First, we practice 80 hours during the season when our competitors rehearse anywhere from 200 to 300, with most at the high end of that. We compete with bands who rehearse 2 nights a week and one day on the weekend. Some have bands with not one student in a sport because they rehearse every day after school for 3 hours. And just about every band who competes rehearses 4 weeks in the summer plus a one week or two week long band camp. So, for what we do, the fact that we are close and scoring over some of these bands is absolutely incredible.
Our band students triage everything they do, they have to in order to get it all done. So, understandably, only about 25% of them play until the final competition. They choose not to practice and do not get their parts down right away simply due to the magnitude of things they are involved with. The academic demands they put on themselves are much more stringent than any of our competitors. In addition, they all see this as a fun activity and feel that they do not have to practice until finals. This hurts us because we get “slotted.” By the time they get to finals and they are finally all playing (as you could hear at the dome last year), they are great but unfortunately their scores are already so low that they are slotted by the judges and end up getting a less than stellar placement. We should have been top 2 last year, yet received 7th out of 7.
Yes, the students choose to put academics first until the championship, that is great, understandable, and we totally respect their decision to do so. We must fully realize however we are negatively impacted and could end up getting a lower placement. We are not trying to make their academics suffer and will never put more pressure on them to achieve, they do enough of that to themselves.
In response to this and in an effort to be more competitive we have, as a staff, tried to take steps towards getting higher scores. We have put the show music online in April and have 6 rehearsals in May and June to learn it. Next, the music was taught measure by measure to each and every individual instrument at camp by the staff. We did that this for the first time this year, rehearsing music entirely in sectionals to overcome the lack of practice time for each of our kids who are already up late doing homework and other academic based activities. This is why we sound better this year, as many of you have noticed. Now it is totally left to each and every band member to finish carrying the ball to the goalpost and score by practicing and memorizing the music at home in their limited free time. We tried to let them understand that the last days of the summer was the time to get all the music memorized.
So in short, we have built a great program here but are limited by the small amount of practice time that we have due to the limitations of working in an academic environment as well as the fact that these kids have alot of stuff on their plates.
In addition, I will put the positive experiences and affect that this program has had on their lives up against any one of these other "higher scoring and supposedly better bands." Look at what this band has done for all out kids. I truly believe that the Roslyn HS Marching band does more for the child’s growth musically, socially, and emotionally, including but not limited to "changing their lives for the better" than most bands. They learn life skills here, how to work as a team, how to be a great leader, how to work hard towards a goal, etc. This band gives them many things that will stay with them forever. Unfortunately, these things won't be talked about in the stands but will be talked about at dinner tables forever, those discussions about how the Roslyn Marching band changed their lives for the better. The events, trips, competitions and freindships they develop will last a lifetime.
We must constantly remind ourselves that some things are not reflected in the scores or in the impression we give to strangers and judges with our band. We all know what this band does for all of us. That is why we are all here, that is why we all love it, and that is why we are all in the band!
