WGI MidSouth Regional Championships

Last weekend, I travelled with my high school percussion ensemble to Bowling Green, KY for the Winter Guard International Midsouth Regional Championships. It is two days of intensive rehearsing, performing, competing, and scoring.
My ensemble participated Saturday afternoon and again Sunday morning.
The kids played spectacularly well and I was a very proud instructor. Their prelims score was a 90.8 and their finals score was an 89.4.

Most schools at the competition averaged a score of 84, so my school was specifically thrilled.

Band and percussion directors usually compose or arrange music and drill for their students to perform, and in the past, we have been one of those ensembles.
This year, however, we were honored to have two very prolific and renowned percussionists write our show.
These two men are Dr. Iain Moyer and Colin McNutt.
Moyer is the arranger for the Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps. front ensemble, always giving them the upper hand in DCI, Drum Corps. International, or "summer band" as those familiar with it, have happily nicknamed. Moyer is also the percussion director here at the University of North Alabama. He's given our percussion sections an edge against the competition and brought percussion education to a new level here in Alabama.
McNutt is the arranger for the Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps. battery, made up of the snare drums, bass drums, tenors, and cymbals. McNutt is known worldwide as one of the best percussion players, writers, and instructors in our time. He works at UMass as the percussion director and has turned their drumline into a powerhouse as well.

Both Moyer and McNutt collaborated to create a masterpiece in music, providing our high school students with every tool they could hope for, to succeed.

Both these men will be at our rehearsal today to give the students feedback on their performance, offer suggestions, tinker with their arrangements so as to make it flawless, and give the students peace of mind.

We are thrilled and honored to have these percussion legends at our school today. Hopefully I will be able to video some of the rehearsal and provide you with an inside look at what happens at such a rehearsal!