WEBVTT
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I just think, Mike, that we really ought to give this is the Ask Mike podcast, and and you come every time with great information.
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But I just want to give a shout out to Rick in the chair.
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Nobody ever sees him, nobody ever really hears him.
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But he does such a great job of of making us uh sound with the material we give him, with with what the clay he's got to work with.
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But he does a great job, and I appreciate him so very much.
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Yeah, we love Rick.
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And you better leave that in the podcast, my friend.
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So all right.
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So here we are, uh in the midst of a series of episodes referencing uh our upcoming marching season, right?
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How do we get ready for it?
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Uh what are the uh I don't know if we call them best practices, but things that we could do to be successful uh with our students.
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So last week we kind of talked about how to create a winning culture or how to win at marching van.
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And uh, where are you going to take us this week, my friend?
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Well, a lot of this info from uh today's podcast is from a book called Beyond the Basics by Nick Benson, Adam Oswald, and Dylan Thompson.
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So Beyond the Basics.
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So you can get that and it's a downloadable PDF and you you pay for the download or whatever.
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Uh it's amazing.
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It's really amazing.
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Uh, plus a lot of info from my personal experience in messing up marching bands for the past 38 years.
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Um basic efforts, plus performing the previous nine years before teaching.
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You know what I mean?
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So it's based on a lot of mistakes and a lot of the times when things accidentally happened well.
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But those guys are just brilliant.
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But you know, teaching marching does not always receive the attention and respect it probably deserves.
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I'd agree with that.
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You know, it's it's like, and granted, it we call it marching band, uh, and it needs to be more about the music.
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It does, but we can't ignore the marching.
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Okay.
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Um, and marching is kind of a pretty big term nowadays, you know.
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Um, so marching includes any kind of body movement that we're doing, any kind of speaking we're doing, any kind of foot movement we're doing.
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It's a pretty broad-based idea now, but it's all important.
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You know, whether it's some vagary involved in the term marching band.
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Yeah, whether it's an actual marching band, like our good old East Texas military marching bands, so I love watching those bands, or it's a drum and bugle core, you know, or indoor wind ensemble, uh, you know, indoor winds, like, you know, things for WGI.
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The quality of marching and movement training is often what makes it possible to create that type of music.
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It kind of conveys the show.
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Um, for me, the best approach to the visual caption, which is marching and choreography, um, is all about creating a certain look on the field.
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Okay.
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There has to be a look to your band, okay?
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There has to be a style to it.
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Today, and that's why I wore my nice little gray sports coat today.
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We want to convey a style.
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I I'm conveying my college professor.
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I need a, I don't have a turtleneck.
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I almost I tried to find a turtleneck because I was gonna wear a turtleneck and put a baton in the back, you know, like those real directors do at college.
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That's right.
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You know, so there has to be a certain look to what happens, and that look is going to be important to your band.
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Uh, the first part of that look, it has to demonstrate strength.
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It has to demonstrate strength.
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So even the way they stand on the ramp before they enter the field must demonstrate strength.
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And the question always comes up uh great, nice vague term there, Mike Lenny.
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Um, what are you talking about?
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You know, they're not wiggling around, they're not emptying water out of their horns, they're not turning around and talking to their neighbor behind them.
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They're not their heads not bobbing left and right, and they're not moving around, you know.
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Um, they they are standing in parade rest or second position or atheredi, whatever position you have them in, they're just simply standing there waiting to go.
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Can you imagine like an Olympic hundred-meter dash and everyone's wiggling on the starting blocks?
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No, it's not gonna happen because those are trained athletes, so they're absolutely perfectly still until that starter gun goes pop.
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And then every muscle in their body propels them off those blocks.
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They're not wiggling around and picking their nose and scratching their butt, you know, and like, oh, it's time to run.
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Wave into the crowd.
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Yeah, wave into the crowd.
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So it has to demonstrate that strength.
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Number two is actually to me, it's harder.
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Um, make the show look easy.
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It's got to you cannot feel, for better lack of a term, as an audience member, you cannot feel the difficulty of what the band's doing.
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Right.
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And I'm gonna stop you just for a second because whether they believe it or not, whether you believe it or not, Mr.
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Miss Educator, that conveys there is an uneasiness in the audience watching an undisciplined and not strong a band that doesn't display strength, however that term is defined, it makes me uneasy to watch you.
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You're waiting for something to go wrong.
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Oh, yeah.
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There's there's or you're your expectation is this is not going to be amazing.
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Yeah, maybe that's a kinder way to say that.
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You're already thinking to yourself, I'm gonna applaud at the end because they're finished.
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Right.
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Yay, that was another band.
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They're done.
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Okay, yay, they they finished, they finished.
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Red Riding Hood has run around and scared the wolf, and now we're gonna we're gonna run off the field.
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Okay.
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So I guess my point is though, is that that does communicate body language, 90% nonverbal communication.
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And we're not just um we're talking marching band, obviously, but doesn't that convey also to uh jazz band and to uh concert band and brass quintets and uh meeting someone for the very first time?
