For the Orange Bowl Trip – All updates from this point on will be on our twitter site!

During the trips I use twitter for all updates, itinerary changes and trip information.  You can get these texted to your cell or simply check our twitter site from any computer or cell phone browser throughout the Orange Bowl Trip.

For directions on how to do the texts see the Twitter Instructions page on the side of this webpage.

December 23, 2010
Here are some solutions to the log on problem with the Orange Bowl site submitted to me by Marisa Kurtz and Bilal Ahmed.  Thanks!

Dear Mr. Patterson,


I was testing out different things to do on the website to try and got on and I finally figured it out. First, I went on the band website and clicked on the course credit link for orange bowl link (the first one). Then, I clicked on Parents, Students and Adults to join my trip. Once you click that you choose that you are a student and you have not registered yet for travel program. Then you fill in the Trip ID that is 55223 and the other information that it requires. You click on JOIN MY TRIP on the bottom and it signs you on.


I checked to make sure that this was the right trip and it had all of our school information on it so I think this is the right way to do it. Let me know if this works!

-Marisa Kurtz


Hey Mr. Patterson,

To log on to the website to sign up for the credits. Once you click on the link on the band website you click on the box that says parents, students and adults. From there you must select student on step one in order to receive credit. On step 2 say you are registered to travel then on step 3 fill in all the boxes. The trip ID is what is on your link and the travelers ID was emailed to everyone after we registered the first time. You will create your own user name and follow the rest of the steps. After you submit this info, it will tell you to log in with the log in you have just created. Once you’ve logged in it should give you the information. If you are unable to log on once try again I had to do it twice before it worked. Then you are logged in. After you are logged in click on the top right box that says earn high school credit. 3 courses come up and select the ones you want to register for.

The woman my mom spoke to suggested not registering for the courses until after the trip because she said that the students would have to answer questions depending on what they register for that we can only answer after the trip. Again, this is according the a woman my mom spoke to.

Hope this helped.
-Bilal

Band Camp Update - Camp Taconic

After a long search over the past 3 months we have reached a decision. Camp Taconic in the Berkshires is the new camp we have chosen to go to.  The price for camp will still be $615. The dates are August 15th through August 21st. A special thanks to Saul Waxman, Jed Schlacter, and Jim Downey as well as many other parents for helping me with the search. I will be proposing the band camp for approval by our Board of Education at the January 20th BOE meeting. Please remember, this is all subject to BOE approval.

Camp Taconic is state of the art, incredibly clean and new everywhere — great facilities for outdoor and indoor rain practices, delicious meal selections, wifi and full cell service for all carriers.  The Berkshires are traditionally cooler than upstate New York, the mountains offer a scenic background to the beautiful lake that surrounds three sides of the camp. The price will be the same and all amenities will be what we are used to and MORE! The Berkshires offer a lot for our parents to see as well.  Tanglewood, arts centers, museums, restaurants, shopping, and many of the nicest tourist areas in the country will make some great day trips for parents who are helping us to chaperone.  Taconic will be taking care of the afternoon fruit snacks and all water so parent chaperones can avail themselves of some time to explore the area during the day. Travel is a bit longer, about 3 hours away from home however, there are multiple ways of getting home from there. We will have a variety of routes in order to avoid the traffic snarls that we experienced in past years. You only have to cross over one bridge to get back to Long Island. Overall this is a great choice for us.  Just look at the two links below and you will see for yourself.

Check out Camp Taconic
Hit link below for the Camp Taconic Map.  There are slides of each area, just click around the map.

http://www.camptaconic.com/Content/VirtualMap/VirtualMap.asp

Hit link below for the Camp Taconic video.  It is their camp promotional video which shows just about all of the areas of the camp.
http://www.camptaconic.com/Content/Staff/Staff.asp?Link=Video

Band Camp 2011

Our band has grown in leaps and bounds over the past 7 years.  With that in mind, I have decided to take our band in another direction with our band camp venue.

For the past three months Saul Waxman, Jed Schlacter, Jim Downey, and myself have been looking for camps.  I made two trips to three camps who have our dates available and we are now about to finalize our plans.  In a few days, this Friday or Saturday, I will post a full update on where we plan on having band camp in 2011.

I will also be deciding on next year’s trip, either the Outback Bowl or a Disneyworld Trip.  We will probably vote on it to see if there is enough interest.

Orange Bowl Plans Unveiled

Hot off the press! Ok, here we go!  I have just received all the instructions from the Orange Bowl about the game, exactly what and when we are performing.  This is very exciting.  The Orange Bowl started this tradition of having a major artist perform at their game, many years before the Super Bowl copied their format which is now famous.  Being a part of this game is a true honor, it is a top Bowl Game and we will be nationally televised. They could not formalize any of this until the teams were decided, which took place last night.  The two teams are Stanford and Virginia Tech.

First let’s start with the parade on Sunday, January 2nd.  This is the Junior Orange Bowl Parade, the official parade, which replaced the Miami Orange Bowl Parade which was stopped after 9/11.  This is a huge parade in the town of Coral Gables and is part of the Orange Bowl Festivities.
For the Jr. Orange Bowl Parade on Sunday we will do the two new parade tunes “On Broadway and “Rocky” with the drum majors in their drum major uniforms, the guard with flags and the dancers with the yellow streamers.  All the band members will play instruments with the exception of Keith Shapiro and Lindsay Wolfson who will hold the banner in front of the band.  See what your assigned instruments are on the “Orange Bowl Info” page of the website. The captains will choreograph a simple routine and we will learn them during the three rehearsals before the trip (Wednesday December 15th, Monday December 20, and Wednesday December 22, with uniform and instrument and uniform check-in for the trip that last night).  All band members must check in their instruments and uniforms on that night, we will lock them all in the bandroom for the trip.

Now the Game on Monday night.  For the Pre-Game, all band members from the two High School Bands will unfurl and hold a 50 yard wide American Flag for the National Anthem, this will most likely be nationally televised on ESPN. This is one of those huge flags.  We will practice this very involved unfolding at the rehearsals in Miami as well.

Now onto the halftime extravaganza. When the half time starts, a DJ will call the two bands out and have us play the 2 minute fanfare to begin the festivities while the stage is being set up, we will then be doing an additional special effect after our fanfare to introduce the GooGoo Dolls.  We will practice this at the two Massed Band Rehearsals as well.

We will then stay near the tunnel after our segment to watch the GooGoo Dolls show from the field level and then move back up into the stands to watch the second half of the game.

