Niagara Falls/London/Toronto: Day 1 (Friday)

Hi Parents,

What a great day today! It's an interesting process putting a band together of this size. The drumline has their own rehearsals. The band practices separately. The colour guard (flags) finally got their flag for the first time today. And today, finally, the whole band came together!

The first practice session was learning how to march and keep straight lines...everyone taking their cue off one another...108 people in total linked by an imaginary thread. Then everyone on the same foot, and adjusting length and width of the band as needed given the size of street we might be on. Ramping up this training is a slow process at first, but after an hour or so, the students were really starting to understand what was needed.

The second training session, in Niagara, brought the whole band together with full instrumentation. Not only did they look good, but they sounded great! It was a real treat to see them all come together like this and start to understand what an awesome band they were forming. Tomorrow we add the full uniform to the mix, and with that, they'll be fully ready for the parade in London.

Great Wolf is a great place to relax and have some fun after a busy day of training. No problem getting to sleep tonight, with a tired and happy crew of 108 students.

All for now.

Kevin Hamlin
CCI Music

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