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You must convey some sort of strength, you know, uh a nice good handshake of what my daddy always said, you know, never shake a man's hand unless you're standing up.
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Right.
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You know, it conveys strength.
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Tell me the truth.
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Tell me if I'm wrong, as an adjudicator, have you not written this line?
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Because you could tell something weird happened that day.
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That's a strong band, but something weird happened today.
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I could tell something was off that or so, you know.
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I I don't know exactly how I was gonna phrase that.
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Oh, I know exactly what you're telling me.
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If the band's not strong, you're like, hey, we need to work on some fundamentals and we need to and you're ready to write things negatively, but if they approach it with strength and they approach it with grace, and and you can tell that's a good band.
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I could tell something's just something happened.
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I'm not sure what it was, but I could tell this is a good band.
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Yeah.
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How many times have you written that?
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Oh, yeah.
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And uh, and nowadays in March and we don't write a whole lot.
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Isn't that interesting on that competition?
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You can talk, okay.
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That's what I mean.
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There's a tear in the tempo.
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So uh so they kind of look at that for whatever level you might be going to next or whatever contest you have in the future or Friday night football game, said look at that and kind of said, in my opinion, it's because the people, the brass are so far front field, they're following the drum majors, and they can't follow the drum majors, they must follow the drum line because they're in front of the hash marks.
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But your opening to that was I could tell this is a good band.
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Yeah.
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Or conversely, if if you know it's a weaker band, you just like you said, you immediately go into let's talk about how we can make our fundamentals stronger.
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Right.
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You know, because we just assume that they're, you know, and I I've said it too, like a band will play really, really well, and then they'll just hit a clunker.
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You know what I mean?
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And you go, man, this band plays so pretty.
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Even that bad note sounded pretty.
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That gets the message across, doesn't it?
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It's like uh you don't sweat much for fat people compliment, you know.
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Yeah, it's kind of a backhanded compliment made in jovial, you know, manner.
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I'm not sure I've ever heard that before.
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That was good.
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Yeah, that's awesome.
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You don't sweat much for a fat guy, you know.
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So you see, is that a compliment or an insult?
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Yeah, but but I love saying that to a band when they play really pretty and then they just do something kind of dumb.
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You know, we all do.
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You know, it's like, man, y'all play so with such a pretty sound and so well in tune that even your even your bad note right there sounded really nice.
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So they you've you've acknowledged they screwed up, but you've given credit to the fact that you know they're disciplined and you know that they've been taught correctly and they're they're working hard on stage.
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So um uh the next thing is achieving graceful body lines.
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Oh my gosh, just making sure that there's a continuity.
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It's it's really weird to think about this, but it's a continuity between all the way from the head and shoulders, all the way down to the toes, where um in traditional marching style, that's not a big issue.
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It's like from the waist up, we're a musician with good horn posture, of course, but from the waist down, we're marching machines.
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Right.
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And those days are gone.
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Okay.
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So it has to be where it it operates as one continuous unit the whole time.
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That how we do our hips, how we do our shoulders is going to also affect what we do with our feet because we want that line all the way from our nose all the way down to the tip of our toes.
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You know, that we we that have a certain way that are the bend of our leg, how we how is our pelvis right underneath our body?
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Are we not pushing our rear end out or leaning back?
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Uh, what things are we doing that look different on field?
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And you know, so it's just a matter of making it all look the same, you know, and we have to move through each phrase, whether that's a drill phrase.
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We're talking drill phrases here with purpose and having presence in the field.
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And that's it's one of those things that's easy to recognize, but it's almost impossible to describe.
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Isn't that weird?
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That's the that's the tricky part.
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You can watch a band, and you know, I I could maybe if I had 30 minutes, I could describe it, but we don't have that as an audience member.
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We just see them march, and uh, even someone who's not really well trained in music will go, that's a really good band.
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And you'll say, Why is it a really good band?
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They'll go, I don't know.
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And it's a good band.
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It's just a good band, you know, so that they sound really nice and they look really good at what they're doing.
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Well, what are they doing good?
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I don't know, but they just look good.
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Whatever it is, they're doing it well.
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They're doing it well.
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You know, my dad was one of the best judges of marching bands and had no ability to play a musical instrument or sing at all.
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And he would say, uh, he could he could lay those first divisions and fifth divisions on a band quicker than anybody.
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And he was always he was always correct because he said, Oh, it's really easy.
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If the band really makes it look easy and it's fun to watch, that's a one.
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If you're a little uncomfortable, it's a two.
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If they make your butt pucker a little bit, it's a three.
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If you're embarrassed for the kids, or excuse me, if you're embarrassed for the director, it's a four.
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If you're embarrassed for the kids, it's a five.
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Wow.
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Not one musical comment at all.
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He could watch a band and go, that's a fifth division band, because I'm embarrassed for the kids right now.
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Or that that's a second division band.
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That's a little uncomfortable.
