DANDENONG BAND
City of Greater
NATIONAL BAND CHAMPIONSHIPS!
16 April 2017
20 April 2017 - Written by missmaestromusic - Annie Pirotta
And that’s a wrap!
The 2017 Australian National Band Championships is over and everyone is either home, getting there or enjoying an extended Easter break.
It was a fantastic weekend. We saw monkeys in the park, walked the length of Cataract Gorge, filled every restaurant we visited, played Cards Against Humanity a few times, drank until last drinks and laughed all the back to our hotel.
Oh and competed in a prestigious band competition each day, which had its own set of highlights: We played a wonderfully musical rendition of our test piece that we all enjoyed, we had our own set of band groupies wherever we went that cheered us on, we received the best score for our straight lines and in-time feet on parade, we got the biggest cheer for our entertaining change of direction and laughed even more at our backstage shenanigans, pencil notes and minor fluffs.
As far as the #bandinglyf goes, Nationals is stand-out event for everyone. Being in the venue gives you the best opportunity to listen and watch the next-best players, but I haven’t met a bandie yet that doesn’t tune in to the live stream as Tim’s commentary adds something extra to the experience. It’s so much more than a competition in this way – in fact, it’s the major performance for the year of most bands. So much heart, soul, tears, pencil and oxygen is poured into the preparation for Nationals. To quote Disney’s Cars, “99 laps and baby, it all comes down to this”.
There’s a bittersweet sadness however, after you come off stage. The piece you’ve been running over and over again in your head for 3 months is suddenly finished. Some pieces you may never play again in your lifetime, others you are sure you’ll run into again later down the track – tricky “hippopotamus” rhythm and all. Some you’ll hear played by other bands in other years, and some you’ll never want to hear the recording for OR adjudicators comments on ever again. The work you put in, while completely worth it, is over in what feels like an instant. But you know you nailed that bit you couldn’t play in the last rehearsal, and you might be convincing yourself it was pure skill and not a fluke, so really, let’s not test it hey?
Watching other bands in different grades really puts perspective on your own journey. Everyone has put in so much to get there, and you can admire the youngest my-feet-don’t-touch-the-floor-yet bandie to the oldest I-remember-when-banding-was-more-popular-than-Britney-Spears banding veteran for that. You support your friends in other bands and find a sense of community amongst the bands from your State/Territory. Then, all of a sudden, you’re watching the live stream and you’re calling out a dodgy mute change it’s like a sport and the trombones got a point instead of a goal. How’s that for some stereotypical Aussie spirit.
