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!"

Visual Music/3D Sound!

I went to see Blast! again tonight, this time at the Lyric Opera House in Baltimore. What a beautiful venue, and acoustically enhancing! Music - in 3D!

My bride got me (us!) wonderful tickets as a birthiversary gift, second row balcony, right on the 50 yard line to boot! The audience (especially the band kids behind me) was ready, and responded well! It was truly "drum corps indoors". The sound was (especially compared to what I heard last night) awesome!

What did I think about the show, especially since I saw it a month ago? Well, I am told Yogi Berra (see previous post) had a son who was one day asked if he was anything like his word mangling father. "No," he is alleged to have said, "our similarities are different."

Maybe like any drum corps show, this performance was better in a nuanced way, responsive to the differences in the venue. The audience's active feedback to brought more out the performers as the show progressed (especially since they opened as if they were a bit tired and just off the bus). It was the same, but it wasn't. It was ... better! It was a great way to end this month, and now we are six weeks from the start of the summer!

The sound - and the fury

Before this blog was started I would e-mail a good friend my Review of various DCI events - both the shows on the field and the event itself. Last night I attended - with son #2 (trumpet player, 7th grader) and about 4 dozen others - The Countdown, DCI's cinema review/preview. The corps were pre-recorded, the order pre-set, and so the deal this time is the event itself.

The Countdown, featuring the fans' Top 5 of the previous three years, was in many senses a chance to see and hear what few of us saw live and most of us saw on the small screen in edited format. We sat with great anticipation - 6 great corps, wide screen, fabulous sound - a great way to watch drum corps!

Ugh. I called my good friend, who attended in another theater. "Was your sound bad?" "Yeah." "Ugh." So here we are with a chance to get people, including newbies (the guy behind me invited a date who has never seen drum corps) and high school band students, to really experience drum corps in a way only a live show can exceed, and ... the sound was just bad. A buzz. Front speakers only. So bad, even the picture didn't seem as crisp.

I take notes to expand my reviews. Rather than do that, here they are raw: "Bluecoats - Sounds flat." "Blue Devils - This is the movies, so why do we get analog TV technology?" "Cadets - No surrounding sound. " "Phantom Regiment - I get better sound in my car." Cavaliers - {No comment on sound; was mesmerized by design and my son observing something about the contras that I have never ever noticed! Check out their aussies ...} "Carolina Crown - 5.1 audio? Really?"

That last comment goes what Reliable Rondo. said about the (blu-ray?) DVD DCI is marketing "with Dolby 5.1!" If DVD buyers get Dolby 5.1, why didn't those of us in the theater?!

While my biggest disappointment is that there were no band kids in the audience (son #1 is with his band in Florida), when the sound in a professional theater is worse than what I heard at the "From the 50 Yard Line" screening, maybe that is a good thing.

Well, and something else. DCI ... so politically correct with itself ... in a show supposedly featuring the best of the best, the excitement of excitement, the event to sell tickets, ends with the Anaheim Kingsmen alumni corps, a throwback that means nothing to new fans. (Yeah, they have a role in the world, but not in the theater. I'll have to write about this later.)

It was not, as Carolina Crown's staff noted in describing the concept behind their 2008 show*, a powerful ending. The past few weeks have been fabulous experiences for me. It's a good thing that tomorrow I go see Blast! again. The Countdown was not the Fine' of a fine April.

* It's not on their website, but the open secret is what I think is setting up to be a Triple Crown topper they are calling Fine'. I - cannot - wait!

It's enough to make a grown man cry

Marching music has a few standard descriptors used for the uninitiated (or unconverted!), one being "Broadway on a Football Field." Last night we again scurried up to NJ - four of us on this trip - to snag a train into The City that Never Sleeps to see Phantom of the Opera at its home for 20+ years, the Majestic Theater on Broadway. (No football fields in sight, unless you count my glimpse of the Meadowlands in the distance!)

Phantom has been featured many times on a football field, from Santa Clara Vanguard in 1988 to Severna Park HS in 2008 (see photo far upper right). But occasionally we band geeks need to go back to the source of the inspiration. And I was, well, inspired!

First, Howard McGillin, the Phantom ... ohhhh, my. What -- a -- voice. He made this grown man cry. (Our group had a little connection to the cast, as the current Christine went to school with one of our directors.)

Second, when constrained by an 9 to 11 minute time limit in a show, some music gets left on the design room floor. We band geeks forget that other music is supercool ... I appreciated again Notes/Prima Donna, and on the train home wondered how that sound and music (especially with the 6/8 feel) could be conveyed on the football field.

