Dr. Oliver,

I am writing concerning the rehearsal(s) prior to Saturday's marching festival. I am in favor of having an 8:30 am rehearsal. However, as a member of the drumline, I am quite irritated by the fact that our line will have excessive rehearsals after the full ensemble rehearsal.

In case you were not aware, the drumline has scheduled a noon rehearsal that is supposed to last about two hours. In addition, we are required to be at the stadium at 3:30 pm before we perform. I am very frustrated by the fact that while the entire band has one to one and a half hours of extra practice, the drumline will have five and a half hours of rehearsal in addition to performance.

It was for this reason that I was highly considering not returning to marching band this year. In fact, one of the reasons why I returned was because Mr. Lloyd promised to minimize excessive rehearsals this year. I understand that your motive for a great performance on Saturday is to gain more recruits to increase our current numbers in marching band. However, it is retention of the current members, especially those in drumline, which I would strongly focus on this weekend.

Until now, I was elated to be back and have really enjoyed participating. However, I am quite disappointed with our section leader, Matt Lipponcott and his decision to have these excessive rehearsals.

Into my third year, I have a good grasp of what it takes as a drumline to be effectively prepared for our performance. As a former swimmer, I was instructed to rest properly before a race and I think this can adequately transfer to marching band. Lipponcott's plan will only make the drumline more tired and frustrated, and this could harm our performance. There may be nothing you can do about this, but I wanted to let you know that I'm not happy about what the drumline is prepared to do Saturday in addition to the rest of the band.

Thank you.

Eric Goering

*Response from Dr. Oliver:

Eric,

I really appreciate you taking the time to alert me to this issue. I was not aware of the duration of time being asked of the drumline on Saturday. I spoke with Mr. Lloyd last evening and I have asked him to reconsider this issue in light of the possible full band rehearsal that morning. There is no reason for the drumline to rehearse this much especially since I am pleased with the level of playing that I heard on Wednesday afternoon. It is really important to me that older veterans like yourself keep coming back to the Marching Jayhawks. Your continued participation is ultimately what will make the band stronger year after year. Eric, if there is anything I can do to help or assist, please let me know. Thanks again for the heads-up.

Dr. Oliver

I was so mad yesterday about the fact that we had to have 5 and a half plus hours of rehearsal for this marching festival show. It's really going to do more harm than good. I'm glad that Dr. Oliver is taking initative to at least talk with Mr. Lloyd to at least try to get him to change his mind about this. We're playing the music fine, but it's just a matter of memorizing and putting it in with the rest of the marching drill. I think we'll be fine with one rehearsal only and that will make my job much easier. Before writing the above letter last night, I was really mad at marching band and the time I had to dedicate to it, but now that I got these feelings off of my chest, I feel a little better. We'll just have to see what happens Saturday.

Well, thats about all that's going on. Because right now, band is my life...