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!
