As we enter this new season today with Homecoming and the Scotch Plains show in New Jersey I am writing this blog so that you understand what we are doing in this activity including all the details. I originally signed us up for this show and the football schedule was set up very late this year so we left it all alone, opening up next weekend as an off weekend.
If you don't already know, this year’s show “Metamorphosis” is based on the life of a butterfly with some modern classical music, the first being “Air and Dublinesque” by Billy Joel and “Sonoran Desert Holiday” by the modern classical composer Ron Nelson. Mr. Kendi just finished the butterflies, which you will see on the field today.
This year I will be posting the weekly detailed schedule on the last page of the website roslynband.com. You can reach it directly at roslynrehearsal.com. I will do this throughout the season. I will also blog after each show so you can come right to this blog if you want to know what is going on with scores, what the judges said and my take on it all.
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 constant updates on competition days so put your phone on vibrate. You also have to be approved by me to get access to the twitter site, see the “twitter directions” link at the top of roslynband.com. I will approve throughout the day
As a director I am tremendously proud of how far the Marching Band 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 now 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, 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.”
We all need to be competitive but remember, this is totally subjective, like figure skating. I always tell the kids that in figure skating they even throw out the high and low scores, which is fully acknowledging that it is somewhat unfair. 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 with an incredibly supportive school district and of course great parents and the amazing “Band Fans” parents group. We have parents who bring out our equipment, parents helping to run our band camp, and the largest contingent of spectators are from Roslyn at every event we go to. Our parents even cheer for our neighbor competitor when they win the class over us! We are the greatest people anywhere! Total team players.
I now need to cover something that is difficult to state and word correctly, especially for new parents to our marching band. At the risk of being negative I need to talk about this because it will come up in the stands, with parents and fans who have been with us for years, the big elephant in the room.
We traditionally, more times than often are not getting the scores that we may deserve. For instance, last year I objectively watched our class a MetLife Stadium National Championships and I, along with the staff pretty objectively had us in 3rd or 4th place out of 9. We waited until 1am to get awarded 9th place, but our highest score ever of 85 nationally. The kids were fine, as they always are, because they understand this idiom and the subjective nature of the activity. And then the judges said how great we were on their evaluations and didn’t reflect the number or placement at all. This is what we have been going through here for 11 years competing, I know it sounds bad to even mention it but I, as director have to acknowledge this and make it a teachable moment. Realizing that we are in a subjective arena and compete at a National Level is very exciting no matter what place we get, yet it is hard to get the kids psyched to “Win” when they almost never do, and most times do not get the recognition that they deserve at the competition. At the State Championships with our old conference, from 2002-2012 it was much, much worse, we would get beat by bands that were the size of our woodwind section, with 5 colorguard and 3 in the pit, not playing or marching as well as us. It was obvious and confusing. We had the same judges for years who constantly and reliably slotted us at the bottom. That is the reason we are with US Bands, which we came to last year. We got the highest score ever at the Nationals last year, even with our 9th place. In addition, with so many shows, we get alot of different judges which makes the chance of getting a “good read” by the judges much more likely.
And in my opinion our band 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, even when we fall apart as we did yesterday at the pep rally! I told the kids that they kind of blew it, I have to be honest so that they know I am true to them when I compliment them. We have a difficult show and am trying to play and march it perfectly which isn't going well right now. I think we will nail it at some point during the season, and that is really always the goal, to challenge the band to a difficult and rewarding show since we get judged on difficulty and multiple responsibilities with the drill and music.
Winning, yes 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!
The Rehearsal Schedule
Balancing it all on the head of a pin. That’s what I call it, making a rehearsal schedule for a competitive marching band in an academic high school. How much to rehearse, how many shows to do, how we rehearse, and how to handle attendance are key parts of running this marching band which I deal with every day. Balancing the schedule of a competition marching band is a delicate endeavor. Meeting the needs of the students is the priority however we do "compete" so we need to maximize our rehearsal time, and get as much done as is possible so that we can be competitive. We need to utilize every minute without hurting the quality of our group. The balance is as tricky as balancing something on the head of a pin. I have been asked many questions from parents and students about how I schedule rehearsals and competitions so in the spirit of communication I have posted my philosophy of rehearsals, competitions, and how we have built our schedule.
