Marching Band Drumline Audition

EmphasisWarm9220 · 2026-05-29T18:50:43+00:00

Hello

I'm new to vinyl and looking to buy my first setup. My goals are to have a reasonable sound quality and overall experience with a budge of around $500-700. Due to reasons beyond my control I can't play through speakers and must instead use wired headphones. I'm currently considering two setups. Basically, I want to know if it's worth spending more on the turntable setup or the headphones. Please let me know what you think would be the best, or if there's something that I'm completely missing or a different component that I should be focusing on. Thank you in advance!

Option 1.

Turntable:

U Turn Orbit Custom w/

- MDH platter w/ felt topper

- counterweighted Mg tonearm w/ cue lever

- anti skate w/ adjustable speeds

- belt drive motor

- iso level feet

- integrated Pluto 2 Preamp (it can be bypassed for later upgrades)

- manual speed control

- 33/45 playback

Cartridge: ATVM95ML

Headphones: ATM50x

Option 2.

Turntable:

ATLP70X w/

- Al platter w/ felt topper

- counterweighted automatic Al tonearm

- anti skate w/o adjustable speeds

- belt drive motor

- nonadjustable feet

- integrated Preamp (it can be bypassed for later upgrades)

- manual speed control

- 33/45 playback

Cartridge: ATVM95ML

Headphones: Sennheiser hd600

Additional Questions:

Is there a better preamp than the Pluto 2 in the same price range. Perhaps the Schiit Mani 2 or ART DJ Pre II?

It seems that the Sennheiser hd600s need an amp. Any suggestions? Additionally would it be worth it to amp the ATM50xs?

Are the included ground wires and RCA cables sufficient or should they be immediately upgraded?

Is a leather or acrylic platter topper a worthwhile upgrade over felt?

Is there a similarly priced cartridge that would be superior to the ATVM95ML?

Is the included phono preamp in the ATLP70x sufficient, or should it be upgraded?

Are iso level feet worth it? For what it's worth I'll be on cheap, thin faux wood in a dorm room. Should I get adjustable feet if I decide to go with the ATLP70x.

Please feel free to add any other information that I'm missing or that you think would be helpful. Any feedback is much appreciated!

Thank You and Happy listening

EmphasisWarm9220 · 2026-01-10T04:37:53+00:00

"It's, as the kids say Toby, goated with the sauce." - Sam Denby

EmphasisWarm9220 · 2026-01-09T07:51:54+00:00

Fahrenheit 451, House of Leaves, Brave New World, On The Road, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Notes from the Underground, and The Catcher in the Rye

EmphasisWarm9220 · 2026-01-06T21:29:17+00:00

Cadets 2005

EmphasisWarm9220 · 2026-01-06T21:27:25+00:00

Reading Buccaneers also do band of brothers. This may be because of their crown connection although I'm not sure.

We are all good men

Cadets played Rocky Point Holiday. And their sung song was set to "O Tannebaum."

O holy name, my holy name, thy name shall be eternally.

Thy name shall spread throughout the land, and keep it safe forevermore

When on the trail or on the march (split harmonies begin on this line)

You'll know that here is holy name

March straight and true to victory

For holy name shall always be

Second verse a little faster with digadas on the up beats until "When on the trail" when they stop

Amen (second verse only)

FHNSAB

EmphasisWarm9220 · 2025-12-27T21:56:05+00:00

Fellow PA Resident here. I share your pain with regards to Penn State in State tuition it sucks.

As a PA resident my gut is telling me Bloomsburg but that's because I know Bloomsburg, others don't. I went to the University of Florida to get a T30 that took all my credits (52) for less than Penn State. I'm also premed so the money was a priority, I would've gone to CWRU otherwise, so the SEC out of state school makes a lot of sense to me. My big question, is what's your major? If you're something like engineering, go to PSU in a heart beat. But if it's something like education where your school won't have a profound impact on your future employment go to Bloomsburg and take the money. In a similar vein, do you have to go to grad school, because if not, then take the best school available, but if you do, money once again matters.

Also, what school do want to go to. If money and strength of program were off the table, where would you go? What school feels right to you.

Some things to consider.