Third, while shows I've first seen or music I've first heard on the football field (far too many to list) have sent me to the original, there is a reason to return from the familiar to see and hear the original compositions as they were meant to be performed. The visual effects were dynamic! We forget that while our stage is, in essence, a 110 x 55 yard canvas, the limitations of the theater require a lot of creativity as well.

But, really, what struck me was a question asked of a few of the cast members our group was fortunate enough to have some Q&A time with after the show (arranged via our cast connection and a contribution to Broadway Cares). Some of the cast have been in the show almost as long as the kids have been alive, you see; and even those who haven't are still performing the show night after night after night. It was asked, "How do you keep it fresh, night after night, year after year?"

These weren't the exact words, but this is what I remember: "Sometimes it is like a job, and you wake up and you think, I really don't want to do this again tonight. But then you remember that someone in the audience has never seen this before, and someone else may have seen it 12 times. You have to give them what they came for, what they are paying for - a performance, from you. They are giving you something, and you give back. It's all about the performance."

Last fall I told my son, "You guys are hitting the notes, and hitting the sets, but you are not yet performing." I hope, after last night, he "got" what I've been saying. Perform! And one day it will hit you just how utterly cool it is that someone is going to want to actually give you money to perform what you absolutely love to do, day in and day out, for 20 or 30 or 40 years.

Whether it is music or not, when Dads can help sons learn that, well ... it's enough to make a grown man cry.

Review: "From the 50 Yard Line" puts you in the middle of the field of effort and emotion

About 10 years ago I heard a rumor about a movie concept that centered around a kid who had to overcome some adversity or another to perform with drum corps, specifically the now-defunct Magic of Orlando, something probably given a bit of legs given the connection between DCI, Disney and Orlando. I don't know if it was just that - a rumor - or if it was the early rumblings of what would become "DrumLine."

That movie was okay. But in reality, while the passion for band and drum & bugle corps and winter guard is individual, its source is a group-driven energy, from being part of something greater than one's self. The group itself matters, something that is hard to explain in film, a medium given to focusing on a individual characters.

All that to say this - today my oldest and I scurried up to NJ to screen "From the 50 Yard Line" (see a few posts below), the latest attempt in telling the story. And to my surprise - they get it right. Wait. Right? No. They get it dead on.

The Centerville (OH) HS Band is the focus of the documentary-that-is-really-a-movie, although it also touches on the West Hollywood (CA) Fairfax High School, a "new" band in a school that hasn't had one in 18 years. The story is a simple year (April 2006 to April 2007) in the life of the band, one that captures all of the things I have seen and experienced in band.

Joy. Tears. Work. Life-saving. Life-enhancing. It is every cliche' in the band book, but none of them. It tells the story to those who don't know it. It affirms it for those who only experience it from the outside looking in. And it validates it for those that live it. You know, the kids who ... and the kid who ... and then there is the kid who ... all come together to be ... a band.

From auditions, to band camp, to group sessions, to rehearsals, to rain, to sun, to personal confessions, to the airlock, to the speech, to the banquet ... with third party humor thrown in (Bandology 101, 201 ...) ... the story captures one band and every band. It was immensely personal to me - the trumpet-to-mellophone conversion made me grin large, and then one student makes a short speech that pulled my heart hard because it was ripped right out of my son's band during his freshman year.

"From the 50 Yard Line" celebrates band, its relationship with football, and just plain fun. It lets the kids tell the story in a Charlie Brown-esqe fashion, with only appropriate interference from the teachers and with parents vital yet all but invisible. It shows the "show" like I think a good band movie should (and I think uses some digital tricks to enhance the viewing experience - see if you can find them). It uses modern camera techniques ("the band cam") but doesn't overplay them. The trailer soundtrack bothered me because I never heard the band itself, but now I have to say that the soundtrack was very fitting AND moved the story along.

The film is about 90 minutes long, and it is tight packed. If I had a one complaint, it is that I wish it would have done more of the compare/contrast with Fairfax. But this is a soft and pretty much personal complaint (my own North Dallas HS was similar in size and demographics and history of famous alumni); it would have been difficult to do this without shortchanging the story of each.

So - go find it, and go see it. I'm going to try to get more screenings set up even here. I wish today's good host, the Williamstown (NJ) HS band, had been able to fill the 1000 seats of the auditorium instead of just a few dozen. I think they tried, but needed more band support in the area.

