Open Letter to Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble about this week's NYSSMA Majors

Dear Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble Members,

This is an incredible week for our band program! For the first time ever we have both our bands at Roslyn High School going to the NYSSMA Majors State Rating Festival. The Wind Ensemble is doing professional level music at the Grade 6 level. Only a handful of bands anywhere even attempt to perform at this level. The Symphonic Band, being one of the top bands on the island in its own right, is performing at Grade level 4, the High School Band level.

Both bands sound incredible. It is incredible how hard you have all worked! These are clearly the strongest groups we have ever had here at Roslyn. They Symphonic Band is performing at the level that the Wind Ensemble performed only a few years ago. The Wind Ensemble is now one of the top bands on Long Island and in New York State. As a director I am totally proud of what you have accomplished these past months. Both groups have grown immeasurably! I am totally Psyched to conduct both groups next week at this prestigious festival! I am also very proud to be your band director!

As we go to the NYSSMA Majors realize what you are, an incredible band program. Be ready for anything. Realize that the judging is subjective. We can get a gold with distinction, we can get a bronze. Have fun playing! You sound amazing! We will be recording both groups during and after NYSSMA to make a CD this year of all our band nyssma pieces! No matter what we get, the proof of our excellence will be there, on our ipods forever! Get psyched, be proud, and perform at your highest level this coming week!

Here are the detailed directions for both groups
Come to school dressed in your concert attire on your performance day, Wind Ensemble on Monday, Symphonic Band on Tuesday. Bring your casual clothes in a separate bag, you will be able to change when we get back to the auditorium after our performance, and then go to lunch. On the busses you will bring your instrument, no case, and your music folder. That's it. We go to a warm up room for 30 minutes, and then the judging room. There will be two judges that will listen to us, make comments for about 3 to 5 minutes between each tune, and then assign us Gold, Silver, Bronze, or Festival Rating. We will know the score we received just before we depart Hofstra to come home. The Wind Ensemble will be leaving Roslyn at 8:45 am on Monday. The Symphonic Band will be leaving Roslyn at 9:45 on Tuesday.

Remember, you only get one shot at a first impression, this is like an interview!
Stay in rest position at all times you are not playing. Do not talk at all. We must go in very organized, in our rows, and look totally professional. Band must be the most important thing in your world for that 45 minutes! This is like an interview, we are being judged on everything! No sneakers, black sweats, only dress clothes. Boys in dark suits with a tie, girls with all black, elegant and dressy, not casual. No sneakers, you won't peform. We will tune in the room. Look at me very carefully when we start playing, I will have to make adjustments on the spot to get the right levels for our playing in the room. This can only be done while we are performing our first piece. Don't be nervous, we are performers here at Roslyn. We know how to "get it done".

Get psyched and let's have a great performance at NYSSMA Majors!!!!! Please send me an e-mail that you read this! pattersax@gmail.com

Today I Drove Home

Just about every day in my seven plus years at Roslyn, I fly home in my car, on a wave of euphoria, being so proud to work here and run this incredible band program. Today I simply drove my car home on the LIE. Today it was a doldrum, boring ride through suburbia. I couldn't even turn the radio or Ipod on. My brain was drained. I did not know how to process what happened today in Wind Ensemble. In a desperate search of answers, I asked some colleagues if I was off base, unrealistic, or simply nuts as I exited the building. From all accounts, I was correct, something went awry. I will go on.

I had to wait hours before I would even attempt to write this. What happened in Wind Ensemble.

So here we are, seven rehearsals to go before the Wind Ensemble is performing in the NYSSMA Majors Rating Festival. Things have been going great. Everybody is working, the band is starting to sound amazing, yet today, Something very unusual happened. I was totally shocked that 18 people missed the rehearsal due to AP exams that they took this morning. Finishing their exams around 11:15 to 11:30, many band members decided to go home and not return to the school for the rehearsal at 1:30, even after I stressed a few days ago that I expected them to come back for these crucial rehearsals. I totally trusted that everyone would be there, especially since students return for sports and study sessions. From everything I saw up to that point I had a very serious band. People were practicing, working hard, learning things that we were going over and being very focused. How could I ever imagine that people would skip any important rehearsal.

I will put it in its purest form. One third of the band decided that they would go home and miss the rehearsal, while the rest of the band was rehearsing. Wow, I still cannot believe it. I am no band geek, never was, but it is unimaginable to me to be in my living room or somewhere else, studying, eating, watching tv, napping, whatever, while the rest of the band has a scheduled rehearsal. And right before NYSSMA Majors! I couldn't do it, it is just not part of my DNA.

I am known for being totally flexible and understanding with the academic demands that everyone at Roslyn puts on themselves. In fact, I am proud of it. I, however, do not see how coming to a 40 minute rehearsal could possibly hurt an AP grade or drain ones brain in any way or impact the AP exam grades this week. In fact, a 40 minute musical rehearsal would supply a positive reprieve from the grinding study schedule, providing a respite and relaxing soothing of the senses, a break from the intense study schedule. A recharge.

