Conduct : Conduct

By this time of year many bands have named drum majors for the coming season, and the drum majors are preparing for drum major camp, probably best characterized as big band camps for big band geeks.

When I went to camp I thought it was to learn how to wave my arms, or to conduct. (And we all admired those of the Phantom Regiment!) But I actually learned that I needed to put my accent in another place. So I am passing this bit of advice to drum majors and, well, to anyone else in the band or in any organization:

"It is not how you kuhn-duhkt the band on the field. It is your kon-duhkt off the field."

(If you want to know about the photo, click on it to go to the story.)

A Tradition is not a Value

I remember when growing up that one of the favorite musicals of my family was "Fiddler on the Roof". If you don't know the story, it centers on how a poor Jewish milkman, Tevye, struggles to maintain "Tradition" against the tide of rapid change (the backdrop being the Russian Revolution some 100 years ago). Like Tevye, we all want to keep our traditions. But so many of us confuse traditions with values.

Values are what we stand for, deep down. Traditions are how we express our values. Values are timeless. Traditions can be too ... but not always.

Lately, I have reflected a lot on my life's calling, my career, my family, and even the organizations I have been part of.* I see so many organizations dying from the inside today. They are dying because they cling stubbornly to traditions (two pistons! no amplification! no dance!) that have eventually poisoned the water.

And this is not just drum corps. Community organizations are literally dying - old members are aging and new ones aren't joining. There are organizations that say they serve young people but don't even know how to reach them anymore. The list is long of drum corps that have taken tradition right into the grave, and a number of kids are poorer for not having the opportunity. (Maybe some I discussed in the post Loss below).

Young people like to question traditions, but they don't do it with maturity, and so we more, um, experienced folks react viscerally to defend the traditions when they do. But we have to learn how to questions traditions, too, only with maturity. How? By asking, "Does this tradition enhance or hinder our values?"

It is funny that I remember the time the Holy Name/Garfield/of Bergen County/Cadets used the motto Tradition: Innovation. To me that said it all. And look at how old they are (founded in 1934), and how young they continue to be in the new and innovative ideas they bring to the competition field. The Cadets have traditions, but mostly they have values that have been infused over time.

So, anyway, most of last week I was at a work conference. On Monday of that week it was announced at the meeting that my fellow professional association members have humbled me by asking me to join their Executive Committee, which comes with a path toward leading the organization in a few years. I hope I can help find ways to strip out the unnecessary traditions, and enhance the values.

Look at the organizations you belong to, and whether or not they are dying by traditions instead of living by values. If not, you will be the one who needs to come up with the new traditions to enhance the values.

Some people call it "Thinking outside the box." The Cadets are my favorite corps for doing this, and doing it successfully. I think it is because they also know this: "Thinking outside the box implies that you know how to think inside the box to begin with."


* Okay, "of which I have been a part." That is grammatically correct ... but clunky. I tossed tradition for a bit there ...

Soundtraveller

I know, I know, I say I'm sound tracker, but this week was pretty busy - Sunday through today - with not much time in my own bed. I feel bad for letting 10 days go by and I do have a new post I am working on.

Until then, while grabbing a bit of non-screen downtime in hotels, I read through the June edition of my favorite business magazine, Fast Company. (There are all sorts of reasons you should subscribe, too, if you are in business of any kind.) The article is coincidentally titled "Strike Up the Band" but it focuses on how NBC and partner Audiobrain are creating the soundtrack for the 2008 Olympic Games telecasts.

There also is an article on "The Business of Broadway." Not bad for a business magazine! (And their articles on design are inspirational!)

I'll get back to original compositions soon ...

Loss

In Blast!, there is a beautiful piece named Loss that captures for me the emotions felt when you remember someone (or even some experience) you treasured but no longer have. As I dug through my programs related to the last post, I stumbled across one for a show* that I remember clearly.