But hey! Band camp is just a few months away ... less time then that when you take out two months for summer. Find a chance to screen the film for your band. Include the 8th graders. And do it before band camp (or so my son says).

Oh - and Mr. Harris - thanks for helping change my life ...

(Blogger's note: I visited Centerville a number of years ago when a tour volunteer for Carolina Crown, however I don't recall much other than Soaring Sounds being a well run drum corps show in a great venue. However, the fine two organizations are now linked through CrownTickets!)

The photo below ...

... was taken at Carolina Crown's NightBEAT (home) show toward the end of its first season (1990). While the "crown" outline regularly sneaks into the drill, this was the only time the horn blast tarp was ever used.

Crowning Achievement

This is a long story and blogs don't do well for long stories. (You can read that here.) But in 1990 a small group of people passionate about drum corps let me join them in what was then a two year old quest toward the start up of a dream: the Carolina Crown Drum & Bugle Corps.

The geek I am, I had written the business plan (as an MBA project, the first time a non-profit had been selected as the subject in the history of that entrepreneurship class) a few years before. They, of course, had lived it, or in some cases just loved it wholeheartedly. And so like any organization, we set off on the journey.

There are innumerable stories of what brought us together, of what sometimes tore us apart, of new people coming in for life or for just the right brief moment, but ultimately this organization gave us all a chance to share a passion with kids and then audiences throughout the country.

We worked hard with no material return. We worked for the kids, and I am sure deep down for the satisfaction of being able to one day stand up and say, "We created that." No, not the shows themselves, or the music - those were vehicles. We created an organization and programs that soon found its way into a few words ...


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

That "one day" is, I believe, finally here.

On April 24 in theaters across the country, DCI will feature a Countdown of the six recent fan favorites. On this night, Carolina Crown will reach a pinnacle: It will be the final corps shown, the #1 fan favorite in the years 2005-2007.

A former board officer, I haven't been heavily involved in the corps since 2000. But on that night I imagine I am going to be like a proud Dad, because I helped give birth to the best. Aside from my own kids - but including my own career - this always will be one of my proudest achievements.

And you need to see it. Follow the link below.

From the 50 .... You Can Still March 4 Music

If you've seen the website www.march4music.com you know it is the home of the self-titled National Fundraising and Awareness Outreach Program for Instrumental Music Education in Schools. Never heard of it.

However, the website seems to me to be part social networking for bands and part promotion for the film From the 50 Yard Line. (Click on the poster for the trailer or the title to go to the site.) I hit the site earlier in the year, but didn't sign up for e-mail alerts, so I missed the film when it came to Maryland ... meaning I may have to venture up to New Jersey next week.

A previous press release noted that the New Jersey screening is of "a professional movie that chronicles the Centerville High School Marching Band. It has been winning independent film festivals throughout the country for the past year. This will be a great opportunity to educate students, parents, and administration as to what marching band is really about and how important it is to our young people. Half of the proceeds will be donated to an organization called"March 4 Music, a non-profit organization that donates musical instruments to underfunded music programs. "

So there it is, in their words. I don't know much more, and so I'll leave it at that. Maybe I'll make this month the get ready for marching season month and go check it out ... or maybe bring it back to Maryland just in time for band camp ...

Sunday, April 13, it will show at Williamstown (NJ) HS at 3 p.m. Tickets are $6.50 ($5.50 for students), with half going to M4M and half to the school instrumental music program. WHS is at 700 North Tuckahoe Road, Williamstown, NJ.

Maybe I'll see you all there ... or on April 24 in another theater for the DCI theater event ... or some other 50 yard line seat ...!

What a Blast!

Last night I went up to New Jersey to catch Blast! along with my son's band. And a Blast! it was!

This was his first live viewing of Blast!, although I reminded my son that he did get to see this show in its earliest incarnation, "An Evening of Brass Theatre", when the show came to North Carolina on July 4, 1994. Of course, he wasn't even 2 years old ...

Blast! is a theater event, and so it is helpful to remember that although the cast and interpretation changes, much like any other Broadway show, the storyline remains essentially unchanged. This cast seems to be less mature than previous, or at least less experienced. I am eager to see the what happens over the next five weeks before they come to Baltimore. However, accustomed as we may be to seeing a different show every year in band and drum corps, or a different Cirque du Soleil event, Blast! has tinkered very little with the script.

The "Bolero" opener and the "Malaguena" closer are perfect ways to ease in to the show and to end with a splash, particular a splash of red! (Although others may associate this music with the Madison Scouts, I always go back to my favorite show of the Boston Crusaders, 2000's Red.) There was colorful (a blast of color!) interplay with the guard/visual ensemble, particularly in the second act, which brought them out more.

