Ok...this is rediculous.  What is so different about this year that we all keep getting sick?  Is there some reason that fall of 2009 has caused the THS Band Room to be one big germ factory?   I mean it.  This year has caused our school to look like a sample test tube in Alexander Fleming's lab (yeah, thats right...I did a book report on him in 9th grade.  Look him up). This marching season will certainly be remembered as one of those periods when everyone gets sick with something.  You name it, we've had it.  Bronchitis, Swine Flu Novel H1N1 virus, Regular Flu, Sinus Infections, Strep Throat, Laryngitis, not to mention countless fevers, runny noses, headaches, stomach aches, and plain old colds.  Imagine what that means to the band director: more whining, complaining, and groaning than ever.  And that's just what you hear out of me. 

    We were lucky...I've heard of other bands, of comparable size and in our area, who were missing a third to half of their band on some game nights.   Kudos to you, THS Band, for carefully arranging to each take your full week or more off from school at staggered times so as not to entirely deplete the group of playing members.  Double kudos to you also, for doing it in the mist of perhaps the rainiest stretch of Friday nights ever in the Western Hemisphere.  Seriously!  Wyalusing, nice.  Wellsboro, rained.  Towanda, rained.  Cowanesque, I can't remember.  South Williamsport, rained.  Athens, rained.  Sayre, rained/snowed.  North Penn, rained.  Forecast for tomorrow night at Muncy: rain showers.  All this rain cannot be good for your health. 

    Which brings me back to why I am writing.  At one point, I looked around at a practice or game (last week I think), and realized that we were all there, save one or two kids, of whom one was not sick.  I considered this to be the moment we crossed from being in the woods to out of them.  I was feeling good!  I was sucking down Vitamin C drops at the rate of 400% RDV a day.  Kids were happy and working hard. Wouldn't you believe that less than one week later, here I am sitting at my desk not feeling well again.  Believe me...I don't like to complain about my health.  I don't usually want others to know, and besides, have you ever been excited to hear that someone isn't feeling well?  Imagine the following conversation: 

So thats generally why you won't hear things from me about being sick.  I just don't want YOU to freak out.  If I'm sick enough that you shouldn't be around me, you'll know.

 

Basically, it would just be nice to know when I'm going to have to wear a facemask to school.  I mean it.  I want the place to look like China in the middle of a SARS outbreak, or I'm outta here.  You guys can rehearse yourself!  Just kidding.

 

 

PS.  Thanks Bri, Erik, Jackie, and Sarah.  You guys made my afternoon yesterday :-)

 

Mr. Schwanger

First of all, welcome to my first attempt at any sort of a public blog!  While the information you read here will be trivial at best, I just thought it would be a good idea for me to send out to anyone, in writing, some of the things that I get to thinking about from time to time.  I honestly have no plans to keep this blog updated with any scheduled regularity, but I do hope that when the mood strikes, I can remember to go here to open up to readers about what I'm thinking.  I plan to keep it updated with tips on playing, practicing, warmup, or just give simple life lessons.  There may be times that I add a link to a cool site I found.  There may be time that I post a funny picture.  Who knows?

 

In college, I actually earned a nickname among my music education classmates; they used to call me "Deep Thoughts."  Now, any of you who have ever had a lesson with me must surely know that I NEVER talk too much, over-explain a concept, or ask a lengthy series of rhetorical questions aimed at inspiring you to perform that concert b-flat whole note with the most beautiful tone, rhythm counting, and emotion, so much so that it would make Beethoven jealous.  So hey...if you can't get enough of Mr. Schwanger's short and consise, less-talk-more-doing style of teaching, go ahead and hit "SUBSCRIBE" and read my posts in your most favoritest RSS feed reader. 

 

------------------------------------------

 

Its about this time of year that I begin to realize that alot of what I've said in a lesson or in a band rehearsal is all old material.   It's either stuff I've already said this year, stuff i've said last year, or stuff someone else has said.  Don't get me wrong; I don't consider myself a walking encyclopedia of band knowledge.  I just remember alot of things that people used to tell ME in the past, and I pretty much just regurgitate that out to my students.  Yes, there are plenty of times that I have thought up my own analogy on the spot, but for the most part, I am telling you something that someone else has (or I have) said already.  So, the next time you are at home practicing your instrument, just think to yourself "What did Mr. Schwanger (or anyone else, for that matter) say about this?"  If you can't answer that question, think "What would someone like Mr. Schwanger say to me (besides 'Do it again!')."  It may just help to keep you practicing, that is, assuming you've begun to do that in the first place!