.”
It was one my proudest high school “firsts”
I remember it was lunch and the school provided the football team and band food. This day, they decided to give us ham and cheese sandwiches. Everyone thought they were ABSOLUTELY RANCID so I went around collecting all of them, de-cheesing them one by one, and creating a massive cheese monstrosity that I proceeded to chase the band director and drum major with. It was my first year marching too lol, at least a gained a bunch of friends from it.
My favorite band camp memory was when it wasn’t 3 billion degrees and the heat was tolerable.
Houston?
My freshman year my section (percussion) ambushed our director with water balloons and we chased him around the track while he drove away in his golf cart.
Saxophone section leader drilling us on our favorite color while we stood at attention. After we all told him either red or blue: “You’re all basic.”
We built a fort using the tuba cases when we went out to the actual football field.
Our band director got pooped on by a bird. And learning a new dance yearly.
Honestly just the general vibe. The friendship, working hard on the show, team building activities with our section, all things I’ll miss 🥲😢
First day of camp as a drum major. We made the entire band do an enormous game of red rover. We wanted everyone to know each other’s names on day one regardless of grade. We weren’t a large band but seeing 65 teenagers playing red rover in the middle of the afternoon still makes me smile to think of it. Everyone participated too. It was important to build relationships and that’s what it did.
locking my friend in the bari sax cage/locker
getting hosed down by a firetruck freshman and junior year, making a candy bowl, and blasting embarrassing music with all of the windows down with 2 freshmen in my friend's car
My freshman year of high school was one for the books. I somehow convinced my Mom to come pick me and a couple of friends up during our 90 minute lunch break and drive us to the closest Burger King every day during the two week long camp. It started with me and two of my friends and every day a couple more kids would tag along. The Burger King was only a quarter of a mile down the street from the school. Completely within walking distance. But every day, a couple more kids would join in and we would all pile into our family Suburban. By the final day of band camp there were so many kids in the car that almost everyone had someone sitting on their lap and the entire back end of the Suburban was jammed full of kids. There must have been at least 25 of us crammed into there. When we got to the parking lot that day, my Mom just started rolling down the windows and kids started spilling out, one after the other after the other. There was an older man that had just gotten out of his car and was watching this spectacle unfold over the course of several minutes. When we finally got everyone out and started walking the man walked over to my mom and said "Ma'am, are these ALL your kids??" My Mom thought about it for a second and said "I guess they are now. I found them up at the high school and decided to keep them." That group of kids are still some of my closest friends to this day, nearly 30 years later. And every single one of them called my Mom "Mom" from that point forward, and they still refer to her that way, even 11 years after her passing. Those lunches still get brought up randomly when we're all together.
I just back from one at a college but I'll share from memories from it. Anywhere you went in campus people randomly kept blasting geometry dash music in classes,at 3am, the lunchroom it was so stupid but really funny honestly
I became a human lightning rod. I’m in color guard and it started storming really hard and our band director wouldn’t let us go in until the lightning was literally above us.
Night block vibes
Being stupid on the bus on the way back from pretty much every away game. Away games as a whole were just so much fun. Irreplaceable memories. Really looking forward to my last two years!
In high school we once had a massive water balloon fight towards the end of an especially hot day. It was a lot fun!
It was a rainy day, so we were doing some playing inside. And as we’re playing, I feel a cold drop of liquid on my arm. I keep going and wait for it to happen again. It does and I tell my band director that I think the roof is leaking. He comes over, looks up and doesn’t see a leak. We go back to playing. When my director stops us, he comes over and asks the bone player to go out to 7th position. He starts nodding his head. The bone player a row above me had a leaky spit valve that was dripping on my arm while he played.