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Man, they really made my butt pucker.
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You know, that's it's there's some cringy moments happening out there.
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That's a third division.
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And you know what?
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That's a pretty good rubric.
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It has nothing to do with music, phrasing, breathing.
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Uh probably won't see it printed.
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Oh no, it won't be printed, but um, I hate to say this, but I judge a lot of marching contests, but that little rubric runs through my head.
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But Pucker.
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Well, what do what would my dad think?
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What would my dad think of this as an Air Force sergeant who loaded B-52s for a living?
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He loaded bombs, he was in charge of munitions.
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Um, so you know, that's the tricky part.
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You've got to see that in the band, okay?
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But it's our job as a band director to communicate these ideas to our audience through the way we move, because the way we move on the field transmits the concept of the show.
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Not one person dressed in a costume, jumping up and down and dancing around.
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That's not performative, okay?
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Right.
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That's just distracting.
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Okay.
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It has to do with every person on the field.
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If you've got a band with really bad posture and really bad horn position, and two people who are theater arts majors that are doing this great Shakespearean theatrical production in front of you, that's almost counter to what we're trying to do.
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Because you see uh the good with the absolute ugly.
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And I think it's like, oh, this sucks, you know.
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I totally ignore the soloistic type situation you're talking about because part of my cynical nature says you're trying to distract me from actually watching what the band's doing.
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Yeah.
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If I follow that little Red Riding Hood all over the field, I completely ignored the other 50 to 100 people that I'm supposed to be watching.
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Yeah.
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So yeah.
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And just uh I don't suggest doing this.
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You know, you're talking about trying to distract people, but we had a situation where our drill was not really strong on this one move in our band.
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And so we're at area finals.
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So I tell all the trombones to make sure to accidentally play an A natural there instead of an A flat.
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And they all looked at me.
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This is back when it was five judges.
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There weren't any captions.
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And then they looked at me, I said, because all five judges will talk about that A-flat for the next 20 seconds, they won't notice us falling apart on the drill.
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And it worked.
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Every cassette I got back in those days of cassettes, I got the cassettes and I played it for my trombone section.
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And they go, Oh, trombones?
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That's the wrong note.
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But man, this is a really good band, but you got to make sure you read your key.
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You can't just play uh an A-flat there when it's supposed to be an A natural.
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It can't be done.
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Meanwhile, he's like crashing burn.
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It's a train wreck on the field.
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They didn't mention one thing about the drill, all of a sudden the drill's fine, and they're like, This is a really good band.
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That's great.
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You dance to the state with the context, purposely playing the wrong note in the show to distract the judges.
00:13:52.799 --> 00:14:00.320
So judges, it's like I'm a judge, but it's like we've got a ring in our nose, and you can grab that ring and you can move that judge around.
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Lead us around the field.
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You can force them to look at what you want them to look at if you're devious enough.
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Okay.
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So if you want more of those tricks, we'll have to do those over at the Marriott Bar at TBA.
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That's great.
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That's the quiet part.
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Find me in the cafe.
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Yeah, just don't just don't turn me into UIL powers to do because they might uh ban me from marching from uh judging anymore.
00:14:22.480 --> 00:14:22.559
Okay.
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Yanked that certification.
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Yeah, he just lost his accreditation.
00:14:27.279 --> 00:14:36.159
And to begin working towards this goal, it helps to recognize how the visual part of our program in our group overlaps with the various components of our marching band.
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It works with the music at the same time.
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And a lot of times directors think in terms of let's work the drill, then let's add choreography, then let's see how that affects what we do musically.
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When I know it seems like a slower process, but do all that to the best of your ability at the same time as you're teaching it.
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This is the drill move, this is the crescendo, this is the woodwind feature, this is how we're gonna stage this, this is how we're gonna do our choreo.
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Don't add it later because you most directors wouldn't do that in any other aspect of their job, but it seems like it makes sense to us in marching.
00:15:14.080 --> 00:15:18.320
And I don't know why it does, but it's not a sensible way to approach it, you know.
00:15:18.480 --> 00:15:27.759
Because um, I've gone, it's like I'll clinic a band like the week before region, and I'll say, man, just like choreography, that those body movements, it's not really together yet.
00:15:27.840 --> 00:15:30.080
Oh, yeah, we just put that in two days ago.
00:15:30.639 --> 00:15:31.279
Why?
00:15:32.639 --> 00:15:33.279
Just that move?
00:15:33.360 --> 00:15:34.480
No, all our choreography.
00:15:34.559 --> 00:15:37.039
We spent the last four days doing our choreography.
00:15:37.440 --> 00:15:38.080
What?
00:15:39.200 --> 00:15:45.200
Can you imagine having a concert band and going, all right, we've got all the notes and rhythms worked out to Moscow 1941.
00:15:45.279 --> 00:15:48.879
Now it's five days before contest evaluation.
00:15:49.679 --> 00:15:51.679
Let's do dynamics.
00:15:54.240 --> 00:15:55.440
That's great.