It was wickedly hot, but I still drove down to that little town and sat in the stand and took away memories. This show in particular I remember this because of the lowest score I've ever seen (by a small corps judged on a big scoresheet), the corps I could have been on the field with (and my best friend was), pews on the field, and a (perceptively) first class tractor trailer.

All the corps from that night are gone now, but I have not forgotten. It is a loss. Drum corps season must be near again, because memories are flooding back.

* Battle of the Bugles
Tuesday, July 19, 1983, 7:30 p.m.
Yellow Jacket Stadium, Cleburne, TX
Argonne Rebels, Great Bend, KS - 13.50
NightHawks, Houston, TX - 29.10
Black Knights, St. Louis, MO - 35.70
Memphis (TN) Blues Brass Band - 41.50
The Pride of Cincinnati (OH) - 41.60
Sky Ryders, Hutchinson, KS - 60.20

Music Mom

It's Mother's Day! The day when phone companies see their highest volume of calls in a year.

This blog is my Mom's fault. She loves music, and she insisted on piano lessons, developing an early habit that expanded to violin ... then to French Horn ... then Trumpet ... then back to French Horn. I didn't learn much Spanish, but I learned the international language of music.

Of course, being the oldest, I was the guinea pig, and I didn't turn out near as well as my siblings (although Mom, being Mom, will disagree, because all of her kids are above average!). Mom put up with my brother "choking the goose" as a saxophone player with a wicked sense of humor. He was drum major of his high school band {at a different school} for two years as well, but then gravitated toward visual arts and now earns his living as a wickedly funny high school photography teacher. Mom had one last chance at music with my sister, but being the youngest and being my sister, she chose visual arts instead, where she has developed her talents as an artist, a teacher, and also an active blogger!)

Mom loves hymns and musicals (especially the classics, The Sound of Music and Fiddler on the Roof). She loves the classics and singing as well. (Always singing!) I think I learned to like the classics because of Bugs Bunny (I mean, c'mon, the "Rabbit of Seville" or "What's Opera Doc"! or "Baton Bunny" or "Long Hared Hare" or "Rhapsody Rabbit" or even Tom & Jerry in "The Cat Concerto"!) but Mom encourage the habit as well. I remember listening to Peer Gynt's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" over and over again. And just about any excerpt from Georges Bizet's Carmen. And ... well, you get the point. (Thanks, Mom, for letting me watch quality TV!)

Music was a ticket to life experiences and lessons. Don't believe me? Try this ... what is the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States? If you know it, I bet you are singing it, just like I learned to sing all 50 states in alphabetical order and learned how to get a bill through Congress!


Mom's gift to me was the fun of music, even the "serious music." Music was her gift, and she shared it with everyone with whom she comes into contact. (She teaches English, too.) Aahhh, but there is something else, too.

Mom also has not only a gift for music, but she can be, well, punny. I inherited the sense of humor (such as it is, I am told). So, with great thanks and in tribute to Mom (who reads this blog, like any Mom would), and reflecting her sense of music and sense of humor, I will pass along this advice that she gave me. This advice I found to be something I could apply every day ... walking around the neighborhood ... on my commute ... and even (especially) dealing with others!

Are you ready? Okay, here we go:


"If you don't C#, then you may Bb."

Melting my defiant heart

I've been in Texas twice during the last week. Going home, it hit me that this year is the 25th anniversary of my exit from high school into "advanced life". Probably like many, I wonder what happened to who, what went right, what part of that time was life-changing, and what could or should have gone differently. If this describes you, then I bet you also remember when you really (believed you) fell in love for the first time.

Me? It started at drum major camp at UT-Arlington in the summer of 1981. But it really took hold in football stadium on the outskirts of Dallas, Texas, on a hot July day - July 8th - in 1982. Wanna see her picture from back then?

Of course, she is still beautiful today, as you can see. (Click on the picture and you get video!)

Hey, here is what the theater where we met looks like today!

