Next Weeks Rehearsal Schedule

In order to alleviate the pressure next week we are going with the following plans.  This is a reiteration of what I went over with the parents at the Band Fans meeting and the students at the end of the rehearsal on Wednesday night.

Scenario #1 - We score within a point of Malverne

• If we are within a point of Malverne on Saturday night we will do Scenario 1.  This means we are in contention to win the New York State Championship and due to the fact that the judges have popped our score, we need to give our kids the best chance of winning.  We need to rehearse on Wednesday for at least one hour.
• On Tuesday morning next week I will look at the weather for the week.  If it is going to be nice on Thursday night for the Newsday Festival we will rehearse for 1 hour, from 7 to 8, on Wednesday night. I may wait another day to make the call on this. Or..............
• On Tuesday morning next week I will look at the weather for the week.  If it is going to be raining on Thursday night that means Newsday will be cancelled.  We will then have a full rehearsal on Wednesday night.  I will only do this if it looks like it is almost definitely going to be raining on Thursday night.

Scenario #2 - we are still points below Malverne and it looks like we are being slotted into 7th place (in other words, the current scenario continues).

• On Tuesday morning next week I will look at the weather for the week.  If it is going to be nice on Thursday night for the Newsday Festival we will cancel Wednesday night's rehearsal. I may wait another day to make the call on this.
• On Tuesday morning next week I will look at the weather for the week.  If it is going to be raining on Thursday night that means Newsday will be cancelled.  We will then have a full rehearsal on Wednesday night.  I will only do this if it looks like it is almost definitely going to be raining on Thursday night.

I will put any changes on this blog, explaining everything as well as the twitter site.

Let's have a great week!

New Procedures in Place due to Thefts

Due to the thefts last Saturday in the lecture hall we will be initiating some new procedures starting with tonight's rehearsal.

1.  We have installed 12 lockers in the bandroom.  Each one has a section name on it.  From 6 to 6:30 students can place their valuable items (phones, iPads, watches, wallets, etc) in the locker that is assigned to their section.  They will be watched and locked at 6:30 then reopened after the rehearsal.  I am the only one who has the key to these lockers.

2.  Students must either have their phones on their body or in these lockers.  I am texting all of the students about this prior to the rehearsal tonight.

3.  From now on, all items of value will be put into the bandroom since there is a camera outside the bandroom door.  We have continual monitoring of who goes in and out of the bandroom with this camera.

4. All luggage and carry-ons will be put into the bandroom next Friday prior to the trip and that room will be locked all day.  We will be placing the uniforms in the lecture hall.  I am stressing to the students that NO valuables are to be put into the garment bags at any time, EVER.

I will be going over these procedures tonight at the Band Fans meeting.

Post about Thefts in the Lecture Hall on October 13th

Our principal, Dr. Andrews gave mis this information to post about the thefts in the Lecture Hall yesterday.

We were informed of this theft while out at the football field. All four administrators quickly returned to the building and began an extensive investigation.

· We have reviewed the cameras from the area of the theft.

· We have searched the areas adjacent to the area of the theft.

· We have gathered a list of the stolen items.

· We have contacted the Nassau County Police Department and they will be arriving to investigate and take a full report.

We, like you, are incredibly upset and angry that thefts of this nature have taken place.

We will continue to investigate this theft and hope to identify the thief and let the police take the necessary action.

From the Mouths of Babes, in the Tundra!

Yes, our children are still our babes.  Every day when I see another one of them pulling up to the school, driving the car while their parent is sitting in the passenger side with that look, you know that look, well it shows us that they are all growing up.

And I learned a couple of incredible lessons from them last night in the tundra of the Whitman parking lot.  After a long day, doing a parade, halftime show, suffering the turmoil of phones and ipads being stolen from our lecture hall, freezing and fatigued, they put it all together and did the best show ever at Walt Whitman.  That is lesson number one I learned.  These kids are super resilient and absolutely amazing.

The thing is, after getting a score of 72, which clearly placed us in 7th in the state out of the 7 in our class, they were all excited, bubbly, happy and joyous.  I wondered what was going on.  Then.......

