Syracuse Trip Update - Saturday Night

Tonight’s update, Saturday, October 31st, 2009. We had a great day. First we woke up at 8:30, had a great breakfast and talk, and then went to the Phoenix Show. We got a full warm up in before it started raining, then performed an incredible show in the gym. We then went to eat at the Phoenix cafeteria and got those famous salt potatoes! Then on to Central Square Stadium at 3:45. We let the kids do homework or nap on the bus from 4:15, our arrival time, to 5:10. Then, with the rain totally stopped, we got a great rehearsal in. We worked on sections of the show for about an hour and then did two full run throughs. The band is totally peaking and we are ready for tomorrow. Gotta go, I have to put my costume on and make my entrance with some of the senior boys! Go Yankees! And thanks to the parents who set up the banquet room for us!

Syracuse Trip Early Saturday Morning Update

Last night we had a great Buffet, the dinner included just about everything you could imagine. Then we went to the pool and hung out in the lounge areas until bed time. Many students were studying and doing homework while about 20 were in the workout room at any given time throughout the evening. We will be having a late wake up, at 8:30am, eating at 9:30 and on to Phoenix today, looks like rain.

It is supposed to stop raining at the time we are to go to Central Square to rehearse. We will probably go there, wear the raincoats over our coats and do a drill only rehearsal with no pit and no instruments, and then when it clears up, perform the show and get outside for a while. This will give us an edge with no other bands getting out the past few weeks due to rain.

We have these incredible box moves that we want to perfect before tomorrow. We are currently seeded 5th place out of 5 in our class, but hey, with judging, you never know what will happen. The way the band looked and sounded this past week, anything is possible.

Syracuse Trip Update - Friday at 4:45

Here is the beginning of the Syracuse Trip update. We left the school about 15 minutes late. One of our busses had a flat tire so we had to send for another bus. Once on the road it was clear sailing until we hit about a mile south of Yankee Stadium. We were on Route 87. After a 15 minute slowdown, the roads opened right up and we have been without traffic. We are now about 50 miles south of Binghampton. We should get to our hotel around 7pm.

The Dome - The Big Burrito!

Wow, waking up this morning, I realize that we are once again having a rain show, probably indoors at Mineola High School tonight. What does this mean? Well, the last time we performed for judges on the field was October 4th, at the Huntington show. So we are going into the dome a new band, not being judged for 3 weeks, an eternity in a competitive marching band season. In addition, the judges who saw us at that show could very well be judging us at the dome, which is good, and bad. The bad...........they burried us. The good...............they said that if we got this show down, we could take it all. At Arlington the next week, the judges popped Mineola to an 82, pretty much guaranteeing them a win at the dome, which is great for them, our neighbors. I personally think that the slate at the Arlington show will be judging the “large school slate” since most of the bands at that show were large schools. All except Mohonassen and Mineola. We will know who the judges are going to be on Monday morning and I will post it on this blog.

Knowing Mineola was going to have a phenomenal year, we heard it from camp our goal was to stay right under them this year and possibly get 2nd at the dome. That didn’t quite work out, they beat us by alot. However, with the weather, Mother Nature has given us another lease on life! The early October scores really mean nothing now. There will be 12 judges deciding our fate and we have quite a bit of control over that.

What do we need to do? Watch the youtube video of the Pep Rally. That pretty much tells it all. I don’t know why there are still wrong notes, people sticking out musically, and the opener sounds like only 20 people are playing. We have to get over the drill anxiety and play out while we march. Yes, the drill is hard, but we are nailing it. Let’s play musically and get those parts down cold this week! It is better but not championship caliber.

What is the worst that can happen? We can go in with what we got and get 5th place in our class. We will still beat half the bands at the dome in classes LS3 and SS3, and come home winners. Right now, with the wrong notes, unmusicality, people sticking out and people not playing, that’s what we would get.

What is the best that can happen? We put it all together, get confident, play musically, all of us get our music down, and nail this thing, coming in 1st place. An upset for the ages, one which will be talked about forever. It is totally possible and in our court. We have to make a decision and do it! These last rehearsals have to be incredible. We still have this morning’s music rehearsal, this morning’s sectionals, Wednesday’s and Thursday’s rehearsals, a big rehearsal on Halloween at Central Square Stadium, and the big warm up rehearsal at skytop before the dome. That is alot of rehearsing and cleaning. Big music rehearsals and some huge visual rehearsals to tighten up those box moves.