In addition, it leaves a sour taste in my mouth for some amazing people who have been nothing but spectacular for just about 4 years. I would never want to go out like this, never. It numbs my emotions that anyone could NOT be here if they were not actually in an AP exam, especially the great band members who are a part of this group.

I do realize that the culture here is to go home after the AP, that everyone who takes one is technically excused here at Roslyn. I am not inferring that I will take off of your grade or hurt you in any way. The thing that really bothers me is the responsibility issue, being part of a team and "being there". We are going to this great event and have a chance to do something great here. For the short amount of time I need you please come. If you have an AP at the time of the rehearsal, which some of you do, of course miss band. But if you are not in an AP exam, I fully expect you to be at these last 6 rehearsals. I have talked to the HS administration about it and they totally agree, everyone not taking an AP should be at these last 6 rehearsals.

Honestly, if we have another rehearsal with people at home or elsewhere, we will probably not go to the NYSSMA Majors on May 17th. It is not fair to the Wind Ensemble to put them in front of those two judges unprepared 11 days from now.

Let's regroup, focus, and be there. Just come to the rehearsals, I will take care of the rest! Let us all sincerely try to act like today's rehearsal never happened. Water under the bridge.

And thank you to the 36 people who were there, ready to rock. And a really big thank you to the one person who took the morning AP and came to the rehearsal.

Orange Bowl Numbers, My Deadline to Make the Call is Approaching!

As of this posting we have 51 band members planning on going on the Orange Bowl Trip. We cannot do this trip without many more of our members participating. By setting this trip up very early I was hoping we could generate enough excitement to get the entire group to go on this trip. Spreading out the payment schedule along with letting everyone know early also makes it easier for people to plan around this trip.

Participating in this parade is a tremendous opportunity for our school and will change the level and notoriety of our group forever. This past week I received one of the coveted "invitations to apply to the Tournament of Roses Parade." You cannot simply apply to this parade, you need an invitation to apply, which came to us due to our probable participation in the Orange Bowl.

The trip and performance of a lifetime is no exaggeration when you do one of these top events. It is something that every one of us will remember our entire lives. Please, talk it up with other band members, see who is on the list and who isn't. Let's get everyone psyched up so that we can pull this off. My deadline is May 1st to commit. I am going to talk to the Orange Bowl people today to see if they can extend this deadline another week so that we can do it. In addition, if you know anyone who would like to get involved with the marching band we have openings and will train people on the instruments we need and colorguard. We are all very passionate about our marching band! Please spread that excitement and let's get more people into this amazing activity!

No Interviews

A very good friend of mine was interested in moving from his elementary band director position to the high school band director in his district. A known entity, this man was an incredible educator, super successful with the program he built, as well as a famous and well respected musician in the entire area. His district put him through the ringer, making him interview multiple times, bringing in different instruments to perform on to show he could play, and multiple teaching demonstrations. It infuriated me. I felt that the district should fully “know” what he was capable of and the fact that they had to run him through this gauntlet was a waste of time. They knew this teacher, what he was about, how he interacted, his musicianship and everything about him. Making him go through this process created tension and I felt it was unecessary.

Last year we did interviews for the leadership positions in the marching band. We never did this before and wanted to give it a try. Many kids were very stressed out going through this process, students who already are stressed out being in an academic high school. After the season was complete we re-visited the idea of doing interviews. I felt that the interviews really accomplished nothing. We knew everyone, what they were capable of, and knew their potential. We are a family and live together during band camp and really know each other. I don’t even think any positions were different due to the interviews. So this year we are simply going with the short online application. We will be using all our information, attendance, attitude, musicianship, service, leadership, and putting that criteria together to make our decisions. We will be posting the positions when they are finalized, which will probably be sometime after the school year is over and before camp. Remember, we will be watching you in school, at the rehearsals in the Spring, and adding that to our impressions when making these decisions as well.

Orange Bowl!

As a band director, I know how totally unrealistic it is to expect to break into what is considered the top 5 events in the nation. For bands, it is the equivalent of getting into Harvard – something you might dream about, but the reality of achieving such an honor, even with tremendous hard work and dedication, is extraordinarily difficult. Bands have to be "Nationally Acclaimed." They usually have to be over 100 members, around 150 members, super precise, as well as famous and musically captivating to get into one of these events. These events are the; Rose Parade, Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, Orange Bowl Parade and Game, Sugar Bowl Parade and Game, and Fiesta Bowl Parade. Although there are many other events, these are the "Big Boys." In addition, once a band has one of these on its resume, it is considered as having “made it” and can be accepted to any of them, thus becoming one of the top bands in the Nation!

So how shocked and excited I was to receive this invitation on March 16^th. An invitation to one of the oldest and most prestigious Bowl games and parades in the world, the Orange Bowl! I couldn't believe it! Wow, we've made it. Someone at "Bowl Games of America" saw us at Disneyworld, did some research through our website, blog, and youtube sites, and decided that with our growth over the past 8 years, that we are going to be one of these "Nationally Acclaimed Bands." By sending us this invitation, they have put us into another category, a whole different echelon, we have now "made it."

