Optional Spring Trip Update

After careful consideration of various factors involved with our program I have decided not to do the optional spring trip for 2013. Many bands in the United States do trips in May which is not possible due to the heavy AP and academic load in our school.  Other bands do their trips during the Bowl season which runs December 26 through January 2nd.  I am sensitive that this is the holiday season for many, a family time for all of us, parents, chaperones and myself.   And finally, as band director,   I am very aware of  the economy and the fact that the optional trip increases the cost of being in the band by an additional $1300.  


Planning ahead, we will do a major Disney trip, every other year, continuing in 2014. Don’t forget all that the band does throughout the competitive season. We compete at 4 shows, perform at the televised Newsday Show at Hofstra, Homecoming Parade and halftime shows, a great week long band camp culminating with the NYS Championships in Syracuse at the Carrier Dome. This year  we wiil be adding one day to the trip, October 29th, to see the National Class.

Report at 7:30 tomorrow

We are now reporting at 7:30 on Friday night, trying to depart as soon as possible, around 7:45.  There is a basketball playoff game at 6:30pm and we want to get going prior to the end of the game.  All the uniforms and instruments are in the bandroom.  We will be boarding the busses, everyone is responsible for getting their own instruments and uniform on their bus.

Considerations for Leadership Positions

I have been working on the contracts to put online with the leadership positions.  As soon as they are ready I will post everything.

Points. How much influence do they have?  Well, for one thing, some people helped just for points and although I cannot tell who that is, people dropping an item in the middle of the field after I pass by are in no way getting away with it.  There are many of those situations throughout the year.  I hear everything and we have 7 other staff people who see everything as well.  So, although the points have a guarantee for anyone in the 1 through 20 spots to get one of the 30 positions, the other 10 spots are filled on a whole bunch of other criteria.  Some of them I will go through now.

Showing your face in the bandroom.  There are people on the top of the list who did not step into the bandroom at all except for rehearsals.  There are, tonight, people that I haven't seen in months, who expect one of the top positions.  To be one of the top officers you must be proactive and be helping all the time, not only when points are being awarded.  You should stop by once in a while to check up on everything, to see if we need some help. I tried, along with the staff, to see what people seemed to do stuff at those unusual times, when nobody else wants to help and those people have been awarded to the best of our ability.  This was taken into account as well as the service points.

Performance, level of musicianship and colorguard skills.  There are people, low on the point list who are superior musicians, great leaders, and helped on the field with their amazing attitude who now have positions.  In most circumstances this is very obvious, sometimes not so much.  We take into consideration how great a marcher and musician/flag twirler you are.

We do our best to make the decisions and sometimes make mistakes.  It is natural and part of this subjective process.  If you are happy with your position, great.  If you are not take a day or two to calm down, and see me tomorrow or another day and I will let you know how I came to that decision. I will be happy to meet with anyone with any questions.  I will not talk about another band member, just your situation.

Leadership positions will be posted tonight

The Marching Band leadership positions will be posted sometime between now and 8pm tonight.  Everyone in the top 20 points received a position. Some other people, who are superior musicians, great leaders, or met the other criteria that we have were awarded leadership positions.  Look at the Leadership page of the website.

To Everyone Going on the Disney Trip

Things you should do this week before the trip

1. DO EVERYTHING IN YOUR POWER TO NOT GET SICK! GET PLENTY OF SLEEP, EAT RIGHT, DRINK PLENTY OF WATER, WASH YOUR HANDS REGULARLY, AND TAKE VITAMINS IF YOU DO THAT. 
2. Do not pack until late in the week after you see what the weather is down in Orlando.  It can be really cold or really hot which will determine what to pack.
3. Pack light, we do not have a lot of room on the busses for huge luggage and trunks, use the packing list in the itinerary. There are specific directions about what to pack under the bus and in your carry with you in your seat.
4. Bring snacks on the bus with you.  We will stop at the very large and inexpensive truck stops along the way, however you need some initial snacks to get you through the night.
5. If you have a smartphone there are APPS for universal and disney ride wait times.  Download them to your phone.  
6. If you have a smartphone you should download the disney trip pdf itinerary from the first page of the website and save it as a pdf on your phone or iPad for the week.
7. Bookmark the twitter site on your iPad or smartphone.  I have to approve you so do it during the week and make sure there is some way I can tell it is you so I approve you (or send me an e-mail with your name).  I send out tweets throughout the trip.  Many parents already get these tweets.  You can also get the tweets automatically as text messages to your phone.  There is a direction page on the website for all this.
8. Each of our Disney rooms has a theme.  A tradition at the All-Star resort is for people to dress up their room windows with characters (stuffed animals, signs, etc) if they are on the first floor.  All our disney rooms are on the first floor and in a consecutive order.  If you want, you should bring some stuff to put in the window.
9. Use the packing list in the pdf itinerary to make sure that you have everything for the trip.
10. GET PSYCHED! WE ARE DAYS AWAY!