Major upset, an upset of huge proportions. One for the ages. Let’s do it!

All It Takes is All You've Got

So we perform at the competition and we’re feeling great, when suddenly the scores are read out and the judges put us six points under Mineola. What do we do now? Well, first, we have to be realistic. There is so much that needs to be improved on in our show. This isn’t something to get upset about, it’s motivation! It means we have somewhere to go and a definite way to raise our scores. If we can get focused, rehearse effectively, and really perform, then we can give the judges every reason to boost our scores way up. Just because the judges are keeping us under now, doesn’t mean that’s where we’ll stay. We can all recall the competition just before the dome when Division Avenue beat us by three points. THE WEEK BEFORE THE DOME! And so everyone assumed that meant that’s where we would place when Syracuse finally came around. Well we all know that was not the case and it doesn’t have to be the case this year either. A sloppy performance of a difficult show doesn’t get us any extra points. On the other hand, mastering a difficult show is how we will defeat every other band out there. We know our show is the hardest it’s ever been, but our band is the best it’s ever been and we all know we can handle it. We have to keep the momentum on this train running and we can’t let some scores slow us down. The score is simply a fly on the windshield, nothing a little windex won’t take care of. We will have to work hard and clean up our performance and get the judges to acknowledge our efforts. If everyone knows their parts, and marches in step, and plays in tune, we will give the judges no choice but to put us over all the competition.

How can we do this?
Well falling apart isn’t an option anymore. We are having fewer and fewer tears in the show, but we have to get rid of them completely and start to groove. There are three drum majors on the podiums at one time, and they will lead you in the right direction. Watch them and don’t listen to the pit! Another thing is being able to play your part correctly, march your sets in step, AND watch the drum major all at the same time. It is no easy task, but getting your part down cold means one less thing to worry about. So get to it! We are well into the season and there’s no excuse for not knowing your parts. Practice your runs every day, memorize where the major hits are, and DON’T PLAY WRONG NOTES! Every single person, by joining the band, accepted the responsibility to do his or her part to help the band. Knowing your music and your spots in the drill is your individual responsibility. No one can do that for you. The music isn’t easy but it’s not beyond our ability. I believe we can really have a great performance at the dome if everyone does their part.

The Final Ingredient - Performing as “Champions”
before we get the Championship!
We are putting on a show; it’s not just another rehearsal and for some of you, that psyches you out. Don’t let the competition, the judges, the audience, or the scores get to you. Prepare yourself because every time you should expect nothing less than the best performance of your life. Yes, it only really counts at the dome, but that doesn’t mean you can relax till we get there. From your first step on the field to the last step off you are all musicians, performers, and most importantly winners. All it takes is all you’ve got. Simply put, you’ve got what it takes! Giving 100% is all we need to win. Every single person needs to take this idea and completely internalize it. If the band as a whole begins thinking like champions, we can perform like champions, and overall win like champions. It’s a proactive way of thinking. We can’t sit and wait for the win to come to us, we have to get it for ourselves, in our heads! To do this, we must become the champions we aim to be. We must rehearse like champions, we must walk like champions, eat like champions, and breathe like champions. Most of all we must think like champions. This obstacle isn’t out of our reach; we may have to stretch, but..............

Last Night...............Wow

After last night’s rehearsal it was clear, we totally learned this show. The band rose to the challenge and is now nailing this very difficult, incredible show. The guard was incredible, the drum line amazing, the pit great and the winds came out of nowhere this week and are powerful, musical and amazing. We could win this thing, if we perform, and the judges do the right thing. Mineola and Roslyn should be at the top of the class in any order. In my opinion, that’s what should happen. Grant it, I haven’t seen Mohonasson or Leroy or even Phoenix, the other 3 bands in our class, but from all I am hearing through the marching band “grapevine” they are having a similar year to last.

Prepare yourself for any placement! You cannot let the judges opinions dictate how we feel about what we have accomplished this year. You cannot challenge or complain about the judging because someday they will crown us championships. This is a subjective environment and it is part of the territory. Anything is possible. We can win, or we can get 5th out of 5. No matter what happens, I am totally excited about how much we have accomplished this year. We will still beat about half of the bands at the dome, a world away from our novice performance in 2002, a short 7 years ago. We are the fastest and most improved band in the state from our start in 2002. We are famous, incredible, and a powerhouse band!