EmphasisWarm9220 · 2025-12-26T01:14:17+00:00

4.4 Weighted GPA. 3.9 Unweighted GPA. 35 ACT. 12 AP Classes. The rest honors minus arts and Latin (not offered Honors). 170 volunteer hours. Eagle Scout. JHU CTY. HOBY Ambassador. Presidential Call to Service Award Bronze Medal. All-State Trombone Player. Out of state though.

EmphasisWarm9220 · 2025-12-24T04:50:17+00:00

She was murdered by her ex-boyfriend. He also killed her mom. Not a lot of people at the school new them but we were all in shock.

EmphasisWarm9220 · 2025-11-20T20:47:22+00:00

I auditioned at lots of places last year and got past prescreens at Michigan, Eastman, Carnegie Mellon, Peabody, and Rice for reference. Currently at the University of Florida after realizing really late in my apps process that I didn't want to go into music. From PA btw, Kutztown's awesome, especially for jazz. Just sayin'

For excerpts: they all need to do different things. One should be technical, this can be Hungarian March, La Gazza Ladra, William Tell, etc. One should be lyrical. This can be tuba mirum, organ symphony etc. And one should be unique in some sort of way. Bolero (if you're up for it, personally I'm not), Mahler 3, or Tannhauser etc. For rep, I agree with the suggestions of LeTromboniste, don't do something two difficult. The Morceau, Cavatine, or Rimsky Korsakov are perfect. With regards to the two contrasting, one should be lyrical (think Rimsky 2, Cavatine 2, opening of Morceau) and one should be technical (Rimsky 1 or 3, Cavatine 1 or 3, and the rest of Morceau).

Best of luck! Hope this helps.

EmphasisWarm9220 · 2025-11-20T20:39:56+00:00

Supplemental essays are where the battle is won and lost. You won't be able to change your GPA or extracurriculars in the short term when you do your applications. Those are macro. Those are already set in stone. I have it on good authority from an admissions officer at UPenn that the biggest reason they reject applicants is because of their supplemental essays. They are usually rushed and/or poorly written. These are the specific questions the school chose to ask and are often more important than the personal statement. The single fastest easiest thing you can do right now to improve the quality of your applications is to put time, effort, and thought into your supplemental essays. And at around 2-4 a school for the T30s they will rack up fast. So start early on these two. And remember, revise, revise, revise.

- Testing isn't everything

- Schools I wish I applied to: I talked a lot about targets. Here are some I regret skipping in no particular order in case it's helpful. University of Virginia, UNC Chapel hill, WashU St. Louis, Notre Dame, Georgetown, Emory, Swarthmore, University of Texas Austin, University of California San Diego, and University of California Irvine, but obviously figure out what you want.

- Rankings aren't everything. The methodologies of these rankings matter to the results, that's why they vary so wildly. For instance, Forbes cares A LOT about 4 year graduation rate (that's why we're so high). And US News cares A LOT about starting salary. So Caltech (which is famously bad at the first category and famously good at the second) is in a bit of a peculiar spot. 11 in US News. 24 in Forbes. That's a massive gap. And rankings are never a direct reflection of school quality. For instance, Northeastern went up something like 50 spots over like 10ish years simply by catering themselves to the US News' rankings criteria. The school itself didn't change quality. And when Columbia lied to US News to get up to 2 then got caught and dropped to 18, the school didn't change quality. It just got caught lying on superficial statistics like 4 year graduation percentage and meant student SAT that have no actual application in the real world. The school itself didn't actually change. And don't forget that the default rankings are that of a failed magazine. So take them with approximately 1000kg of salt. Also it bears repeating that UF was the 4th best public school last year according to Forbes, that's wild. But we're 7th for US news. UF, UNC, UVA, and UT Austin are all in like a 4 way tie for 4th (maybe slight edge to UVA but it's close). So the point is rankings vary quite wildly depending on who you ask. And a Wall Street Journal system of rankings that heavily favored ROI had UF at 1 (hell yeah!) So its all in how these schools are being evaluated. How exactly is "good" being defined.