There will be no pit or drum majors in the half time show, I have assigned everyone to instruments.  Guard and Dancers will have flags and will learn their routine together with the other guard at the Miami Massed Band Rehearsals. They will all do a flag routine with the band during the fanfare.
All music is up on the 2nd page of the website entitled “Orange Bowl Info.”  There are music links to download your parts to practice as well as audio links to listen to the music.  Please learn everything and learn the part you are assigned to.

Keep looking to this blog for more information and an update on band camp which I will post this Thursday or Friday.

New Service Point Rules - Why we started the service points

This year I am getting barraged by calls and e-mails about people not getting their points.  Last year, not one call.  Michelle and I watch everything, write it down and that is how we do this.  If we didn’t see it, then it is not getting points.

Also, if this is WHY you are helping out, please don’t.

The intent of the points is to reward people who are helping out, not to get more people to help out.
We always had those altruistic and hard working kids who never got noticed, now they are, through this simple point list. That is the ONLY reason I made it, so that those people get some recognition.
Last year I didn’t receive any e-mails about “you missed my points.”  This year it is out of control.  And most of these people are already in the top 20! So here is a new rule, if you e-mail me for more points, I will simply reply “please don’t help out if you are doing it for points. You should be helping out because you love the band and want to contribute to the program.”

A great band person told me last year “If I get some points, great, if I don’t, that’s great too, I just love that feeling of being a part of this and helping out.” That person is one of our leaders now!
In addition, part of life is for the important people to see you do that extra stuff, you need to build those skills as well. The officers you want to be seen by are the President, CEOs, Vice Presidents, and Managers. You should know who they are.  Do not ask them about your points, just make sure one of those people, or I see you.  In the workplace it is a major skill to get the credit for what you do in a passive and intelligent way.  Yes, you could tell your boss “hey, did you see me do that” but it would probably be more effective to “just do it” and be seen doing the work in a modest, hard working fashion. I am the one who ultimately picks the officers and this is the kind of person I am looking for.
We need help at certain times. It is pretty obvious when those times are. The 9 of us are taking notes and watching at those exact times in those places. Those are the times that we need you and that’s where you will get noticed.  And know what else? You should be an altruist and do it for no reward!
From this time on there will be no more point adjustments after the date. You should be doing this for the “love of program.”  Points are only to give SOME recognition to those who work very hard to keep us going! If you are the type of person who won’t do it without points, don’t. We have plenty of people who will help just because they want to.  Those are the kind of people that I am looking for to be our future leaders, hard working, band loving, altruists.

From the Best we go to the Largest!

Yes, Newsday made the call.  At the end of the third hour of their television telecast, they announced the phrase “from the best we go to the largest” to segue from us to Northport, the last band in this year’s tv show.  They showed our closer along with Sam Hoffman being interviewed from the sideline after our show.  Saving us for the end, along with making that statement surely shows that the Newsday and MSG people feel we were the best band. Our band is truly one of the top bands on the Island, you can see an hear it if you watch the entire show.  Compare us to any bands the entire three nights and you will come to this conclusion as well.

I will be posting a pretty comprehensive few paragraphs about where we are going to band camp in the next few days.  For vatious reasons which are pretty obvious, we are looking for a switch.  I have been researching for weeks and will be posting my findings very soon.

Newsday Festival on TV today!

Here is an important post which we should read again, now that we are about to be on TV with the Newsday Broadcast.  Today Christie Wang, one of our colorguard captains, got major “air time” on National TV!  This is amazing and we are all proud of her.  In order to get air time the planets have to line up just right. With Christie, it was a home run.  Hopefully today, we will get an interview or something extra on the Newsday show on TV. It will be shown all year long so let’s cross our fingers.
Here is the post I made in October.  It is important that we all read through this before the upcoming weeks.

I need to preface this blog post with my personal story about learning about press coverage.  Some of you know this story, some do not.  If you’ve already heard it, please humor me.  It describes me coming up the learning curve with all this press stuff almost 14 years ago when the yankees were IN the World Series.

October 26, 2006, I’ll never forget it.  All 280 band members in the Mineola Band that day will never forget it.  All of a sudden, the scores we were receiving all season, in the 90s, the highest scores on Long Island meant absolutely nothing.  We were about to experience something that would change our lives forever. So there we were, at the pinnacle of fame, the band I had come to in 1990 was now going to the World Series, Game 6, the first time the Yankees were in the World Series in 18 years.  Little did we know they would win that day and we would be there.  It was incredible, breathtaking, uplifting and impossible to describe. We were playing at the game, we got 300 seats in the left field bleachers, and playing for 20 minutes before the game started.  The news crews swarmed Mineola High School, like bees, they were everywhere!  News 5 showed up at noon, ABC news at about 12:30, NBC and CBS, as well as News 12, all here within minutes with cameras all over the bandroom for 8th period band.  Then, the New York Times reporter went to one kid, the one kid in the entire program that I would NEVER want interviewed.  Like a magnet, this reporter gravitated to him, I have no idea how or why.  He started asking him questions about the band, what it meant to him.  The room was insane, wires, cameras, lights everywhere.  There was absolutely nothing I could do, it was at the point of no return. He was talking, laughing, and smiling.  I was having a heart attack, ignoring all the other things and trying to read his lips from across the room.  It was at this time that I realized something a great band director had told me when I was in my early 20s, teaching at Hampton Bays Jr/Sr High School.  You can never control the press, you can never get upset about the press, and you have to welcome the press, they are PR for your kids, your program, and bring excitement and enthusiasm to the entire community! You need to prepare your kids for the unpredictability and randomness of press coverage.  They need to understand that this is part of being famous.  They need to embrace the PR and not be upset if they don’t get the “air time.”

So now it is time for our band “press talk.”  Every “dynasty in the making” band needs it, like so many other talks we have throughout our lives as we grow.  Talks that prepare us for life.  We are now hitting the “big time” and with the Orange Bowl approaching, I need to have this discussion with you.
With the press you never know how much air time you will get IF ANY.  It is very fickle.  You should NEVER expect it or you will surely be let down.  30 seconds is major, huge, and bands will go years without even that much.  Some kids will be shown a lot, some will not be shown at all, it is just a simple reality.  My friend’s band was at the Rose Bowl Parade about 15 years ago.  Their band was going to be on all three networks.  President Bush decided to talk at that time and completely covered up that band performing on ALL THREE NETWORKS.  I couldn’t believe it, just really bad luck. And other weird things happened in our show on MSG, for instance, they showed some people over and over and missed other solos or decided to simply not show them.   I don’t know if they will use that footage or different footage on the 3 hour show they will air on Thanksgiving weekend.  Almost every band gets one tune featured, and some kids interviews will get on the air, but most won’t.  They interviewed about 100 student band members and 36 band directors.  Few will get on.  Our show might get some more coverage because it is artistic, fun, and enjoyable, or they may show us for 1 minute, like they did many bands last year on the Marching Band TV show.

