Saturday Night Roslyn Season Primer 4

Subjective Judging - Please Read

This year we were moved down to Small School 3 or SS3.  From 2001 through 2006 we were in SS3.  Then, after achieving 2nd place in SS3, we were moved to SS2, a more advanced class.  We were in that class from 2007 through 2012.  Then, looking for a change, we tried moving to the US Bands conference for the 2013 and 2014 competition years.  After weighing the variables, most importantly the fact that the championship can be in very cold weather with ice and nobody in the stands, we decided to go back to the NYSFBC and compete with the majority of the Long Island Bands.  Small School 3 is a better fit for us than Small School 2.  Bands in this class, for various reasons, decided to rehearse a bit less and are grouped together to be in a more competitive environment of like bands.

As a competitive band we have to go into this activity knowing what to expect. If we win great, if we don’t then maybe next show or next year. The following paragraphs are to let you know what we as the marching staff deal with, live with, and try to conquer the best we can in our “quest to be the best.” I will update you after each show on our inner workings, what we are doing, and what our goals are through this blog.

Marching band judges each have a caption to judge. The judges are supposed to judge their caption without going "out of caption." They sometimes don't do this which is obvious by the fact that they almost always rank all the bands in the same exact order across all captions. In my opinion this defies reason, each band is strong in different areas and realistically, each judged caption should have the bands in a different order. Now check out this scenario, hope I don’t lose you. Sometimes the visual judges only judge the guard without even looking at the band marching style, forms, posture, etc. This puts a band that marches a difficult show well at a disadvantage because they get no credit for their work. Sometimes the music judges also decide to judge the visual, which diminishes a band's music score since it isn't being judged. When a music judge does this and is not impressed with the visual aspect, a band in essence is "penalized" twice for the visual portion of the show. Actually, the band is penalized a third time since there is no credit given from that judge for the music they are doing. As staff members we try to be subjective, but still are scratching our heads as we leave some of the contests because the numbers don't even seem to line up with the audio critiques. Each judge makes an audio critiquing the band. We get these via wifi or SD cards immediately after we perform and go to the staff room to listen to the recordings and prepare for the post contest judges meeting, where we get 5 minutes with each judge, to get an in person evaluation from the judges. 

You need to know, when you get involved in this activity, that it is a "subjective judging" environment. I probably should repeat that last sentence a hundred times. These scores are entirely determined by the judges' evaluations using the judges sheets. The judges decide absolutely everything. It is very much like figure skating or judged olympic events. They make the call for everything. One or two judges can bury you, giving you a score so low that it moves you out of contention for winning a contest. We may not agree with the judges, but complaining will not solve anything since we realize that this is a "subjective" environment. It comes with the territory. Those same judges could have had us up by points, giving us a large lead over all the other bands.

What the audience usually responds to is "general effect". It only accounts for about 40% of the score and that is why audience members don't always agree with the judges' results. 

Many marching band people say that the only way you can tell who is the best is to wait until the dome. That is where all the bands in the class perform at the same time, for the same judges, in the same environment. At the dome the judging slates are doubled, so the scores are derived from 12 judges. Anything can happen at championships.

Friday Night Roslyn Season Primer 3

NYSFBC Judging / How We Get Judged

In the NYSFBC there are two large areas that we are judged on, Visual and Music. Each of these two areas are broken down into three segments, Field, Ensemble, and General Effect. So here are the six judges that judge us: Field Visual, Ensemble Visual, GE Visual, Field Music, Ensemble Music, and GE Music. 

Field Visual: This judge is on the field, walking around, through, and in front of the band. This judge's job is to evaluate the individuals on the field and how they march, do their guard work, and how they look as individuals.

Ensemble Visual: This judge is up in the stands and evaluates the drill, the band and the guard doing their designs and work as an ensemble, the artistic value of the show.

GE Visual: This judge sits up in the stands and judges the "General Effect" of the visual portion of the band and guard. This is usually what the audience responds to, the GE.

Field Music: This judge is on the field, walking around, through, and in front of the band. This judge's job is to evaluate the individuals musicians on how they are playing their parts.

Ensemble Music: This judge is up in the stands and evaluates how the band performs their music as an ensemble. This judge evaluates the difficulty of the show, how clean the band is playing musically, and how they sound.

GE Music: This judge sits up in the stands and judges the "General Effect" of the music. This is usually what the audience responds to, the GE.

Thursday Night Roslyn Season Primer 2

Competetive Marching Bands on Long Island

A Brief History of Long Island Competitive Marching Bands. I put this up each year for the new parents and to refresh everyone on our judging system.

There are approximately fifteen bands that compete on Long Island. Competitive bands can perform 30 to 60 forms (this year we have 32), are constantly moving, with memorized music (no lyres), and march in synchronized perfection (or as close as is possible). The other 40 plus Long Island non-competition bands perform their shows during halftime at the Newsday Festival. They tend to perform between 3 and 15 pictures (abstract forms) and do much less complex shows.

There are several competitive circuits in our area. There is the MAC circuit, in Connecticut and northern New England, the TOB (Tournament of Bands) circuit in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the US Bands circuit, which encompasses the entire East Coast, and the NYSFBC (New York State Field Band Conference) which we compete in. The Long Island bands always seem to compete together. In the 80s and early 90s the Long Island bands competed in the Tournament of Bands. The Championships were usually in Scranton, PA. Then in the mid 90's the bands switched to a new circuit, the CMBC (Cadets Marching Band Circuit, Now US Bands) which is still run by the Cadets, one of the top Drum Corps in the world. The draw of this circuit was it's Championships at Giant's Stadium. When the Giant's put in real turf the CMBC was no longer able to use the stadium for a few years, they changed their name to YEA, and moved the championships to venues in Atlantic City, Hersheypark, and Scranton. It was at this time that the Long Island Bands started to transfer to the NYSFBC, the draw to this conference mainly being the Carrier Dome championships, which is obviously indoors, and an incredible venue, not impacted by the cold weather, rain, or ice. The NYSFBC is also a band director driven group, which I feel is the best of the circuits in terms of it's positive outlook and emphasis on education. By the end of the 90's almost all of the Long Island Competitive bands competed in the Carrier Dome/NYSFBC. 

Each circuit has a totally different way of judging, different criteria, different judges, and different philosophies. I will now go over the NYSFBC judging system as best I can in a few paragraphs.

NYSFBC Band Classes

There are two main criteria for determining classes in the NYSFBC. There are Small School Classes (SS3, SS2, and SS1) which are determined by school size and the quality level of the program. There are the Large School Classes (LS3, LS2). Class 3 are the less advanced bands, Class 2 the more advanced bands, and Class 1 the most advanced. Please realize, all competitive bands are advanced, going to this circuit shows that. The top class, reserved for the best in the country is the National Class which consists of incredible bands of any school size. Since they are determined by school size, there can be tiny bands and huge bands in the same class in the NYSFBC. Some bands have only the really serious musicians and guard people in their bands, which makes them smaller and easier to make perfect. My goal as a band director has been to get as many people involved in the program as possible. This can obviously hurt our scores since it is harder to get 115 perfect thank 40.  This is why sometimes much smaller bands beat us. Touching lives is our philosophy and there is something exciting about filling the field with so many band members. We clearly have the largest percentage of band members to school size of any band, probably in New York State. Our band is the largest band in our class, SS3.

Tuesday Night Roslyn Season Primer 1

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?