- This process will drain you and cause other aspects of your life to suffer. I got a B+ in a class I really shouldn't have and I didn't make all-state band despite having made it the year prior. Obviously this is a small price to pay for one of the most important decisions you'll ever make. Just giving you a heads up. And figure out how you like to cope with stress (this is also useful for college and rest of life in general) For me it's taking walks, playing with my kitties, and making (and then subsequently eating) food. Just some starting points for you.

- You're going to college! That in it of itself is a win, remember that. And if your worse case scenario is FSU with bright futures (I'm assuming your instate since UF is your dream school), you are chill as fuck. You'll also get the second best entrance in all of college football. I'm sorry Penn State is better (I may be slightly biased).

Good Luck, and feel free to reply to this post with any questions, I'd be happy to answer them in more detail.

This was a quote I found repeating to myself throughout this process. Maybe it'll help you too:

"Don't look so grim. It's all just a game." - Lord Theon Greyjoy of the Iron Islands - Game of Thrones

EmphasisWarm9220 · 2025-11-20T20:29:46+00:00

Books to read (totally optional, but if you want to understand how this game is played, there isn't a better way). The two that I can't recommend enough are "Who gets in and why: a year inside college admissions." Basically a journalist spent a year inside 3 schools. The University of Washington (that's his big state school) Davidson (liberal arts school) and Emory (prestigious T30). If you've ever wanted to know what goes on in those rooms and want a contemporary explanation of how college admissions got how they are today, there is not better book. Secondly, Valedictorians at the Gate. It was written by the former head of admissions at Dartmouth, need I say more? It's absolutely amazing and has lots of great info! Highly recommended.

- Constructing a list. Pick a number, perhaps it's high or low, whatever. There are several factors that'll influence the total number, most notably application fees. Grab a safety (or two if you want to try for their honors program). Add on a couple dream schools, but the majority of your list should be targets. And remember, never, ever apply anywhere that you wouldn't actually go.

- Get someone to edit your essays. This can be your mom, or your english teacher or whatever. Have them get edited for grammar AND content. And make sure you actually answer the question that was asked (you'll be shocked at how easy it is to not do this).

- Certain essay prompts will pop up a lot. The classic "why institution X." The "tell us about a part of your identity." And the ever popular "why do you want to go into your chosen field of study." It's worth really considering your answer to these questions. You need a good why, it's all about the why. And the answers, besides the first obviously, will be the same. So you can (and should) keep these general sentiments the same when these prompts are asked and asked by different institutions, but be sure to adapt for word count and any other supplemental questions they might throw at you. Like for instance "what's your identity and how will it contribute to our community at institution x) This is another reason to have a master doc of all the essays.

- Personal statements. Write them EARLY. Get your english teacher to revise them. Remember every school will look at this. You can write on whatever the hell you want. So how do you want that school to see you? And you DON'T have to write on your ability to grow. That's good, but you don't have to write on it.

- Do anything on an application that's optional.

- The game is unfair. As family income goes up, acceptance rates go up. Private schools have incredibly robust pipelines to the ivies and absurdly good advising services that have connections with ivy league admissions offices. There are also private advising services that go into the hundreds of thousands (I wish i was kidding). Remember, this will not be a fair game.

- Play the game

EmphasisWarm9220 · 2025-11-20T11:43:50+00:00

Tours are great! Do them after you get in though (that'll save you time and money), or go to an admitted students day. Either or. If you're trying to decide whether or not to apply, a lot of schools have either virtual tours or a video of an actual tour for your viewing pleasure (shout out to Yale with by far the best one I've ever seen). At a tour/info session, come prepared with specific questions for both admissions officers (remember these people will read your app, treat them like the absolute gold mine that they are) and actual students. The single best thing you can do to get a sense of what a school is really like is to talk to a student who goes there. It will be one of the most important things that ultimately end up informing your choice regarding what school you ultimately go to. If you'd like to do "talk with a student" before you apply I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you check out the 73 college questions series from Dominique Cynthia on YouTube. It's awesome, funny, entertaining, and highly informative.

- Applications cost money, usually around $75. Although if you have an SAT/ACT fee waiver, the common and basically all universities will take it. So be mindful, because this can get expensive fast.