Please do not be upset if you didn’t get in the video, that is the way this works.  If you did get some “air time” be thankful, you were lucky.  As a whole, us being on TV helps us all no matter what.  Be happy for the people who did get on and please stop texting Michelle about the drum major mishap.  Obviously something went wrong.  All three drum majors got a major shot on the video and that in itself is amazing.

With the Orange Bowl coming up as well as our fast growing fame, you need to totally be ready for anything with press coverage.  Be prepared, don’t expect anything, and you may be pleasantly surprised.  The Orange Bowl is covered Nationally, and with the Goo Goo Dolls doing the halftime show with us, it may be covered, it may not.

And as far as the MSG website video, you all look amazing, we sound and look great!  I am so proud of all of you but most importantly, you should be totally proud of yourselves!  We are truly one of the great bands!

The Train is Coming, Enjoy the Ride!

As a director I am tremendously proud of how far the Marching Bulldogs have come in terms of their development. The students have worked so hard, from the first step at band camp through the night rehearsals and the competitions.  As most of you know, I treat band as a leadership training, character development, and goal setting class in addition to the marching and music instruction.


Our marching band is making incredible strides each year, therefore we should be filled with pride at what the band is accomplishing. We are competing with bands that have been in competition for 30 or more years, with deep rooted traditions in the community and schools. Secondly, a goal of the program, which is to steadily improve and progress each year, is clearly being met and should be apparent to all. The band is bigger, the marching is cleaner, and the overall sound and colorguard is getting better each year.


Many bands choose not to compete. They choose to perform a less involved and simpler show at only the Newsday festival and their home games. We, the “Roslyn Marching Bulldogs” compete. We are better for it and will accomplish great things by being a competitive band.  Short and long term goals are an important part of life and through this great activity, we will “shoot for the stars.”


Our scores have risen and we have been beating more and more bands each year at the dome.  And at the dome “ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN.”  When we received 2nd out of 12 we were ranked dead last all season in the competitions.  The dome brings in the best judges and doubles the slate to minimize the impact one judge can have.  Judges from outside our area are more likely to make the call and lead the local judges to do the right thing when we are at the dome.

What I am telling you here is that this judging arena, like life, means that you have to pay your dues. We have to change our culture where many of our kids aren’t playing the music on the field (all bands that come in 3rd through last have this problem).  We have to have our guard perfect, and we have to march great.  We also have to pay our dues.  Building a culture and paying our dues takes time, a tedious and sometimes upsetting process which can take not weeks or months, but years.

Remember, we are great, look at how far we have come and everybody in the Marching Band community, judges, other band directors, audiences, and the public fully knows Roslyn as an “up and coming powerhouse.”  We are proud as ever and I as director am so proud to run such a great group of kids and great parents.  We had dads fixing the trailer for 3 hours last Saturday, parents running band camp, and the largest contingent of spectators go to the dome from Roslyn each year.  Our parents even cheer for our neighbor competitor when they win the class over us!  We are the greatest people anywhere!  Total team players.  The kids are perfect!  They give up part of themselves for the team every single day! Hard working, fun, smart, bubbly, and love band!  What more could I ask as a director?  A fair read?  YES, I want it all!  I want our kids to get the score they deserve!  I am very positive, a “glass half full” kind of guy!  It will happen, at some point, and you will know when my post simply says “YES, HERE WE GO.” It may be this year, next year, or 10 years from now, but it will happen.  It is inevitable. The train is coming down the tracks of the tunnel, our train, and everyone, yes everyone, sees it and hears it coming! Let’s all enjoy the ride!

Don't stand by yourself on a block and yell "Play"

We are playing at the Homecoming parade on Saturday at 12 noon.  First thing, this parade starts right on time or even a little earlier so be ready and downtown before the parade blocks you in.  Second, we will not have the winds do alot of playing at this parade since 90% of the parade route has nobody listening.  If you stand on an empty block all you are going to hear is the drum cadence.  To be able to perform at all on this day we literally have about 3 times which we can have the winds play in the parade.  Any more and the brass players will not be able to get through the show at the Homecoming Game in the afternoon or at the Whitman Competition that night.

At the Homecoming game and the Whitman Show we play at full peak performance which we call “Full Outs.”  This means that the brass players give it their all and hold nothing back.  The best high school bands in the country only have about 2 full outs a day. In addition, doing a “Full Out” performance takes alot of endurance for 7 minutes straight.  This is why many bands cannot sustain and are very weak at the end of the show.  When we rehearse we do two full outs at the end of the night to build endurance. On a show day we have to be very conservative since we have to sound the best we can for audiences and judges. With the hours of break time between the afternoon game and the competition we can rebuild some embouchure muscles (the wind players mouth) but if we play more than 3 times in the noon parade we are really chancing it.  Many of my bands have bombed on Homecoming day due to these performances within 24 hours.  In addition, we are playing two “Full Outs” on Friday, one being the Pep Rally and the other the Soccer “Friday Night Lights.”

Please don’t stand on a block, by yourself, yelling “Play!.”  Stand where there is a big crowd, usually by the Clock Tower, in front of the Post Office and about a block after the turn towards the Library.  These are the traditional spots where there are the biggest crowds and where we have the musicians all play.  We will be playing the second half of the closer, mainly due to the fact that we do not have time at this point in the season to learn a parade tune.

The Parade route is from the High School, down Roslyn Rd to the clock tower, make a right downtown and go around the pond, ending at the Library.  The band also stops at the Library while the rest of the parade walks the rest of the way up the hill.  Carrying the big instruments up the hill is incredibly difficult so we stop at the library, eat, wait for the parade to finish, then we go right to the field to prepare for the half time show.

Judging is Subjective

Each set of judges give totally different scores, be ready for anything!

Judges are all different. Each judge has different tastes in music, and different ideas about the concept and quality of each show.  Judges also have a tendency to keep bands in the same score range that they were in the year before. Bands literally have to break out of their score range by being much better.  Keep it all in perspective.  If we win,”Great”.  If we don’t, there is always next week. Aim high, be patient.  We will become one of the top bands on the Island. Remember, don’t complain about the system of judging, in a few years these same judges will crown us champions.  People watching in the stands know who the best bands are, regardless of the score!

