My Band Class Is Horrible

[CroSpartacus 0]

Today I was extremely furious in school.My first class, computers, began great. We were showing our finals, we had months to create a website of our own about anything and I showed mine on CroCop, everyone loved the video and I got a good grade. But then when I was at my Band Class, I was angry.I walked into the class and this kid tells me "Did you get signed out from your classes?" then I look at him not knowing what the hell he was talking about. And then he tells me that later on in the day we had to play our instruments for some concert our school was holding in the auditorium. I missed school friday because it was a Senior-Dont go to school-Day and the teacher at last minute says we have to perform a concert!Now note that today and tomorrow are finals for me and then i'm finished with high school. And the band teacher had to organize a concert on the same day I had finals for all my other classes!!! 2 weeks ago I had to come to school at 7pm at night because my band class was playing in another concert, I could have gone to my karate class learning how to defend myself but no, I had to go spend 2 hours doing nothing but play one song.Anyways, despite my past sacrifices, the band teacher still wanted me to play at the school auditorium today!!! I was like "Dude, I have finals to take in all my other classes today and I can't. I already played in the other concert" And then the teacher says "Well this is your final for me! u have to play today!!"I was angry. So then I had to grab a sign-out sheet and go to my next two classes asking for excusal. My literature class got to watch a movie, The Pianist, and I wanted to see that! but I had to leave that class for band.Then I went to my other class, Advanced Weight Training, and asked the teacher to sign my sheet and excuse me from the class. So he signs me out, and then starts talking to this lady for 5 minutes. I come up to him asking him to give me my sign-out sheet back so I can give it to my band teacher and he says"I'm French here, I have no idea what you are talking about"I was like "dude! I gave you that sheet to sign, where is it?"And he still was confused not knowing that he signed something just 5 minutes ago!!! So he tells me to come back later.And then 45 minutes later I come back asking him if he found the sheet and he says"Who are you?"I'm like"I am in your 8th period class! You lost my sign-out sheet!"Then he starts thinking for 5 minutes until he says"Ohh, that's right, you are in my class"Then i'm like "yea!"So I had to get another sheet for him to sign finally.And then I was in the schools auditorium for 2 damn hours. My band wasn't even scheduled to play until the very end of the concert. I had to sit there, with my instrument around my neck waiting for the other people to finished singing songs, playing the piano, or the other instruments.I was so bored it's not even funny. First of all, I had to sit through 45 minutes listening to students one-by-one go up to the piano and play a song. And they were horrible! They got their notes all wrong and they only played either 20% or half the song and stopped. Then we had to clap and cheer them on. Having a whole year of piano class, I would guess that you should at least know how to play the whole song! Then this one guy had his turn to play his guitar. He went on stage and it took 20 minutes for him to set up his guitar. I was thinking "well, he plays guitar, I think he's going to play something decent" And the guy plays a few verses of Amazing Grace and stops saying "And that's it, I don't know the rest" And the audience claps! I was shaking my head. 20 minutes to set up his guitar and all he could play was 3 versus!!! Then these other people got up to play another song and we couldn't tell what they were trying to play.Then my band finally started to play and all we did was play one song and that was it.So sitting through 2 hours of doing nothing just to play one song I don't understand. There wasn't even an audience! Only about 20 students! The place was dead. Then when I thought we were done, there was some guest who won that Chicago Idol contest and she sang for 20 minutes. Then she asked people questions and if they answered it right they would get a CD of her music. I didn't even know who she was. I hope I earned my band credit because sitting for 2 hours doing nothing running to classes while my teacher loses the sheet not remembering i'm even his student! While I could have just gone to my normal classes watching The Pianist!

[biscuitrat 0]

Your band concerts are a lot more complex than mine. For us, most of the hassle is putting on our uniforms and warming up - for what? 14 minutes of playing? It just goes without saying that there's too much pressure on appearance rather than effort and good playing. Either way, I'm usually there for two hours, between having to get ready, and having to wait for the other bands to play before mine goes up. I just wish they'd get the message that we don't really care. I'm just there for my phys. ed. and fine arts credits now. With my school emphasizing so much on marching, I get to wait an entire semester before band becomes interesting again.

[Sinari 0]

Wow! That does sound complex! We don't have uniforms or anything, we just wear black pants and a white shirt, warm up for like two minutes and then play for like ten minutes at the most. With the piano part, yours almost sounds like a recital or something. I had a recital once, I could finish my song and that was a miracle from my point of view. If they couldn't finish the song, they wouldn't play at the recital. Sounds like the piano people at your school need to show some common sense when choosing who can play.

[CroSpartacus 0]

I also joined band just to get my music credit. And I am glad I am finished with it. Some people are just designed to like playing instruments and some hate it. I think that the mandatory 1 year of music should be removed.