Lost Phones - Please Read

For the first time we have not one but two smartphones that were taken from the rehearsal last night.  This is clearly something we are not used to here in the Roslyn Band program and something I never even had on my radar as a Roslyn band director. If you mistakenly have taken one of these phones or find one of them please text me immediately so that we can get them back to their owners as soon as possible.

We run our trips, camp, and program in a very trusting and family oriented way.  Our possessions are literally open to each other at all times.  This trust brings about a relaxed atmosphere where we can all feel very confident that our personal items are safe.  It is our culture. When we have to worry about having our things taken we feel like we need to walk around with a "bunker" mentality, watching everything and always being worried about someone going through our stuff and taking our personal belongings.  It changes the entire aura around our band not to mention the way in which I run the trip along with our culture.  Rules will have to be modified and the trips will change in a way that is necessary to protect our belongings which are now, for the first time, in jeopardy of being taken.

Please return the phones to my inbox in the bandroom or my teacher mailbox by noon on Monday, no questions asked.   After that time the "missing" phones will be out of my hands as the band director and we will have to modify the way we run the trip next week so that we can protect everyone's belongings.

These phones are also an emotional and social lifeline to us these days.  These two people deserve to have their phones back. Please, anyone who can help, e-mail me.

Thanks

My thoughts on the schedule for 2012

My opening disclaimer.  None of this is final.  I will take input and comments from anyone but will have the final decision as to what the schedule will be.  E-mail me at your leisure.  This is a working schedule which will be honed and adjusted until we finalize it, usually at the end of March.

I have been thinking about next year's schedule since mid October.  I feel we need to compete on all the weekends except for Columbus Day so I added the one show back which was cancelled last year.  We are a competitive band and taking two weeks off in the short season hurts us in terms of continuity, judging, and camaraderie.  I am leaning towards going back to this schedule which we did for the first 6 years when I worked here at Roslyn, where we topped out at 130 members.  Our schedule, as listed is the same as last year's before the Manhasset show was canceled.

I will be plugging in the home games when we get them, usually in early March.  If we have a home game on the Rosh Hashanah or Columbus Day weekend we will not do it, since those are our weekends off, one for the holiday and one for our traditional Columbus day weekend off.  In addition, we do the Friday night lights Soccer tournament each year so that will be added as soon as I have a date as well, as long as that is not on one of those two weekends.  I have already been told by several that due to the Rosh Hashanah holiday falling right after a weekend, many of our people will be out of town with family so we will keep off of that weekend of September 15th through the 18th.

The Dome.  I feel that we need to stay and see the finals at the dome.  We haven't done this for two years and it is time to see these top bands again, which are among the best in the country.  I strongly believe our band members need to see these bands to know what we are aiming for.  We would miss a day of school which I feel is worth the trade off.  Since we are missing no school for the trip I feel this is acceptable.  A field trip for a day for this reason is educationally sound and worth it.  Ask any of the band members who went in past years and they will agree.

