The good, the bad, and the cold!

I have received a few questions about the cold next week at the Nationals.  I then realized through the questions being asked that none of you know how I as a director, handle this whole performing in the cold thing.  We have had a bunch of warm seasons so I have to update you on my philosophy.  A famous marching band instructor once said to me "Marching Bands are a slave to the weather."  I totally agree!

We have to always take that into effect with band camp, the season, performing and most importantly, keeping the kids safe and healthy. I totally agree, and since right now we have no idea how cold or what the weather will be like next Saturday at the Nationals, I can give you some information on where my philosophy lies in terms of dealing with the weather. Please read on.

My band director real weather story #1

In 1990, my first year at Mineola with 46 total in the band we drove all the way to the TOB Northeast Championships in Scranton, PA.  Over a hundred family members drove down.  It was raining, sleeting and 40 degrees out with the wind blowing.  I asked a band director next to us in the warm up area if they were competing, with the sleet and soaking rain bouncing off the timpani drum next to him he said to me "of course!" That image of the drum with his reaction, a few feet away is seared in my mind.  Yes, every single band was playing. I put my instincts into play, I thought that this was nuts! I made the call,  Mineola left the venue, we all went to the Mall, and all our parents lost all the ticket money, registration fees, etc.  Not one parent or kid complained, not one.  It was obvious, crazy to perform in those conditions.  

My band director real weather story #2

I am proud to state that I am one of the two band directors at Giants Stadium in 1996 that had our entire band of 250 members warm up on the busses, wear their coats into the stadium, make a big pile of outerwear just inside the stadium by the tunnel, play the show, then put their coats, gloves, and hats back on when exiting the stadium.  Every other band warmed up for hours outside, in the wind, freezing, without coats, because "That's what you do."  No way for our kids.  Incidentally, Mineola got 3rd out of a bunch of bands, and Piscataway, the other band that also looked weird walking into the building with parkas, ski gloves, and winter hats over their uniforms like us, got 1st.  None of the kids from either band got sick (I called that director after about a week) and today I believe that both of our scores were greatly impacted by their keeping warm. 

My band director real weather story #3

St. Patrick's Day parade on Long Island, once again with Mineola.  We had 250 band members, we got off the busses at the beginning of the parade route, the trombone and trumpet slides froze. We couldn't keep warm even with full winter attire over the band uniforms. I believe it was 1998 0r 1999.  The temperature was 30 degrees and was about 22 with the wind chill.  Pretty simple, we got on the busses, went back to Mineola and released everyone.  I had my drum majors put their parkas on and walk to parade route to let everyone know.  No twitter or texting back then.  For this one I got a lot of backlash at first, parents standing in the cold were mad, yelling at me when they went to pick up their children, calls to the administration on Monday.  It was bad publicity for about two days, until the stories came in of the little cheerleaders who got sick, the kids who were freezing, and the whole thing turned around to a backlash at the people running the parade and why they didn't cancel it.  I knew I made the right call as we pulled out to go home, watching the little children, the same age as my kids at the time, freezing and crying in the lot, huddling together to stay warm.  Another image seared in my memory, that I will never forget.

Please remember, I treat them as if they are my own children, winter coats on when it is 50 or below with the wind.   We are a child centered program here and we will take care of the kids. Trust me, I will make the right call on this.  If the weather is going to be warm, frigid, or simply cold, I will totally update the directions on roslynband.com and tell everyone exactly what needs to be packed.  I have Directed bands at the old Giants Stadium 8 times.  I’ve got this covered. We might lose some money, but we will not lose our health.

Please realize that playing the 8 minute show in uniform is feasible and safe.  The kids’ adrenaline to  perform and inner excitement protects them for that short time frame. They are moving and keeping warm.

We also have 320 hand warmers, 320 body warmers and 320 toe warmers donated but the Small family to help us keep warm.

What took so long?

I was waiting all night to get the Met Life order and seeding, it happened around 4:30am.  I expected our performance at MetLife to be around 7pm but was thrilled that we were on closer to awards, performing at 9:30pm.  I was wired and up for the day. Then I went ahead and put up the leadership team as well just so that we wouldn't lose the rehearsal tonight with everyone flipping out and getting nervous.  When I put up the schedule I deliberately took the link off the top menu to see how long it would take for someone to figure it out.  Since we are all geniuses (I include myself) here at Roslyn I figured, by 2nd period, Symphonic Band, people would have figured out how to find it, either by googling roslyn band leaders 2014, or going through the back door to the site map.  I thought that it was pretty obvious, since the leadership team was omitted from the top menu.  Then came Symphonic Band 2nd, nobody knew.  I was shocked. Then onto Wind Ensemble 4th period, nobody figured it out.  Wow.  I walked through the halls to see if anyone got it, nobody smiling, coming up to me, nothing, just the regular "hi".  Then finally, at 1:15, between 7th and 8th period, a bunch of people ran to me in the hall in front of the guidance department and told me that everyone knew their leadership positions.  Finally.  

So now we all know.  I will make the link available in the top menu right now.  I will still announce it tonight, without all the suspense or the drama.  I will announce it to celebrate all the new positions.  Yes, I created some new ones, we had some great guard people who scored in the top 20 and I needed to find places for them and by the way, I think that a Colorguard President and CEO are brilliant additions to the Colorguard here at Roslyn.  In addition, I was excited to be able to not only get the top 20 positions but went down to 32, that was totally a surprise for me when I went to double check if all the top 20 were in.  

I am sorry we do not have 107 positions for everyone in the band but for now, giving 31% of the band members positions is about as high as we can go.  

Congrats to everyone who got something and to everyone else, keep on working to get those points and practice!

Leadership Positions

I am announcing the marching band leadership positions tomorrow night, Wednesday, October 23rd, at the end of the rehearsal.  In the past I have simply posted it after the season is over but with the pressures of the point system growing, I want to have a "no points" period from the announcement tomorrow through to the Spring rehearsals.  I do not want students fixated on points when we go to finals next week or on the Florida trip.

Since I have these positions all ready to go, I decided that it would be a great boost for the program to just go ahead and announce it prior to the end of the season.

Positions will not take effect until after the Disney Trip, when we start the Spring rehearsals.  Students receiving positions will need to sign the contracts which will not be available until after the Nationals.

The top 30 all have received positions this year, which is unusual.  The top 20 on the point list are guaranteed positions.

I have decided the positions as to where I think people fit, what their strengths are, and how they will be most successful for themselves as well as the band.

Only upper classmen (Juniors and Seniors during the 2014-2015 school year) are getting positions.  Since no current freshman scored in the top 30 point recipients, this should be no surprise.  In addition, with a band this large it is difficult to get a position with only one year's experience.

The point system was devised to give credit for extra work done by band members.  I update it after every single event on the website roslynband.com.

Any questions, just e-mail me and I will be happy to talk to you.