Anyways…

On another note, we have the BAND NERD 1 & 2 shirts now ready for pre-order. You can order until this Thursday and the orders will ship out the week of February 27. Buy one for you and your friend and be the most awesome people at your next band event. Seriously…the awesomest.

Anyway, enjoy the comic. Remember, one of the best ways you can support Tone Deaf is to share the comic with your friends by using all the social media sites that you yourself use. It is very much appreciated. Thanks!

Anatomy of a Tenorline

Anatomy of a Snareline

Anatomy of a Bass Drumline

Anatomy of a Cymbal Line

Anatomy of a Tenorline

Anatomy of a Snareline

Anatomy of a Bass Drumline

Anatomy of a Cymbal Line

1) The People- it was so great meeting everybody that came out to the booth. You guys made the time fly. On Friday the exhibition hall was open for eight hours but it felt like two. It was so wonderful seeing people react to my comic, because I don’t get to see that at home. Even more wonderful was watching people discover the comic for the first time. It was awesome to see a lot of people returning to visit my booth for a second time, but this time they brought someone along with them to show them my booth. Those visits really made my weekend.

Regret: I had my iPad with me and it was my intention to get pictures with people but I totally forgot the entire weekend. If anyone got any pictures please send them in and I will post them.

2) Booth Neighbors- I had some great booth neighbors my first time out of the gates. On my right was Encore Fundraising and they kept stuffing me full of their delicious cookies. Not only was the food great but it was nice to talk with them the whole weekend. A great bunch of people. If you are looking for a fundraiser (I believe in TN, GA, & FL only) then check them out. Also across the way was Jody Espina of Jody Jazz. He was fun to talk shop with on exhibition booths and the such. They make clarinet and saxophone mouthpieces. To my left was Dan Geist of DG Portraits, whose set-up really inspired me on how to meld my booth in future conventions. Then down the aisle was Key Poulan’s booth. Unfortunately, he could not make it due to basically doing the absolute right thing for his family and being an awesome guy, but at the booth for him was Arjuna and Drew Farmer- both of which are really great drill writers. They were great to talk with throughout the weekend.

3) Other Exhibitors- Beyond the exhibit neighbors I already cited I didn’t have much of an interaction with other exhibitors. I should have done more on my part. However, I thought it was very cool that on Saturday and Sunday a lot of other exhibitors kept coming up to my booth to check it out because they had “been told” to come check it out. That made me feel really good (not going to lie).

4) Rehearsals- One of the bad things about exhibiting is that I didn’t have a chance to see much of the band rehearsals that were going on. I did get a chance to visit an Intercollegiate rehearsal and then the All-State Symphonic Band rehearsal a couple of times. Gary Green was conducting the Symphonic Band and they were playing Whitacre’s Lux Aurumque and Steven Bryant’s Ecstatic Waters (when I was in there). Both pieces are great but I have to say this- if you are introducing someone to classical music don’t take them to a concert. Take them to a rehearsal for a little bit and get them up close. There is no greater feeling than being that close to the music and just totally have it overwhelm you. Ecstatic Waters will do exactly that up close. What a great piece. You have to hear this piece live if you have not.

Regret: Not being able to see any of the concerts due to exhibiting or tearing down the booth or going home to fall asleep from exhaustion.

5) The Performers- Totally blown away by the talent of the kids at the convention. Wow! You guys are good. Don’t go changing!

6) Cathi Leibinger- She was a great help throughout the weekend. She used a few of my comics in her clinic and sent many people my way. She has even offered up help for in the future. Very good person with a generous heart. Thanks Cathi!

To recap- I had a blast! The set-up and tear down was hard, but worth the while. FMEA, you can count me in for next year (that statement actually does me no good unless I send in my paperwork, so I guess I should do that now). Thanks!

Ed Harmon, is the main band director. Right now he is talking to his doubt, physically represented by the floating square in the air, named Bernard. Yeah, it’s pretty weird. Basically, Bernard is kind of a jerk to Ed, but that should be expected because doubt does not make you feel good about yourself.

