Marching Band

Virginia Beach Music Festival and the 3rd Floor Balcony

2 Comments / High Schools, Marching Band, Personal experience, Storytelling, Throw Back Thursday /

The Virginia Beach Music Festival was a multi-day event that included competitions in Marching, Concert, Parade, Jazz, and Inspection. 

Normally a band year has multiple seasons. Summer and Fall are mostly Marching Band. Some competitions included an inspection element, which included standing at attention for about 15 minutes while someone went through with white gloves and inspected selected instruments and uniforms. Marching season transitions into Concert Band — and Jazz Band starts up. Late Spring and early Summer is parade season. 

To prepare for Virginia Beach, all that had to be going on simultaneously. 

During school, the concert band would rehearse. Jazz Band was after school and evenings were a combination of marching, parade and inspection practice.

The campus had a long driveway that we used, but would often go through a couple of the neighborhood blocks. Inspections involved Copenhaver’s paddle. We would stand at attention and he would walk in front of us, stopping to stare and to grab and check instruments. If anything was wrong, he’d say, “That’s one”, which meant he would get you with the paddle when he got behind you, which could be several minutes later. And if you moved when he whacked you, guess what. Right. I never got the paddle. 

The first time Holmes participated in 1969, (my Freshman year) Holmes was Grand Champion. We returned in 1970 as “Honor Band” for the event. 

Director Copenhaver was from Virginia and our two Greyhound busses stoped at a park near his hometown for a community-provided picnic. I remember one of the busses got stuck crossing a small creek. 

Two memorable events at the hotel we used. First, was one evening during the week when Mr. Copenhaver was in the parking lot and looked up at many of us on the balconies and said, 

“They know we’re here.”

Other than when actually winning an event, it was the happiest I recall him looking and sounding. 

The other was an evening when a group of seniors came knocking on our door. I was in a room with three other freshmen boys. They were there for “initiation”, which normally included some combination of ice down the underwear with shaving cream there and everywhere else — and then locked out of the room. 

The four of us (I think we all four), went over the balcony. The floors were close enough together that we could go from floor to floor…. Until we could jump to the ground. 

I can’t believe I did that. 

But I never experienced “initiation”. And I never did that to anyone else.

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Teens will listen

Leave a Comment / Assistant Directing, High Schools, Marching Band, Music Department, Personal experience, Repost, Respect, Teaching, Teaching Music /

By John Gardner

Talking to the band
R – E – S – P – E – C – T

UPDATE: This pic is from @2016. I retired in 2020, but I still like this pic and believe the point I am making.

I worked with teens for years. I thrive on their youthful enthusiasm. I have always believed that if you show them that you really care about them as an individual, and treat them with dignity and respect, that they will give it to you in return. Can you see that in this pic?

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Where’s the Band? It was a good prank.

Assistant Directing, High Schools, Marching Band, Personal experience /
This is the second “story” Mr. Campbell suggested I add to my “Stories Through My Ages” memoir.
“Where’s the Band?” When Mr. Campbell pranked ME!
Beowulf1
In Fall 2005, my first year at Huntington North, the marching band show, “Beowulf” used “rocks” as props. Eighteen were transported via semi trailer.
Getting on/off the field required students assigned per rock. Some had their instruments carried by other students.
My assignment was getting the props from the truck to the staging area at contest and then back to the bus/truck area after the performance.
At one competition, my crew and I were returning with our ‘rocks’, and suddenly it was like, “Where’s the Band?”
Mr. Campbell coordinated all getting onto the transport truck as we were returning. It was a good prank.
Beowulf 2

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Accountability: I made them cry

Leave a Comment / Assistant Directing, High Schools, Marching Band, Personal experience, Repost /
Sent from Semi-State warmup. There is a story behind the pic….
Two years ago, I was following the band. About 30 minutes into the trip, I got a message that the percussion forgot their mallet bag. So Joan & I drove 30 min back to Huntington, got the mallet bag, and raced to Indy. By the time we got there and found them, they were in THIS visual warm-up area, last stop before going on the field.

As I handed the mallet bag out the window, I told them,

“This is not over.”