Homecoming Weekend, Five Performances

Here we go, the weekend is coming up.  We have a pep rally around 2pm on Friday at the school field, a performance between 7 and 8 on Friday night, a parade Saturday at noon, the halftime show at the homecoming game around 2:30 to 3pm on Saturday afternoon, and the big first competition of the season on Saturday night at Walt Whitman High School.

Just tweets for camp, read the next post.

I have started posting my band camp tweets. To get the tweets go to our twitter page or read the directions on the right column of this blog to get the tweet texts to your cell phone. This Roslyn Band Twitter Page link is in the right hand column as well. Read the post below for details.

Get the Daily Band Camp Tweets!

This year I will be changing the format in which I give band camp daily updates.  Last year I had time to do daily videos as well as the blog updates each night on this blog.

This year I will have to be teaching all the drill as well as directing the band camp so my time will be limited.  In addition, doing the blog & videos took me into my cabin, away from the kids during the night.  This year I will be doing tweets throughout the entire band camp to let you know what is going on instead of the blog entries and videos. I can do tweets from my cell phone and stay out with the students and chaperones more. 

I received many of positive comments about our Florida tweets and am going to do this for band camp to keep parents, alumni, and family members in the loop! 

You can get the tweets by going online to our twitter page http://twitter.com/roslynband and/or by forwarding texts to your cell phone.

Go to the right hand side of this blog to get instructions on how to get the daily band camp twitter text updates to your cellphone!

How to get your tweets is entirely up to you.  Some people find the texts annoying and some love knowing what is going on throughout the day. In either case you can check the roslyn band twitter page link http://twitter.com/roslynband to get updated at any time.

Musiker Orange Bowl Plan is Up

The Musiker Orange Bowl Family plan is now also up on the roslynband.com website.  Please, if you plan on going to see the band at the Orange Bowl, do your car rental, hotel, and flight as soon as possible!  The prices go up with every day that passes by.  See my previous post for some ideas for setting up the trip on your own and the two plans which are available.

Orange Bowl Information for Roslyn Families

I recently went to Miami to attend the band director’s Orange Bowl meeting. I also drove to all venues, stayed at the hotel the band will be at, and have personally been working on the package details associated with the band members and families. I coordinated my trip with driving my son Joey to start College at Full Sail University in Winter Park last week.

All the Orange Bowl bands and many of their family members are staying at the Hyatt Regency Bonaventure Conference Center in Weston, Florida approximately 20 miles from the Sun Life Stadium. It is a beautiful facility on 23 acres with four restaurants/cafes, four outdoor pools, and golf courses and tennis courts nearby. The hotel is spectacular, it also has a Red Door Spa, incredible facilities, and is a clear 4 or 5 star hotel, to notch in every way.

(see link: http://bonaventure.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/index.jsp ).

The Bowl Event planners are offering a "Family Package" which includes a 3 night stay at the Hyatt, (check-in Dec 31st, check-out Jan 3rd) Bowl game tickets, and the band banquet dinner dance at the hotel. The cost of this package ranges from $1,162 for a single to $2,620 for a family of four. Download this package if interested from the roslynband.com website. The due date for this package is November 1st, so if you need to wait, this may be your only option.

In doing my own research, I found that if you book the hotel yourself you will save.

Both the Bowl game tickets and banquet dinner dance can be purchased separately through the Bowl Event planners. Bowl game tickets are $139/pp for upper deck seating with the band, and the optional dinner dance on Jan 2nd is $40/pp. I am currently working on the pricing of adding families to the "New Year's Eve" portion with the band. The band will be in the ballroom having dinner on the night of the 31st.

As of the beginning of August, rooms at the Hyatt for the same period (check-in Dec 31st, check-out Jan 3rd) will cost $837 for a king and $867 for two double beds for your entire stay! (Taxes and fees are approximately 11% more.) That means a family of four will pay approximately $1,583 ($867 for the room plus tax, $556 for game tickets, and $160 for the optional banquet dinner dance.) You might even be able to find lower rates using AAA, your "miles/rewards," other discounts or advance bookings (be aware that advance bookings may require full prepayment and are non-refundable).

Room rates will only go up as the college football season begins and the Orange Bowl date approaches. The sooner you book your reservation the better your rates and terms will be. (The current cancellation policy is 48 hours but that is subject to change as the check-in date gets closer.) If you have any questions contact Hyatt reservations at 1-800-492-8804.

Keep in mind that you can stay anywhere and still purchase game and/or dinner tickets separately by filling out the appropriate sections of the Family Package.

But I recommend that you begin to think about making arrangements NOW in order to get the best rates. By the time September comes around people are planning for the December holidays and both hotels and airfares tend to go up!

If you decide to stay at the Hyatt Bonaventure in Weston with the band, consider flying into Fort Lauderdale - that airport is 15 miles from the hotel. The Miami airport is 32 miles from the hotel.

As I mentioned previously, if you stay at the Hyatt you will need a car to get you to the parade and game venues. I would do any car rental reservations as soon as possible as well. Also realize the Orange Bowl is a Monday night game which means that you will need to make arrangements to stay over the night of January 3rd. The band will leave immediately after the game on the buses and begin heading north (expected arrival Tuesday night.)

Of course if you cannot commit to the trip this early, the Bowl Event planner's "Parent Package" is available up until the beginning of November for those "last minute" travelers.

I will continue to post items about the Orange Bowl, band camp and our upcoming season so be sure to check my blog several times a week.

New Orange Bowl and Camp Posts Coming

I am back from vacation and will be posting almost daily with all kinds of information about our Band Camp and the Orange Bowl Trip!  Keep checking this site daily!

Open Letter to Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble about this week's NYSSMA Majors

Dear Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble Members,

This is an incredible week for our band program! For the first time ever we have both our bands at Roslyn High School going to the NYSSMA Majors State Rating Festival. The Wind Ensemble is doing professional level music at the Grade 6 level. Only a handful of bands anywhere even attempt to perform at this level. The Symphonic Band, being one of the top bands on the island in its own right, is performing at Grade level 4, the High School Band level.

Both bands sound incredible. It is incredible how hard you have all worked! These are clearly the strongest groups we have ever had here at Roslyn. They Symphonic Band is performing at the level that the Wind Ensemble performed only a few years ago. The Wind Ensemble is now one of the top bands on Long Island and in New York State. As a director I am totally proud of what you have accomplished these past months. Both groups have grown immeasurably! I am totally Psyched to conduct both groups next week at this prestigious festival! I am also very proud to be your band director!