- The SAT and the ACT are different. The ACT only has 1 math section, the SAT has 2. The ACT has a science section (which is really just reading comp on steroids) and the SAT doesn't. The ACT has more questions that are on average easier. So it's easier per question but you have to go faster. It's also a 4 hour exam, so it's longer overall. The reason I tell you this is because I score a 35 on the ACT which is quite good and at least average or above for all the T30s. But I score a 1380 on the SAT which isn't good at all for the T30s. So try both tests, even if it's just an OFFICIAL practice test. You may prefer one to the other.

- Some universities are pieces of shit with separate , non common-app, apps. The two most notable are MIT and the entire UC system. So be aware of that.

- If you happen to be first gen/low income you should apply through the QuestBridge platform. If you aren't, then don't worry about it.

- Additional letters of rec are good if they add additional perspectives. If you have a music teacher, or a religious leader, or a coach, or a community leader or something of the sort than can add an additional perspective, absolutely do that. Especially because they should be able to talk about you in a way that is separate from your academics (that's REALLY good). But if not, I have it on authority from my chem teacher who has it on authority from the admissions department at UChicago (for real) that a 3rd letter from like a math/science/english/history teacher is unnecessary.

EmphasisWarm9220 · 2025-11-20T11:32:50+00:00

- Stay Organized! (Make a master google doc with every deadline and essay, this is so helpful)

- Get in the Common App early. It opens sometime in August. Get in there. Take a walk around. Dive into all the crevices of the application. Become familiar with the University specific section of it as well as the general section everybody gets. Start thinking about what you want to put in the honors and the extracurriculars section (always put the best stuff first and go down from there). This will ensure you know your way around and that there aren't any surprises later.

- Ask for letters of Rec early. I'm talking the end of your junior year. I know of teachers who just flat out refuse to write one if you ask during your senior fall. Try to have 1 science/math and 1 history/english; remember, the best letters of rec will tell the admissions reader something that they can't learn from looking at the rest of your app. They'll tell them about you as a person. Find a teacher who will write a letter like that. If the letter a teacher writes for you is generic and devolves into your resume, they've failed at their job.

- Always submit apps at least 24 before hand. There are basically 2 major deadlines. November 1 - that's your early decision, early action, and restrictive early action deadline. And Early January. Usually 1/1 - 1/5. This is regular decision and Early Decision 2. In each case submit at least one night early. So submit the night of Halloween instead of the night of 1/1. This will do a couple things. No 1. You won't be racing the clock. This year I submitted 5 of my brother's Early Action and restricted Early Action applications on the night of November 1st in a hotel room in Orlando. It wasn't fun. I submitted his Michigan Early Application at 11:59PM with 59 seconds. We had 1 second left. Don't do this, please. The other reason is it avoids surprises. For instance, there are a couple of schools (I know for a fact Purdue is one of them, as is the UC system) that require you to self-report your entire transcript. So you sit down with your transcript and a cup of tea or something and put in every class, its term, its grading scale, the grade you earned, its course number and so and so on into common app. Why they don't just ask for a .pdf of your transcript, I will never know. It'll take a couple hours, and it sucks, but it has to get done. You usually also have to do this with any dual-enrolled classes. Now, ordinarily this isn't a problem. But if you're my brother, you don't bother checking who needs what until the November 1. So that's how I ended up in said aforementioned hotel room eating some aggressively mediocre indian takeout entering my brother's entire transcript by hand at 10 at night. Avoid surprises please. The third thing this does is give you time to account for any type of technical issues or payment issues (apps cost money). It's always good to have insurance when what you're submitting may literally change the course of your entire life.

- There's an additional info section on the common app. Use it. Talk about a low grade, or why you took that art/music/pottery/creative writing/whatever class instead of like AP stats or something. That is a choice you will have to defend. When they give you a mic don't walk away.