Lesson number 2 they taught me

As band director, we were wound up with the staff in the Whitman cafeteria, crunching the numbers, trying to figure out the judge tabulation sheet which looks like a spreadsheet for a bank's yearly report.  Then on to talking to other band staffs, guessing dome judges, discussing the results, all in an attempt to get as high a number as possible for our kids in the finals.  We were all discussing changes which need to be make, all of us looking for that all elusive stamp of approval from the judges, it was our typical staff setting, pretty intense.

Then, walking outside, the staff and I were greeted by a band that seems like they won the whole thing!  Perhaps there was a discrepancy in the scores, and we scored higher than Norwalk and the sheets inside were wrong.  That's what it seemed like, kids in our Roslyn uniforms, skipping to the busses as if they had won and had the highest scores in the show, beating all the national class bands.

I always say this funny thing, kind of making fun of the statement, not really getting the true meaning of it.  My brother in law is a physical education teacher in Deer Park.  One time, at some family event, when we were talking about how he taught elementary gym class for a while, while discussing dealing with competition he said: We always say, "If you had fun, You won!  I thought it was funny and totally not realistic when preparing kids for "real life."  I mean, sometimes it rains on your parade and you have to deal with it, dig in, cry, whatever, and get competitive to give yourself the best chance at future success.  I poo pooed it.

So I say that, kind of sarcastically, never really thinking about it very much, it just sounds kind of funny and pokes fun at how we are so centered on building self esteem that sometimes we totally skirt around any kind of "winning" vs "losing."  We do this all in the name of self esteem building.  When we are approaching the field I usually chant it a few times.  If you had fun (and some kids chant back with me immediately), "you won!"  We all have a good laugh.

Then it hit me, while freezing outside, approaching our joyous band members.  It is true!  WOW!  That thing I say, it is TRUE!  Corny, but TRUE!  They had fun, and that means that they won!  They left the show happy, pumped, a bit cold and tired but nonetheless loving what they do and enjoying each other's friendship.

Then I brought a few of the drum majors over to me and asked, "What is going on?  Why is everyone so happy/"  And Nicole immediately said back to me, with Gina and Elizabeth nodding as the words left her mouth, "We were great, and we all know it, that's why we are so happy!"  Wow, they did great, they know it and are totally full of "positive self-esteem."

Then something I totally forgot about came back to me, you know, one of those interactions that you have and forget until something reminds you of it.  I bumped into a band director a few weeks ago and commented on how great his band was and that I wished we could march as great as his band did.  He went on to tell me that he wished his band was as great as ours and could enjoy themselves like the Roslyn kids do.  Wow, we are really doing something here.  We have a great thing going!  And our kids know it.

So you will see me smiling alot more, talking about scores alot less, and blogging about all the amazing things our kids are doing.  They opened a door for me and the staff last night.  They showed us what life is all about.  And parents, you are amazing because you taught these kids not only how to be "Space Camp" kids (my way of fondly reminding them that they are all geniuses), but to be great, compassionate, life loving human beings.  They know how to work hard, how to get it done, and how to enjoy life.  Bravo to all of you!

The Importance of Staying for the National Class

As a band member in a competitive marching band it is crucial for us to know what we are “shooting for” and to understand the social needs of the band members.  We have lost this the two past years, these all important educational components due to the fact that Halloween was intercepting our weekend at the dome.  The last two years I chose to alter our plans because of the students' request to be back at school so they could join in the school's celebration of Halloween. It was something I strongly did not want to do but the kids really wanted to be part of this RHS Halloween tradition.   After all isn’t this always about the kids.

Our band never gets to see the National Class bands anywhere since the show stands are always full and/or we are eating, changing, etc at each of the local shows. The importance of this component cannot be underestimated.

Here are the reasons that we are staying the additional day.  Please remember, we did this for 7 years and there were no complaints because culturally, we all understood how important this was for the following reasons.  It is obvious that I have not clearly communicated how important staying that extra day is to our educational and social growth.

1.  This great opportunity to see 10 of the best bands in the country and know what we are shooting for cannot be done with a video.  We see it from the 50 yard line, up high, together, it is awesome and inspiring.

