Band, Band and More Band for Grant

Down here in Texas things are a bit different. Band is very cool and they have very large band programs in school. The kids come to Middle school before they go to sixth grade to have a instrument evaluation. This is to see what instrument they would be naturally be best playing (or if the parents already have a certain instrument, that influences things). So, Grant was assigned the tuba. This is his third year. He is in the honors band. Each year they are stongly encouraged to try out for the District Select band and the Regional band. Grant naturally wants to do well in whatever he has tried out last year and this year.
This week was a big band week. He had two different tryouts for Regional band. To give you some idea of how big this is, several thousand students from the North Dallas school region have individual tryouts in front of judges. The students are given specific pieces and scales, they can't talk to the judges and they have to be prepared to play any portion of their selections. Thursday night and Saturday were spent going to different towns for tryouts.
Grant made it. He is in the Synphonic band and 3rd chair. Good Job Grant.
Friday night when Byron was having his birthday party, Grant was at another band event. This was a marching band prep. They were invited to work with the high school marching band and then play during the halftime show for the 'big game'. Grant had a geat time. They had a pizza party, learned cool marching moves and then watched the game. The stadium is larger that some small colleges. They sounded great. Grant learned that he would rather play the trombone because they get lots of fun moves. Grant also learned that it is not easy to carry a souzaphone on his sholder for several hours without sholder pads. All in all he has a fun.