Things that inspire me.

Design Is More Than Dots on a Page

Welcome to late December. Throughout most of the United States, competitive marching band is done or is winding down. Football is entering the middle stages of play-offs, and many a sousaphone are shuttling off for a good post-season cleaning. It’s time to begin designing next fall’s marching band show - a task that elicits every manner of reaction from directors across the spectrum.

One of the things that has always intimidated me in the design process is the balance you have to find in your final product. I’ll get into my definitions for these terms below, but to me you have to strike a balance between three basic domains to have a successfully designed show: Education, Entertainment, Art.

Educationally you need to meet and slightly push the skill level of your students, the needs of your given competitive circuit, and the stage of conceptual development your ensemble has reached.

Entertainment can come in many guises - this does not mean you need to “dumb-down” or otherwise lobotomize the product that will work so well for your students to grow as musicians. But you do need the band parents and local supporters to get behind what you are doing on the field, their word-of-mouth is more valuable to you than any trophy or medal. Sometimes it’s the music you perform that resonates with the audience, sometimes it’s one or two drill sequences that they really enjoy. The best advice I can give is to ask your clientele what they’ve liked in the past.

At my current school, I noticed that our crowd went wild for military-style marching bands - being only an hour’s drive from College Station and the Texas A&M Band primes that pump. So rather than fight it, we integrated several quasi-military maneuvers into our show - things that showcased contrary motion in blocks and lines. The band never received more praise for their contest show than when those effects hit well - even from the crowds at football games.

Know your audience - give them a taste of what they want. If your clientele have a strong like for “show band”-style performances, but you are tooled more for corps-style education find a vehicle that allows you to throw in a little of that style of performance. It’s not selling out, and nor is it opening the door for further encroachment - format it well, and it won’t look out of place at all.

Artistically, my advice is to play it safe. There are a handful of groups out there (LD Bell HS, Avon HS, Marian Catholic HS, Carmel HS) who have the chops to push the activity forward through what they create. Everyone wants to design one of “those” shows (e.g. Bell 2008, MCHS 2001, Avon 2004, Carmel 2002) but not everyone’s staff and/or performers is a) ready for that or b) able to pull it off. Those groups have matured and grown through countless years into what they are today - you aren’t going to bust out of Grover’s Corners tomorrow and dethrone them. Maybe down the road, but not today.

It’s far better to create something that you find aesthetically pleasing and balanced, and let that package stand out against the field. So many shows try to be more than what they are, and 99% of them make the performers look bad in the process. Don’t try to sculpt the Pieta on your first (or fifth) pass - make something that looks good, flows well, and completes its ideas. You will stand out with that product, I promise.

Now that you have a framework in place, it’s time to start throwing ideas against the wall to see what sticks. This can take a while, as most music you listen to that you like will invariably include things that won’t work for your needs. Heart-rendingly gorgeous as it is, most groups can’t (and shouldn’t) attempt Mahler 2. Likewise, Symphony for Band by Persichetti is amazing music, but would not translate well onto the field.

Hopefully you are able to work with a team, as those collaborations often yield the most refined and targeted productions for groups. Your team can include the band staff that works with you throughout the season, your music arranger, your drill writer, a program coordinator you bring on just for this process - the list is limited only by your resources and tolerance. Be sure to include people who have a stake in the band’s success - either directly through their teaching or indirectly through their design - they have a vested interest in creating a product that will make the group look and sound good.

The flip-side of this coin, however, is that designing as a group can be very challenging. Egos, vendettas, passive-aggressive tendencies, megalomania - these land mines have all derailed the creative process in groups at every level. This can make it an easy decision for a director to assume all creative control and box everyone else out, but this is a mistake. It yields a far better result to include everyone in the process - both in the product and in the instruction.

