Re: Performance Major and Marching Band?


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Posted by Joe S. on November 16, 1999 at 03:00:50:

In Reply to: Performance Major and Marching Band? posted by Jeff Baker on November 12, 1999 at 14:23:20:

Are all of those posts down there "real"?

I deal with high school band directors every day, and I have a feeling that MBD, as "frank" as he is about what he thinks, probably has a lot of knowledge and leadership ability. I'm trying to see what there is to be offended at, but I guess that since I am a big jerk, too, it just looks to me like plain talk from someone who knows what he thinks and challenges others to do a better job of attacking his points of view.

I, from behind the counter of my brass/woodwind music store, see two types of successful high school band directors (although I am quite sure that there are plenty of other successful types):

1/ Those who really love marching band and make their kids accel at it (possibly at the expense of learning some other musical skills, but at least not at the expense of learning what it means to work for excellence at SOMETHING, which is the most important thing, after all.)

2/ Those who really loathe marching band, and have schmoozed their way off of the football field and on to the bleachers (show up at some games and play, but don't march)...still maintaining a good working relationship with the principal and coaches, and keeping up public visibility. To be successful here, a band director must push the students to excel in other ways, and since fall high school band competition is structured around marching, this path is a BIG challenge...Of course, one could really concentrate in the fall on working with all of the students individually towards winter All-State tryouts. There are a couple of bands just like this in my town. No marching, but a very high percentage of them show up in regional honor bands.

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On a different but very closely-related topic, I think that all of us are quite aware of the "band nerd" thing that permeates high schools, which is actually "fertilized" by some coaches and atheletes - the very group that "band nerds" show up to support with their elaborate marching programs. Drum and bugle corps are not called "nerds", because 100% of the people who show up at their shows are there to see THEM AND ONLY THEM. I question the wisdom of allowing students to act as intermission entertainment for a few dozen people at a football game that don't happen to need to go pee, right then. Acting as intermission entertainment at someone else's (the football team's) events sets up band students as "nerds". Marching should ONLY be done at MARCHING COMPETITIONS and parades(where people show up JUST to see the BANDS perform), IMO, and sure, the high school bands should show up at some of the football games, but only to play pep music in the bleachers. I am convinced that most principals and parents would be quite pleased with that arrangement, and offering just that much support to one's football team is about 1,000,000 times as much support as most football teams show to their schools' bands.

The point here is to put a marching band (consisting of high school aged students), if that is the type band that you want to have, ONLY on display at a venue where it will be totally appreciated, even if that means fewer performances of one's marching program.

To COMPLETELY clarify, I think that the college situation is totally different. Universities are so large that band members and atheletes never even meet usually - much less "say things" about each other, the students are technically adults, and many schools pay students scholarship money to be in the marching band - the express purpose of which is, indeed, to entertain during intermission at football games. If universities want marching bands to entertain at football games and adult students, for whatever reason, want to do it, I think that they SHOULD do it.

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Finally: "elitists" looking down on high school band directors, marching bands, and marching band directors...

I hear some of this type of talk occasionally, mostly from a very few members of the "college" crowd (some students and some teachers). I believe that those who talk this way are the same type of people who try to make themselves appear bigger by attempting to make others look smaller.

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Now, what was the question??? ;^)


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