As we go to the NYSSMA Majors realize what you are, an incredible band program. Be ready for anything. Realize that the judging is subjective. We can get a gold with distinction, we can get a bronze. Have fun playing! You sound amazing! We will be recording both groups during and after NYSSMA to make a CD this year of all our band nyssma pieces! No matter what we get, the proof of our excellence will be there, on our ipods forever! Get psyched, be proud, and perform at your highest level this coming week!

Here are the detailed directions for both groups
Come to school dressed in your concert attire on your performance day, Wind Ensemble on Monday, Symphonic Band on Tuesday. Bring your casual clothes in a separate bag, you will be able to change when we get back to the auditorium after our performance, and then go to lunch. On the busses you will bring your instrument, no case, and your music folder. That's it. We go to a warm up room for 30 minutes, and then the judging room. There will be two judges that will listen to us, make comments for about 3 to 5 minutes between each tune, and then assign us Gold, Silver, Bronze, or Festival Rating. We will know the score we received just before we depart Hofstra to come home. The Wind Ensemble will be leaving Roslyn at 8:45 am on Monday. The Symphonic Band will be leaving Roslyn at 9:45 on Tuesday.

Remember, you only get one shot at a first impression, this is like an interview!
Stay in rest position at all times you are not playing. Do not talk at all. We must go in very organized, in our rows, and look totally professional. Band must be the most important thing in your world for that 45 minutes! This is like an interview, we are being judged on everything! No sneakers, black sweats, only dress clothes. Boys in dark suits with a tie, girls with all black, elegant and dressy, not casual. No sneakers, you won't peform. We will tune in the room. Look at me very carefully when we start playing, I will have to make adjustments on the spot to get the right levels for our playing in the room. This can only be done while we are performing our first piece. Don't be nervous, we are performers here at Roslyn. We know how to "get it done".

Get psyched and let's have a great performance at NYSSMA Majors!!!!! Please send me an e-mail that you read this! pattersax@gmail.com

Today I Drove Home

Just about every day in my seven plus years at Roslyn, I fly home in my car, on a wave of euphoria, being so proud to work here and run this incredible band program. Today I simply drove my car home on the LIE. Today it was a doldrum, boring ride through suburbia. I couldn't even turn the radio or Ipod on. My brain was drained. I did not know how to process what happened today in Wind Ensemble. In a desperate search of answers, I asked some colleagues if I was off base, unrealistic, or simply nuts as I exited the building. From all accounts, I was correct, something went awry. I will go on.

I had to wait hours before I would even attempt to write this. What happened in Wind Ensemble.

So here we are, seven rehearsals to go before the Wind Ensemble is performing in the NYSSMA Majors Rating Festival. Things have been going great. Everybody is working, the band is starting to sound amazing, yet today, Something very unusual happened. I was totally shocked that 18 people missed the rehearsal due to AP exams that they took this morning. Finishing their exams around 11:15 to 11:30, many band members decided to go home and not return to the school for the rehearsal at 1:30, even after I stressed a few days ago that I expected them to come back for these crucial rehearsals. I totally trusted that everyone would be there, especially since students return for sports and study sessions. From everything I saw up to that point I had a very serious band. People were practicing, working hard, learning things that we were going over and being very focused. How could I ever imagine that people would skip any important rehearsal.

I will put it in its purest form. One third of the band decided that they would go home and miss the rehearsal, while the rest of the band was rehearsing. Wow, I still cannot believe it. I am no band geek, never was, but it is unimaginable to me to be in my living room or somewhere else, studying, eating, watching tv, napping, whatever, while the rest of the band has a scheduled rehearsal. And right before NYSSMA Majors! I couldn't do it, it is just not part of my DNA.

I am known for being totally flexible and understanding with the academic demands that everyone at Roslyn puts on themselves. In fact, I am proud of it. I, however, do not see how coming to a 40 minute rehearsal could possibly hurt an AP grade or drain ones brain in any way or impact the AP exam grades this week. In fact, a 40 minute musical rehearsal would supply a positive reprieve from the grinding study schedule, providing a respite and relaxing soothing of the senses, a break from the intense study schedule. A recharge.

In addition, it leaves a sour taste in my mouth for some amazing people who have been nothing but spectacular for just about 4 years. I would never want to go out like this, never. It numbs my emotions that anyone could NOT be here if they were not actually in an AP exam, especially the great band members who are a part of this group.

I do realize that the culture here is to go home after the AP, that everyone who takes one is technically excused here at Roslyn. I am not inferring that I will take off of your grade or hurt you in any way. The thing that really bothers me is the responsibility issue, being part of a team and "being there". We are going to this great event and have a chance to do something great here. For the short amount of time I need you please come. If you have an AP at the time of the rehearsal, which some of you do, of course miss band. But if you are not in an AP exam, I fully expect you to be at these last 6 rehearsals. I have talked to the HS administration about it and they totally agree, everyone not taking an AP should be at these last 6 rehearsals.

Honestly, if we have another rehearsal with people at home or elsewhere, we will probably not go to the NYSSMA Majors on May 17th. It is not fair to the Wind Ensemble to put them in front of those two judges unprepared 11 days from now.

Let's regroup, focus, and be there. Just come to the rehearsals, I will take care of the rest! Let us all sincerely try to act like today's rehearsal never happened. Water under the bridge.

And thank you to the 36 people who were there, ready to rock. And a really big thank you to the one person who took the morning AP and came to the rehearsal.

Orange Bowl Numbers, My Deadline to Make the Call is Approaching!

As of this posting we have 51 band members planning on going on the Orange Bowl Trip. We cannot do this trip without many more of our members participating. By setting this trip up very early I was hoping we could generate enough excitement to get the entire group to go on this trip. Spreading out the payment schedule along with letting everyone know early also makes it easier for people to plan around this trip.

Participating in this parade is a tremendous opportunity for our school and will change the level and notoriety of our group forever. This past week I received one of the coveted "invitations to apply to the Tournament of Roses Parade." You cannot simply apply to this parade, you need an invitation to apply, which came to us due to our probable participation in the Orange Bowl.

