Doesn't this just warm your heart?

First off, watch this...

Check out this great MSN video: Marching band serenades teen’s dying grandma

Doesn't that just warm your heart? I know it did mine, especially since my grandfather passed away without ever having the opportunity to see my marching band.

DJ go home

Last week, we had our first football game. Everything came off without a hitch, except for the fact that the principal hired a DJ to play at the game.

Now, before you jump on his case, it is important to know that he's the kind of guy that will say yes to anyone just to keep from conflict, not to mention his daughter is in band.

speaking of which, it seemed like everytime we got ready to play something, the DJ would crank something, including during halftime!

Now, some may think that the crowd would be more into hearing "popular" music and rappers cussing rather than a high school band, which is the reason a DJ was hired, but the fact is, the crowd (who rarely react to anything) actually got up, danced, and cheered when we played as opposed to when the DJ played.

Keeping on that note, the mass outrage about the DJ has been more than surprising. I don't need to tell you that band isn't exactly the most popular "club" down here, but people (including those that have nothing to do with us) were highly offended that the school board, Principal, and whoever would hire a DJ and that they tried to play over us, especially during out halftime performance!!!

The only people supporting the DJ are the people that wanted to hear that type of music and the ones that wanted to hire him, which is like maybe 10 people from my understanding.

The battle is still ongoing, and I will keep you posted. The next home game is this week. I'm sure things will be resolved by then...well, they would in most places. I can only hope down here, though.

So, what do you think, dear readers. Do you think they were right in this hiring of the DJ, or do you have common sense and side with us? I'm curious to know what you have to say about this situation.

Thanks for reading!

Contest

Last Saturday was up and down for me. I say that because the band kids went did their best show of the season, yet didn't get rewarded for it. How is this possible you ask? I really have no idea. You have to ask the judges.

Let me talk about the judges for a second. They ripped the band for the usual stuff (off step, step size, drummers not sticking together, etc.) These are the little things that both myself and Bossman attributed to nerves of being the first contest and not getting to really perform this season, so we accepted that, but some of the other mess they got us for was just nit picky.

Now, I have no issue with nit picky judges. How else can you get better than with the judges that are complete assholes (pardon my French). They are usually the ones that will tell it like it is and what you need to fix without sugar coating it, y'know? However, for almost all of the bands there, it was the first contest, so for me, I felt like they judged a bit hard.

As I said, the kids did their best performance of the season, but they didn't play as well as they did in warm-up, but it was still pretty darn good. There were some issues...mostly with the trashcan feature (if the video works below, you can see it.)

The day went on, and I was getting ansy. On top of that, most of the bands that performed during the day did rather boring shows. That isn't to say they were bad, just not really interesting.

Finally, after sitting in the direct sun for he entire day, it was time for the results. (note that the sun just happens to go down as they were about to start...WTF?!?)

Small class ratings are announced and they get to us. Auxiliary-I, Percussion- III, Band-III. You could hear a pin drop in the stadium. Most of the talk throughout he day was how well we did, and to come away with a III for full band did not feel good, but there is a silver lining. All but 1 of the bands in our class got the same rating.

I won't make excuses, but something tells me that there was a small band bias. Don't believe me? The middle and large bands almost all got I's, except for a couple, and trust me, their shows weren't as clean. It was just their mistakes weren't as obvious because of all their members.

Anyway, time for the best in class announcement. Last year we came in 2nd and were hoping to get the title this year. With a III, that wasn't going happen, but since almost all the bands in our class got the same thing, you never know.

Unfortunately, we didn't get it, but there was a controversy, especially after looking at the score sheet. Our auxiliary had a score of 199 out of 200. So, unless the school that got best in class had a perfect score, which I doubt, since they were dropping flags left and right from what I saw, then we should have gotten it. Rumor is since they came from Mississippi, the contest conspired to make sure they won, no matter what.

I seriously hope that this isn't the case. If it does turn out to be so, though, I can guarantee you we will not be going back.

There is not time to dwell on the past, though. We have two major contests ahead and have to clean things up and be ready for them. Hopefully Bossman whipped them into shape this week, while I've been sick. I also hope that the judges at the next contest won't have any anti-small band bias. This is getting pretty bad. I almost dare to say that there needs to be a contest specifically for small bands. Geesh!

You can watch the show here.

Please, please, PLEASE help!

It's been a while since I've put in a shameless plug, but this one involves my alma mater. I'm sure you've heard of the show Hawaii 5-0. Well, they did a remake that comes on CBS on Monday nights.

To coincide with the remake, they are giving away $25,000 to a deserving collegiate marching band, so voted on by the public. This is why I'm asking you all to go vote for Northwestern St. University.

I don't need to tell you that this money can go a long way. It takes a lot to run a band program these days, especially at the collegiate level.