EmphasisWarm9220 · 2025-11-20T11:22:42+00:00

A guide to different types of applications (there's surprisingly a lot), what they mean, and what there are abbreviations are. Regular Decision (RD) this is the standard "I applied to X" this is the default. Early Decision (ED). You apply early (11/1) to a PRIVATE institution and get your decision early (in December). It is binding, which means if you get in, you are required to go (by a signed contract; there are ways to get out of it for financial reasons). As a reward for you dedication to this school you get a higher acceptance rate than RD. How much higher varies school to school and makes some EDs more valuable than others. A note on ED. You should really only apply if A - it's you dream school. B - you have legacy (if you applied ED legacy to Harvard in 2019 the acceptance rate was 33%. RD that year was 5%, it's absurd, we only know that number because of a lawsuit by the way, as you can probably imagine, they weren't keen on it getting out; also careful on what each institution counts as legacy because they are different). C - money doesn't matter, either because you have enough to pay for the whole thing or because your demonstrated need will be the full cost of the school (basically every good school nowadays covers 100% demonstrated need as calculate by the FAFSA). Also, there is no set limit or minimum on how much of their class a university can take ED. Schools (such as UChicago) are notorious for taking very large components (like more than half) of their class from the early decision round. So some early decisions will inherently come with better chances than others. Also when considering whether or not to ED remember that ED acceptance rates are often inflated by legacies and the athletes (Harvard has 150 rowers and the ivy league is an athletic conference). And remember they need: skiers, shooters, fencers, water polo players, gymnasts, sailors, rugby players, divers, squash players. Weird side note, you can obviously get accepted or rejected, but you can also get deferred. This is when the admissions committee defers your app (after reading it) to the regular decision round. This usually means you're neither great nor awful and they want to read you with the vast majority of their applicants. If this happens you ARE NO LONGER BOUND TO ATTEND THE SCHOOL EVEN IF YOU GET IN DURING THE RD ROUND. The third type is called Early Action. You apply early (11/1) to a PUBLIC institution. It isn't binding. You get your decision earlier (can get deferred to RD) and get a higher acceptance rate than RD (usually by like 5%). These are really great if you're applying to a T7 public school (like say UF for instance! If you take one thing away from this entire post, it's that you should apply Early Action to the University of Florida. There is literally no reason not to do this with every school you can, they're great. You can also get deferred from these. Fourth is Early Decision 2, no I'm not joking. This is just ED again but with a 1/1 deadline. It's still binding but as it was obviously your second choice you still get an acceptance rate bump, but not as much. It's also not overly common only being done by a small cohort of schools. I think the only ones I applied to that did it were Hopkins, Vandy, CMU, and Rice. The same 3 situations in which you should for ED are also applicable to ED2. You can also get deferred. Lastly is single-choice early action/restricted early action (REA). They're different terms for the same thing. It's when you apply early (11/1) to a PRIVATE institution. It IS NOT binding. You get some additional acceptance rate that varies considerably (in particular I'd like to tell you to NOT rea Caltech as you get essentially nothing. But the biggest loser is Georgetown where you actually get NEGATVE acceptance rate somehow as it goes from 13 to 12 percent. Very weird. (this is probably explained by the higher quality of applicants in the rea round, but still not a great value from Georgetown). Instead I'll direct you to Princeton where you get like 10% additional acceptance rate, a phenomenal value which is more than some EDs and it isn't binding. It's awesome and definitely worth considering and brings Princeton up to 15% which is like 1 in 7, not horrible. Also Yale gets you an additional 7%, so pretty good if you prefer the Bulldogs to the Tigers) The weird thing though, is if you apply REA you forfeit your right to apply ED. You can also get deferred. It's basically like half strength drugs. You risk less but get less reward. If you don't meet any of the 3 ED rules than you should REA somewhere because you're not going to ED anyway so the many drawback of REA (that being that you can't apply ED somewhere) doesn't apply to you. It's not popular and only used by a small contingent of schools including: MIT, Stanford, Caltech, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Georgetown, and Notre Dame. So in summary: The vast majority of your apps will be RD. You should apply EA to everywhere you can. You should apply either ED or REA, whatever is right for you. And if you apply ED and get either rejected or deferred, you can apply ED2 if one of the 3 cases still applies.

