Last Night's Rehearsal

Last night was the best rehearsal ever!  You worked harder than I've ever seen. We went in with a laundry list of things to fix and tweak and we went through it with precision and teamwork!  Although I drove home in my car last night, it felt like I was flying.  You all rule!

I received an e-mail around noon today that Mineola has just decided to not compete at their show.  Traditionally bands have usually not competed at their shows but sometimes they do, especially if they feel that they need to get a number before the dome.  Making a decision to "not compete" two days before the competition is definitely within their rights.  What does this mean for us?  Well, our schedule will be altered a bit, so make sure you download the new one which has been put up on the website.  We will be competing at 7:15 instead of 7:30 and our rehearsal and leaving times will be modified.  Mineola, as an exhibition band, will be performing at the end of the show, after Arlington.

Besides that, Mineola's decision not to compete on Saturday doesn't really affect us at all.   I can guarantee you first place on Saturday, though, and hopefully our firsts will stack up in the weeks to come. Our goal, and I will repeat what I said last night, is to win the class at the dome.  We are trying to convince the judges that we are a top level, incredible band.  We know we are, and we have some convincing to do! Our goal is to break 80 this weekend which will put us in the hunt for the "top spot" at the dome!  If it doesn't happen, we will work harder to achieve our goals in the next few rehearsals!  The "Dome" is really the whole enchillada! 

As a side note, if you want us to e-mail you the rehearsal breakdown before each rehearsal, drop me an e-mail at pattersax@gmail.com.

I am looking forward to our upcoming streak of "first places" which will commence on Saturday.  I guarantee it!  

Balancing It All on the Head of a Pin

That’s what I call it, making a rehearsal schedule for a competitive marching band. 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. 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, 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, no 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, with 150 members, and rehearse so much less than the bands they were scoring above. I used them as a model when I came here to Roslyn.

Why No Shows this 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 26 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.” Last year, 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, and stick to it. I do not schedule anything on the “off weekend." I will not add anything after we get to band camp 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 on and off our campus 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, 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 rehearse 100 hours inclusive of band camp, the Spring Wednesday night rehearsals, and every minute we work on marching band outside the school day. 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 between 175 and 225 hours. 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!

Closing the Gap. What Gap?

So where is the gap which is keeping our band's score down? Is it the gap during the Lindenhurst show, where all the judges consistently had us down by 1 to 3 tenths? Is it the Copiague show, where the GE Music judge had us down by 1.6 points in his caption, burying us while the field visual judge had us up? Is it the gap where the GE Visual judge had us down at Brentwood by 1.6 points in his caption, while field music had us up by .65? Or is it the gap yesterday where we were down in music and up in Ensemble visual? Honestly, the staff and myself are entirely baffled. The judging this year is clearly unusual and hard to understand.

Our band performs a very difficult, championship level drill, constantly moving to 63 sets with excellent lower and upper body technique and totally in step. Are we getting credit for it? No. Our band has an incredible drum line, blowing everyone away in every way, performing a difficult book, marching proficiently, and energizing the entire stadium. Are we getting credit for it? No. Our winds are amazing and powerful, attacks and releases are proficient, in tune, and with a great dynamic range. Are we getting credit for it? No. Our guard is the best it has ever been. Are we getting credit for it? No. Our show is difficult, musically, with many tempo changes, mixed time meters, and a high level of technique is clearly required and being met. Are we getting credit for it? No.

What are we getting credit for? Not much. This year, our band is exponentially better than last year, yet the scores are consistent with our scores of our past two years. It just doesn't make any sense.

Judging is subjective, I've been saying it for weeks, but to be totally honest, this has become a real mystery.

I am very proud of how the band is totally accepting and understanding of the subjectivity involved in this activity. Yesterday, they clearly performed with the confidence of a championship band. Yesterday they were a championship band.

I can sum it up in a few things that happened yesterday. For one, a parent came up to me as we walked off the field and said "they nailed it." Yes, they did! Then the drum majors told me that not one person asked them how we did. That is incredible. Think about that. The entire band knows how great they are! They don't need to ask anyone!

Hopefully, soon, we will get the judging community to acknowledge the band we are becoming.....no.....have become!