The trip and performance of a lifetime is no exaggeration when you do one of these top events. It is something that every one of us will remember our entire lives. Please, talk it up with other band members, see who is on the list and who isn't. Let's get everyone psyched up so that we can pull this off. My deadline is May 1st to commit. I am going to talk to the Orange Bowl people today to see if they can extend this deadline another week so that we can do it. In addition, if you know anyone who would like to get involved with the marching band we have openings and will train people on the instruments we need and colorguard. We are all very passionate about our marching band! Please spread that excitement and let's get more people into this amazing activity!

No Interviews

A very good friend of mine was interested in moving from his elementary band director position to the high school band director in his district. A known entity, this man was an incredible educator, super successful with the program he built, as well as a famous and well respected musician in the entire area. His district put him through the ringer, making him interview multiple times, bringing in different instruments to perform on to show he could play, and multiple teaching demonstrations. It infuriated me. I felt that the district should fully “know” what he was capable of and the fact that they had to run him through this gauntlet was a waste of time. They knew this teacher, what he was about, how he interacted, his musicianship and everything about him. Making him go through this process created tension and I felt it was unecessary.

Last year we did interviews for the leadership positions in the marching band. We never did this before and wanted to give it a try. Many kids were very stressed out going through this process, students who already are stressed out being in an academic high school. After the season was complete we re-visited the idea of doing interviews. I felt that the interviews really accomplished nothing. We knew everyone, what they were capable of, and knew their potential. We are a family and live together during band camp and really know each other. I don’t even think any positions were different due to the interviews. So this year we are simply going with the short online application. We will be using all our information, attendance, attitude, musicianship, service, leadership, and putting that criteria together to make our decisions. We will be posting the positions when they are finalized, which will probably be sometime after the school year is over and before camp. Remember, we will be watching you in school, at the rehearsals in the Spring, and adding that to our impressions when making these decisions as well.

Orange Bowl!

As a band director, I know how totally unrealistic it is to expect to break into what is considered the top 5 events in the nation. For bands, it is the equivalent of getting into Harvard – something you might dream about, but the reality of achieving such an honor, even with tremendous hard work and dedication, is extraordinarily difficult. Bands have to be "Nationally Acclaimed." They usually have to be over 100 members, around 150 members, super precise, as well as famous and musically captivating to get into one of these events. These events are the; Rose Parade, Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, Orange Bowl Parade and Game, Sugar Bowl Parade and Game, and Fiesta Bowl Parade. Although there are many other events, these are the "Big Boys." In addition, once a band has one of these on its resume, it is considered as having “made it” and can be accepted to any of them, thus becoming one of the top bands in the Nation!

So how shocked and excited I was to receive this invitation on March 16^th. An invitation to one of the oldest and most prestigious Bowl games and parades in the world, the Orange Bowl! I couldn't believe it! Wow, we've made it. Someone at "Bowl Games of America" saw us at Disneyworld, did some research through our website, blog, and youtube sites, and decided that with our growth over the past 8 years, that we are going to be one of these "Nationally Acclaimed Bands." By sending us this invitation, they have put us into another category, a whole different echelon, we have now "made it."

I immediately called the "Bowl Games of America" Group to find out the date of the game and learned it was on January 3rd, a Monday night. Of course, Monday night football, a huge viewing audience night. But it was definitely a problem for us since it would mean we would miss the first two days of school in January 2011. After talking to administration, we all felt that this was such a huge honor that it would justify the two days of missing school. I know our kids, and to be honest with you, a lot of studying takes place on the busses – I have seen it firsthand. I am sure everyone will keep up with their work. In addition, our band members will have the opportunity to earn a fine arts credit from taking part in this event, (see the last page of the packet which is on the main website.) The administration and myself felt that the notoriety of this big event being a part of our band members' high school accomplishments would distinguish them and be another feather in their cap, thus justifying the missed school days.

The other thing was the price. Things are more expensive in Miami that week, for obvious reasons. I was able to get the price down to $1300 total, a feat that took the past week to achieve. We cut a day off, modified the itinerary to fit into a price range that I thought we could work with. I am very mindful of the economic pressures we are all under. This trip was running around $1600 with the first few drafts, but after a lot of work researching and negotiating, we got it down to this final price.

Marching Band is an incredible activity. It is similar to athletics in that to colleges, it demonstrates our kids’ commitment to an activity. It sets our students apart from other north shore schools that do not have competitive marching bands and are not participating in these high profile venues.

So here we are, the packet was handed out tonight, and we will wait to see if we can get enough interest to go on this prestigious event. As always, we have to go through the process. First, we will see if we have enough band members going on the trip. Second, if we hit that number we will present it to the Board of Education for approval. Then we will be on our way to a whole new level! Hopefully we can do this. I really want to give it our all. If it doesn't work out, at least we tried our best. Getting invited is an incredible feat in itself! Let's see if we can generate enough excitement and enthusiasm to bring us to this milestone, an event that everyone will remember forever!

Welcome New Parents!

Well here is the blog. This is the place where I explain everything. It is a page to let you know the inner workings and things which influence our decisions with the band program at Roslyn High School. Here is where we explain everything from what the judges scores are, to what to pack on a trip. Here is where we let you know what our goals are, how we are going to make changes as the year progresses, and what we feel is working or not working so great. When something unusual happens, like an unusually low judges score, or a weather problem in the forecast, I will talk about it here and let you know when we are making a schedule change.

I also use twitter. You can sign on to the twitter.com/roslynband site and sign up for tweets. I send out tweets throughout our trips to let you know where we are every step of the way. You can set up your twitter so that you get all our tweets sent directly to your cell phone as a text message. I do not send out tweets or e-mails regularly. I do update the two main websites two or three times a week and daily during the season, roslynband.com and this website patterblog.com.

I feel that e-mails get lost, and with so many people changing their e-mails, it is hard to get to everyone.

The "Band Fans" our amazing parents group sends out e-mails whenever they have announcements to make. We work very closely together so contacting either of us is absolutely fine. We have links to the Band Fans on their page of the roslynband.com website. The presidents are Susan Passaro and Claudia Wolfson.

It is very easy to get any of us when you need us. Simply send me an e-mail and I will get back to you pretty quickly, usually the same day. I get all my e-mail on my iphone.

Check out the various posts on this blog and you will get a full picture of what we do here with this incredible band program here at Roslyn! Any questions, e-mail either myself or the presidents of the Band Fans.

In general, the first page of the roslynband.com website will have the most important, newest posts at the top of the page. Check it regularly so that you know what is going on. I will also post the full multi-page band camp letter on the roslynband.com website in the next few days. It explains everything. And check out the Band Camp page of the website as well.

Welcome to our family!!!!!

