No sound and pictures with this post

That deaf, dumb and blind kid
Sure plays a mean pinball
- The Who, Pinball Wizard

This past week I've spent recovering from the wonderful flu bug I picked up during my trip to Tampa. I just wanted to close my eyes. I just wanted to shut my ears.

Unless you're a bot, you're a human, and as a human likely blessed with all five senses, you have probably asked yourself, "Would I rather be deaf, or blind?" Marching music - the with storyboard and soundtracks noted before - how do you choose?

Band and drum corps has opened my ears to all types of music I would not have listened to before, and composers I've never heard of, sending me to the record store in search of "the original" hours after hearing it on the field (Star of Indiana, 1993). My iTunes has some drum corps on it, but if you count the originals, probably more than even I expect.

With ears only I can hear my kids, talk to them, really listen (do we all really listen?), and listen to any future grand kids as they come careening toward me wanting to celebrate, as my youngest puts it, "Hop on Pop Week!"

With my eyes, however, I can see the music that I may or may not know. I may not be able to hear it, but I will feel it in the pulses and rhythms, see it in the kids faces as they suddenly discover the difference between playing and performing, and witness the silent victory at the end of the show of their lives.

Of course, then there was NightBEAT, Charlotte, North Carolina, 1999, after intermission. Carolina Crown. Santa Clara Vanguard. Blue Devils. The Cadets. The performance of a lifetime for one. 98.0, 98.1 and 98.2 for the other three. The memory of the sights and sounds of that night ...

... still render me speechless.

Rules Are Made to Be … ReWritten

Yeah, I'm a rebel.

This weekend I’m heading to a work related conference in Tampa, but there is another conference going on 80 miles away in Orlando that could be just as ... ok, more ... fun! DCI is considering 12 rules changes, which you can read about here. Most are proposed George Hopkins, the quiet and unassuming director of the Cadets.

Riight. George Hopkins is a lightening rod, the man “traditionalist” love to hate. And I hate as well … hate to admit that he has challenged me to challenge tradition. Hoppy can be agitating for agitation sake. He’s hard to figure, even up close, where I have seen him. But he is a very, very bright guy, reading and thinking at levels that I would like to reach. (Hey, George, you can send the check to me later.)

Hoppy has proposed new rules on amplification, on using water as an effect, on changing judges. Hoppy may not win this time, but it seems that over time he manages to drag drum corps into the future, kicking and screaming all the way. (Which, when the fans see what happens, usually results in waving and screaming!)

Back in the late 1980s drum corps brass was two piston bugles pitched to G. Slowly a third piston was added (more notes), and then “conventional” brass was adopted. All of these events were to mark the end of drum corps. In fact, I was one of those that said “Keep 2 Pistons”, even though I had never played one myself! But I was wrong.

Sometimes I want to be the Hoppy of my profession. Well, a bit of Hoppy, and a bit of Tom Peters! I’m not sure I ever will get there. But at least I have a target, albeit a moving one!

Yogi Knows Marching Music

I quoted Yogi Berra in the post just before this one. Here are more gems:

· "You can observe a lot just by watching."
· "Think! How are you gonna think and (march) at the same time?"
· "You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there."
· "If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else."
· "If you can't imitate him, don't copy him."
· "It gets late early out there." -- Referring to the bad sun conditions at the stadium.
· "Do you mean now?" -- When asked for the time.
· "You give 100 percent in the first half of the (show), and if that isn't enough in the second half you give what's left."
· "I made a wrong mistake."
· "Yeah, but we're making great time!" -- In reply to "Hey Yogi, I think we're lost."
· "If the fans don't come out to the (stadium), you can't stop them."
· "Why buy good luggage? You only use it when you travel."
· "It's never happened in the competition, and it still hasn't."
· "I'd say he's done more than that." -- When asked if a player had exceeded expectations for the current season.
· "The other (bands) could make trouble for us if they win."
· "It ain't the heat; it's the humility."
· "The towels were so thick there I could hardly close my suitcase."