Closing the Gap!?

I will have a post up sometime this afternoon.  Is there a gap?  Should we be over 3 or 4 bands overall at the show yesterday? You decide.  Watch our video on youtube today, and then come back here for my recap.  I have to carefully write this blog today.

Cut and paste this link into your browser to see our band yesterday.  It pretty much speaks for itself!

http://www.youtube.com/user/roslynmarchingband

Competition Bands, How We Get Judged

A Brief History of Long Island Competitive Marching Bands
There are approximately fifteen bands that compete on Long Island. Roslyn is the most recent addition to this group (it's our 7th season). The other fourteen have been in this competition circuit for 20 to 40 years. Competitive bands can perform 30 to 60 forms (this year we have 61, up from 32 last year), are constantly moving, with memorized music (no lyres), and march in synchronized perfection (or as close as is possible). The other 50 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 YEA 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) which was run by the Bergen County 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. 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. A few of the Long Island bands still compete in the YEA, there was a show run by the YEA in Hicksville last week, and the "New York State Championships" run by YEA which we competed in last year. We were in group 5a and won the "State Championship" since they determine their classes totally by size of band, not school size, and we were the only band in our class.

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. For instance, Northwestern, who won SS2 for several years, marched around 40 members. 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. In the YEA conference, the larger the bands, the bigger the class, and the higher the scores; they reward you for being bigger and feel that the General Effect of a larger group gives you a higher score.

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
The judges are supposed to judge their caption without going "out of caption." Sometimes they don't do this. Sometimes the visual judges only judge the guard without even looking at the band. 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 dimishes 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 taped critiques. Oh yes, each judge makes a tape critiquing the band. We get these tapes immediately after we perform and go to the staff room to listen to the tapes 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. 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 has happened to us at all three contests this year. 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.

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.

Keep It All In Perspective
Our band is doing great and we know it. We grasp how incredibly better we are getting each year. The judges scores don't always reflect this. We must realize that at all times and feel great from within, regardless of what the score is. However, it is still "fun to win." Hopefully, the judges will begin to notice what we have become, how much stronger we are, how difficult our music and visual program is, and reward it.

Brentwood Show Recap

Great job today! You know how you did! You were on, big time! Everyone in that stadium knows how you did, everyone! You took a major step in reaching the Dynasty level! Unfortunately, the judges didn’t agree. They will, give them time!  And we are definitely gaining ground.  The Field music judge had us 3rd in the entire show, and the Ensemble Music judge had us up.  The GE Music had us down and the GE Visual judge pounded us. Seems the GE Visual and Ensemble Visual just didn't like our show today. We will win them over.  

One of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous quotes is important when we deal with the subjectivity of judging. “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”  This is definitely a time of challenge for our band.  We know how we are doing on that field, how much better we are getting, yet the scores are not yet reflecting our progress.

Building a dynasty is very difficult. We are clearly accomplishing our goals. Along the way there are speed bumps. Today was another one of those. Whatever the reason, we are getting lower scores than we deserve. Perhaps there is something in our show that the judges simply don't like. Perhaps we are totally doing a great job and for whatever reasons, the numbers aren’t reflecting it. We have very difficult, multi meter music, demanding drill moves, and are moving constantly, accomplishing 63 sets in this show instead of our 30 sets of previous years. Our sound is better, in fact it is great! Our marching is better than ever, we have technique like never before. The guard is the best Roslyn has put on the field, they were amazing today. We designed this show to win the class. It is a challenging show. Perhaps we just haven’t peaked yet. Perhaps we are a few inches from the gold in our marching band gold mine, and have to dig for another week or two to reach it. We have important rehearsals left and another month to go. We need to focus and get the most out of ourselves. We just need to max out our precision so that the judges see us for what we are, an incredible, championship band. Remember, the marching band season is a marathon which doesn’t end until the dome. In 2006 we were dumped all season, in last place in the state rankings, only to focus and win 2nd place out of 12 at the championship! Stay focused! Stay the course!

Those speed bumps in life define us. How we handle things that come at us defines us. It is easy to be great when things are amazing. How we handle adversity defines us.