Great Trip! Great Week!

This was one amazing trip. These were the most well behaved kids ever! They showed the chaperones and each other the utmost of respect. The band members got closer and mingled nicely, becoming an even closer knit family. The trip really could not have gone any smoother.

On top of everything going right, nobody got sick, nobody was late except for a few minutes here and there, and there were no mishaps at all. The traffic, weather, and all travel was smooth sailing. We literally didn’t touch the break on either leg of the trip, the ground was dry and there was not one drop of precipitation throughout the week. The only thing which was a little rough was the cold weather the first few nights, it was frigid for Florida on Monday through Wednesday, mostly at night. Thursday was warmer during the day and although the dinner was still chilly ithere was no wind and the fireworks show was incredible. Thanks to the band members for going to bed on time and not keeping us up past curfew. We all had so much fun and doing the two parades was emotional and incredible. In addition, there seems to be no traffic at all. I deliberately set the trip to leave on Sunday instead of Friday to avoid the vacation rush and the Daytona 500 traffic going down the coast on Friday night. It all seemed to work out. Travelling to and from Florida without any traffic is very rare and now, as we pass Newark, it seems we are going to get into Roslyn around 1pm, three hours ahead of time!

Thank you to Kathy Miller for helping me so much with the planning of the trip. A big thank you to Susan Passaro and Claudia Wolfson, our Band Fans Presidents as well as Sherri Marx, the band fans treasurer, for their hours of helping me with the trip. This was a week we will all remember forever!

New Link for all pictures from Disneyworld

http://picasaweb.google.com/pattersax/MagicKingdomParades?feat=directlink

Today's Parade at the Magic Kingdom

Roslyn Marching Band at the Magic Kingdom Parade on

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

Friday's Itinerary Changes

Due to the Disney Studios closing early tommorrow we will be modifying
the itinerary. Thanks to th Bergers for catching the closing time at
the Studios (formerly called Disney's MGM Studios).

7 am - Wake Up
8 am - Depart Resort
8:30 am - Arrive at Disney Studios
4 pm - Depart Studios
4:30 pm - Arrive and relax at All Star Sports
6 pm - Depart All Star Resort
6:30 - Arrive at Downtown Disney (we will drop off at Marketplace)
9:00 - Depart Downtown Disney
9:30pm - Back at All Star Sports
12 midnight - Curfew

Pat

Sent from my Iphone

Our Pictures from Yesterday's Parade

Link to our web album

http://picasaweb.google.com/pattersax/MagicKingdomParade?feat=directlink

Parents, send me pictures and I will upload them!

Today's Parade at the Magic Kingdom

Our performance at the Magic Kingdom today! We are having a great trip! The kids are doing great, we are having an incredible time even with the cold Florida weather.

It's as Clear as the Road Ahead - Why We Do This

Yes, we are on the road, somewhere in Virginia at 3:02 am. I am, as usual, pulling an all nighter, drinking diet coke, and making my hourly pilgrimage to the back of the bus bathroom, accross the legs of sleepers and back to the front to look at the road and now blog. I’ve done a ton of these trips with various bands in different school districts and have become a pro at maneuvering the obstacle course to the back of the bus.

And now I ponder. With all the countless hours of planning and setting up this trip, like the launching of a space ship, we are on our way! As we trek to Disneyworld it is totally obvious to me “why” we all do this, as obvious as the stars in the sky. Why we compete. Why we do these trips. Why we do this incredible “marching band” activity. Let me explain.

Many band directors ask me why I do these trips and why we compete, why I run a band that does this much, definitely in a suspect tone. I get angry, grumble, and usually walk away. These people just don’t “get it.” They are missing out on one of the most amazing things by not having a marching band like ours. This band purely and simply changes lives. It is like a secret that once you take part in it, you get glued to it emotionally. This band transforms, bonds, teaches, and creates experiences which the band members and anyone connected with it will remember their whole lives.

This is an incredible week for all of us. We will be marching in one of the most prestigious parades in the vacation capital of the world! We have a huge contingent of parents and family members going as well! The band members have learned how to work together, how to conquer a goal together, and how to have fun together. We have learned alot about life by being in this band, every single one of us! That is why we do this! Now it is 3:40am (I am taking my time writing this) I feel so lucky to be directing this amazing band of beautiful kids. Thank you to the parents, the kids, the community of Roslyn, as well as the administration and Board of Education for supporting us. Thanks to everyone who helped to make this band become what it is! We will make Roslyn proud of us this week.

This Year's Show Unveiling!

Here it is! The official announcement of next year's 2010 Roslyn Marching Band Show! I have leaked out various aspects of the show and this past week I have finished all the uploading of the audio and music parts so that we can get going.

First of all I have conceptualized many shows and always like to do something fun and interesting. This year's show is a show the staff and I picked earlier in the year, but I was searching for some way to give this a cool twist. Then one day, it came to me and here in the following paragraphs is what our show for next year will be!

Here we go! I have a whole dramatic plan for it in my head along with the drill, staging, and visual design. Like the shows that I have written in the past, it is pretty simple to play, easy to understand and we can absolutely master all aspects of the show, allowing for us to achieve some very high scores as well as a tremendous amount of audience appeal. There are two main actors, a young couple, that will be present throughout the show. There will be no talking by them, just poses, acting, and a little dancing. It will be very obvious what is going on throughout the show. The opener and closers are arranged by Jay Dawson, the same arranger of our "Piano Lesson" show. The middle work is the original piece by Holst, which is a part of the famous "Second Suite for Military Band" which can be played indoors or outdoors. The audio and all music is now up on the downloads page of the roslynband.com website. Here we go!

Opener: Emperata Overture by Claude T. Smith - Bride and Groom getting married, Ballerina Dance group (6 to 15, as many as make the team) will do abstract and modern choreography around two actors getting married and throughout the show. The colorugard is a separate entity that provides additional visual support, so we have two "visual" teams working throughout the show. This is a staple of almost every show that I have conceptualized and implemented. By having two visual things going on we can keep the attention off the fact that we are only doing 35 sets. Dancers in very light off white lace, guard in a very light color, pastel orangeish or light light blue. The guard will use huge streamers and flags throughout, providing tons of visual "fireworks." The dancers will dance around and between the couple at all times throughout the show.