After watching last year’s dome performance on youtube, it is clear we should have won the show. Yes I will admit it. Nobody did those incredible drill moves. It looked and sounded like a national class band. This year we have done it once again. Will we get credit for it? Maybe yes, maybe no. No matter what the result, we have left an incredible legacy here. Our band is simply amazing!

Be ready for anything. The only thing that is guaranteed is the fact that anything can happen with the scores.

Get psyched, and let’s have an incredible weekend!

Competition Update!

Yesterday was a much better performance than at Bethel! We closed the gap from 8 points to 4 points. Our train is back on the tracks and here we come! We are coming back and are once again a contender.

The Judges
The judges love our show. This is rare. They usually are very critical of the show, in fact, all shows. Our show they love, the drill, the music, the programming........everything. We just have to perform it, which we clearly are not yet doing. If we perform this show cleanly, without any musical tears, and with style both musically and visually, we can win this class. This is a huge undertaking however, considering the fact that the show is very hard, we have limited rehearsal time, and that we only have a month left. The staff and myself are confident that we can do it. The judges acknowledged that we are doing a difficult show and had some ideas about how we can get the show cleaner and more proficient.

Our Performance
I am going to be totally honest. After watching the performance again as I uploaded it on you tube I realized that there were still some major problems in the first and second tunes. We still have huge timing problems, keeping the band together. People are pulling fast and slow, entrances are off, and the band does not lock up the tempo. We cannot achieve any kind of excellence from the judges when we have these kinds of problems. This affects every caption at least 1/2 a point and can account for 6 points down from these tears. The fact that we are 4 points away, with multiple tears in each of the first two tunes is very promising in terms of where we can go with this show. In addition, the warm up area was very far away, which caused us a very short and weak warm up at the show. This is why we played very out of tune and poorly from a musical standpoint. Just listen to the youtube video. There are many wrong notes, out of tune notes, overblowing, and poor tone quality which we usually never display. Once again, I blame this on the poor warm up due to logistics at the Sachem facility so we shouldn’t have this problem in the future.

What we need to do
We need to practice and watch the drum majors. These are 4 of the best drum majors on the planet! They absolutely nailed this show with their superior conducting. If you follow them they will lead you to the championship. Marching around, listening foward, and taking your eyes off the drum majors even for a split second can lead to catastrophe in terms of the band not locking up. Once again, the drum majors follow the drummers, visually watching their feet and sticking, the band follows the drum majors visually, and the band locks up. Just like the demonstration I did yesterday with the three snare drummers. The visual count off was flawless while the audio count off was off. Yes, we have been taught to listen to music all around us our whole lives, to balance, tune up, and blend together, but when we are spread out on a football field we need to do the opposite and watch the drum majors. Once again, they are rock solid and will hold us together. We must never take our eyes off them.

The Pit and Colorguard
The pit was amazing! No problems, watch the youtube show. They listened back and were just about perfect! The guard was the best they have been in years, still a little off in some sections but everyone is right now.

This week we will be working on locking up the band on the first and second tunes and readjusting the colorguard spots on some of the impacts along with some general tweaking. We are rehearsing two nights this week, be there and be ready to work! Great job this weekend!

A Few Thoughts Going into Today

Remember, this is subjective environment. Anything can happen today. We can be points up, we can be points down. In a subjective medium like marching band, we literally go with a clean slate every single week since the judges are different at each and every competition. Do not let the judges scores define how we feel about ourselves. We are the “most powerful and fastest growing band” in the field band conference. Our band has gotten significantly better year after year, just look at our youtube site. Everyone in the activity knows this. I told the band that we are the “train” an unstoppable, momentum gaining entity that nobody can stop. Never forget what we are doing and how great we are getting year to year. That 8 point spread two weeks ago was huge, I will not lie. The other bands think they have stopped our momentum, stopped our resolve. They haven’t. We just hit a speed bump, that’s all. We fell apart, pure and simple. A bad day. No matter what the judges think, never forget that. Do not let scores define us. Yes it is hard, we are in a society that is defined by the wins and losses. But in this activity anything can happen at any time. Like baseball, any team can win that 5 game series in the first round of the playoffs. In Marching Band, we are even in a better position since the weekly scores really mean nothing until the dome, the final competition in the “Big Room.” Look at the year we got 2nd at the dome. One week before we were 3 points under Division Avenue and slated to be the bottom 3 in the class according to the scores across the state. We should have come in 9th out of 12. Instead we received 2nd place! That 3 point lead that Division had was for all practical purposes unbeatable. We defied the odds and beat 8 bands that we shouldn’t have beaten! Act, think, and perform like champions. Be patient, the scores will come.

