Klarinet Archive - Posting 000856.txt from 1999/07

From: "Carl Schexnayder" <carlsche@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] re: Marching band - to be or not to be
Date: Sat, 24 Jul 1999 01:58:21 -0400

I'd like to make a few , (hopefully short), comments. I know, you'll say,
"You'd not only like to , you're gonna do it"! Well, unfortunately, yes.
So here goes.

I have no choice but to make marching band mandatory! The second year of my
high school carreer, we had been invited to perform, (concert music), at the
Western International Band Clinic in San Jose, California. Obviously, this
is a long trip from Louisiana and we had to raise our own money. It was the
first year that clinic was held. Well, for the exposure a performance like
that earns for a brand new high school, you would think the administration
and the school board, etc., would have been impressed, or proud, or
something!! Instead, I almost lost my job because they thought I neglected
the marching band!!!!

The performance took place in January, so we had to rehearse that music
starting with the beginning of school. So we rehearsed that music before
school and spent some time on it during the school day. We practiced
marching band after school two hours per rehearsal on Tuesday, Wednesday,
and Thursday of each week! It wasn't good enough!!! Of course, some of
that time was spent learning marching band music instead of spending it all
on drill.

They waited until I got back from California, and then called me into the
office, and I couldn't believe what I was hearing!!!! They wanted to demote
me to Assistant Director and give my assistant my job!!! And they actually
did just that in effect although I didn't lose my salary or my title or my
concert season authority! But, the next year, my assistant was the marching
band director and made sure everyone knew about it!!!!!!! Luckily, the year
after that, we changed principals and a former band director was named place
of the original one, so I was reenstated!

Before I started that job, I had been head director at East Ascension Junior
High School. I had been there since it started and left there when it
closed. In 1976, I had brought that band to the Mid-West International Band
and Orchestra Festival in Chicago!!!! We were the first band from that
parish ever to be selected for a performance at any clinic!!!! And we were
the third Louisiana band ever to perform at Mid-West in the thirty-third
year of the clinic!! People reacted much differently that time. Our band
had to perform in the stands, but we did not march on the field, so we had
no drill to mess up. We played in the stands with french horns , oboes,
bassoons, bass clarinets, contra clarinet.........and nobody said a thing
about it!

Needless to say, after that high school experience, I never applied for a
major clinic again!! We played for the Four-States Band Masters'
Conference, the Southern Conductors' Conference, the Ark-La-Tex Tri-State
Band Clinic and others near home, but I never attempted anything like those
first two performances again!!!

Anyway, now we practice marching band music during he school day and drill
after school and make sure that it's good enough to satisfy the most
discerning football fan, (if there is such a thing)!!!!! So there's no
question that we will have a marching band and there's no question that it
will be sufficiently rehearsed!! Even so, we don't go really over board
with it. We practice drill on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, but only
from 3:00 to 4:30. I don't allow students to overblow their embouchures, or
stick out or cut through the ensemble. We work on balance, blend and
intonation, style, etc. We've only been to marching contest twice, but both
times we were voted toh best sounding band, (still never the best MARCHING
band), although we still got superior ratings!

I have a few students who like marching band the best, but for the most
part, my students can't wait for concert season!!!!

Carl Schexnayder

>On Fri, 23 Jul 1999, Dee D. Hays wrote:
>> It would be fine to make it mandatory if they didn't spend so much time
on
>> it. If they took one band practice a week out of five to work on the
drills
>> that would be fine. Then make it mandatory. Even the super serious
>> students appreciate the fun of getting out and doing something different.
>> But requiring them to be in a marching band whose training is so time
>> consuming that it is more of a sport makes it unreasonable to make the
>> marching band mandatory. So it depends upon the program.
>
>One out of five if they do the same show every week with an
>addition/deleting here and there each game. But for a differnt show each
>game, as I used to do, 4 out of five rehearsals on the field,
>incorporating a concert rehearsal in concert formation as well as marching
>drill, is more realistic.
>
>RG

Ah but that was my point. They should think of these aspects when planning
the shows. Balance the marching with other things. So if that means
significant repetition in the shows then so be it.

Dee Hays
Canton, SD

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