New Link for all pictures from Disneyworld

http://picasaweb.google.com/pattersax/MagicKingdomParades?feat=directlink

Today's Parade at the Magic Kingdom

Roslyn Marching Band at the Magic Kingdom Parade on

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

Friday's Itinerary Changes

Due to the Disney Studios closing early tommorrow we will be modifying
the itinerary. Thanks to th Bergers for catching the closing time at
the Studios (formerly called Disney's MGM Studios).

7 am - Wake Up
8 am - Depart Resort
8:30 am - Arrive at Disney Studios
4 pm - Depart Studios
4:30 pm - Arrive and relax at All Star Sports
6 pm - Depart All Star Resort
6:30 - Arrive at Downtown Disney (we will drop off at Marketplace)
9:00 - Depart Downtown Disney
9:30pm - Back at All Star Sports
12 midnight - Curfew

Pat

Sent from my Iphone

Our Pictures from Yesterday's Parade

Link to our web album

http://picasaweb.google.com/pattersax/MagicKingdomParade?feat=directlink

Parents, send me pictures and I will upload them!

Today's Parade at the Magic Kingdom

Our performance at the Magic Kingdom today! We are having a great trip! The kids are doing great, we are having an incredible time even with the cold Florida weather.

It's as Clear as the Road Ahead - Why We Do This

Yes, we are on the road, somewhere in Virginia at 3:02 am. I am, as usual, pulling an all nighter, drinking diet coke, and making my hourly pilgrimage to the back of the bus bathroom, accross the legs of sleepers and back to the front to look at the road and now blog. I’ve done a ton of these trips with various bands in different school districts and have become a pro at maneuvering the obstacle course to the back of the bus.

And now I ponder. With all the countless hours of planning and setting up this trip, like the launching of a space ship, we are on our way! As we trek to Disneyworld it is totally obvious to me “why” we all do this, as obvious as the stars in the sky. Why we compete. Why we do these trips. Why we do this incredible “marching band” activity. Let me explain.

Many band directors ask me why I do these trips and why we compete, why I run a band that does this much, definitely in a suspect tone. I get angry, grumble, and usually walk away. These people just don’t “get it.” They are missing out on one of the most amazing things by not having a marching band like ours. This band purely and simply changes lives. It is like a secret that once you take part in it, you get glued to it emotionally. This band transforms, bonds, teaches, and creates experiences which the band members and anyone connected with it will remember their whole lives.

This is an incredible week for all of us. We will be marching in one of the most prestigious parades in the vacation capital of the world! We have a huge contingent of parents and family members going as well! The band members have learned how to work together, how to conquer a goal together, and how to have fun together. We have learned alot about life by being in this band, every single one of us! That is why we do this! Now it is 3:40am (I am taking my time writing this) I feel so lucky to be directing this amazing band of beautiful kids. Thank you to the parents, the kids, the community of Roslyn, as well as the administration and Board of Education for supporting us. Thanks to everyone who helped to make this band become what it is! We will make Roslyn proud of us this week.

This Year's Show Unveiling!

Here it is! The official announcement of next year's 2010 Roslyn Marching Band Show! I have leaked out various aspects of the show and this past week I have finished all the uploading of the audio and music parts so that we can get going.

First of all I have conceptualized many shows and always like to do something fun and interesting. This year's show is a show the staff and I picked earlier in the year, but I was searching for some way to give this a cool twist. Then one day, it came to me and here in the following paragraphs is what our show for next year will be!

Here we go! I have a whole dramatic plan for it in my head along with the drill, staging, and visual design. Like the shows that I have written in the past, it is pretty simple to play, easy to understand and we can absolutely master all aspects of the show, allowing for us to achieve some very high scores as well as a tremendous amount of audience appeal. There are two main actors, a young couple, that will be present throughout the show. There will be no talking by them, just poses, acting, and a little dancing. It will be very obvious what is going on throughout the show. The opener and closers are arranged by Jay Dawson, the same arranger of our "Piano Lesson" show. The middle work is the original piece by Holst, which is a part of the famous "Second Suite for Military Band" which can be played indoors or outdoors. The audio and all music is now up on the downloads page of the roslynband.com website. Here we go!

