1st Performance of the Season - Bravo!

Great job today!  The band looked and sounded great, especially for a first performance.  The video is now up on our youtube site.  Look for things we can fix before next week.  Make positive comments on the site.

Thanks to all the parents who helped and to the band members who helped out as well. A special thank you to Amy Pinchiaroli for filling in, you were great! And thanks to the 6 people who stayed an extra hour to help out loading the trailer.  I know you totally did it to help out the band, stayed there late while everyone else went home and for that reason you have "hit the jackpot" by getting awarded 200 points for showing me that you really care about the band!  Want to know who they are, just check the attendance and awards spreadsheet.  Yes it was beautiful out and I really don't blame people who went home right away after the game today, we are all very busy and some were taking in a nice day, spending time with their family, doing homework, or just getting a breather after a few days getting into the routine with homework.  Those special people who do that incredible amount extra may be awarded my special "jackpots" throughout the season.  They can come at any time and will be awarded to people who go "above and beyond" what is expected from any band member.  Congrats to todays "jackpot" winners.  And I want to continue our "no drama" policy with the band program.  We have taken some great strides this year in minimalizing the amount of drama between band members.  For instance, do not see people getting more points than you as a competition against you.  We are all on the same team.  Congratulate anyone in our band who excels.  Look around.  Did someone in your section or another section of the band do something great today?  Tell them, write them a text, compliment them.  Write a positive thing on the youtube site about something you see. Make freinds with everyone!  This is what is making our band great this year!

We have a very important rehearsal on Wednesday so lets all focus and be as great as we can next Sunday at the Brentwood show, our first competition.  I am so very proud of our entire program.  I left the school today thinking that I am a very lucky person to be the director of such a great group of people!

Competition Season is here!

As the season starts I will start posting about our up and coming competition season. This year’s show is very creative and you will see some very interesting things going on throughout it.  We have a crowd pleaser here and hopefully a “judge pleaser” as well.

I just posted the “Brentwood Show Sheet.”  I do this for every single event.  I will also blog about each show before and after so you can come right here if you want to know what is going on.

Twitter - I give twitter updates.  You can have every one sent to your cell phone as a text, or simply bookmark our twitter site to see what is going on throughout the season.  I will be tweeting more on competition days this year so put your phone on vibrate.  I will tweet out the score from the back judges room as well if I know before it is announced.  Just don't cheer and/or boo and get me in trouble.

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.

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.

And now a paragraph about all the band shifts this season. We are in Small School 2, which is a higher class than Small School 3 or Large School 3.  We get an automatic bump up for being in that class, or at least that’s what should happen.    The Field Band Conference did a spreadsheet of average scores over the past 5 years and adjusted, moving some bands into our class and some bands up a class.  Mineola got moved up to Small School 1 and Malverne got moved to Small School 2, our class.  Copiague moved out of the National Class and are competing in Large School 2 which is why Mineola, in Small School 1 will be performing last in the local shows, unless there is a National Class Band there which is the most prestigious class. We usually go on later in the local shows because of our more prestigious Small School 2 class.  We go on after all Small School 3 and Large School 3 bands, which is most of the bands who compete on Long Island.

The order within classes is done by a draw upstate.  This year, for instance, we are going after Malverne at the Mineola, Brentwood and Phoenix Shows.  Phoenix is going on after us at their show but before Copiague and Brentwood, which pretty much means that they are competing.  Some bands compete in their home show.  If they are scheduled with their class they compete. If they are at the end, then they are just doing an exhibition.  We drew a great spot at the dome, which is why we are checking out in the morning on October 30th.  We are towards the end of the class with just Corning East and Johnson City after us, both new bands which were moved to our class.

You need to be competetive but remember, this is totally subjective, like figure skating.  People who are sports people and are new to our idiom may have some trouble with this.  You may see our band, hear the score and wonder what happened.  Yes, the judges TOTALLY make the call, in fact, they decide everything, total subjectivity.  

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 a “powerhouse” marching band.  We are proud as ever and I as director feel truly privileged to run such a great group of kids and great parents.  We had parents who bring out our equipment, 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 from the judges?  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. We are on the right track!

Syracuse Trip Return Time

Please note - Due to our performance time of 11am, we will be checking out of the hotel on Sunday, October 30th in thevearly morning, leaving after awards to stop at the Carousel Mall for lunch, then driving home to arrive at Roslyn between 7 and 8pm that night.

Attendance and the impact on missing anything on our schedule

This week I have had number of last minute absence notifications from events and/or rehearsals, more than in the past 4 years combined.  Perhaps people are thinking that my more relaxed approach to Marching Band equals a more relaxed approach to our attendance policy.  This could not be further from the truth. I am relaxing the Marching Band rehearsals and camp to make it more fun and to make it a better experience for all.  As always with our marching band, there are severe ramifications to missing anything on our schedule.  In a band like ours, attendance is just about 100%.  Please fully realize that missing any event or rehearsal - anything on this band schedule - will just about guarantee you not receiving any leadership position in the marching band.  People with one or more misses over their years in the band aren't even considered for these positions.  Any band members who are excused told me within a few days of the schedule going up in March that they had a major attendance problem and I worked the program around them and excused them or told them not to be in the band.  Major family issues are pretty cut and dry as to what we consider an excusable absence.  Weddings, Bar mitzvahs and Bat mitvahs, Communions, Baptisms (all of immediate family members) are usually told to me right after the schedule goes up since these are set up years in advance.  Obviously, deaths in the family are excusable.  Concert tickets, other concerts, tickets to sporting events, SAT prep classes, studying, etc are considered unexcused absences.  If you miss a rehearsal for any of these you will be pretty much out of the band if you come 5 minutes late to anything else that year.  This is like being in an RCP or Spotlight show.  It is your job to stay healthy, get plenty of sleep, and be there for everything on the schedule. People are depending upon you. It is also your job to do your academic work around our one weekly rehearsal each week. Anyone who is in this band already knows this. We have band members who work family events around our schedule.  We have about 20 people who are not in the band because they were unable to come to one of our events. This is a very special group where every single person has a very important position.  We only have 11 events and need every person at every one.  Here is it directly from our band booklet.

Marching Band Rehearsal Attendance

During the fall season, rehearsals are held on Wednesday nights from 6:30 to 9:00 pm, and on competition days for an hour or two prior to leaving for the competitions.  Attendance at rehearsals and performances is MANDATORY. Students who have a conflict with any rehearsal MUST SUBMIT a parental note at least TWO WEEKS in advance.   Students with ONE ABSENCE will be given a WARNING from the band director.  Any additional absences will result in removal from the Marching Band.

Marching Band Competition Attendance

Band members must attend all competitions and shows. As in a school musical, each position is crucial to the success of the entire unit.  The show is custom written for the exact number of people in the band, and even one hole effects each member’s drill, which must be modified at the competition, which is not acceptable.  Anyone who has a conflict with one of the shows may not be a part of the marching band. In a competitive marching band, every person has a leading role.