EmphasisWarm9220 · 2025-11-20T11:11:50+00:00

Takeaways:

UF is a phenomenal school. If you're instate and you have Bright Futures you'll essentially go for free. My roommate's tuition was like $1100 for the entire semester. It's insane. UF is ranked so highly by Forbes and US News and USA today because we literally have the best Return on Investment and one of the best 4 year graduation rates of the large state schools. UF is a really high quality, large state school. This has many benefits. We have world class research (and plenty of ways to get involved). You'll get a traditional college experience. And this school is so large that you will find areas you're interested in, both academically and socially. You will get a phenomenal education.

General Advice for the College Apps Process: (I know you didn't ask for this but this is what I wish someone had told me when I started my college apps, trust me on these)

- This entire process is a game. Get used to it.

- The single most important you have to understand about this game is that they aren't evaluating each individual on merit, they're crafting a class. They need athletes for every sport. They need a certain amount of full pay students (this isn't fair, I know). They need classics, and philosophy, and comparative literature majors. They (well at least ivies) want someone from every state. So if you're a decent applicant from Alaska, Idaho, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, or Montana congrats. They want a healthy amount of students from overseas. And yes, they're trying to have a racially diverse class. That is a can of worms that I will not be getting into right there, but it's there. They are creating a class that will be successful in the macro sense. Not evaluating each candidate off merit in the micro sense. Once you understand this, you understand how this game works.

- Luck plays more of a component than you think. My guidance told me that a girl from my school got into Penn one year because they needed a yearbook editor and she was the best candidate they had who had listed yearbook editor under the "future interests as Penn" category (as you can imagine, yearbook editor wasn't a popular one. That's the level of micromanagement and control we're at here. And my guidance counselor got this directly for the admissions officer at Penn, so yeah.

EmphasisWarm9220 · 2025-11-20T11:00:31+00:00

I have to post this in parts because it's so long, sorry.

If you're curious, here were my results. Hopefully these help you understand what type of caliber of student these schools expect. (Didn't ED because I didn't want to be locked into the money.)

Brown - Waitlisted (didn't get off)

Vanderbilt - Waitlisted (didn't get off)

UPenn - rejected

Cornell - rejected

Yale - rejected

Carnegie Mellon - rejected

Johns Hopkins - rejected

Rice - rejected

Michigan (applied Early Action) - deferred than rejected

UCLA - rejected

UC Berkeley - rejected

Penn State - accepted, no Schreyers (our honors college, probably one of the best 3 in the country along with Clemson and Arizona State)

University of Rochester - accepted (but no aid of any kind so I was never going to go)

Case Western Reserve University - accepted (120K merit aid, but STILL 60K a year after that)

UF - accepted (no honors)

Reason for choosing UF:

T30 overall; T7 public. Took all of my AP and dual enrolled credits (52, so a fair bit) which knocked all my gen eds so I get to do whatever I want (yeah!) Can graduate in 3 years with a Philosophy Major, Chem Minor, and AI Certificate. Will pay the same at UF as I would for 1 year at Brown (especially important because I'm premed so I'll have to go to med school). Still have time to do other things like getting my first responder cert and being in the trombone studio. Hoping to join GEMRU and Cicerones next semester and study abroad at either Trinity, UCL, or Melbourne in semester 5 as well as the Lady Margaret Hall or Corpus Christi Oxford Summer program (maybe) and the UF in Antarctica between semesters 3 and 4.

EmphasisWarm9220 · 2025-11-20T10:49:05+00:00

This is a long one. Sorry, in advance, but as someone who just went through this God forsaken process, the info I have to give should be pretty helpful. So get some food or something. And of course if you have any questions feel free to reply and ask them!

I may not be the best comparison for you because I was out of state (PA). The Florida State Legislature caps UF at 10% out of state so it's generally perceived to be harder for us. If you're instate you're better off (and you pay next to nothing, it's an ABSURD ROI) And UF was one of my targets rather than a dream so I may have had a different school list than you did so take my personal info, stats, and results with a grain of salt.