Please, please, please, vote for NSU!

http://promotions.mardenkane.com/cbs/marchingbandmania/index.cfm

Adventures in the Griffin's lair

No, this isn't some kind of fantasy blog post, but rather a follow up about the contest I went to on Saturday which happened to be hosted by a school with a Griffin as the mascot (hence the title).

It has been brought to me attention, that there are more than a few of us marching band bloggers out there, so this is more for you guys than anyone else.

Saturday was forecast earlier on in the week to be quite warm, at 80 degrees, but a cold front came through this time last week, and changed everything. Turned out that the temp didn't get above 60 (plus cold wind gusts).

Now for those of you that live up north, you'd probably be dancing around outside in your underwear if it would be like that where you are, but for us down here, especially since it was so sudden, it takes a little bit of adjustment.

Lucky band kids get to wear their nice wool uniforms...not really a fan of the baby blue, but school colors are school colors, what can I say?

I must say that I enjoyed myself on Saturday. The most I've done so since I was on the other side of the podium. This turned out to be one of the most entertaining contests I've been to in recent memories. I think that has a lot to do with the bands not trying to make the football field a concert hall or do something cutting edge, but rather entertain the crowd.

There were some of those original, concert shows, but there were also to see that featured music of Broadway, Billy Joel, Michael McDonald, Evanescence, The Beatles,Earth, Wind, & Fire, and Latin music. I would prefer not to mention the atrocity that was done to Michael Jackson's music by the first band to compete. Let's just say it was bad times 100.

After they finally walked...yes, I said WALKED, off the field, we entered the stadium and the place went bananas (as much as it can with only a handful of people there...gotta love being one of the early bands). The kids rocked it. Yes, there were a few mistakes, but those were mainly nerves with this being the first contest and all. I was pleased with that they did, and I think bossman was, too.

The day went on and the bands got bigger and better. The sun went down and it got colder and colder. Finally, the awards ceremony started.

They call our name and the ratings: percussion-2, band 2. Not the best, but we could have done a LOT worse. They then announce the rankings...percussion 2nd in small class, band 3rd on small class (out of 5). Not too shabby. Some things will be cleaned up before we head to the big contest on a couple of weeks.

As good as they may think they were, it won't cut the mustard out there. I will say though, that this has to be one of the most enthusiastic group of parents I've encountered in my band career. Of all 35 students, 30 sets of parents made the 20 minute trip to see their offspring perform, and what was even better, they stayed the whole day!

The grand champion for contest was a Class AA band (that's average size), which is quite odd, since most of the time its one of the giant bands that ends up winning, but never a small band. One day I'll go into the small band bias.

A little competition never hurt anyone

I think we all grew up in days gone by when competition was competition. You know those days where that if you won, you won and you lost, you lost. There was no celebration for just participating. Sure you may have gotten a trophy or certificate or something for showing up, but that bad taste was in your mouth for not being good enough. These days everyone is so scared to hurt someone's feeling or crush their spirits or whatever.

Well, today I get to see some good old high school competition. No, its not athletic, but rather marching band. I'm sure some of you are looking at me like "WTF?!? Band isn't competition!" Well, for those of you that may be saying that, I challenge to look at some marching videos on YouTube or somewhere. Some of the stuff these kids do is nothing short of spectacular. Of course, at the same time, there are those that just show up...the equivalent of the Detroit Lions, if you will.

My fellow blogger, Lin, knows what I'm talking about with these band contests as her two kids are currently in band up where she lives and just recently she nearly froze her butt off in support of them at their contest. I initially thought I wasn't going to be doing that, since they had forecast it to be 80 degrees today, but a cold front came through Thursday night and temperatures dropped like a rock. It is forecast to be around 60 today. Still way warmer than where she was, but hey, this is Louisiana, its not gonna be in the negatives, especially in October...lol

As I was saying, these kids go out there and put on the performance of their lives, then get out of their uniforms, go back and watch the other bands and wait for the awards ceremony to see what score they earned. Those that do well are ecstatic after they win their trophies, while those that come away empty handed hang their heads in shame and head home with just a participation trophy and the judges sheets/tapes.

while there may not be any head on head competition...at least at the one my students are competing in today (there are those that rank the bands that perform, so you're in competition with everyone, regardless of size...that's topic for another day), it is still something to relish because kids are competing and not being babied.

So, as I sit here checking my e-mail and blogs (and waiting for the little woman to get dressed) before I need to get over to the school, I wonder what kind of performance the kids are going to put on this afternoon. I'm sure they'll do just fine, but it would be totally awesome to bring back one of those Grand Champion trophies (and laugh in the face of the man I student taught under who has won the thing 27 yrs in row!!!) Yeah, that's a big goal, but hey, it's not impossible! I have a competitive spirit, what can I say?