Hi everyone!

My name is Jessica Hadish and I am service chair this semester! Last Wednesday Jules, Christina, Kelsey, Sara, Kristyn, Elyse, and I got to help out with the Indian Spring Middle School District Band Auditions. We helped the kids get all their music pieces together, know what scales they needed to play, and help them be not so nervous. It was so amazing to get to see young kids with a passion for music and it really helped give me a good reminder about why we do what we do. I can’t really describe the feeling of realizing that it was quite a few years ago that I was in those youngsters shoes, but it made me feel old for sure. I am hoping that we can continue helping out the band programs in Waco and surrounding areas because it is so important that kids stay connected to music and help the fine arts thrive. Allowing the kids to see that loving music and band doesn’t have to stop after high school and that it can be FUN is something that I hope we are able to show them by getting involved!

MLITB,
Jessica Hadish
Service Chair

"We provide exceptional service to collegiate bands... "

Anyone who has done anything musical knows how hard it can be to find a good music stand for rehearsal. This past Tuesday, the men of Kappa Kappa Psi and the ladies of Tau Beta Sigma set out to make it easier for you to find that perfect stand (the one that doesn't fall down when you set your cell phone on it...). We tightened and repaired over 60 stands in the school of music! We even salvaged some stand pieces from broken stands and managed to put together some new stands! 
Then we cleared out everything in room 118 ( it's a big room) so they could install some new curtains to fancy the place up a little bit. 
All in all, we had a good time serving the School of Music alongside our brothers. (through brotherhood and sisterhood, we serve music in unity!) it was a productive evening, and we even got some free Dr. Pepper from Mr. Grady (thanks!). 

Remember: "The best way to find yourself, is to lose yourself in the service of others" - Ghandi

Peace, love, and turtles,
Christina

While the Baylor football team was on the road to Austin this last weekend, I had the chance to go home. My younger brother is in his high school's marching band, and their UIL contest was held at the high school on Saturday, along with a football game Friday night. My parents are both chaperones and helpers with the band and so this gave me the chance to serve the high school bands, both Friday and Saturday! 

Friday I was able to help with both unloading the truck and serving the band sodas and water after their (wonderful) halftime performance, and helping to load the coolers back into the truck after that. It was great to see all the band members (and possible future Tau Betas and K-Psis!). 

Saturday, I helped with the UIL competition, and that was a great experience-seeing all these kids get to show off their hard work and pride in their ensemble. I happened to be wearing a Baylor hat and I had so many kids do Sic 'Ems or tell me that they were going to be Bears next year. I hope that they join the Golden Wave!

Despite the craziness of my quick weekend home, I had a great time serving the bands at levels I don't normally get to. 

Sic 'em Bears & ITB, 
Kathryn

The ladies of Tau Beta Sigma - Iota had a blast last weekend helping Waco Girl Scouts earn their dance and music badges! The weather wasn't ideal, but Tau Betas aren't discouraged by a little rain (or a lot)! Shout out to Olivia, who escorted each Scout and their troop leader(s) under her umbrella, I’m sure they appreciated that :)

Once the girls were signed in they were separated into groups and we began the first of five required steps. Those earning their dance badges began by learning the stretches the Golden Wave Band does before every rehearsal. Emily, Lynn, and Kelsey made sure they were ready for what came next: Christina and Olivia, part of the Iota team whose step show earned first place at South District Convention, taught the Girl Scouts a simple routine they would later perform for the other troops. 

Meanwhile the Girl Scouts earning their music badges got to listen to Heather, Kathryn, and I play and teach the basics of bassoon, flute, and guitar. When the time came for questions, a girl (fourth grader) asked if I could play a C# minor! I was impressed.. Later, when Ashley and Allyson were listening to and explaining Beethoven and Mozart’s most famous compositions, a scout recognized one of the pieces and its composer. These Girl Scouts meant business! They were so smart. 

