Candidates of T Row! [TBDBITL]
Joshua Clasen
Candidates of T Row!
Congratulations on being the luckiest candidates trying out on trumpet this year, you were placed with T-Row! We're sure that you can hardly contain yourselves. This email shouldn’t be very long but to keep it as simple as possible, here is a table of contents:
I. Information about summer sessions and tryouts
II. What you should be doing to prepare
III. Links to various youtube videos and the band website
IV. How to take videos of yourself and put them online so squad leaders and vets can give you feedback.
I. Information about Summer Sessions, Candidate Days and Tryouts
For those of you who have not been coming to Summer Sessions so far this summer, every Tuesday and Thursday night from 7-9pm we have an optional practice focused on getting candidates and veterans of the band prepared for tryouts at the end of August. If you have not started coming to the Summer Sessions we would highly encourage this, especially if you live in state. At this point in the summer, many people have fully grasped the basics of marching and playing and every week their competition and drive increases, it is essential that you will be caught up and at a competitive level for Tryouts, which are August 30th and 31st.
We will have an intensive week of Summer Sessions the second to last week in August (Monday, August 22nd – Thursday, August 25th) where you will be able to get up to speed on our unique marching style. The actual acquisition of the skills necessary to march in our band is secondary, however, to the perfection of those skills to a point of flawless execution. This perfection is a time-consuming process therefore we HIGHLY recommend you practicing every day and attending as many summer sessions as possible from here on out. We cannot stress this enough.
Following the intensive week of Summer Sessions (August 22nd – 25th) there will be a two day ‘break’, where you will have time to work on your own before Candidate Days, which begin Sunday, August 28th and Monday August 29th. Candidate days are mandatory for all Candidates and are the first two days of the four total days of Tryouts. No veteran members of the band will be present at all. Candidate days are for the sole purpose of ironing out any issues candidates may have before Tryouts (August 30th and 31st) begin. Again it is mandatory that Candidates attend all four days of Tryouts (August 28th-31st) By tryouts, all candidates should be adequately prepared. It will be a trying and very rigorous experience, but getting through tryouts is surely an accomplishment in itself and one that not many students can claim, and the reward is extremely great. Remember that everyone is required to tryout for the band every year including us Squad Leaders, so there are in reality 14 open spots in T-Row. Don't miss the chance to be one of them.
II. What you should be doing to prepare
Physical conditioning. Cross training of any kind: running, swimming, biking, rowing, climbing, basketball, tennis, boxing. Anything to engage your cardiovascular system you will want to try and do for about 30 minutes every day. If you are having trouble with this, or it seems very daunting to you, here are some links:
http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml - Couch to 5k, a running plan for people who don’t run. You can adapt it to your own level of fitness if you’re somewhere between being able to barely walk up stairs and able to go about 2-3 miles. If you can run 4-5 miles without stopping, you probably don’t need a workout plan.
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=55923 – This one is more general, about making good health choices, it’s never too late.
With anything, remember that you should feel uncomfortable exercising, but not in (too much) pain, leaving our comfort zone is the only way to improve (in anything). Also, adapting to a new workout plan or diet takes about two weeks. You probably won’t see any results before two weeks have passed, so start doing things now, not a week before tryouts. You may also want to spend as much time outside in the heat as possible, tryouts will likely be really hot and humid.
Coming to Summer Sessions. I don’t want to do this…
But seriously, come to summer sessions. You will get so much better if you do.
If you need a place to stay, plenty of people living down here (myself included) would put you up for a few weeks. DO NOT hesitate to ask for assistance!
Watching the fundamentals DVD. When you signed up for tryouts, you should have received a DVD in the mail along with your school songs. It has all the fundamentals of the OSUMB on it so you can learn them on your own if you are coming from far away (California/Florida/North Carolina). You can also perform them in a mirror, watch yourself, compare to the DVD, etc. You can pick one up in the band center (between gates 10 & 12 in Ohio Stadium) or by sending them a request to mail it to you by visiting http://tbdbitl.osu.edu We highly encourage you to record yourself with a video camera and critique yourself that way. You can also submit those videos of yourself marching to us Squad Leaders so that we can provide you with helpful feedback. If you can not attend Summer Sessions PLEASE try to do this so that we can give you the best possible chance of making the Band.
III. Links to various youtube videos and the band website
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfjj5pu2MQU – Ramp from this year’s Miami game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzIh2AjZszs – Here is a better one, from this year’s Michigan game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnFSizDeB24 – This is skull session performance of the Navy Hymn when we played Navy two years ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5m7BITRD7Y -- TRAILER!!!!! (If this doesn't get you pumped up I don't know what will.)
http://www.tbdbitl.osu.edu -- This is the band's official website where you can read up on some useful things.
http://trow.webs.com -- This is T-Row's official website. You can go there and find some equally useful information.
IV. How to upload videos of yourself to Youtube
This is pretty easy. Go to Youtube, make an account, upload your video, email us (King...@osu.edu or Clas...@osu.edu) with the link to the video and we can make comments via email or may even upload our own example video for your enjoyment
There is also a space on our website (http://trow.webs.com) where you can upload videos for our critiquing.
That is all, sorry about the long email. If you have any other questions or issues, do not hesitate to email us.
TL;DR: come to summer sessions Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7-9pm at the Lincoln Tower Practice Field to the South of Ohio Stadium. Tryouts are August 28th-31st
Go to our website and check it out!!! (http://trow.webs.com)
Sincerely,
The T Row squad leaders,
Charlie King T-1
Josh Clasen T-12