00:15:56.080 --> 00:15:59.759
We wouldn't do that to our concert band, but give us a second, man.
00:15:59.840 --> 00:16:02.240
And we're we're crazy, we're crazy people as directors.
00:16:02.320 --> 00:16:03.519
We'll do that to the marching band.
00:16:03.600 --> 00:16:05.279
And you know why we do it, Derek?
00:16:06.240 --> 00:16:08.159
Because we're not comfortable with the body movement.
00:16:08.320 --> 00:16:09.759
We don't know exactly how to teach it.
00:16:09.840 --> 00:16:11.600
We know how to teach the music and drill.
00:16:11.759 --> 00:16:14.320
The body movement, that's a whole nother animal, isn't it?
00:16:14.480 --> 00:16:15.519
So you got to force yourself.
00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:16.559
That'll be another podcast.
00:16:16.639 --> 00:16:16.799
Okay.
00:16:17.039 --> 00:16:22.320
But look, I was gonna say, haven't I heard you say before that you incorporate some of this stuff into your warmup block?
00:16:22.639 --> 00:16:23.120
Oh, yeah.
00:16:23.200 --> 00:16:23.440
Yeah.
00:16:23.600 --> 00:16:34.480
These exercises that tend to focus on overlaps and stretching, strengthening, endurance training, movement skills, marching technique, ensemble clarity, that all happens at the same time.
00:16:34.559 --> 00:16:35.200
You can do an F.
00:16:35.360 --> 00:16:39.120
Remington warm-up or you could do a corral and you could do body movement to it.
00:16:39.200 --> 00:16:46.960
You can say, okay, we're gonna do eight counts of plie and then recovery, and then we're gonna do a Ram de Jam and we're gonna do this and this.
00:16:47.039 --> 00:16:53.840
And you can incorporate all that into your warm-up chorale from day one because they'll learn the notes pretty quick, you know, most things.
00:16:54.240 --> 00:16:56.159
If not, have an easier chorale.
00:16:56.240 --> 00:16:58.320
You know, the chorale only has like four notes in it.
00:16:58.399 --> 00:17:01.120
And there's nothing wrong with that because the chorale is not meant to wow.
00:17:02.320 --> 00:17:03.360
Learn the purpose.
00:17:03.600 --> 00:17:05.039
Yeah, learn learn what the purpose is.
00:17:05.200 --> 00:17:10.480
Our purpose is not to do salvation is created, you know, and make it sound like an orchestral excerpt.
00:17:10.640 --> 00:17:16.480
You know, our goal is to let's make a pretty sound, play in tune, do our body movement, and incorporate all that together.
00:17:16.640 --> 00:17:20.960
Um, the best exercises cover multiple skill areas.
00:17:21.119 --> 00:17:25.279
However, a number of these exercises also focus on developing a single issue.
00:17:25.519 --> 00:17:37.359
You know, so it's like our goal right now is to get our prettiest sound possible on our on our Remington warm-up or our Clark study that we're doing, our lipslur exercise with chromatics in the woodwinds.
00:17:37.440 --> 00:17:41.039
We want to make sure we use our chromatic fingerings on clarinet and saxophone.
00:17:41.599 --> 00:17:45.759
But while you're doing this, you are gonna do a plie for eight counts.
00:17:45.920 --> 00:17:50.880
You're gonna do a rhom de jam, now you're gonna do an arabesque, now you're gonna do a coupe.
00:17:51.200 --> 00:18:01.440
So you give all this terminology to them and teach them how to do all this so they're doing one thing and having to do the other, much like a piano player forcing themselves to use both hands on the piano.
00:18:01.759 --> 00:18:02.000
Right.
00:18:02.160 --> 00:18:08.960
Or I liken it to a lot as a guitar player, a lot of times I've heard people say this and I believe this.
00:18:09.279 --> 00:18:13.119
Don't learn the guitar part and then start trying to sing with it.
00:18:13.359 --> 00:18:16.480
Do them both at the same time, or you'll never be able to do it.
00:18:16.640 --> 00:18:20.240
I mean, it just became you've increased the difficult level.
00:18:20.480 --> 00:18:24.880
If you don't do it all at the same time from the beginning, you've just made things harder on yourself.
00:18:25.119 --> 00:18:26.079
And you're exactly right.
00:18:26.160 --> 00:18:39.359
If you if you wait till later to teach some kind of choreography or some kind of marching thing that you want to incorporate in your show, a big drill move, then all of a sudden they're gonna suffer musically, and it'll take them twice as long to recover musically.
00:18:39.599 --> 00:18:40.400
To recover, right?
00:18:40.640 --> 00:18:42.400
If you just taught it to them in the first place.
00:18:42.559 --> 00:18:47.279
Now, granted, we do have to change things as the season progresses, but try to keep that to a minimum.
00:18:47.359 --> 00:18:54.000
Um, it's also important that we develop clear, this is a must, clear and consistent definitions for everything we do.
