Klarinet Archive - Posting 001001.txt from 1999/07

From: Roger Shilcock <roger.shilcock@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: [kl] re: Marching band - to be or not to be
Date: Mon, 26 Jul 1999 09:34:00 -0400

Is there no marching band list?? I'm sure *this* isn't it.....
Perhaps someone can set one up and exclude all non-U.S. subscribers
-- PLEASE.
Roger Shilcock

On Sat, 24 Jul 1999, Carl Schexnayder wrote:

> Date: Sat, 24 Jul 1999 00:58:21 -0500
> From: Carl Schexnayder <carlsche@-----.net>
> Reply-To: klarinet@-----.org
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: Re: [kl] re: Marching band - to be or not to be
>
> 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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