2. The culmination of our team being together to digest whatever placement we received in the afternoon, together as a family is very important. Especially in a relaxed setting.  Our scores could be up or down since it is totally subjective.  This is a vitally important way for us to work through the results of our season together.

3.The opportunity for our kids to have some fun, going to the mall, relaxing at the hotel, together for the last time is an important social thing.  Each group has it's own family each year, Seniors through Freshman, it starts at Camp and ends at the Dome.  This is the last time that they are ever together, ever.  In an academic environment as intense as ours, it is important for the kids to have some “fun” time once in a while and we must be sensitive to take a break from all the academics to bond socially.

I clearly hear the complaints that this additional day is not important, a waste of time, and that the kids should not be missing school for it.  I also understand that when they moved the Newsday Festival to the last week due to the Presidential Debate, it further added to the intensity of that week.  This is a one year deal, they will move it back to mid October.

Please trust me however, the way you trust me with your kids whenever they are with me.  I treat them as my own children (as if I need any more than the 6 I have).  Yes please trust me that this is important for the kids in the band, for the quality of our group and their social growth.  If you are upset and don’t agree with any of this please throw me a bone on this one.  The band members, parents and staff do not need the added pressure of parents upset over this. We always work together as a family, the band, staff, Band Fans, and community. It is our greatest strength.

We will be arriving back on Monday afternoon, handing the uniforms in when we arrive back which is the official end of our marching band season.  Please be there to congratulate the kids upon our return, as you always do.

Great job at the Pep Rally today!

The band looked and sounded amazing at the pep rally today!  Great job to everyone! We are all looking forward to an amazing weekend!

Competition Season is Here Part 3

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. Roslyn and Malverne are the most recent additions to this group (it's our 11th season). The others have been in this competition circuit for 30 to 40 years. Competitive bands can perform 30 to 60 forms (this year we have 40), 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 home football games and at the Newsday Festival. They tend to perform between 3 and 15 pictures (abstract forms) and do a much less complex show.

There are several competitive circuits in our area. There is the MAC circuit, in Conncecticut and northern New England, the TOB (Tournament of Bands) circuit in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the USA 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 USA 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, they changed their name to YEA, and moved the championships to venues in Atlantic City, Hersheypark, and Scranton. It was about 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. 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. 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. In our conference, you get a bump in General Effect from being big but that's about all.

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.

Subjective Judging - Please Read

And now a little blog which I have posted before about the judging system and the marching activity. You have to go into this activity knowing what to expect. If we win great, if we don’t then maybe next year. People who live in a sports world may have a hard time with this system. In the “Cutting Edge,” a movie about a professional hockey player who loses his peripheral vision and joins forces with a famous ice skater, joining the ranks of the olympics, it is very obvious the differences when the judges make “all the calls.” The prior hockey player has trouble comprehending his new medium. 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 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. 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. Oh yes, each judge makes an audio critiquing the band. We get these 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 judging group (visual and music) 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. This happens to us frequently. 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.

Sometimes the judges don’t give you credit for something amazing. For instance, in 2008 at the dome not one of the 12 judges (double slate at the dome) said one word during our drum feature, they were silent. It was probably one of the high points in the entire dome, the drum conveyor belt and the band doing the walk through box (look at it on youtube). National Class Bands did not even attempt what we mastered. Just look at our youtube site. But the judges, not one word!!!! Can’t complain, nowhere to complain to, we’ll just get them mad. We work the judges as best we can and chip away at them, selling our program in those post contest meetings and wherever else we can. Remember, patience, patience, patience. The wins will come, I went through this with Mineola (I taught there for 11 years) in our climb from last to 1st on the island. Mineola had the high long island scores in 1997 and 1998, over everyone. It took quite a bit of patience, and some very upsetting scores. wow! Many rough show scores in that climb, the same thing we have been going through the past few.

Then you have a situation like one year at the dome, when 6 of the 7 bands in our class were constantly moving, one band sat down on park benches for one third of their show. They tied for 1st place! Every student who plays an instrument sits down their whole first 5 or 6 years, the easiest way to play an instrument. The judges chose them and put them in 1st despite the fact that they sat playing. The other bands were shocked. And some bands cut the band down to their top players, having auditions and being more selective. They win with 40 or 50 total in their band. Here at Roslyn we want as many kids involved as possible so we don’t cut it down to the best, most experienced players. Touching lives is why we are here! This is why some conferences give you higher scores if you are a larger band, and put the bands in size order, total number of band members or musicians.