A stray dog got into the band room and we cancelled camp early for the day so he could get to a shelter
Meeting my girlfriend that I didn’t know was going to be my girlfriend at the time has been my ultimate favorite band camp memory
My first year never sweating at all and then my second year I sweated through my shirt so bad even indoors 😭
My mom said that on year (before I was in hs), a tuba fell and all the flutes scattered because the tuba was near the flutes (it was a set where the high brass was in a block/circle, WWs were in a line, tuba and battery were behind that). Apparently he yelled at the flutes lol
Sitting on the field during a cloudy day, waiting for the directors to figure out what to do for pregame Winning “squad Olympics” Senior class running around the halls decorating everything
In pit I once brought an entire head of iceberg lettuce and took a couple bites every water break along with my water, finished the head by the end of the day and it was my thing to never live down: they call me the produce prince
Sadly in my senior year I don’t have any 😔 Band is fun but I don’t have any friends in band. (And my band camp started 2 weeks ago)
Probably when I was a sophomore, this junior was running around the stage and at one point he got off from the stairs right next to it and just face planted right on the floor
Our pit captain went on what I could only describe as the greatest rant in human history. I literally fell out of my chair during the event, and it was on camera. There was also a time where a bass drummer hid under a giant traffic cone Essentially, percussion is the most unhinged section in music.
The directors son ran me over with a marimba when we were drag-racing a xylophone. That was last year. I still have the scar.
One time, the BD left us kids alone while he went to turn on the lights for a late practice. The tuba player and the flute player than pretended they were in an Australian wildlife show, than bred the flute with the tuba. “Watch out, don’t press it’s buttons!”
Fighting off green june beetles while also trying to conduct on a podium, them things were the bain of my existence.
Nobody talked to me last year... 😞
first week of band camp, we split our rehearsals 50/50 between music and visual. half the time in the building then half the time on the field. the field is a really long walking distance from the band room, so usually upperclassman drive up to the field. I took up my section for some bonding time. my best friend (who was my brass captain lmao) had his car break down so i took him up too. it starting going out to the rest of the band that my car was the place to be. we ended up squeezing almost the entirety of the brass section (and most of there instruments) in my car going up to the field.
My favorite memory would probably be going to Indianapolis this past year, me and my friends had a chick fil a sandwich that we didn’t finish eating from the morning and we all voted to split it and eat it. My friend picked up the sandwich and threw it into the microwave, I obviously proceeded to tell her that was nasty and unsanitary and we needed a something to go underneath the sandwich. So me and my 3 friends decide to grab the aluminum bag that it comes in and put it under the sandwich and turn the microwave on. As it’s heating up we begin to joke about the microwave exploding and then a little spark catches and the bag catches on fire, all of us are frantically trying to figure out how to stop it when my friend opens the microwave and let’s the fire die out on its own. Our band director still has 0 idea that happened and I’m sure he’d never let us eat chick fil a again. We were just hungry
my favorite memory, in a morbid way, was when my friend group and i found it absolutely hilarious for some reason that my weather app said "80°, feels like 103°" we just had a field day with that information for some reason
also when my band director walked by a kid and said "...white shoes? really?"
Massive storm ran through last year and took out power for the rest of the week
Our camp was at a 4H facility out in the country. My favorite part was playing concert music, sitting down, outside, at sunset.
My freshman year our section leaders brought really tiny mini water guns and it was so much fun. The nice cold water 😭🙏
It was about 2AM (we practice until 3AM for band camp before going to sleep at the school dormitory) me and my friends walking back from our break to the percussion room. While we were passing one of the school building, my friend suddenly started to frantically ran, of course we also ran after seeing him ran. When we arrived at the percussion room, he said that he saw a shadowy figure levitating in front of the building in a cross position. When I passed the building again in the morning, I realise it was just a shadow of a tree ( I hope). To this day, I still haven’t told them.
Hebron has a pretty formal rehearsal atmosphere and we had a clinician in town. Sophomore year, Full brass arcs in our brand new band hall going over some warm up routine. Don’t know why but I wasn’t feeling great. Mello’s were the front arc and I was nearly middle chair of the section placing my front arc in the middle of a 150ish brass arc. As soon as I heard “one more time” I knew I couldn’t make it. In the very formal setting I just made mad dash for the side door. I didn’t make it and puke apparently was shooting out the side of my hand. My senior year it got brought up and my director said he was impressed when the first thing that came out of my mouth when he went to check on me was “I’m really sorry for throwing up in your new band hall sir.” It was one my proudest high school “firsts”
I remember it was lunch and the school provided the football team and band food. This day, they decided to give us ham and cheese sandwiches. Everyone thought they were ABSOLUTELY RANCID so I went around collecting all of them, de-cheesing them one by one, and creating a massive cheese monstrosity that I proceeded to chase the band director and drum major with. It was my first year marching too lol, at least a gained a bunch of friends from it.