· "I didn't really say everything I said."

And my favorite ... "I'm smarter than the average bear!"

(OK - that's the other Yogi. And besides, what I've been heard to say around the house is "I'm smarter than the average bear. Not as smart as the above average bear, but smarter than the average bear.")

Storyboards & Soundtracks

I've been on a posting tear now - three in a row - maybe because it's final exam season and I'm pretending my boys are reading this for inspiration. (1)

I got to thinking that besides sheer physical volume (see 7Ps below) of practice, there also is the mental preparation side of practice, which brings me to this topic.

Storyboards … Watching “Shrek The Third” with the family the other night, we took in the "deleted scenes" DVD feature. This was different from other delete scenes features, however, it that there were three camera shots on the screen – the shot on top featured each storyboard, with the bottom left showing the person telling the story and the bottom right showing the audience.

I could not help but wonder how many marching bands “storyboard” their show. I don't mean just computer music playing to the to the computer drill, but an actual storyboard of the visuals. Then I got to thinking, how many people storyboard important events? Weddings? Important presentations (and I don't mean just PowerPoint!)?

Storyboarding can take place in your mind, but maybe we should all use paper, not computers, and storyboard ... whatever needs to be storyboarded. Paper is cool and can be recycled. It can be dug out of the trash. It can be marked up. My paper of choice is in several sizes, but about two years ago I ditched the typical legal pad for grid/graph paper. Click here for some other cool tools.

Soundtracks … I chose the name Soundtracker because originally I was going to write about probably my favorite “type” of music, movie soundtracks. (Or, as they say in the business, "film scores.") Some soundtracks are original music, some are adapted from familiar themes, and some are old hits in a new form.

But without music, TV and movies can never be “best pictures”. Music sets the tone. Think about it – we hear a song, and picturesque memories or fantasies come to life.

My Mom told me I learned to like classical music from Loony Tunes. (Hmmm. Maybe my Mom was saying that I was looney tunes ...?) I mean, who can forget Bugs Bunny and "The Rabbit (Barber) of Seville"!

I’ve told people in the past that there is nothing more to be said in the world, that we can just sing our way though conversations. (It certainly would make peace talks more interesting!)

Tony singing “Maria” in "West Side Story" – pretty romantic, guys, no matter how you propose! (We used “One Hand One Heart” in our wedding. And "Sunrise Sunset" from "Fiddler on the Roof", come to think of it. And ... well, I'll quit with that.)

So ANYWAY, this is I think why I have the passion for marching band. Visual storyboards, told purely with a soundtrack.

Storyboards. Soundtracks. As the great Yogi Berra (not Yogi Bear, but he's great too ... see the storyboard!) said, “Ninety percent of this game is half mental.” (Yogi said a lot of other things that are allegedly about baseball. More on that later.)

(1) Finals have been going on for the past week. Studying? Hmmm.

Killer Giants

(Saturday Night Lights: A Father's Notes on Excellence)

I love football. But for me*, marching band was the only way I was ever going to get to perform on my field of dreams.

Growing up in San Antonio and Dallas, my team was America's Team, the Dallas Cowboys. What a season they had ... right up to late November. Then, inexplicably, they quit.

I've seen bands do that. They get confident in their show, and so they quit trying to be better. They stop practicing, at least mentally (which makes getting out on the practice field pointless). Then they wonder why the lost the show, or "scored 82 when, man, the show as waaay better than Band X!", which, of course, is the band that didn't quit practicing, getting just that much better, and then showed up, reached down, and performed every single time they took the field, whether practice, halftime, or a contest.

So now it's the Perfect Machine vs. the Persistent Manning. It pains me to say this, but they are NFC and NFC East at that. I'm pulling for the Giants. (But never the Redskins, even if they do have a marching band!)

Besides, even big brothers need to pull for little brothers from time to time!

