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most embarrasing event to DM's

Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 9:17 am
by thaiguy20fromla
okay... how about we start a topic for the most embarrasing thing that happened to you when you were drum major

well, i guess here is mine:

at the temple city camelia parade, i was starting my routine for stepping off the band. after the left roundhouse, my baton got caught in my citation cord. i ended up missing placing for military DM

Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 7:59 pm
by BSRTptleader
I saw a band once that tore badly so the director shoved the DM off the podium and took over. Not the DM's fault he was perfect but the band wasnt watching.... I imagine that it was pretty terrible for the DM

Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 6:28 pm
by TMRMusicMaster
well I fell off my podium two weeks ago at a football game when I went to turn around after the end of my initating salute, i blame mysellf and the wet platform, i was def. feeling "down" but after hearing the whole stadium gasp in horror at the sight of my fall, i got up, stood back on the podium, gave a big thumbs up and gestured an ok sign, and as to my suprise the audience clapped and applauded me after i got up. It was so embarissing but so good to know everyone cared for me in spite of my own carelessness

Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 4:40 pm
by thaiguy20fromla
another thing- having to stop the band in competition because the damn flags stopped and a collision was to occur. and in the middle of the salute routine.

Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 5:43 pm
by Ryan H. Turner
Most embarrassing thingS that I've ever done as drum major....

I was completely self-taught, and had no idea what I was doing because of it. I was PRESSURED by unbelievable amounts of people to do this drum major competition called an "L" pattern for this dude named Tom Peacock. Yeah...sure...whatever. Here's the rules, Turner, come up with a routine, and there you go. See ya in March. So I went. And at my very first competition, with the great Brian Fox as my first ever drum major judge, I did something that I shall never forget with my whistle after I blew the obligatory "ROLL OFF" command--Twwwwwwweeeeeeeeeet eeeeeeet .... tweet... tweet... tweet... tweet... SPLATCH. That's right...I spit my whistle out. HEY, it was the quickest, shortest way to get the stupid thing out of my mouth! Much to the amusement of Mr. Fox, of course.

Second most embarrassing thing...Chino Band Review, 1982. Very first band review ever with Pasadena High School. Do my roll off. Do my tweets. Step off. Start beating time. All is right with the world. Until my line of vision picked up the salute line. Oh...wow....I think to myself, that's closer than I thought it would be. Better start my salute. I actually do a pretty dang good salute. TO THE DRILL TEAM LINE!! I realize, in horror, when I snap my head to the right with my salute, there's NO REVIEW STAND. My eyes widen in horror, and I look ahead, and see the review stand at least 30 more steps up. And the military guy standing there saluting me, with one eyebrow up as if to say, "Son, you'll never be in MY army." I think my salute was 135/6. MAN I NAILED THAT SECOND 6!!!! (Only drum majors understand those numbers!).

Those things happen.

Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 10:43 pm
by mkosbie
Ryan H. Turner wrote:I think my salute was 135/6. MAN I NAILED THAT SECOND 6!!!! (Only drum majors understand those numbers!).
:shock: I did something similar. I actually (luckily) realized that I was about to salute the wrong line though. Rather than have a 135/6, I started "off-roading", and just adding onto my routine. Not the cleanest spinning ever, but it kept me down to about a 15/6.

As for my most embarassing tirade? I nearly fainted on a field during awards. Mira Mesa last year, there was a HUGE gap between our performance and awards (like five hours). So, the band went home, and the leadership went back for awards. We decided to get dinner first... Lo and behold, our Rubio's gave us food poisoning.

By the end of 1A Auxiliary, I was dying. Then they announced all these other awards. Then they did Mace DM, and I won something. Dear god it was hard to march out and accept that. Anyway, the ceremony finally ended, and we took off our shakos as we marched off field. Easier said than done, but we kept tact... mostly.

Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 11:23 pm
by guardthepiccolo
haha my freshman year at the oakdale dm competition i was doing my L in the gym, and then going down the first leg i did a neckwrap, only my arm forgot that my shako was on and so i smashed the mace into my shako and it went flying across the gym floor... well then. that was interesting.
but it wasn't as bad as our current drum major who, while turning onto the salute leg, his pants fell down. he had to stop, pull them back up, and keep going, i felt so bad for him. it was the funniest thing ever tho, i still have it on tape and my family and i watch it for a good laugh.
oh yeah and later during the field conducting comp, we have the video of my friend and i conducting, we were new at it, and we totally looked like we were dancing, i mean my leg was popping and my head was like moving with the music, and my friend was dressed up in this western getup to go with her music(umm yeah it didn't) and she looked crazier than i did! it was so funny oh man, if you ever want a good laugh come to my house and watch the video. oh freshman year...that was not a good day for benicia haha

Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2005 7:18 am
by KMM77
Ryan H. Turner wrote:I think my salute was 135/6. MAN I NAILED THAT SECOND 6!!!! (Only drum majors understand those numbers!).
Those things happen.
Ryan, nothing like that spacious feeling of cranking out that salute and realizing that the line is another 50 yards up the road. :oops:

Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2005 3:18 pm
by someguywhodoesthings
I got a good one.

The drum major always leads the stretches during rehersal...blah blah.
Once, in the middle of the entire band, we were doing butterflies and I decided to stretch a little more than usual. The next thing I knew, my pants had ripped like somebody had knifed me. Pretty embarrasing having to stand in front of the entire band for a 10 hour day with a hole in your pants the size of a small splash cymbal. Later that day my little brother told me I would've been better off in a loincloth.