00:18:54.240 --> 00:19:00.319
It can't be that the flutes call it a step off and the trumpets call it a get and go.
00:19:00.559 --> 00:19:01.839
I'm just making up stuff now.
00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:05.279
And trombones call it something I miss every time, you know.
00:19:05.359 --> 00:19:14.960
Um, but there has to be a definition for, you know, when we say uh uh let's say Ram de Jam for a body movement, if that's the terminology you want to use, use it.
00:19:15.039 --> 00:19:19.599
If you want to call it a toe circle, that's okay too, because it's kind of a toe circle.
00:19:19.759 --> 00:19:20.480
You know what I mean?
00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:24.480
So, whatever definition you have, you can't have 15 definitions floating around out there.
00:19:24.640 --> 00:19:31.599
At the end of the day, this activity focuses, this activity we do every single day in band, it focuses on uniformity.
00:19:31.920 --> 00:19:35.119
And only through uniformity do we get artistic expression.
00:19:36.400 --> 00:19:42.160
You look at a great symphony orchestra, all those bows move the same direction.
00:19:43.119 --> 00:19:44.000
At the same time.
00:19:44.240 --> 00:19:44.880
At the same time.
00:19:45.039 --> 00:19:45.680
Think about that.
00:19:45.759 --> 00:19:46.880
It's very uniform.
00:19:47.039 --> 00:19:59.440
And so I've heard people uh prophesy that uh, you know, said, well, you know, we just want to be emotive and musical, so it's not gonna no, no, the most unmusical thing in the world is not being uniform.
00:19:59.599 --> 00:20:05.039
It has to be uniform first, and then we can emote, then we can emote, and we can be artistic.
00:20:05.200 --> 00:20:08.799
Whether that's a jazz band or whether that's a trumpet ensemble, it doesn't matter.
00:20:09.039 --> 00:20:16.160
So the purpose of this whole podcast series, and then if you've if you dived in with us this far, here's our purpose.
00:20:16.319 --> 00:20:17.359
I'll be the educator.
00:20:17.519 --> 00:20:24.480
Here's our goal is to have the key points of our movement and our marching program eventually all in written form.
00:20:25.839 --> 00:20:26.720
And Mr.
00:20:26.799 --> 00:20:34.160
Rick over in the chair, he has a copy of the PDF that I've updated with um new terminology and I've changed a few things in it.
00:20:34.319 --> 00:20:39.680
He's gonna post that uh through the Tarpley system so we can kind of have people can download it.
00:20:39.839 --> 00:20:43.039
Um, it's done in a uh I have to check with Rick.
00:20:43.119 --> 00:20:44.400
I might have sent it to him as a PDF.
00:20:44.480 --> 00:20:46.160
It might be a I hope it's a word file.
00:20:46.559 --> 00:20:48.960
He did a get thumbs up, it's a word file.
00:20:50.240 --> 00:20:50.559
Okay.
00:20:50.799 --> 00:20:54.240
So with a word file, what I like about it is every director can change it.
00:20:54.480 --> 00:20:56.640
A PDF, you have to retype the whole dang thing.
00:20:56.799 --> 00:21:00.160
But you know, if you want to call it something different, you have my blessing.
00:21:00.319 --> 00:21:04.319
Everything on that page is stolen, stolen with a vengeance, okay?
00:21:04.559 --> 00:21:07.359
Nothing on that was unapologetically not stolen.
00:21:07.519 --> 00:21:10.160
Okay, so it was stolen and too bad, so sad.
00:21:10.240 --> 00:21:11.039
I just stole that.
00:21:11.200 --> 00:21:12.880
So feel free to steal it all.
00:21:12.960 --> 00:21:17.119
And if you want to erase everything but one sentence, you have my blessing, okay?
00:21:17.359 --> 00:21:19.440
But you need to have it all written down somewhere.
00:21:19.599 --> 00:21:23.359
It has to be written down where you can hand it to whoever's working with your band.
00:21:23.440 --> 00:21:23.759
Okay.
00:21:24.160 --> 00:21:29.039
Um, it'll help enhance the clarity and consistency of your approach to your band.
00:21:29.200 --> 00:21:33.839
It provides tools for each performer to maximize their development in this caption.
00:21:34.400 --> 00:21:41.440
All teachers, and that includes students who are teaching, all teachers in the program must teach exactly the same way.
00:21:42.640 --> 00:21:48.000
We can't have four different ways to step off just because the bear tones like to do it this way.
00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:50.319
You know, everyone has to be on the same page.
00:21:50.480 --> 00:21:59.119
That sounds obvious, but if you watch a marching band, now I'm gonna make some of you guys out there that uh you know tend to watch other marching bands, you know what I mean?
00:21:59.359 --> 00:22:08.000
You'll you'll Start to be more analytical when you watch them, you're you'll realize that the low brass have a different foot technique than the woodwinds.
00:22:08.640 --> 00:22:09.759
That's kind of weird.