How Many Hours to Rehearse
I have had some parents ask me why we rehearse so much. I have had even more parents ask me why we don’t rehearse more. Well, when starting the competitive marching band here at Roslyn, they rehearsed 2 nights a week and Saturdays, and did a show every weekend. They even added some rehearsals if the band needed it. Coming here in 2003, I decided that we would go with a 1 night rehearsal format, very few Saturday rehearsals, and try to add an hour of rehearsing on show days, before we leave the high school. This is the least that I felt we could practice and still be competitive. By having great communication among the staff, proper planning, and efficient rehearsals, I felt we could build a dynasty with this structure. Hicksville HS in the 90’s had the highest scores on Long Island and had this exact schedule. I observed them frequently and they were efficient, there wasn’t a minute of wasted time in their rehearsals. It amazed me that they could have the highest of scores and rehearse so much less than the bands they were scoring above. I used them as a model when I came here to Roslyn. Remember, every band we compete against rehearses two to three times more than us. Go to their websites and look at their rehearsal schedules.
Formulating the Schedule
I build the schedule in April, put it up online, finalize it in mid August, tweak it and add times in September and stick to it. I do not schedule anything on the “off weekend." I will not add anything after school starts because I feel it is unfair to the band members to require them to be at everything and then add something. We get many requests to perform at various events in and out of our district with only a few weeks notice. My policy is clear, we will perform if given the dates prior to band camp. Requiring perfect attendance, which we must do since we have a drill where every person is of the utmost importance and our lack of rehearsals, creates this policy where we don’t add performances after the schedule is finalized.
Rehearse Less? Rehearse More?
For the parents that say we need to rehearse less, I submit that it would greatly hinder us to even take a few hours out of this schedule. We are at a bare minimum in terms of being a competing band. Any less would mean going to a “home game and Newsday band” format, where we only perform at the home games and Newsday Festival, which is what most bands on Long Island do. Any more rehearsing, and we would burn out, not be fresh with the show, and it would hinder our academics and not leave time for jobs, other activities, etc. Personally, I feel that a competition band teaches so much more about music and life. I feel that the schedule we have is perfect for our school, students, parents, and community.
Is Our Schedule Working?
I feel that our schedule is clearly working. We are very successful, being one of the most talked about bands, getting exponentially better each year. Our competitors, virtually every one of them, rehearse two to three times as much as us. We are certainly among the top 3 or 4 bands on Long Island, regardless of the scores, so this schedule works for us. We rehearse about 80 hours, other competetive bands run from 300 to 500 hours. In terms of “bang for the buck” we are beating everyone. I also feel this is why we have the 2nd largest competitive band on Long Island, because we leave time for today’s high school kid to do everything else.
Constantly Learning and Tweaking
As a band director I am constantly learning about maximizing rehearsal time, meeting with the staff regularly, and tweaking our schedule year to year. I welcome parental and student input and have used it regularly. Right now, I feel we are on the right track with our schedule. Our kids are excited, fresh, and love the marching band, which is the top priority!
US Bands, what they are
The US Bands is a conference of over 700 bands which runs 150 shows in 25 states. Of those 150 shows, 50 are regional or national competitions and 100 are local competitions.
Bands are in classes by band size, not school size, which is a system which rewards bands based on the number of people that they have in the group. I believe this works in our favor since bands in the higher classes receive higher points for the most part. Below is the size breakdown for how your band is placed into classes. Group I: 1-40 members, Group II: 41-55 members, Group III: 56-75 members, Group IV: 76-100 members, Group V: 100-135 members, Group VI: 136+ members. Then they then put each band into “A” class or “Open” class, we are in 5A. The judging is based on General Effect, Music, Marching, Colorguard, Visual, and Execution.
We are looking forward to a great season and remember "Aim high, be patient, and as far as subjective scoring, be ready for anything."
I will post here after the competition today or tomorrow and remember, what I write is open to the public so at times I will be extra discreet, so you have to "read between the lines".
Pat