Ballad: Song Without Words, Gustav Holst. This is our "class winner" piece. One of the most beautiful ballads ever written for the Wind Band, Holst composed this for the military band and is meant to be played indoors or out. It is mysterious, beautiful, and fitting to what we are going to do visually. Between tunes the bride changes into yellow dress, groom changes to army fatigues, they are separated by war, he goes to a bunker and she stays at home, they write letters to each other, all staged, while the dancers react with abstract and fitting dance moves, letters going back and forth, etc. The colorguard provides the intensity of the war with big streamers as an additional visual. Picture this playing out as you listen to this piece. Drums do not play on this tune. We will have the drummers doing fitting poses throughout this work, showing how a war can impact our lives, something "out of the box" and modern.

Closer: Chorale and Shaker Dance, by John Zdechlik - Pretty simple, they are reunited at the end. Once again, I have it all storyboarded in my mind integrating the guard, dancers, and drill. This song is built around the famous melody "Simple Gifts" which is fitting in that the young couple is reunited to spend their lives together at the end. There will also be some surprises in the closer which will give everyone goosebumps, patriotic stuff!

The actors will change clothes behind two movable backdrops on wheels, not that big, that will also provide a place for the guard and dancer props and flags to be hidden.

The show will be called "Show Without Words" based on the second piece. These three tunes are all very famous works from Wind Ensemble literature, are well known by all judges and will be received very warmly by everyone, especially in this context.

Trust me on this one! I have a ton of incredible ideas that will really work. It's a winner! A bonus is that this show is totally appropriate in terms of us being at war. This is something that we are dealing with as a country. It also has struggle and a happy ending.

Along with today's unveiling, all the music is downloadable on the "Downloads" page of the roslynband.com website, along with the audio of the show. This is a simple show that we can master, have fun with, and get into! Download your music and start learning this immediately! We can win with this show!

Show Unveiling Coming Any Day This Week!

I will be posting the entire plan for this coming year's show, including my drill plan, dramatic aspects as well as attaching audio recordings and the music downloads to the website! Keep checking for the unveiling!

The Band Sounded Great Last Night!

We had a rehearsal for Florida last night, marched around the gym about 40 times, and looked great. We will not need to have an additional rehearsal next week. We will have about an hour backstage at Disney before each parade to rehearse a bit. Great job!

The New Schedule for 2010 is Posted!

The new schedule is now up on the roslynband.com website. I spent alot of time developing this schedule. We are using the 2006 and 2007 marching band years as the models for this schedule. Let me explain. In my now 28 years of running marching bands, those two years stand out as the most incredible programs I have ever run as a band director. In my opinion, those two years were the perfect balance of all the aspects of running a great marching program. Those two years were efficient, fun, and we were at a super high level in terms of teamwork and morale while we fit the program perfectly into our school's high academic culture. We are going from 121 rehearsal hours in 2009 to the old 80 rehearsal hours of 2006 and 2007. I am excited and feel this will totally boom our program in every way. This, coupled with bringing back the "team building" activities to band camp, will bond us better as a team as well. We will still be adding the three home games including the homecoming parade and game and the "Friday Night Lights" soccer game night. All of those will be added in March, as soon as the dates are set. In addition, I am planning on participating in the "Chick Fil-A" bowl game sometime between Christmas and New Year's Day. The bowl game schedule is also out in March. This was an incredible trip we did 3 years ago and included a great parade, bowl game performances before the game and during half time, along with a huge pep rally, tour of CNN studios and a trip to the amazing Atlanta Aquarium. I will be proposing this trip to the Board of Education in the Spring for their approval. I wanted to let you know what our goals are early so that you can plan accordingly. As far as the Fall season, you really need to be here every weekend with the exception of the Columbus Day weekend, which we traditionally have left open for college visitations. We will need all the marching band members to be here all other weekends between Labor Day and the Carrier Dome State Championship weekend on Halloween.

2010 Band Camp Plans Under Way

We have always had great band camps here at Roslyn and are looking forward to continuing the tradition. Although Band Camp is not until August the planning stage is now upon us. In the past months I have searched to find parents to lead our incredible band camp. I have contacted past parents who have experience with running our yearly successful camp. I am very pleased to announce that, after a brief hiatus, Susan and Jed Schlacter and Bruce Goldman are coming back to be the directors of Band Camp. With their previous four years of experience, we should hit the ground running, and have a smooth transition this summer. Any parents who are interested in being chaperones for all or part of the week or in any other capacity should contact Jed at his e-mail at jed10123@aol.com. We are fortunate to have this dynamic team of parents return to assist us.

A Great Turnout at the Board Meeting!

Thanks to all the parents, students, and family members who attended the Roslyn Board of Education meeting for our presentation last night. It was absolutely incredible seeing all the support! Thanks to Susan Passaro and Claudia Wolfson, our Band Fans Presidents for getting us on the Board Agenda. It was their idea to do this presentation and it certainly was a great way to show our thanks to the administration and Board of Ed for their continued support of the Marching Band!

Board Of Education Meeting Tonight!

Please show your continued support for the Roslyn Marching Bulldogs by wearing Bulldog blue to the Board of Education meeting tonight at the Roslyn Middle School at 8:30pm.

We are on the agenda to show a short 2 minute clip that will give a snapshot into what the Marching Band program is all about. We are also presenting the 2009 season DVD to each Board member as well as to Administration and students will be presenting the 4th Place New York State Plaque.

We want to thank the School Board and Administration for their continued support. Showing up proudly wearing our Marching Band apparel or Bulldog Blue is a reminder to the School Board and Administration that we support their efforts on behalf of our children. When we show our support for this program we are sending a powerful message to the entire community.

Thank you for your support. Hope to see you at the Middle School tonight!

Bake Sales!

Run or help with a Bake Sale and get service points!

Check on Roslynband.com and go to the Bake Sale Page!

A Great Marching Band Story!

We are all guilty of it. Being in our bubble. Trying to tweak the itinerary, to make the trip perfect is an obsession with me. I get upset over things which are just not that important sometimes and excited over little things as well. With next year’s show, the same thing. Going back to my roots, I am trying to think “out of the box” with the design of the show, finding something which is fun, touching, emotionally captivating and educational. I think we have a winner, and I will be posting it up here on the blog in the next few days! Keep checking back.

But now back to the real reason I am writing tonight’s blog. Today my wife Jen came across this story, she sent it to me in an e-mail and kept on bugging me to watch it. Waking up with the baby, I checked it out just a few minutes ago....... and........it is an incredible life story.

Once in a while we come across a story which changes us, a story which makes us a better person after we see it. I’ve put the link on the sidebar of this website for this incredible youtube story. Watch it. It’s about a marching band too!