When everything was done and we were loading to leave, I called them over and reinforced for them how that was NOT a small mistake. When I told them I was disappointed, I started some tears. They knew I loved them, but also that I would hold them accountable. We were good by Monday class.

I also told them they would NEVER again forget their stuff. So….this is their telling me they remembered this time — holding out their mallets.

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Didn’t you turn out the lights?

Assistant Directing, High Schools, Marching Band, Personal experience, Teaching, Teaching Music /

I did not include this story in my “Stories Through My Ages” Memoir for multiple reasons. It is difficult to explain and it makes ME look kinda, ummmmm, well, you’ll see.

Stories Throughout my Ages

I gave a copy of my book to three former bosses and one of them called to specifically suggest I add two stories, of which this is one.

In my first year teaching at the local high school, it was my assignment to turn out the stadium lights and lock the complex following evening marching band rehearsals there. These lights were the older mercury style that would flicker on and take 2-3 minutes to reach full brightness. Turning them on/off required the use of my master key to open a room under the stadium, taking a special forked key to insert into a switch box where the switch itself was internal and invisible. All done by feel. Easy peasy. 

After one of my earlier times at this task, I switched the lights off, stepped outside to confirm, locked up the room and the gates, and returned across the highway and down the long drive to reach Door 34. 

As I got out of my car, I could see the stadium lights ablaze. Confused, and not wanting to admit I couldn’t turn out the lights, I got back in my car, unlocked the stadium gate, drove to the under-stadium room, unlocked it, took the magic key, and turned out the lights (again). I stepped out of the room and, yes, the lights were out. I repeated the exit routine and went back to the band room. 

Several minutes later, as we left the high school, Mr. Campbell and I were walking toward our cars when he asked,

“Didn’t you turn out the lights?”

I did. But, again, they were brightly on. He suggested I go back and try again, and then meet him at Wendy’s to get a Frosty, from where we could observe that the lights stayed out. Done. And done.

On another such night, when we didn’t notice, the police called the Athletic Director to tell him the stadium lights were on. He understood what was happening and explained it in such a way it would not happen again.

As it “turns out”, when I thought I was turning out the lights, I was not getting the internal switch to the ‘off’ position. So, in breaking the circuit, the lights did what they were supposed to do — cool down and then re-ignite. So, from the time I switched off, it might be several minutes later that they were back on. 

Once I understood I needed a harder “click”, it never happened again. That stadium and those lights are gone. The new stadium has LED lighting that can be flickered in patterns when the team scores a touchdown. 

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A Silly Deal with the Band

Leave a Comment / Assistant Directing, Marching Band, Music Department, Personal experience, Respect /

It was at my first Regional Competition at Chesterton in my first year returning to education in 2005. Mr. Campbell and I were walking back toward the buses with the judges’ “Silver” rating results. I was wearing a new school windbreaker Mr. Campbell had given me. 

“You might want to take that off or flip it inside out.”, he said, with no additional comment. 

I questioned him. He simply repeated the advice which I ignored because it made no sense. 

We climbed up the ramp of the trailer to talk to the band. After we spoke, and when students started coming up the ramp, Mr. Campbell stopped them and said, 

“Not on here. We’ll come down.”

I still had no idea.

A few seconds later they were all squirting silly string at us. It was one of those “traditions” no one had told me about. There was a “band buddy” system in place where, throughout the season, members would anonymously get small gifts for their “buddy”. But on the final competition, everybody’s gift to each other was a can of silly string.

What a mess. But, as soon as it was over, all students picked up as much of the silly string as they could. I found that impressive, but I guess it was part of the tradition … and we were at another school.

The next year, at Lafayette Jefferson, I was ready, and so were the students.

But I had a problem with the tradition and shared it with them….not sure if it was in a subsequent rehearsal or at the band banquet, but it went something like this,

“I have two problems with this silly string tradition. First, you are making a mess at someone else’s school. I know you work to clean it up, but you cannot get all of it and so there is always “evidence” that we were there. 

NOTE: I started using the phrase, ‘Leave no evidence’ anytime we were needing to clean up, such as when we were having snacks or celebrating a birthday.) 