Funny how they all look better and I just look older. (The place has had substantial cosmetic surgery, though!)

Anyway, I remember the moment. I was sitting in the place, a rough around the edges drum major, watching the Madison Scouts go through a clinic (where I shamelessly swiped all the rehearsal ideas), when someone (I think it was a member of the corps, not the band) tapped me on the shoulder and handed me a piece of paper. Okay, it wasn't "a" piece of paper. It was a "libretto", whatever that meant.

I hung on to it for the moment, confused, until at 9:05 p.m. she walked out on the green stage and put on ... a show. Yeah, it was probably rusty. The score was 81.05. But she won the show, and my heart. And I still have the love note (which I think is what libretto means!) tucked safely away.

The music was "Spartacus", a 3 1/2 hour composition by Aram Khachaturian reduced to 11 1/2 minutes of sheer wonder. (Go here for 1982, and here for orchestration, and fall in love yourself.)

Oh, yes, there have been others since then. I dated someone else, had (and still have) a great long term relationship (and still flirt from time to time with others). But I have the love note still, along with the souvenir show program, and even the show flyer*.

I heard this year that she is playing our song again, and so I was hoping to meet my love here, but alas I learn than except for a brief appearance in Allentown, I am out of luck. But then I learned that the show is returning from Mesquite to Lake Highlands, and my first love will arrive there. If I'm really lucky, maybe I'll get to be there with her again on Thursday, July 17. If you're lucky (and smart), you can be there too.


* I have a program from every show ever attended. This one also records Emerald Knights (32.35), Colts (51.20), San Jose Raiders (61.20), Knights (62.45), and Madison Scouts (79.30). I also have the promotional flyer/poster - the 6th Annual; tickets $7 for center, $6 concert, $5 general admission; and two corps that never made it on stage, the Valiant Knights (Enid, OK) and Alamo Marksmen (San Antonio, TX). I always thought if the Alamo Marksmen had arrived, I would have run away with her instead ...

Act your age

A shout out to my friend Greg Lowe, DCI Volunteer of the Year. Ever modest (okay, maybe not "ever", but in his reply to me he was) he pointed out that he is merely the 8th member of "Team Cream" to be a DCI Volunteer of the Year.
The 8th?! Let's see. Kevin Smith. Doug Madar. Carol Srdar. Teri Bell. Ray and Mary McCrary. Steve Tant. Wow! And I am honored to know them all. They have collectively poured years and tears into making Carolina Crown the success it is. They are wonderful ...

... adults.

Okay, some may act like kids - and from time to time be a bit childish. But really, overall, they are in it for the kids (although they will be the first to tell you they get a ton of reward from being involved, too). In the end, they grew up, they became adults, and they put their talents back in to not clinging fading memories of old experiences, but into creating new memories and better experiences for someone else.

They are ... adults.

They aren't trying to march one last year (something I still scratch my head over our friends at WGI doing). I remember fighting with some of them over the value of senior corps and alumni corps - something I think we put to rest when we adopted the Carolina Crown Mission Statement*. ("Hey, Madar, I've come to appreciate the place in the world for all-age corps, but what going on what I knew to be senior corps then, I always wondered this: Why don't the put their energy into paying it forward in a successful 'junior' corps?")

Anyway, I had promised to comment on the all age corps. And my comment really is the one above. There are some that I find are great outlets for kids who want to march but aren't able to put the time or money ... or need to develop the chops a bit more ... to march with one of the major league corps.

But a corps like what we saw on screen at the Countdown? Yeah, it warms the cockles of our hearts. But in the end, what is it really? Is it for us, or for them?

Congrats Greg! And Steve! And Ray! ... and Mary! ... and Teri! ... and Carol! ... and Doug! ... and Kevin! ... and the next ones to come!

* To develop lifelong excellence in young people through a superior and challenging performing arts education experience.

"Hey, I resemble that remark!"