What the audience usually responds to is "general effect". It only accounts for about 40% of the score and that is why people 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.

Competition Season is Here! Part 2

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 or two 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.  

Why No Shows on Columbus Day Weekend?

I always schedule a break weekend in the middle of the season to recharge our collective batteries. I copied this from some of the upstate bands. Playing the same music over and over can be daunting and create a malaise among band members. By taking a weekend off to visit colleges, or just spend time with our families, we can create another peak for our band, hopefully at the dome. I feel that this avoids us getting into a plateau where we stagnate.

Back to Backs

Why not do two shows in a weekend like all the other bands in our area? We don’t do “back to backs,” a Saturday and Sunday show weekend, and here is my reason. I have always, throughout my 29 years of doing marching band, avoided doing two shows on a weekend. Many bands do this and feel that it helps them keep the momentum going. I feel it becomes too taxing. In my formative years, I had a famous band director upstate tell me “never do back to backs.” I asked why, he said “look at your kids on Sunday night after doing a back to back and that will answer your question.” Two years ago, not sticking with that advice, we did a “back to back” for the first time, the New York Championship at Griffin Field the day after the Denton Avenue Show. I looked at our kids after the Sunday performance and now I totally agree; I feel one show a weekend is definitely enough. As a side note on this issue, the upstate bands do Saturday night shows, and nothing else on Sunday and those bands are amazing. Rarely do you see one of the top upstate National Bands double up shows on a weekend.

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.

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!

Competition Season is here! Part 1

I will be posting three pretty lengthy blogs, today, tomorrow and Sunday.  It explains just about everything about the marching band.  It is a good idea for everyone to read these sometime before we perform on Sunday.

These are recycled blogs from years past.  I have changed and added some things to them.  Both old and new parents should read these posts.  

As the season starts I will start posting about our up and coming competition season. This year’s show is based on “Wicked” on Broadway.  We have a crowd pleaser here and hopefully a “judge pleaser” as well.

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 every single week.  I will also blog after each show 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.  This year I will not tweet out the score from the back judges room if I know before it is announced.  I did this last year and it got mixed reviews.  Some loved it, some didn’t, so I am not doing it this year.

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.” 

I will be posting the weekly seedings in our class which are based on the scores throughout the state that weekend.  There are 7 bands in our class.  If we are in 1st or 7th, throughout the season remember that at the dome “ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN.”  When we received 2nd out of 12 we were ranked dead last all season in the competitions in 2006.  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.

The local judges have obviously boxed us into the lower part of the class.  This is not controversial that I am stating this, it is a fact.  It is even more obvious when an out of state judge puts us up high in a caption while the local New York judges bury us year in and year out.  Remain patient, stay positive, and don’t complain.  Those same judges will come around, see our program’s development and reward us, hopefully sooner rather than later.  There is no way to complain about this, it is part of the program and built into any subjective, judged activity.  It is a learning process for everyone and teaches us about life as well.  We are constantly judged throughout life and much of it is subjective.

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, some bands up a 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 last year and competed in Large School 2, then this year petitioned again and was moved down to Large School 3.  So yes, a National Class band in two short years moved to Large School 3, go figure. Jordan Eldbridge got moved to Small School 2 so that they could score higher, they were scoring low in Small School 1.  They are currently seeded at the top of our class along with Malverne, who won both classes at the dome the past 2 years.  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.  That should pop our score a bit.  Should.....

The Dome order within classes is done by a draw upstate.  This year, for instance, we are first in Small School 2 at the dome, last year we were last.  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.  Brentwood didn’t compete at their show last week, Malverne just decided that they are not competiting at their show, so we will win our class at the show next week in Malverne.

You 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 and great parents.  We had parents who bring out our equipment, parents helping to run our 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!

Marching Band Attendance

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%.  Missing one rehearsal in our band is the equivalent of missing a week of rehearsals with any of our competitors.  It would assure removal from any of their groups.  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 in April 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.  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 12 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.