I am leaning towards doing the Peach Bowl trip which is called the Chick Fil-A Bowl next December. Of course, this will depend upon if I can get 60 kids to commit by June 1st with an initial deposit of $50.  Of course, the economy will play a large part in determining the feasibility of a trip.  We did the trip in 2006 and it was amazing.  The company that runs it totally has their act together, the group is child centered, the venues are amazing, and it is great for families to come to Atlanta.  You can fly in, stay downtown, and get to everything without a rental car.  The CNN building, amazing aquarium, parade and stadium (where an great pep rally is held in the building adjacent to it) is all within blocks of great hotels, restaurants, etc.  This is one of the best trips I have ever been involved with and although the date is not yet set, we would probably be leaving on December 26th and returning the night of January 1st. As usual, this takes tons of planning and BOE approval.

Keep checking out this blog for explanations about updates to the schedule.

Next Years Show!

Reflection, adjustment, and realignment are a key part to building a great program.  This past year I was super happy with the entire year, more than ever.  We had a great band from the first day of camp through the dome.  Great friendships, great music, and a phenomenal year. Unfortunately, the judging results didn’t reflect a meteoric rise through the class. Since we are all competitive, I have been thinking all year about the direction of the program, what we are doing and where we are going, so that we may be able to get more recognition numerically from the judging community.  Our kids deserve to win, and with that in mind, I have been brainstorming the future direction of the program.  First things first, we will keep all the great things we have going for us right on track. Please read on.

Reflecting upon the past season it is obvious that by writing a simple show musically we got away from what our strength is, music.  We marched great, the guard looked phenomenal, pit was better than ever, battery was solid and magical as usual, and everything was tight (no phasing at the dome at all, a first) but by making the music easy and getting away from our strength of a solid and challenging musical program, we lost a large part of what was carrying us to high scores in the past, our music.....our wind sound.  Last year one of the ensemble music judges had us in 2nd place at the dome.

This year, with my arrangements, which I deliberately made easy, we got away from the music and we need to get back to it. I asked John Oddo in the locker room what is going on here with the judging?  What are we doing wrong, whey are we not getting recognized?  He then went on to say "Do you want me to blow smoke at you or tell you my opinion?"  As I always do, when I ask John, I want a real answer.  John is one of the top marching people in the country, a member of the drum corps hall of fame, he is brought in all over the nation to clinic and help drum corps and marching bands.  He then went on to say something very interesting, door opening for me and true.  He said "We haven't found our Niche."   That was a lightbulb moment for me.  Yes, we have been floundering, going in a different direction each year, not really grabbing onto a style or "the kind of band we are" or "the type of shows we do" going through 4 or 5 phases in my 8 years here.

When I got home I went through historically what we have done since I got to Roslyn. My 8 years directing at Roslyn, 5 phases, not a real way to create an identity or culture of "What we do."  Yes other bands do this all the time, each year they do a different type of show.  However, the best programs have an identity. It makes it easier to culturally build a program.  Please notice, I have no judges results here, this all has nothing to do with that.

Phase 1
2004  Elton John Show (pop rock show)
2005  Bon Jovi Show (pop rock show)

Phase 2
2006  Piano Lesson (innovative, unusual drama show)
2007  The Workout (innovative, unusual drama show)

Phase 3
2008  Zarabanda (straight ahead, classical, movie music type show)
2009  Gold Rush (straight ahead, classical, movie music type show)

Phase 4 2010  Straight Classical music with actors

Phase 5 2011 The Playdate (innovative, unusual drama show, easiest music we have ever done)

Phase 6 (final phase hopefully)

So after much thought, pretty much round the clock for the past months, I have decided that we need to try the Broadway direction.  There are a whole bunch of reasons for this. 1.  Our culture in Roslyn will support and embrace this.  Broadway is a big part of our lives in Roslyn, our kids go to shows regularly, know the idiom, and it is in our culture. 2.  The music will be more demanding and show us off.
3.  People will recognize what we are doing.
4.  The shows will be fun.
5.  We can pump out a stream of great shows, people will know what we do, and it will be exciting whenever Roslyn takes the field.

