As we enter this new season I am writing this blog so that you understand what we are doing in this activity including all the details.
This year’s show “Quidam” is based on the Cirque De Soleil Show by the same name. The plot is about a young girl finding her place in the world, however our rendition simply puts visual drill, flags and dance to the music.
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 and also after each rehearsal at patterblog.com about what the judges said and my take on it all, and what we are doing to improve our program.
Twitter
I will post twitter updates. You can have each tweet 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. I have to approve you to get access to the twitter site, see the “twitter directions” link at the top of roslynband.com.
As a director I am tremendously proud of how far the Marching Band has 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.
Competition Bands
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. You may see our band, compare us to the bands in our class, then hear the score and wonder what happened. Yes, the judges TOTALLY make the call, in fact, they decide everything.
The Rehearsal Schedule
Making a rehearsal schedule for a competitive marching band in an academic high school is a delicate task. 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. 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. 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
When they starting the competitive marching band here at Roslyn in 2001, they rehearsed 2 nights a week and Saturdays, and did a show every weekend. They even added some rehearsals if the band needed it, even having a rehearsal every night the week before the Dome. 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. We eventually removed the Saturday rehearsals and it seems to be working. This is the least that I felt we could practice and still be competitive. By having great communication among the staff, proper planning, efficient rehearsals and close to 100% attendance, I felt we could build a great program with this structure. 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 March, signed up for the shows and put in the off weekends around that. I do not schedule anything on the two “College Visit, off weekends." This year, when I received the home game schedule it was too late to redo the entire schedule, so we are just doing the Homecoming home game. Two of the home games hit on our “College visit, off weekends”, and one on the Dome 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. Next year I will wait until the home games are finalized and then sign up for shows.
We are looking forward to a great season and remember "Aim high, be patient, and as far as subjective scoring, be ready for anything."
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 great 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.
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?