And second, you are “celebrating” a SILVER rating. Yes, you’re probably celebrating the end of the season, but it just doesn’t feel right. I don’t want you to silly string ME again until you receive a GOLD rating.“

There were no “silly string” celebrations in 2007-08. But, in 2009, the band received GOLD for the first time since 2001. Speaking for both directors, I made them a “deal”…..

“Let’s have our “GOLD-rating Silly String Celebration back at HNHS, following the band banquet. Bring your stuff to the banquet, and afterward, Mr. Campbell and I will, voluntarily, meet you outside Door 34. Of course, you will have to do clean up, right?”

Deal!

I did two things to enhance our celebration. First, I brought several cans of stringy for Mr. Campbell and I to use. We knew we’d be outnumbered and surrounded, but we would not be unarmed. But also, prior to the evening, I had gone to a small group of trusted parents……

“Following the banquet, Mr. Campbell and I are going to meet the band outside Door 34. They will surround us and silly string us. When THEY surround us, I want YOU to surround THEM, and when it all breaks loose, I want YOU to silly string THEM.”

It was great. 

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Two stories about small schools with larger bands

High Schools, Marching Band, Personal experience, Respect, Teaching, Teaching Music, Throw Back Thursday /

Joan suggested I respond to a post with a similar story… (shortened for this post). MY experience follows.

From David Bloss, Level 3 contributor in “Band” group.

“My small town HS in northern Oklahoma had a combined middle & high school band. I estimate the student population was around 300. We had 84 in the band (drum major and 2 twirlers for marching … ”

MY EXPERIENCE

Four days before graduation from the University of Kentucky, I was hired for my first teaching job. I went from a community of nearly 100K (Covington, KY) and an inner-city jr/sr high school (Holmes) of 2000+ — to a community of about 1000 (Pekin, IN) and a jr/sr high school (Eastern) population of under 400….. and no football team.

I somehow survived the culture shock and am grateful to have learned so much from that community. When I got stuck in the snow, no one drove past without getting out to help. When I drove a bandster home from rehearsal, I was expected to accept eggs from their chicken house. But, I also learned those teens were hard-working, talented, committed, and thrived at an opportunity to prove themselves to other communities….to me…..and to themselves.

I was befriended and mentored by an amazing artist (Richard Trueblood) who was my only outside staffer, although I don’t think we ever paid him — my ignorance. He did amazing things with our guard and together we created and taught winning choreography.

I was only there four years. Band grew from 39 (with 8th graders) to 93 with only grades 9-12, including 18 flags and 6 rifles….

In KY, we competed in “Band Size” competitions, which put us against large schools. When we could compete in “School Size” competitions, our band was normally 2-3x the size of our competitors.

We had a good run, receiving lots of guard, other caption and top placement awards. At the State Level, we were in Class C (there was no Class D at the time) and ranked 4th twice. Last year, that same school won 1st place in the small division in Scholastic Class, which also did not exist during my tenure.

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Marching Band Fails

Assistant Directing, Marching Band, Music Performance, Respect, Social Media, Teaching Music /
I want to be careful and mindful posting this. As far as I know, no one was hurt. I’ve heard people say marching band is easy. If you say that, you should try it. I mean….out there on the field. For a few years, at the end of Band Camp, we would invite parents to learn a portion of drill with their student. Of course, we didn’t really give them time to learn it because that was not the point. It DID give those parents a new perspective on what their student was doing.
Most of these types of fails would not have happened (often) when I was marching…..but today’s complex drills, fast paces, close intervals and backward marching…. well….
Watch for a laugh……but it is marching season, and KUDOS to the way those in this video responded through their fail.
Go ahead. You can laugh out loud. Then go cheer on a marching band.

 

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Commitment: Cheerleader to Percussion and back

Assistant Directing, High Schools, Marching Band, News and Happenings, Personal experience, Repost, Respect, Throw Back Thursday /
Cheer for first half, band for halftime, back to cheer for 2nd half

One of my all time favorites because it shows commitment and dedication. This girl is a cheerleader during the first half of the game, then, while the other cheerleaders have a break, she runs to the band, grabs her drum and marches halftime…..and then back to cheer for the rest of the game.

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