It IS defining us, our amazing resiliency and positive attitude in the face of these scores. I am so proud of our entire band, parents and community. Our positive attitude is unwavering and feeds each of us to work harder and persevere! Our hard work will pay off! Stay the course!

Here is one of my favorite quotes. Nobody knows who said this quote, but it is perfect with dealing with today’s result.

“Our lives are not determined by what happens to us but by how we react to what happens, not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life. A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events, and outcomes. It is a catalyst, a spark that creates extraordinary results.”

We have a “positive attitude.” Let’s face it, we define it. Our results are “extraordinary.” We are the talk of the Island, the talk of Roslyn, and soon the talk of the state! Really, we are being noticed, that's for sure! Look at how far we have come in the past few years. We are making big waves in this activity. We love what we do and are great at it! Don’t let 6 people’s decision about what we deserve influence our self-esteem and confidence. Soon, the judges will see the light. Tomorrow they will crown us champions. Remember, "Aim high, be patient."

Getting Ready for the Brentwood Show

I am so proud of how the band and parents here at Roslyn are so positive this season.  We all have an incredible healthy grasp of this whole subjectivity thing.  We love our marching band, love the activity, and realize that the judges have a right to their opinion.  Hopefully, this Sunday, the scores will reflect how great we have become as a band.  In looking at the Small School 2 scores, I feel that they are down from last year, all across the state.  Usually scoring in the mid 70s by the second week of the season, we are barely there, while Large School 3 groups are ahead of us.  Don't try to make sense of it all, it is simply a subjective medium.

Please, follow a few simple rules when we are going through the season.  I will recap what I told the band when I talked to them after the show at Copiague.  

1.  Be ready for anything.  Judging scores and slates can come up with totally different reads from week to week.  You can be down by 6 points one week and up by 6 the next.  Keep it all in perspective.

2.  Have great sportsmanship.  These bands are all our neighbors, we are all in this great activity together.  Compliment those other band members you come in contact with.  Don't put any other bands down, even amongst yourselves.  You never know who is right nearby and more importantly, it's not nice.  Watch the other band shows and be positive to everyone you see.  Make friends with the other band members.  

3.  Don't go crazy if you win, remember, somebody just lost to you.  Be nice.  Stay positive. Remember that next week you may be the one who is down in scoring.   If you really need to outwardly celebrate, do it when we get back to our school.

4.  Know how great you are, how much you have accomplished, and don't be dependent upon 6 people's impressions to make you feel good about yourself.  If they love the show, great.  If they don't, that's OK too.  One day they will crown us champions.

5.  Remember the long term goals for our program.  We have 3 shots (years) at winning this class to keep on track.  There is absolutely no rush.  Although our goal is to win the class at the dome, we are keeping it all in perspective.  

The Copiague Show - The Recap!

The Recap
The band was incredible. The energy level was high, the band was more powerful, we had a great performance, clearly a peak for this band and our entire program. Electric! The best performance by any Roslyn Band. Pure and simple!

The Scoop
The General Effect Music Judge buried us. He put us 2nd from the bottom in the entire show in General Effect Music. I do not think that there is anyone in the stands who would think that of our band. Another judges slate would have popped us, I am sure. Sometimes, as the judges look at the show again and again, they grow to love it. Our show will also play well in the dome, the incredible drill, moving of boxes, etc. We were up on two judges sheets and down on four. That GE Music score, which is traditionally our strong point, really sent our score tumbling down.

There is another issue which I have touched on before. I am very conflicted in how to say this. After thinking about it I think I can state it in a very conservative way. Anyone who sat through that show knows how great our band did. The scoring, in my opinion, was, safe scoring. You can draw your own conclusions from that. We have only been on the field for seven years, which is an infancy in this activity. I have overseen the building of three dynasties at three different high schools, two upstate and one on Long Island. Through each of their ascents and growth from year to year, the scores did not always reflect the "new bands" that were on the field. At times there were mind boggling results, with spectators walking out of the stadium scratching their heads, trying to make sense of the scores. Last night, I was thrilled that we were 7th out of 15 in the show. A few short years ago we were 15th out of 15. We are definitely on the move upward. We, at Roslyn, are all very excited about our emerging as one of the powerhouse "dynasty" bands. We are quickly joining the ranks of Brentwood, Mineola, Huntington, Copiague and Sachem as one of the "Great Bands" of Long Island! Are we getting the scores we deserve. Yes! And you know why? Because the judges have a right to their opinions. They are professionals and we must respect them to respect the activity. This activity that we all love! Remember, these judges will someday crown us champions! We are on the move! Aim high, be patient!