Reach Show - It's a Horse Race

Being a part of the Roslyn family has changed my life for the better in many ways. For instance, at Roslyn I learned how to apply to colleges. First you have 3 target schools, colleges you can realistically get into. Then you apply to 3 safety schools, colleges that you know you can get into. Then you apply to 3 reach schools, colleges that are possible to get into and/or your dream schools. I never knew any of this, and with my daughter only in 8th grade, did not realize the significance of it all as I embarked on my own children’s college quests. Stephanie is now in her 2nd year of college and I am going through the same college search with Joey, my son who is a senior (quad player) at Mineola. Yes, here at Roslyn we “Reach.” We go for it, we push the envelope, we shoot for the stars. No matter how you word it, we always strive to be better, greater, more advanced. It is something I have grown to respect, love, and have made it a part of my own life in so many ways. Thank you Roslyn!

Now to our show. A “Reach”, that is what this year’s show is. We are reaching for the stars, trying to do a show which is a “great one.” This show is very difficult musically and visually. We are going for it. This show is designed to “Win.” It is the the “Harvard” of marching band shows. Even the judges yesterday loved it, they said it has so much potential. They consistantly noticed the difficulty, the power of the entire show and said if we execute it, wow, anything is possible!

There is no question, for whatever reasons, this week we fumbled in the opening two tunes. We fell apart, had some major problems, and didn’t recover quickly. Things went wrong that never went wrong. There are so many variables, who knows why. Maybe we were nervous, maybe tired, maybe this is just human nature. We are in a performance medium. Sometimes you excel and sometimes you falter. Just remember, you can never get better at anything unless you hit some speed bumps once in a while. The third and fourth tunes were much better but the damage had already been done. You just cannot score well when you fall apart like we did. Let’s regroup, practice, focus, bring our best game to the table and be great.

I am so proud of the resiliency of this band. Everyone is in high spirits, knows what we need to do and will do it. The 8 point spread between Mineola and ourselves is mostly due to the band’s problems in the first two tunes. We are very close, let’s just get it done.

As Mr. Carman so perfectly put it, it’s better to have these problems in Connecticut at the first show of the season, than on Long Island at the end of the season. Yes, we started our season off and are now underway, big time. Not exactly the opening we wanted, that’s for sure, but we will learn from our mistakes and achieve greatness. The other Long Island bands will be starting at the end of the month while we are into the season and rocking! We have worked hard and will continue on our quest to build a dynasty.

Practice, have sectionals, and learn the music so that you can have a better personal best each and every week. Come to rehearsals ready to rock!

Remember, this is a horse race. The season ends at the dome and that is where we need to peak. That is where it really counts. Our show is a Championship Show, we just have to execute it!

What can you do? Practice, practice, practice. Come to lessons this week, the lesson rotations start, download it from the Symphonic Band or Wind Ensemble pages. All band members are in the rotations. Have sectionals. Practice on your own and learn your music so well that you can play it marching. Being able to play the show sitting down will just not do it, you have to know it cold, inside out. Colorguard, practice your routine so you can nail it and do it together. The routine is down but not together. Watch the youtube site to fix your mistakes. We have alot of work to do if we are going to master this show this year. Let’s do it!

We will be working on the opener on Wednesday night, breaking it down musically and visually. We have a home football game on Thursday at 4:30. Let’s be amazing at that and prove to ourselves that we can nail this show!

We're Already Ahead of Schedule

Here is the long term goal chart we set up in 2004. We set a long term goal for the band to be in the National Class by 2017. Long term and short term goals are important in life and by doing this we could get a good idea of what we have already accomplished and where we are going. This year, 2009, we are supposed to score in the middle of SS2 (small school 2). We already did that last year so our short term goal is to win the class or place 2nd this year, then we could petition to move up to SS1 next year or the year after. The obvious disadvantage to moving up a class is that the bands are stronger and harder to compete against. The advantage is that we are on later in each Long Island show (the only class that goes after SS1 is the National Class) and that we are on in the evening at the dome, with a huge crowd, higher scores, and a more prestigious environment. There is no pressure, just work hard and we will be going ahead, moving through these steps in the building of our dynasty!