"Appalachian Spring" is a classic, and creatively presented with the guard-as-musicians. But the kids really loved "Battery Battle", a percussive talent war! I will say that one of the - drummers? - put a new meaning to playing by ear, and their mistakes/drops were well covered to the point you wondered, "Was that a real mistake, or a fake mistake?"

The use of blacklight for the percussion and guard really highlighted the precision and skill in using the "equipment". This is so very hard to convey on the football field stage.

If I had a criticism, it was the way that "Medea" - a violent piece of music if there every was one - is not being interpreted terribly differently from its 1993 introduction on the football field. What was innovative then seems rather plain now. Also, at times, the percussion in it's "Marimba Spiritual" seemed to be ripping from "Stomp". Perhaps my familiarity and wanting to see something different is what drives this feeling; the audience's familiarity with "Stomp" did not leave them feeling the same way, however. (I told the band's percussion instructor I thought it was too long; he said it wasn't long enough!)

What really stood out, and I hope the kids take from this, is the thrill of performance, not just playing the notes, or doing the spins. It is that chasm between playing the music you know and performing the music you feel that few players see, much less jump.

A quick comment on the venue. Billed as the Commerce Bank Arts Center, it is really a high school auditorium. On steroids. Wonderful acoustics, plush and plentiful seating with a nice sight line! We band parents were completely amazed and wondered what the return on investment is. I think this was public money well spent.

Oh, and one last thing - there are a lot of drum corps people have helped make Blast! what it is. But to me there is always one guy with the original vision, the guy who put his money where his idea was, hired great people, and got out of the way. Because he never forgot this was for the kids, because he is the easiest guy to sit next to in the stands, because he is passionate about his passions (whether drum corps or Blast!, the town of Bloomington or a catamaran, his family or "his kids") ... Bill Cook ... thank you!

Band IS Advanced Placement

About this time of year, especially here at home, thoughts turn to the coming of spring, and the coming of fall. Spring because it has been COLD; fall because it is time to sign up for next year's classes.

I don't have empirical evidence, but I believe that most kids drop out of music (band and orchestra) during the transition between school buildings, from the elementary to the middle to the high school. There are a variety of reasons - peer pressure, music isn't cool, loss of interest, and around this community athletics and grades.

I can write paragraphs (and maybe will in the future) on the athleticism of marching music (T-shirt #1: "If football were harder, it would be band") and winter guard (T-shirt #2 - "If cheerleading was harder, it would be color guard.") But this is about the academics of band.

The pressure is strong for taking honors and advanced placement classes. "We have to give the kids a leg up academically." "Middle school is practice, but high school counts" (as I have reminded my high schooler, well, countless times). Math. Science. English. Social Studies. But art? Music? There are no AP classes there! (Caveat: My oldest son is fortunate to be in a school where they do have AP Music Theory.)

I have been playing a small role in connecting the middle school to the high school, trying to retain kids in the band program. Half will drop out. Maybe more. We focus on the fun, the challenge, the friends - kids talking to kids. But here's a message for the adults: Band IS Advanced Placement, and you know it, especially if you were a beneficiary of band, as I was.

Advanced Placement teamwork. Advanced Placement talent cultivation. Advanced Placement governance and social structures. Advanced Placement math and geometry. (Yes, music is math, and so is marching!) Advanced Placement goal setting and goal reaching.

High school honors and advanced placement get you into college, maybe a good one. A good college and gets you into your first job or graduate school. All of that is important. But ... after that ... it's about teamwork. Talent cultivation. Personal discipline. Getting along in a governance and social structure. Setting and reaching goals.

We know band students do better on the SATs and ACTs. But that's not the total story. Band will place you somewhere totally unrelated to music.

In his book ReImagine!: Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age (page 280), Tom Peters quoted John Merrow in USA Today: "What actually correlates with success are not grades, but 'engagement' - genuine involvement in courses and campus activities. Engagement leads to 'deep learning.'" Tom himself wrote (page 278) - or rather, ranted - this: "Budget crunch? First programs to be cut? Art and Music. I say ... the h*** with the math budget. (I really don't mean that.) Let's enhance the art budget and inflate the music budget. Training in Creativity is important, in general. But it is absolutely essential in this Age of Intangibles & Intellectual Capital."

I am curious ... among the leaders of our country, how many were in a disciplined music program? How does that compare to the overall population? I don't know, but I'd bet we will find out something ... that Band IS Advanced Placement.