The trick is to lay down some ground rules (e.g. ‘stay away from jazz’ or ‘nothing faster than 192’ or even ‘start with this genre or period of music’), check everyone’s egos at the door, and then brainstorm with wild abandon. Take your time doing this - either online (use a wiki or google docs) or in person (Post-It meeting pads are great) - this can and should be a weeks-long process. No one’s ideas are good or bad, brilliant or stupid - the wheat will separate from the chaff before long. People will start to build on the ideas that are good, and then go from there.

Once you’ve got the skeleton of your show - which should be roughly 30-50% more than you need - go back and look at how it syncs with the three domains we discussed earlier. If you’re fulfilling all of those with what you’ve put together, then congrats! You are well on your way to strengthening your band program through multi-faceted success in the fall!

So long as you are honest with yourself, communicate openly with everyone involved, and keep your eye on the prize (which is students achieving excellence, creating music, and becoming self-led learners through their preparation and performance) you WILL be successful - both metaphorically and competitively.

Disagree with me? Think my ideas are wrong? Awesome - I want to learn from you! Seriously, I want to hear from you - e-mail me!!! (cmeals42 [at] gmail [dot] com

The Goldmine in the Back Yard

The scariest moment for any director is the day the class requests for the following year arrive. It’s a make-or-break moment, when you see how many new performers will be matriculating up to replace the seasoned veterans that are on their way out. It is the hope of any director that the latter number is considerably larger than the former, but that also means a larger class to bring up to the level of your veteran performers.

The following list are some ideas you can use to help these students reach the level needed to continue and improve the success of the program. They are as much psychological and  organizational ideas as they are instructional. If you have any questions about the implementation or scope of any of these, please feel free to e-mail me (cmeals42@gmail.com). I want to help you tailor these ideas to fit your group and make them successful!

1) Meet them before they get to your program:

This could involve visiting their middle school/intermediate campuses on a regular basis to assist their director with whatever they need. If your schedule doesn’t permit that, then organize social activities that involve the intermediate students and the upper level students working and performing together. A combined performance at a football game is a great ice-breaker, and lets the younger students see what the older get to do on and off the field.

Also, a combined concert session is a great way to catch any students who haven’t signed up by the spring semester. The older and younger students sit integrated in the same ensemble set-up, the older students playing along with the younger on a prepared piece. Then the younger students look on as the older play a piece from their contest (or concert) program. You also could explore peer-led and peer-mediated sight-reading in this setting, as well as several meet-your-neighbor games. The sharing and friendship building is infectious.

Pizza doesn’t hurt either. Lots of pizza.

2) Give them a base to work from:

The last time we traditionally see our students is either late May or early June, and then it’s all-too-often late July or early August before we work with them again. For all students, but especially your incoming students, this time is deadly to their success and productivity in the fall.

If your clientele will support it, I would suggest holding several “introductory” rehearsals during the final weeks of school - geared exclusively towards your freshmen and student leaders. Advertise these starting in January, so that the students have no reason not to know about the rehearsals. Publish fliers, send out e-mails, call each student individually if you have the time. You want a good picture of who your incoming performers are going to be, and this is where you can score huge.

Here you can “introduce” the concepts you want to use to run your rehearsals (teach them how to look, listen, learn, and perform) as well as begin the process of teaching marching technique. This will be the most challenging obstacle for most incoming performers, so it’s best to spend as much time as you can on it. Kinesthetic concepts like marching are hard-fought, dearly-won, and totally worth the time.

Then, hold a multi-day “fundamentals camp” immediately after school lets out. If you have the staff available, it’s best to run this camp as three separate tracks that intersect at carefully-planned points: winds, battery/front ensemble, guard/dance. You can cover the bulk of the marching and music fundamentals you wand to utilize in the fall, as well as begin introducing the idea of moving and playing through these same exercises. In addition, you can cover any incidental music (drill team, National Anthem, school song, fight song) while your students music-learning skills are still high. It will save valuable time during August and September.