00:22:09.920 --> 00:22:21.759
And they just kind of, you know, they we just kind of develop our own cultish pod of how we do things when we're brass players versus woodwinds versus front ensemble versus whatever, you know.
00:22:21.920 --> 00:22:26.319
Um, so you've got to make sure that we all teach it the same way and we stick to that.
00:22:26.559 --> 00:22:28.720
We just got to stick to that uniformity.
00:22:29.119 --> 00:22:42.160
Um, the focus on movement training, the way muscle groups and body awareness is developed in dance settings, offers an excellent means to create the look we're after.
00:22:42.400 --> 00:22:44.799
We're looking for a certain look.
00:22:44.960 --> 00:22:53.359
Our goal is to have a look to our band, at the same time, covering a full range of physical conditioning in a way that is relevant to our marching technique.
00:22:53.680 --> 00:23:09.119
Because I don't know how many times, you know, I'll I'll I'll see a band and I'll maybe work in like the day before state marching contest, believe it or not, just to kind of catch a few things and they'll say, What can we do on this body movement to make this better for tomorrow when we go to prelims?
00:23:09.440 --> 00:23:13.920
And I'll just kind of turn my mic off and look at them and say, There's nothing you can do to make that look better.
00:23:14.160 --> 00:23:18.799
They do not have the core muscle strength to make that look better.
00:23:19.039 --> 00:23:19.359
Right.
00:23:19.599 --> 00:23:20.799
It's not going to look better.
00:23:20.960 --> 00:23:26.480
Um, so just have them do the best they can, which is fine because it was a really good band, by the way.
00:23:26.720 --> 00:23:29.039
Or or take that body movement out.
00:23:29.839 --> 00:23:34.480
I would rather a judge say, we could really use some body movement here instead of the body movement.
00:23:34.960 --> 00:23:35.359
That was bad.
00:23:35.599 --> 00:23:36.640
That really sucked, you know.
00:23:36.799 --> 00:23:39.440
So it'd be nice if we did that together, you know.
00:23:39.680 --> 00:23:40.960
And sometimes it's core strength.
00:23:41.039 --> 00:23:46.079
We're gonna have a podcast here somewhere along the way with uh with uh Denver City Michael Munoz.
00:23:46.480 --> 00:23:50.160
He is a whole system for core body strength with a resistance band.
00:23:50.480 --> 00:23:52.720
It's the coolest thing you've ever seen in your life.
00:23:52.880 --> 00:23:56.319
And we're gonna get him to do some videos for us and stuff and post those.
00:23:56.480 --> 00:24:12.960
But um, it's a real precise way for a band that's in class 3A, so it's not like some big old 6A monster BOA band, you know, that has the full eight hours a week after school to work that he's incorporated within his program has been very successful.
00:24:13.119 --> 00:24:15.759
His kids have core muscle strength.
00:24:15.920 --> 00:24:32.960
I judged them last year, and it was stunning how strong they were physically, you know, and consequently they did well as far as being a good band, and they did well as far as points on the sheet because they had the physical body strength to do the things he was asking them to do.
00:24:33.119 --> 00:24:39.519
Okay, so it can be done, and we're gonna utilize his uh brilliant because he did all this on his own, by the way.
00:24:40.400 --> 00:24:41.359
It's absolutely amazing.
00:24:41.440 --> 00:24:44.079
I watched him, I watched him say, Oh my gosh, this is amazing.
00:24:44.240 --> 00:24:44.559
Okay.
00:24:44.880 --> 00:24:48.240
Um, so our goal is to move well as humans first.
00:24:49.839 --> 00:24:50.799
Think about that.
00:24:50.960 --> 00:24:52.319
To move well as humans first.
00:24:52.400 --> 00:24:56.480
We don't want it to look awkward, then apply those movement concepts to our marching.
00:24:56.720 --> 00:25:02.799
Do what we can with the allowed time and the student ability.
00:25:03.119 --> 00:25:03.519
Right.
00:25:04.160 --> 00:25:04.960
I think that's key.
00:25:05.200 --> 00:25:06.400
That's our limitations.
00:25:06.480 --> 00:25:13.440
You there if you're at a BOA grand nationals top 12 finalists band, bless you.
00:25:13.680 --> 00:25:20.480
Because those kids can do more because they have a culture built in, and if they have more, they take more time, they're more centered in what they're doing.
00:25:20.640 --> 00:25:28.240
But if if you I my first 13 years was 1A2A, and I was the only band director, there's only X amount of hours in rehearsal.
00:25:28.480 --> 00:25:36.720
And if it's after school, now you got ag and you got volleyball and you've got you know, the kids have to go work with their families, you know what I mean?
00:25:36.799 --> 00:25:38.720
So there's there's a lot of things going on.
00:25:38.880 --> 00:25:42.640
So you don't have the ability to go, we're gonna work for eight hours after school this week.
00:25:42.799 --> 00:25:44.000
You don't have that ability.
00:25:44.240 --> 00:25:46.559
Um so the lotted time.