I immediately called the "Bowl Games of America" Group to find out the date of the game and learned it was on January 3rd, a Monday night. Of course, Monday night football, a huge viewing audience night. But it was definitely a problem for us since it would mean we would miss the first two days of school in January 2011. After talking to administration, we all felt that this was such a huge honor that it would justify the two days of missing school. I know our kids, and to be honest with you, a lot of studying takes place on the busses – I have seen it firsthand. I am sure everyone will keep up with their work. In addition, our band members will have the opportunity to earn a fine arts credit from taking part in this event, (see the last page of the packet which is on the main website.) The administration and myself felt that the notoriety of this big event being a part of our band members' high school accomplishments would distinguish them and be another feather in their cap, thus justifying the missed school days.

The other thing was the price. Things are more expensive in Miami that week, for obvious reasons. I was able to get the price down to $1300 total, a feat that took the past week to achieve. We cut a day off, modified the itinerary to fit into a price range that I thought we could work with. I am very mindful of the economic pressures we are all under. This trip was running around $1600 with the first few drafts, but after a lot of work researching and negotiating, we got it down to this final price.

Marching Band is an incredible activity. It is similar to athletics in that to colleges, it demonstrates our kids’ commitment to an activity. It sets our students apart from other north shore schools that do not have competitive marching bands and are not participating in these high profile venues.

So here we are, the packet was handed out tonight, and we will wait to see if we can get enough interest to go on this prestigious event. As always, we have to go through the process. First, we will see if we have enough band members going on the trip. Second, if we hit that number we will present it to the Board of Education for approval. Then we will be on our way to a whole new level! Hopefully we can do this. I really want to give it our all. If it doesn't work out, at least we tried our best. Getting invited is an incredible feat in itself! Let's see if we can generate enough excitement and enthusiasm to bring us to this milestone, an event that everyone will remember forever!

Welcome New Parents!

Well here is the blog. This is the place where I explain everything. It is a page to let you know the inner workings and things which influence our decisions with the band program at Roslyn High School. Here is where we explain everything from what the judges scores are, to what to pack on a trip. Here is where we let you know what our goals are, how we are going to make changes as the year progresses, and what we feel is working or not working so great. When something unusual happens, like an unusually low judges score, or a weather problem in the forecast, I will talk about it here and let you know when we are making a schedule change.

I also use twitter. You can sign on to the twitter.com/roslynband site and sign up for tweets. I send out tweets throughout our trips to let you know where we are every step of the way. You can set up your twitter so that you get all our tweets sent directly to your cell phone as a text message. I do not send out tweets or e-mails regularly. I do update the two main websites two or three times a week and daily during the season, roslynband.com and this website patterblog.com.

I feel that e-mails get lost, and with so many people changing their e-mails, it is hard to get to everyone.

The "Band Fans" our amazing parents group sends out e-mails whenever they have announcements to make. We work very closely together so contacting either of us is absolutely fine. We have links to the Band Fans on their page of the roslynband.com website. The presidents are Susan Passaro and Claudia Wolfson.

It is very easy to get any of us when you need us. Simply send me an e-mail and I will get back to you pretty quickly, usually the same day. I get all my e-mail on my iphone.

Check out the various posts on this blog and you will get a full picture of what we do here with this incredible band program here at Roslyn! Any questions, e-mail either myself or the presidents of the Band Fans.

In general, the first page of the roslynband.com website will have the most important, newest posts at the top of the page. Check it regularly so that you know what is going on. I will also post the full multi-page band camp letter on the roslynband.com website in the next few days. It explains everything. And check out the Band Camp page of the website as well.

Welcome to our family!!!!!

Great Trip! Great Week!

This was one amazing trip. These were the most well behaved kids ever! They showed the chaperones and each other the utmost of respect. The band members got closer and mingled nicely, becoming an even closer knit family. The trip really could not have gone any smoother.

On top of everything going right, nobody got sick, nobody was late except for a few minutes here and there, and there were no mishaps at all. The traffic, weather, and all travel was smooth sailing. We literally didn’t touch the break on either leg of the trip, the ground was dry and there was not one drop of precipitation throughout the week. The only thing which was a little rough was the cold weather the first few nights, it was frigid for Florida on Monday through Wednesday, mostly at night. Thursday was warmer during the day and although the dinner was still chilly ithere was no wind and the fireworks show was incredible. Thanks to the band members for going to bed on time and not keeping us up past curfew. We all had so much fun and doing the two parades was emotional and incredible. In addition, there seems to be no traffic at all. I deliberately set the trip to leave on Sunday instead of Friday to avoid the vacation rush and the Daytona 500 traffic going down the coast on Friday night. It all seemed to work out. Travelling to and from Florida without any traffic is very rare and now, as we pass Newark, it seems we are going to get into Roslyn around 1pm, three hours ahead of time!

Thank you to Kathy Miller for helping me so much with the planning of the trip. A big thank you to Susan Passaro and Claudia Wolfson, our Band Fans Presidents as well as Sherri Marx, the band fans treasurer, for their hours of helping me with the trip. This was a week we will all remember forever!

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