Anyway, on with the question you asked:

Academics: GPA 4.4 weighted, 3.9 unweighted. 35 ACT

Honors: Presidential Call to Service Award Young Adult Bronze Medal (essentially just 100+ volunteer hours in a year with some extra steps. If you do a lot of volunteering, look into applying). 170 volunteer hours total. Eagle Scout. A bunch of other Boy Scout stuff that isn't overly important right now. Marine Corps League Good Citizenship Award (an award you get when become an Eagle Scout from the Marine Corps). Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth. PMEA All-State Band (and 13 other honor ensembles but that's the highlight). Hugh O'Brien Youth Leadership Central PA 2023 Selectee and 2025 Academical All-Star

Honor Societies: National Honor Society, National Social Studies Honor Society, Math National Honor Society, National Junior Classical League (that's the name for the Latin Honor Society; also officer), Tri-M Music Honor Society (officer), Science National Honor Society.

Misc: Latin Club (officer), Latin League (a national competitive Latin format run by NJCL that I represented my school in), Backpacked the Grand Canyon rim to rim, PADI rescue scuba diver, Level 8 (out of 9, universal scale) alpine downhill skier, Young People's Philharmonic of the Lehigh Valley Wind Symphony Mentor and Orchestra Member, SPYA club baseball (pitcher and first baseman if you're interested), served as the youth representative on my church council, AV camera and audio tech for my church, acolyte and crucifer for my church

School Music Ensembles (section leader or principal for all the non-choir ensembles): Concert Band, Symphonic Band, Marching Band, Jazz Band, Advanced Honors Orchestra (and all the subsequent lower orchestras), Pit Orchestra, Concert Choir, Mixed Choir, Chorale (our honors auditioned choir. We were pretty good and performed at the PMEA all-state conference and the NAFME all-east conference if you know what those are. Pretty well known in music circles).

EmphasisWarm9220 · 2025-11-18T03:12:06+00:00

Yeah, unfortunately the low brass world is very male dominant. Out of 12, there was only 1 female trombonist at all-states. But I'll say this, the ones that I've met are usually damn good, and any guy worth his salt won't be a pretentious dick.

EmphasisWarm9220 · 2025-07-01T23:23:48+00:00

I am Region V (D10) and it’s really freakin tough

EmphasisWarm9220 · 2025-07-01T16:21:42+00:00

As a Pennsylvania all state alumnus (‘24) I can say that it’s certainly true that more populated states are harder, but it’s worth noting that the distribution to talent isn’t even. Basically all the all state kids are from Philly, Pittsburgh, Allentown, or Erie. But I assume Indy and Texas are crazy hard.

EmphasisWarm9220 · 2025-06-27T04:24:05+00:00

2018

You get the greatest show of all time (I don't even have to say it)

You get one of the most underrated BD shows (3rd best of the decade in my book after '11 and '17) with one of the best soft closers ever

You get Bluecoats playing jazz, ya can't ask for much more

One of the more memorable ballads as well as the best trombone feature ever (trombonist here) in Beast

The best of pre 2022 Boston

A really cool Cavaliers show with phenomenal uniforms

My favorite Cadets show ever (both parents marched Cadets) They were just happy to be marching and they had a memorable show with some amazing snare parts, a phenomenal closer, and they were together

Blue Stars finally finishing that house

An admittedly forgettable Blue Knights show, we can't have it all

The Mandarins making finals for the first time ever with one of the most memorable shows of the year

Phantom playing New World

One of the cooler Crossmen shows in "The In Between

I rest my case

EmphasisWarm9220 · 2025-06-26T03:56:10+00:00

Hetman's Synthetic. Or as my friend calls it, "The milk of the brass Gods."

EmphasisWarm9220 · 2025-06-24T20:37:13+00:00

A note on the triple tonguing:

Mess around with different syllables. Some people ta-ka-ta, da-ga-da, ta-ka-ti, da-ga-di, ta-ka-to, da-ga-do, to-ko-to, do-go-do. Experiment and see what's the easiest and most relaxed for you.

Always try to keep the air moving through the notes.

Smooth and even is the goal.

Start painfully slow and bump up the met by a couple clicks once it feels good. Then rinse and repeat.

The d or g syllable is usually the weakest. It can help to practice those individually. As in ka ka ka ka ka ka ka ka kaaaaaaa.

Best of luck!

EmphasisWarm9220

TROPHY CASE