P.S. As I write this - my oldest is somewhere reading a movie, my second is practicing juggling, my third practicing his saxophone, and my fourth is drawing and coloring picture after picture of airplanes. And I'm happy to say that on the TV is channel 690 - Cinema (Soundtracks!).

Marching Music's Major League - a video critique

Yesterday Drum Corps International released a new promotional video. If you haven't seen it, click on the logo below. Go on. I'll wait!

Look, it's so very hard for me to be critical of any effort to spread the word about drum corps. But as a former DCI Marketing Committee member, a former president of a drum corps' board (and former member of a world champion corps' board) and someone who has helped promote shows, I guess I can comment on this as someone who is more than a fan.

DCI says, "The spot is designed to inform prospective fans, sponsors and members of the media about DCI’s far-reaching artistic, educational and organizational influence as it continues to emerge as an international brand of highly-skilled musicians and performers."

I say ... This doesn't do it.

For the person who is a casual or curious fan, who wants to know what drum corps is before spending bucks on tickets, we are a media, sponsorship, website ... the kids? Where do they come from? How old are they? Where are the corps from? What are their styles? What can I expect to see? to hear?

For the media, read above. Does this really tell what drum corps is? No. It doesn't help me write a feature story about the corps coming to my town (because as a show promoter, that is the ticket-selling PR we want, not a post-show write up!).

This video is targeted at the corporate types who have marketing and sponsorship dollars to spend. Dollars we covet. And that's not bad. But the video is far from informational, or even "promotional". It is all about business development.

Now, that is okay, but here are some problems that came to mind.

What the heck is "Marching Music's Major League"? Why isn't that logo (used above) used throughout, complete with color? Color is cheap when you are using digital images; it only gets expensive when you start to use ink. (And besides, when you see the logo, does anyone else out there immediately think MLB or NBA, not DCI?) If you are going to have a brand image, for pete's sake, have a brand image!

And the musical score to the video. You would think it would be all about showcasing Marching Music's Major League. But does not. Nope. The only time you hear a drum corps is from about 1:50 to 2:00 in the video - :10 ... 2.5%! ... of the 6:30. And who is it? Not to dis' them, but the 1975 Troopers!

It could have been the 1975 Madison Scouts (champions), or Blue Devils. The video and style is 30+ years old, precisely the image DCI should be trying to NOT portray.

Why can't we use the actual corps' music? (You can get copyright clearance, even for website impressions.) The sound of the brass, the drive of the percussion, the product itself!

Maybe the show promoters can use this as well, but there is a lot in there that is DCI that is not about the local shows. It is the big picture, and only somewhat helpful on the little picture side. Maybe some re-editing for their use would help. But even then, I don't know if it is enough, or if it can be enough ... or even if it should be the intent.

Drum corps is a hard sell. The saying is, "For those who don't understand, no explanation is possible. For those that do, none is necessary." If this is an effort to close the gap, I'm afraid it doesn't succeed.

March 2nd

Or, as I call it,
TEXAS INDEPENDENCE DAY !!

The book "American Band" (have you read it yet?) may have been about a band from Indiana (home to Bands of America and DCI, I know - my darling beloved is a Hoosier!) but Texas is where band is celebrated! Texas Monthly has done wonderful stories about bands, a Texas band is the current Bands of America Champion (see two posts back), Texas is where I fell in love with band and drum corps, and Texas is where - like a lot of people across the ages - a drum corps scrawled "GTT"* on the door post and is seeking out new and better days. (Will they make it? We don't know. But they will try!)

Band are big! Bandmasters are big! Stadiums are big! Crowds are big!

Although I haven't lived there in nearly 20 years, "You can take the boy out of Texas, but you can't take the Texas out of the boy!"

* GTT ... Gone to Texas!

Leap Day!

A day that occurs once every four years is too sweet a chance to not write! Sitting in my office, I notice that the sun is up later and later, and that means spring is near ... and summer is close!

Marching music goes on, though! Corps are in full rehearsal mode, winter guards and percussion lines are gearing up for their own version of March Madness before the the winter guard and percussion April championship events in Dayton arrive. And high school band directors are counting heads now and planning the next fall production.

I hope to be lucky enough to see Blast! twice, once in mid-March with my son's band on a field trip, and again in late April with my darling beloved, who bought a pair of tickets for my/our Valenbirthiversary! Either way, I'm goin' to the show! You should, too! In fact, that is going to be an exciting week, as that Thursday will be what I call the "DCI Movie".

Hey, lot's of reasons to leap!