3) Include them in the group:

The goal is to weave these students into the social fabric of the program as quickly and seamlessly as possible. Assigning an older student to be their “buddy” is a great way to foster this kind of family atmosphere. If this isn’t a reality for you, assign each section leader to their new members. The incoming students need to feel completely connected, plugged in, and accepted in the program. Even the students who appear at first to be marginal contributors to the band’s success could one day become a drum major - students have an uncanny ability to surprise us.

4) Give them a voice:

Create a student-leader council and include two of the most well-connected and sociable new members on it. Get their input on the issues and decisions facing the band, and then let them evangelize to their friends about what’s right with the program. Even if there are students who dislike these particular students, they will be much more prone to continue their involvement if they see that their opinion matters.

The strength of any program rests in how it trains its young to take the reins down the road. Using the above concepts as guides, I know that you will be able to retain, train, and grow with all your incoming students.

Comments? Feedback? Hit me up! cmeals42 [at] gmail [dot] com

The Taming of the Sophomore…

Children are impatient.

Spend a day around a five-year-old who has accumulated the knowledge to know how some life-mechanism works but still lacks the focus to see it through, and you will see a small-scale version of the workings of an average teenage mind. Much like the annoying boss in every work-place comedy, they want results and they want them now.

It is our duty as teachers to see these impatient beings, so full of heart and potential, through a process exponentially bigger than themselves and help them understand the lessons they encounter as they go. Often I will refer to this as “herding cats”, but in reality it’s more like leading a blindfolded friend through an obstacle course. The benefit of telling them “I told you to listen to me…” when they stub something is a luxury I would urge you to use sparingly.

But in the same vein, our responsibility to both the students and to the craft of teaching comes completely into focus when viewed from this angle. That is why we plan - not to keep the class from crashing around our ears, but to make sure that the daily and weekly objectives and skills fit into the bigger, grander progression of information and improvement that will place our students at the pinnacle of our abilities as they leave our care. It’s not just our job to give them good information, it’s also our duty to help the wring everything they can out of the experiences we create together. Especially in our field, these are powerful experiences that have ramifications far beyond the football field, gym floor, or band hall. Roll your eyes, but the life-lessons are real.

It is to that end that I urge you to look at one simple, dynamic, and over-archingly huge concept in your planning and pedagogy: consistency. From point A to point Z, are your students receiving instruction that dovetails with the last idea they were introduced to? Does your forward and backward technique have a similar kinesthetic vocabulary, so that skills from one reinforce the other? Does your visual approach help to reinforce your individual and ensemble fundamental philosophy? Does the way your students enter the rehearsal reflect your desires for them in the last 10 minutes of that same rehearsal?

If it does, awesome. If not, don’t despair. You’re not harming your students - more than likely you are just spending more time re-teaching and clarifying than you should be. There are more elegant ways to accomplish your goals, both visually and musically. That’s what this series is about - finding those ways.

I don’t proclaim that I have all the answers, or even that everything I tell you will work 100% of the time for you and your group. We all have different battles to fight and students to teach, but the universal truth of consistency in your approach (on a micro-, macro-, personal-, and team-level) is the corner-stone to success for anyone doing anything.

I sincerely hope that you find the information I present to you interesting and helpful. Where I have resources, I will link to them so that you can use that information as well. If you have a question, concern, or simply a disagreement with something that I say PLEASE e-mail me. Ultimately, I am creating this blog as an additional resource for directors - I want to make it as useful to you as the information has been for me.

Thanks for reading - don’t forget to e-mail me with your thoughts and reactions.

cmeals42 [at] gmail [dot] com

‘Tis the Season for Scores and Coffee

The months of November and December are two of my absolute favorites as a band director. Aside from the obvious excitement of finishing out marching band and football, there’s the added benefit of selecting concert music for the Spring semester thrown in. In Texas, our Spring semester selections come from a list, and are graduated according to grade level. We do have the ability to add pieces that we find and believe are of quality, which is nice, but most of the time we stay with the list as it has lots of goodies ferreted away within its folds.