00:25:46.640 --> 00:25:51.200
Um, you may have heard the distinction between marching well and moving well before.
00:25:51.519 --> 00:25:55.119
For our purposes, this is how I like to define the difference.
00:25:55.440 --> 00:25:59.359
Marching well, this is to me, this is a cool concept.
00:25:59.519 --> 00:26:01.519
So I'm I'm geeking out here on you.
00:26:01.680 --> 00:26:06.000
Marching well means separating the upper half of your body from the lower half.
00:26:06.240 --> 00:26:08.880
You're thinking, what am I doing with my above my waist?
00:26:08.960 --> 00:26:11.039
What am I doing from my waist down to my toes?
00:26:11.279 --> 00:26:13.119
That's what I call marching.
00:26:13.359 --> 00:26:16.240
If a band marches well, I can see that.
00:26:16.480 --> 00:26:21.599
If they're moving well, it means integrating the upper half with the lower half.
00:26:22.160 --> 00:26:24.640
So it's all one continuous motion.
00:26:24.799 --> 00:26:27.759
It's not separate entities that are moving on the field.
00:26:27.920 --> 00:26:33.359
Neither one is bad or good, but I'll promise you this out there in uh listener land.
00:26:33.759 --> 00:26:40.960
If your band is keyed as they move well, they will earn more points in the visual caption.
00:26:41.759 --> 00:26:42.079
Right.
00:26:42.480 --> 00:26:43.359
Well makes sense.
00:26:43.519 --> 00:26:45.680
And artistically, it'll fit the music better.
00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:47.200
It'll fit the music better.
00:26:47.359 --> 00:26:47.680
Okay.
00:26:47.920 --> 00:26:48.720
Can we do both?
00:26:48.880 --> 00:26:49.920
March well and move well?
00:26:50.079 --> 00:26:50.799
Absolutely.
00:26:51.039 --> 00:27:04.240
The biggest difference has to do with the approach, treating each each part of that um as an exercise as a full body experience rather than having separate exercises for the upper body and lower body.
00:27:04.480 --> 00:27:08.799
So we want to make sure that as we're doing a plie, maybe we're doing a horn move.
00:27:08.960 --> 00:27:14.480
Maybe we're doing something with our upper body with a horns coming down to trail and coming back up while we're doing a plie.
00:27:15.039 --> 00:27:24.799
So I'm incorporating what I'm doing upper body with lower body at the same time, much like our guitar players and piano players having to figure out two hands to play an instrument or a saxophone player.
00:27:24.960 --> 00:27:30.480
They can't just work on the fingerings of their left hand and then say, Well, I guess I need to use this hand also.
00:27:30.720 --> 00:27:32.640
No, they do it all at the same time, don't they?
00:27:32.799 --> 00:27:35.279
You know, so we it's up to us to make that happen.
00:27:35.440 --> 00:27:41.759
You know, utilize dance technique is often a new experience for us for especially a younger band.
00:27:41.839 --> 00:27:45.440
And uh, an ensemble's expecting, you know, they're expecting to march.
00:27:45.599 --> 00:27:46.400
You know what I mean?
00:27:46.559 --> 00:27:47.920
It's uh we're a marching band.
00:27:48.079 --> 00:27:48.880
We we march.
00:27:49.200 --> 00:27:51.599
You know, so at first they'll be resistant.
00:27:51.839 --> 00:27:56.799
Um, if they're resistant, uh we mentioned earlier, call these things by different names.
00:27:57.039 --> 00:28:01.839
Ram de jam is toe circles, a plie is a squat, a tondue is a toe point.
00:28:02.880 --> 00:28:03.039
Right.
00:28:03.279 --> 00:28:04.000
You know what I mean?
00:28:04.079 --> 00:28:09.759
So you just figure out what you want to call them, and that they can and you don't have to call them by their ballet terms.
00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:17.920
In fact, if you have some, if you're lucky enough to have people who dance ballet in your band, they will be horrified by your terminology.
00:28:18.559 --> 00:28:20.640
Loose interpretation of their definition.
00:28:21.039 --> 00:28:24.000
It's like that is that's not even close to a Tom Doo.
00:28:25.200 --> 00:28:25.839
I'm sorry.
00:28:26.079 --> 00:28:26.480
Really?
00:28:26.720 --> 00:28:31.599
I I know you dance lead, you're Claire and Swan Lake or whatever, nutcracker, whatever it is.
00:28:31.759 --> 00:28:33.200
Nutcracker is Claire, isn't it?
00:28:33.279 --> 00:28:36.079
You know, so you dance the lead and nutcracker.
00:28:36.240 --> 00:28:37.279
I respect that.
00:28:37.440 --> 00:28:43.359
Just go with us and just kind of plug your ears and just pretend like it's a different kind of nutcracker.
00:28:43.519 --> 00:28:45.119
This is a different kind of nutcracker.
00:28:45.680 --> 00:28:47.440
That's a quote to remember right there.
00:28:47.839 --> 00:28:49.839
Baby, this is a different kind of nutcracker here.