The Video Doesn't Lie!

Today was an incredible day for the band.  We played our show in full uniform at the pep rally, which was moved outside for the first time.  It was unbelievable. The entire event was so great outside.  The support of our students for all the sports, cheerleaders, step team, and band was so strong, it totally amazed me.  We have a great school and I was so proud to be a teacher in Roslyn.  Then I posted the video to our youtube account so that we could fix some problems for tomorrow's homecoming performance and competition at Copiague.  THE BAND IS SO INCREDIBLE.....JUST LOOK AT THAT VIDEO!  And the video comments from band members started flowing.  Our band IS a bunch of geniuses.  I was amazed at the comments and the things that the band members found that needed to be fixed!  And the positive support of each other was absolutely amazing.  I have never been more proud to be a band director.  I have been teaching a long time and have never felt this way.  No matter what happens today, let's not let the impressions of 6 people keep us from realizing the great strides we are taking as a band.  We will get those scores eventually!  Aim high, be patient.  We are building a dynasty and are ahead of schedule with our long term goal sheet, look at it, it's at the bottom of the website.  Check out the link to our youtube account with the comments.  Link to it from the roslynband.com website.  I am so psyched about tomorrow!  

Last Night's Show Recap - What happened with the scores?

We know how we performed. Everyone knows how we performed. We were amazing. Remember that feeling on the field and how you felt walking off the field. I could see it in your eyes. I could feel the energy, enthusiasm, and pride beaming off every one of you! I could see it in the audience during and after the performance. The Roslyn Marching Bulldogs are one of the top bands on Long Island. Simply put, we are building a dynasty. Everyone knows it!

So what happened with the scores? Well, simply put, five of the six judges consistently and unusually had us two or three tenths of a point in second place. Go figure. It is unusual to see that kind of consistency between judges? Very unusual. That speaks for itself. Need I say more? Some judges are still judging the Roslyn band of 3 or 4 years ago. They might think yesterday's performance was a "fluke". Or they simply are just not ready to reward us for what we are doing out there. Ask anyone who has regularly competed in a judged environment. Subjectivity in judging can be very tough. They make all the calls. They decide everything. It is not basketball, where if you get it in the basket it is 2 or three points. They decide if you are even on the court. They decide if there is even a ball in your game. They have control of all the scoring. All of it. We overblew a little bit, the entire music judging team took that and ran with it, telling us that was the reason we were down. They used that to dump us. That is their right, they are the judges and don't feel bad or upset about it. These are top notch judges and we just have to convince them of band's progress and excellence. Remember, these judges will crown us champions! Don't complain, move on!

Now let us get to the sixth judge, the ensemble visual judge, who judges drill, ensemble marching, and colorguard. This judge did something that no other judge did, something that is very, very telling and gives us a view of where we will be and where we are going. He had us in second place at the show, over everyone except Arlington, a National Class Band! Here we go, he made the call! Good for him. I told the band this week that we are one of the top bands on the Island, that we are, right now. I told the band that you have to know that, feel that, and the scores will eventually come. Five judges were reluctant to call it, one did. Amazing, sit back and think about that for a minute......That judge watched the entire show, judged it, put down numbers and we were SECOND IN THE SHOW TO A NATIONAL CLASS BAND! Ponder that, pretty cool! Here we go!

As we go on, let's take care of our problems, tweak and fix the mistakes, and bring all 6 judges to that conclusion, that we are a band poised to move to the National Class in the next two or three years. Our goal is to win our class at the dome, and the fact that one judge realized should excite and pump you up! That is a very significant score by one of the top judges at the Dome each year.

So lets move on, clean our show, and convince the other judges, which will be a new slate at Copiague, that we are what we are. One of the top bands on Long Island!