After the first two steps everyone met in my church’s sanctuary to listen to our sponsor Dr. Rick Espinosa speak about his music profession at Baylor. The Girl Scouts were fascinated and a few even tried imitating his conducting! For the most part though, he emphasized how powerful music is and taught a little about it while we listened to the pieces he provided. I always thought that the pieces that touch you are those that are the most intricate, so I was surprised to find that a few simple notes can be repeated over and over again to make a beautiful piece of music. He may have been nervous (which made me feel better, knowing I wasn’t the only one afraid of speaking to a large group of ten-year-olds), but he did a fantastic job! Iota is very grateful he participated in this event.

After learning about these different styles of dance and music the groups of Girl Scouts, with help from Tau Beta, created their own dances and songs which they performed to conclude the event.

Planning this event was extremely stressful, but it was so rewarding when the Girl Scouts came over to hug and thank me. I know the other girls got lots of love too! 

ITB, 
Nicky 

Hey y'all! Iota and Beta Alpha had the pleasure of working with the directors this past weekend in preparation for the 2012 edition of the Golden Wave Band :) 

We all showed up at 9:00am to learn about what our goals were for the day. Granted, it was 9:00 in the morning, so I completely forgot to take pictures of everyone's tired faces... Instead, enjoy this picture that may or may not depict our faces accurately

As I'm sure many of you all remember, the last 2 years we have attempted to put up canopies on Edge Field for some sort of shade during the semester. If you missed our last post about it, please go to this link to read about how we put them up, and this link to read about how sad we were when they didn't last :( 

When the directors met us at the couches, they came super prepared with instructions on how to set up these top of the class canopies! 

This picture was only the first page of 6 on how to become "Tent Experts"!!

We all loaded up the parts into our cars and hauled them to Edge Field. There, everyone was instructed on how to properly put the canopies together. Unfortunately, I missed putting up the first canopy because I was attending Carey Wallick's law school graduation! :) Sic 'em Carey!

When I returned from Carey's graduation, they had already finished the first canopy! Way to go y'all! :) 

We took a lunch break at Vitek's before putting up the second canopy (sorry, I don't have any funny Vitek's pictures, but enjoy this!) 

Here's the beginning format of the second canopy. 

Here are the directors working hard to get in one of the most difficult and stubborn stakes. 

Here, we are deciding what to do next. We eventually decided to put up the "side wall" so that if it was windy, it wouldn't ruin the canopies. 

Finally, we finished both canopies with stakes, ratchets, and poles. Don't they look beautiful? :3

Our next stop was Floyd Casey where we had to collect all the hat boxes from the uniform room and transport them back to the music school in preparation for band week. This is Kelsey Way's car full of hat boxes! Kelsey is one of our uniform managers for this next season and took charge of this project since our head uniform manager, Christina, couldn't be there. 

After loading up 6 cars full of hat boxes, we carried them inside and lined them up on the ramp against the wall. This way, we could put them in numerical order (all 400 hat boxes!). 

We fit all 400 hat boxes into 2 rooms :) This is a picture of the first room which was completely full. We put the boxes against the wall in piles of 5 because everyone who is getting a uniform will be pre-assigned a hat by number. In stacking the boxes, it will be easier to locate the hats :) 

Prior to mid-summer, Christina with the help of a few Tau Beta's and K-Psis, had to organize the uniforms from the dry cleaners. The uniforms go to the dry cleaners in no particular order, so naturally we get them back the same way. We had to put the uniforms jackets in their prospective cubbies in numerical order, and then put the uniform pants with the jackets. THEN, we had to transfer the pant & jacket combination onto one uniform hanger. Needless to say, it was a week's worth of work, but it will make life 109% easier when band week comes around. 

Essentially the last few weeks have been very busy in preparation for summer band! :3 We're really excited to get to this next season! Please look at our calendar to see what is going on in the life of Iota! :3

<3
Iota