This is comic 5 of the storyline (out of 8). Here are the first four of the comics leading up to this one (starting with the first):

My Doubt Appears
Splash Zone
Why a Square
How Do I Get Rid of You

Enjoy the comic! Don’t let your doubt bully you around!

First you want to make sure that you are able to listen to your corps by either the year (such as 2005) or by the corps (such as the Blue Devils). You also want to make sure that you number the tracks for each year as well, so you can play them in order of their finish competitively (unless you like listening to drum corps in alphabetical order, in which case that is totally up to you). Here is an example of a track info box on iTunes:

Here are a few things to note:

1) Name- that is the track name. Some people like to put the show name up there, but it gets a little silly when you go back into most of the shows of the 80′s (or even some shows in the 90′s!) when they didn’t really name their shows. So, I put the corps and the year for the Name.
2) Artist- this one is key. You want to be sure that you title all of the Cadets shows with the same artist name so if you want to you can listen to all of the Cadets shows from their earliest year all the way up until this past year in one fell listen (which would take quite a while by the way). But this is good for long car rides if you only want to listen to the Cadets. (the Cadets used to be called Holy Name Cadets, Garfield Cadets, The Cadets of Bergen County. If you put all of those names in separately they would not show up as the same artist so you want to simplify it and just call them Cadets).
3) Album Title- This is where you want to title the name of the drum corps year. I use DCI 2011, or DCI 1995, or whatever the year is. It is easy to find on my iPod so I use this system. Album title allows you to listen to just that year on your iPod, if you just wanted to listen to 1993 only for example.
4) Comments- this is where I put in the show title (if there was one). That way if I can’t remember what the show was I still have it in iTunes for me to check out.
5)  Year- put the year in here so it keeps it organized properly.
6) Track Number and Disc Number- Putting in the track numbers and Disc numbers allows you to listen to the corps in their respective order of finish (which is the way I like to listen to them when I listen to one year at a time).
7) Genre- put Drum Corps or DCI there. Whatever you prefer so you can just look at drum corps music only if you want to in iTunes.
Compilation- be sure to check this box so the Disc Numbers (compiled by the YEAR box and album name) stay together.

When you do that you have a very organized DCI album collection on your iTunes:

Listening to corps by the year:

Listening to corps by the corps:

I hope this helps. I’m sure you all have your own way to do it, but this is the way I organize my DCI library. In a later post I’ll show you how I organize my classical music library. Thanks!

With that being said, I am welcoming all and any reader pictures that you have with any Tone Deaf merchandise. Whether it be a picture of you in a Tone Deaf shirt, next to a poster, or holding up the Tone Deaf book, all will be accepted. I’ll be posting these as much as I can on non-comic days. So please, send in your pictures and be a featured pic on Tonedeafcomics.com!

Please email all pictures to john@tonedeafcomics.com

Also, first person to send in a picture gets a free poster. And go!

Best of all, you don’t have to pay for shipping and as soon as you purchase the digital book it is ready for you to download immediately!

So head on over to the Tone Deaf Store and get your copy today!

10. Intonation Pain Scale
9. Choir Room Rules
8. Tonal Functions of a Major Scale Go Clubbing
7. Marching Band Bingo
6. Top Ten Things Wind Players Do That Annoy Percussionists
5. First Suite in Eb Judge’s Critique
4. Band Room Rules
3. How Drill Charts Are Read
2. Top Ten Things Percussionists Do That Annoy Wind Players
1. What Mahler Symphony Did You Hear

If I’m going to be completely honest, the Mahler comic completely took me by surprise. I thought that one was going to be purely for my ego and that people would not really enjoy it. How wrong I was. As a cartoonist you never can tell what is going to hit and what isn’t. I guess the same goes for wind band music and anything else.

Thanks for reading all of my comics from 2011 and I hope you stick around for 2012! I have lots of great things lined up and I invite you to check it all out. Thanks!

What have been some of your favorite Tone Deaf comics that did not appear on this list? Tell us in the comments section. Thanks!!!