Another embarassing moment, again involving pants. I wore white pants last year, and at the first football game, i wore a pair of white underwear with designs on them. The Designs were red in color. After a first half of people asking me if I was ok, I realized that people thought my legs and butt were bleeding. Needless to say, I never wore those pants again.

Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2006 11:55 pm
by atH2Opride
omg. i thought i was the only one with those embarressing moments, but i guess not. that really makes me feel like im not such an idiot.

anyway, i have a couple. one was at santa cruz band review. i had just taken first with a really high score at antioch (my first band review ever as drum major). well, i got a little conceited (not a good thing) and thought santa cruz wouldnt be that bad. the band arrived that morning and my nerves starting getting all jumbled up like normal. i was working with my old baton when the cap flew off and i was left with a topless baton. luckily, i had my inspection baton (one that i had never used before) with me. lets just say my pride was very much hurt that day and so was the top of that brand new baton. i felt terrible because i kept telling myself i was the reason our showmanship score was bad. that day did help me however, i came out of it with my head held high, and a drive to earn the respect of the band back. i did that at the next bad review luckily.

now, i dont have really good hearing, so when the band is practicing mr.c yells stuff at me as to what to do. normally i hear him, but not this time. he said the same thing like 5 times in a row, so i finally just ran up to him and the band started to follow, and it may not sound bad, but trust me, it was. i messed the entire band up. jeez... sometimes we just have our off days i guess, but mine seem to become more frequent... gosh.. i hate being old..

Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2006 7:15 am
by Jakob der ludner
Yeah, so anyway, we were rehearsing for a football game, and it was my turn to lead the band in the show (we don't do competition field show so I don't really have a set "spot", so I get one football game to "run"). The band's marching in a block straight across playing our march, and I'm supposed to call a square turn so that the center ends up on the 50. Well, we go, and then I call it. Our band director stops us and tells me "nonono, 6 steps after the 50!" and had us run back. We do it again, same thing happens. And then I start calling the command on the wrong foot, and by this time most of us were flustered, me most of all. Finally our band director says "ok, I tell YOU when to do the turn", and I listen. We turn.....and the center ends up on 40....apparently our band director thought the other 40 was the 50. I mean, it was his mistake, but it was still a pretty embarassing experience for me.

Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2006 7:41 pm
by PJ
BSRTptleader wrote:I saw a band once that tore badly so the director shoved the DM off the podium and took over. Not the DM's fault he was perfect but the band wasnt watching.... I imagine that it was pretty terrible for the DM
AHEM! I know who you are talking about... (lol) and he was asked repeatedly to relinquish the podium until it was absolutely necessary to "move" him. Needless to say, the show ended together. All wa forgiven afterwards.

PS: I'll be at graduation.

Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2006 6:45 pm
by WildMooseStyle
PJ wrote:
BSRTptleader wrote:I saw a band once that tore badly so the director shoved the DM off the podium and took over. Not the DM's fault he was perfect but the band wasnt watching.... I imagine that it was pretty terrible for the DM
AHEM! I know who you are talking about... (lol) and he was asked repeatedly to relinquish the podium until it was absolutely necessary to "move" him. Needless to say, the show ended together. All wa forgiven afterwards.

PS: I'll be at graduation.
Umm I think I know who pushed him off...

Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2006 6:51 pm
by WildMooseStyle
someguywhodoesthings wrote:I got a good one.

The drum major always leads the stretches during rehersal...blah blah.
Once, in the middle of the entire band, we were doing butterflies and I decided to stretch a little more than usual. The next thing I knew, my pants had ripped like somebody had knifed me. Pretty embarrasing having to stand in front of the entire band for a 10 hour day with a hole in your pants the size of a small splash cymbal. Later that day my little brother told me I would've been better off in a loincloth.

Another embarassing moment, again involving pants. I wore white pants last year, and at the first football game, i wore a pair of white underwear with designs on them. The Designs were red in color. After a first half of people asking me if I was ok, I realized that people thought my legs and butt were bleeding. Needless to say, I never wore those pants again.
I seem to remember that too. It gave you a good story at least. But your white pants were amazingly tight... I can't believe you wore those boxers. Little red hearts... haha

-_-

Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 11:18 pm
by wtfman
Where to start? Well first of all... I had no DM training at all and I was the only dm. I didn't even have to conduct for my audition. They just gave me the position because there was no one else who could do it besides me.

So my first embarassing moment came when I did a parade with about 7 other drum majors. We lead a block that was made up of about 5 schools. I spent a portion of the parade conducting with my baton upside down because no one taught me how to hold it. Good thing I saw the other DMs and realized I was holding it wrong or I would have done the whole thing with it upside down.

The next several occured at various field show competitions. I never learned when or how to salute so I messed it up a lot. It didn't help that every competition had a different announcer and introduction. Sometimes it was "you may take the field of competition." Other times it was "the judges are ready." One time I was almost positive the announcer gave us the sign to begin... so I saluted and was about to begin when I heard "the judges are ready." I didn't want to look like an idiot and salute again so I just looked at them like "wtf man?" I think we got points subtracted from our score because of that. Oh well...

The next one happened several times during practice and parade competitions when I blew my cheap walmart plastic whistle for the roll off and it malfunctioned, turning into a high pitch squeel rather than a whistling sound.

Well... thats all I remember now. Yeah... my senior year was hell.