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.)