Opener: Emperata Overture by Claude T. Smith - Bride and Groom getting married, Ballerina Dance group (6 to 15, as many as make the team) will do abstract and modern choreography around two actors getting married and throughout the show. The colorugard is a separate entity that provides additional visual support, so we have two "visual" teams working throughout the show. This is a staple of almost every show that I have conceptualized and implemented. By having two visual things going on we can keep the attention off the fact that we are only doing 35 sets. Dancers in very light off white lace, guard in a very light color, pastel orangeish or light light blue. The guard will use huge streamers and flags throughout, providing tons of visual "fireworks." The dancers will dance around and between the couple at all times throughout the show.

Ballad: Song Without Words, Gustav Holst. This is our "class winner" piece. One of the most beautiful ballads ever written for the Wind Band, Holst composed this for the military band and is meant to be played indoors or out. It is mysterious, beautiful, and fitting to what we are going to do visually. Between tunes the bride changes into yellow dress, groom changes to army fatigues, they are separated by war, he goes to a bunker and she stays at home, they write letters to each other, all staged, while the dancers react with abstract and fitting dance moves, letters going back and forth, etc. The colorguard provides the intensity of the war with big streamers as an additional visual. Picture this playing out as you listen to this piece. Drums do not play on this tune. We will have the drummers doing fitting poses throughout this work, showing how a war can impact our lives, something "out of the box" and modern.

Closer: Chorale and Shaker Dance, by John Zdechlik - Pretty simple, they are reunited at the end. Once again, I have it all storyboarded in my mind integrating the guard, dancers, and drill. This song is built around the famous melody "Simple Gifts" which is fitting in that the young couple is reunited to spend their lives together at the end. There will also be some surprises in the closer which will give everyone goosebumps, patriotic stuff!

The actors will change clothes behind two movable backdrops on wheels, not that big, that will also provide a place for the guard and dancer props and flags to be hidden.

The show will be called "Show Without Words" based on the second piece. These three tunes are all very famous works from Wind Ensemble literature, are well known by all judges and will be received very warmly by everyone, especially in this context.

Trust me on this one! I have a ton of incredible ideas that will really work. It's a winner! A bonus is that this show is totally appropriate in terms of us being at war. This is something that we are dealing with as a country. It also has struggle and a happy ending.

Along with today's unveiling, all the music is downloadable on the "Downloads" page of the roslynband.com website, along with the audio of the show. This is a simple show that we can master, have fun with, and get into! Download your music and start learning this immediately! We can win with this show!

Show Unveiling Coming Any Day This Week!

I will be posting the entire plan for this coming year's show, including my drill plan, dramatic aspects as well as attaching audio recordings and the music downloads to the website! Keep checking for the unveiling!

The Band Sounded Great Last Night!

We had a rehearsal for Florida last night, marched around the gym about 40 times, and looked great. We will not need to have an additional rehearsal next week. We will have about an hour backstage at Disney before each parade to rehearse a bit. Great job!

The New Schedule for 2010 is Posted!

The new schedule is now up on the roslynband.com website. I spent alot of time developing this schedule. We are using the 2006 and 2007 marching band years as the models for this schedule. Let me explain. In my now 28 years of running marching bands, those two years stand out as the most incredible programs I have ever run as a band director. In my opinion, those two years were the perfect balance of all the aspects of running a great marching program. Those two years were efficient, fun, and we were at a super high level in terms of teamwork and morale while we fit the program perfectly into our school's high academic culture. We are going from 121 rehearsal hours in 2009 to the old 80 rehearsal hours of 2006 and 2007. I am excited and feel this will totally boom our program in every way. This, coupled with bringing back the "team building" activities to band camp, will bond us better as a team as well. We will still be adding the three home games including the homecoming parade and game and the "Friday Night Lights" soccer game night. All of those will be added in March, as soon as the dates are set. In addition, I am planning on participating in the "Chick Fil-A" bowl game sometime between Christmas and New Year's Day. The bowl game schedule is also out in March. This was an incredible trip we did 3 years ago and included a great parade, bowl game performances before the game and during half time, along with a huge pep rally, tour of CNN studios and a trip to the amazing Atlanta Aquarium. I will be proposing this trip to the Board of Education in the Spring for their approval. I wanted to let you know what our goals are early so that you can plan accordingly. As far as the Fall season, you really need to be here every weekend with the exception of the Columbus Day weekend, which we traditionally have left open for college visitations. We will need all the marching band members to be here all other weekends between Labor Day and the Carrier Dome State Championship weekend on Halloween.