One of the most enjoyable things about music selection is the enormous sense of possibility that exists within the sphere of the repertoire. We all know that some pieces are completely out of our reach, but the realm of ‘what-might-be’ is so deep and wide… it’s an exciting time.

There are several things, though, to keep in mind as we traverse this expanse of literature. It is filled with amazing new works and chestnuts that will outlast our careers and those of our students, but one must select pieces of this importance carefully. There are some simple, time-honored rules that can help narrow the field down to ‘what-very-likley-could-be’ or even ‘what-could-actually-work-and-not-create-heart-conditions-in-april’. Those are the pieces we want to find, and fast.

Rule #1) Never pick a piece that has ranges you have not heard your students perform with a good sound. The most efficient way I have found to measure what these ranges (high and low) are is through full-range scales. It is a humbling experience, and will definitely show you your weak and strong sections. It’s a great litmus test for work-ethic as well - if students don’t pass off their scales in an timely manner, it’s going to be difficult for them to work up technique with any urgency.

Rule #2) Don’t pick pieces where the technique outstrips rhythms or fundamentals your students are weak on. For instance, it would a bad idea to attempt a transcription of Tschaikovsky’s 4th Symphony, Mvt. IV, if your students can only play their scales in quarter and eighth notes at 92 bpm. Equally unwise would be to program a Sousa march with a band whose ensemble articulation is mediocre and muddy at best. Picking something to challenge the students is completely in line with quality music selection, but they won’t be successful if the skills required of them are 3-4 levels above their abilities. Shoot for one level or completely in their wheelhouse - add practice, performance, and repeat yearly.

Rule #3) Don’t pick a piece you’re not willing to (or fear you won’t have the time to) teach the fundamentals of to your students. This is applicable to both the musical and technical aspects of the piece in question. If you (or your students) don’t have it in you to refine ensemble technique, don’t select Morningstar by David Maslanka. If you’re still learning the upper levels of how to create clarity in complex harmonies, don’t select pieces like Lincolnshire Posy or As the Scent of Spring Rain. Completely divergent pieces, but both require ensemble clarity in moments of high harmonic demand. If you aren’t willing to dissect it, refine it, polish it, and test it - don’t play it.

Rule #4) Balance music your students should play with music your students want to play. Too much of one or the other is like too much dessert or too much broccoli - both have hidden consequences that reveal themselves down the road. It’s okay to play a flashy opening piece your students like (Ride by Samuel Hazo, for instance) and couple it with a piece that will stretch their musicianship (Sanctuary by Frank Ticheli), and close it out with a march that they can sound great on (Belle of Chicago by J.P. Sousa). If your students get excited about playing Hindemith or Husa, however, count your lucky stars and put it on their stands - you are somewhere special!

Rule #4A) In marches, stay away from editions with full score that take the first clarinets into their clarion register in unison with the flutes. That scoring is devilish to balance and tune, and is almost more work than it is worth in the long run. If your score is condensed and you can safely drop your clarinets into a reasonable register, run with it. Otherwise stop, look, think, and re-file.

Rule #5) Look at your time-on-instrument for brass players. Unless you have extremely deep sections, make sure there’s room within each piece for your brass to rest and regroup - they are the heavy artillery in any literature, but they can’t play continuously. If you over-program, they most likely will run out of gas before the performance is finished.

Rule #6) Play to your strengths. If you have a phenomenal soloist then you need to feature them. It not only makes the ensemble sound better, but lets the younger and less experienced performers know that you will reward their efforts with performance opportunities if they continue to improve. There is no harm in centering an entire movement around one student, so long as they have the musical tenacity to focus for that length of time. A good indicator is earned success in an honor-ensemble audition process.

There are many, many more rules to consider, all of which should come from your experiences teaching your students and visiting with other directors. The key things to remember are to know the abilities of your performers, know where your ensemble and fundamental weaknesses lie, and select your music accordingly.

Questions or comments? E-mail me cmeals42 [at] gmail [dot] com.