* You know that movie, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"? I tell my wife her movie was "My Little Skinny Geek Wedding"!

P.S. Congrats to my neighbor, who made the soprano (oops - trumpet!) line of Jersey Surf!

7Ps

The 7Ps are Proper Prior Planning Prevents Pitifully Poor Performance. Or at least they used to be. Reading "Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on the Imperfect Science" (by Atul Gawande, MD, who also wrote an exceptional book entitled "Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance"), I came across this item, which may explain a lot about the difference between great bands and merely good ones:

"There have now been many studies of elite performers - international violinists, chess grand masters, professional ice-skaters, mathematicians, and so forth - and the biggest difference researchers find between them and lesser performers is the cumulative amount of deliberate practice they've had. Indeed, the most important talent may the the talent for practice itself.... in one's willingness to engage in sustained training.... (T)op performers dislike practicing just as much as others do.... But more than others, they have the will to keep at it anyway."

But what about elite ensembles?

"Practice, it turned out, did not necessarily make perfect. Whether it did, the researchers found, depended on how the surgeons and their teams practiced." He goes on to note how the fast-learning surgical teams were those that had worked well previously, that stayed together as a team for a number of cases until new team members were added, that did a dry run before the first case, and that debriefed after each case.

This explains why some marching bands are better competitors with average musicians than those with superior musicians.

Seems like the New 7Ps are Prepare Practice Practice Practice Practice Practice Perform.

(So practice, boys. Horns and Trumpets and Saxophones. Statistics. Drawing. Football. Fencing? Baseball? Whatever you choose. Practice. For the rest of your life. Practice - unrelentingly practice what you love.)

Pro Football Bands -- part 2

Second of January. Second post on being ready for football - which as far as the BCS goes, I am not. (Seeing some of the bands was interesting, but college bands and high school bands are genres apart. But I digress ...)

In addition to NFL Bands, there are NFL Drum Lines! Well, drum line - the Niners Noise, of the San Francisco 49ers.

If you haven't ever seen an indoor drumline, the find a chance nearby and go! It is loud, raucous, and, yes, musical! A few years ago I was lucky enough to be the founding President (and better still, the "namer") of the Carolina Thunder Percussion Ensemble, which placed in the finals of the WGI Indoor Percussion contest each year it existed. I'm a brass guy - in fact, I've often dreamed about a"brass corps" or mini-marching band doing halftime at basketball games - but the creativity I saw each year was astounding. An even smaller field, yet a lot of cool stuff.

With 31 other NFL cities (29 minus the ones with bands), maybe this drum line idea will catch on in time for the 2008 season?! Hey, Cowboys - the cheerleaders are great, the new stadium will be fantastic, but let's add to the excitement!

Are you ready for some football?

I am spending this last day of vacation not so much watching football so much as listening to some interesting "classical" compositions by some interesting non-classical "composers" ... Billy Joel (Fantasies & Delusions: Music for Solo Piano) and Paul McCartney (Ecce Cor Meum, translated Behold My Heart). McCartney's composition would make for an interesting show concept.

Speaking of football, did you know at least two NFL teams have bands? It pains me to compliment the Washington Redskins, but I will "hail" them for their band. (Hey, you! Trumpet on the left! Ditch the shades and get your horn up!!)

Then, just to the north, is the Baltimore Ravens Marching Band.












In case you care, I took on the handle Soundtracker because I've said from time to time that my life is just one long soundtrack under all of the pictures. As you can see, I like music and pictures (and maybe that's why I'm partial to soundtracks)! So this year amidst other thoughts I will post some show concepts in case a bored and desperate band director stumbles across this site. Essentially, these are soundtracks to a mini-life of a marching band show, but sometimes there will be other ideas within.

I'll try to give visual thoughts as well. I have some things to say about judging. I'll talk about performance and strategy (yup, because it all ties together).

Come to think of it, the sun is shining. I'm ready for some football ... off to the park we go!