With that being said, I think the perfect show to kick us off in this direction is Wicked.  Our Roslyn community and family will be so excited, it will inject energy into our program, and we will most likely pick up kids.  The style is great and these arrangements (now on the downloads page) are true to the show, demanding, recognizable, and fun.  In addition, Wicked is also one of the hottest shows right now. I have had my eye on this Wicked show for many years but it was only available to our zip code the past month. Always wanting to do this show after I saw the show myself, I have periodically checked the regional protection on these arrangements and the publisher just recently made it available to our zip code in Roslyn.  I thought this was a sign. Since we are dealing with the time factor here at Roslyn as always, to maximize our 80 hours of rehearsing I would like to order this, Rob and I can get the arrangements to our in school bands to work on after the concerts and throughout the year, and John can write the drum parts now so that we can really get a jump on this.  Proper prior planning and we can be competitive in our class.  I know that we totally belong in SS2 and would like to stay there.

As usual, I will write the drill with Stephanie, make it simple so that we can max out this music and with Jimmy's help we can march great and nail this thing.  I would like to add a bunch of horn pops into the show, we can figure that out early as well so that we can start rehearsing it.  A box sequence is in the works as well. We will have two solo dancers, one in white and one in green, pretty self explanatory, they will be the witches dancing solo throughout the show.  We will keep our dancers as well.  No speakers, no talking, nothing. We will have auditions for the two dancers.  I think this will be the best show ever!  Listen to it on the downloads page of the website. They are Hal Leonard arrangements with that annoying beep every 40 seconds, I am planning on making a recording with the Wind Ensemble and  Mr. Oddo, Mr. Carman and Mr. Romeo playing the new drum parts once they are written.  The audio is now on the website. We will have the music online asap.

Today's scores. What do they mean?

Ok, here's the first big question.  Are we slotted for last place tomorrow?  Maybe.  Do today's scores mean anything?  Maybe.  Can we still win tomorrow?  Maybe.  Yes, anything can happen.  Some of the judges clearly love our show, and some don't like it.  There is no way of knowing whenever you design a show and learn it as to how it will be received by the judges or the audiences.  It may do well, it may not.  In any case, we are having a ton of fun performing it and hopefully, in the indoor arena, we will be able to get some good numbers.

And now for the most important thing and I know I run the risk of repeating myself but this is very important.  We must never, never, ever let the opinions, numbers, or placement by judges affect how we feel about ourselves, our program, or how great we are.  I have seen alot of bands over the years and I am being very honest when I tell you that this program is incredible, one of the best I have ever witnessed.  It is truly a privilege and honor to direct such great people.  We have so many great and amazing things going on here.  We are a family, a team, a positive force in so many peoples lives.  We must totally see the big picture and be proud, so proud of all of ourselves.  As we embark on this last day of the 2011 season let's all remember......We Rock!

And going back to my great analogy about subjective judging.  It is like gambling at Atlantic City on the roulette wheel.  We throw that marble, if it lands and we win we will "Go crazy."  If we lose, we will go to the buffet, or as the band will do tomorrow, the Mall. And once again:  In the current subjective judging environment winning or losing may not mean much.

I want to thank all the great kids and parents for helping us build this dynasty.  Together we have and will continue to build upon our great Roslyn Marching Bulldogs.

Why we compete, from the mouthes of (older ) babes

Recently I have been pondering this whole "competing" thing with the marching band.  Two things have come into play to bring about my reflection.  The subjectivity and randomness of judging results, coupled with my coming in contact with many band directors at Newsday with fine bands who do not compete have forced me to grapple with this whole concept.  As a staff we struggle with the competition environment.  As I always do, I went on to poll some of our band members.  They were incredible with their statements.  I received these quotes.  "Competing makes us strive to be great." "We learn about real life and subjectivity."  "We form bonds which band members for the rest of our lives." "We become a family and work together to accomplish a goal."  So, as usual, and I say this many times as an adult with 6 of my own children....."The kids are fine, I am not."  I am referring to the fact that the kids are more resilient, more flexible, more adaptable to change, and more forgiving with the judging results than we as adults are.  While we, the staff and parents, are all upset about the judge's results, scratching our heads to figure out what they were looking at, our great band members are eating a hot dog and deciding if they will by the sprinkle cupcakes or the white frosted ones on the food line.  We will compete forever.  We must realize why we compete and although we aim to win, we must realize that the results, no matter what they are, in this environment are more like spinning a roulette wheel at Atlantic City.  If we win, we get excited and feel amazing.  If we lose, we knew it was just a gamble and go to the buffet.