00:28:49.920 --> 00:28:51.519
Just shut up and get in your spot.
00:28:53.039 --> 00:28:55.519
Get those stupid ballet shoes off your feet.
00:28:55.599 --> 00:28:58.240
We are wearing dinkle black shoes.
00:28:58.400 --> 00:28:59.440
Uh goodness.
00:28:59.839 --> 00:29:03.440
Traditional marching tends to focus on uniformity over technique.
00:29:04.000 --> 00:29:04.720
It does.
00:29:04.880 --> 00:29:09.839
And uh setting the bar so that everyone can achieve the marching style with relative ease.
00:29:09.920 --> 00:29:13.680
You know, if you're a military marching band, um, I say relative ease.
00:29:13.759 --> 00:29:14.799
I did not say it was easy.
00:29:14.880 --> 00:29:17.599
So don't kill me if you're a military marching person.
00:29:17.839 --> 00:29:27.279
But you got to admit that it's if everything's 120 beats a minute and our upper body never has to do any body movement other than horn position, that does simplify the process a little bit.
00:29:27.440 --> 00:29:32.400
And our feet do the same thing the whole time and we're marching six to five, never any different.
00:29:32.559 --> 00:29:38.799
You know, we face the end zone, we do our fanfare at a 45 degree oblique, we do counter left, segue rights.
00:29:38.960 --> 00:29:44.640
Um, we do our thing and we do it over and over and over to ad nauseum until it's totally uniform.
00:29:44.799 --> 00:29:48.240
And that I think that's awesome because I love my military marching bands.
00:29:48.400 --> 00:29:48.720
Okay.
00:29:49.039 --> 00:30:01.279
Um, but if you're actually looking at uh what is now termed as open class marching, open class in in at least in Texas, is I guess what most people call core style.
00:30:01.599 --> 00:30:07.519
Yeah, I think core style is probably the more familiar term for the older folks, but yeah, for the older for old people.
00:30:07.680 --> 00:30:09.759
For young people, that's like core style.
00:30:09.839 --> 00:30:11.680
What what does that mean?
00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:14.079
Yeah, like we're all gonna carry drums.
00:30:14.160 --> 00:30:15.200
What are we talking about here?
00:30:15.920 --> 00:30:31.279
You know, um, and we'll present some of that later, but when it's applied correctly, the concepts presented in this podcast series as we get through all these different units, there's not a lot of them, uh it'll create body awareness, strengthening, flexibility exercises.
00:30:31.440 --> 00:30:35.759
Um, but again, only do what your group can handle in the time you were given.
00:30:35.920 --> 00:30:37.920
You might only be able to do one thing.
00:30:38.079 --> 00:30:46.079
Um, I can remember way you talk about way, way back in time, 1981, when I marched in the Skyriders.
00:30:46.400 --> 00:30:51.519
Lee Carlson, who right now is in charge of all judging in DCI, think about that.
00:30:51.680 --> 00:30:53.440
He he was our color guard person.
00:30:53.599 --> 00:30:56.720
Okay, and he decided the horn line was gonna do a visual.
00:30:56.799 --> 00:31:02.079
Uh, we were playing uh uh uh oh gosh, here's that rainy day.
00:31:02.319 --> 00:31:05.119
Beautiful jazz tune going into over the rainbow.
00:31:05.200 --> 00:31:18.319
And he said, after the drum solo feature, that date you too, drum solo, you know, we're all gonna turn and look at the sky and we're gonna hold our right hand up and we're gonna keep it in a cup and we're gonna look at our fingertips like we're looking for rain in the sky.
00:31:18.880 --> 00:31:21.440
That's the first time I'd ever heard of a visual.
00:31:22.079 --> 00:31:24.880
That's the only one we did the whole year.
00:31:25.119 --> 00:31:27.440
Pissed off the DCI judges to no end.
00:31:27.680 --> 00:31:28.319
Did it really?
00:31:28.720 --> 00:31:30.960
Oh God, we were so pissed off.
00:31:31.200 --> 00:31:32.000
How do I judge this?
00:31:32.079 --> 00:31:32.559
This is stupid.
00:31:32.880 --> 00:31:33.519
What are you doing?
00:31:33.920 --> 00:31:40.319
You know, they they've got their cassette players and they're griping at us, and I can hear them griping because we're sitting there staring at our fingertips.
00:31:40.480 --> 00:31:44.319
And the marching and maneuvering judges, isn't that funny?
00:31:44.400 --> 00:31:45.359
The MM judges.
00:31:45.759 --> 00:31:46.400
Maneuvering.
00:31:46.559 --> 00:31:51.519
Yeah, marching and maneuvering judges or with their tick system are walking around us going, What are you doing?
00:31:51.759 --> 00:31:55.119
You know, they were just astounded by the stupidity of what we were doing.
00:31:55.279 --> 00:32:04.319
Um, but we did it, and uh, and then we weren't the only core, but it was kind of a movement during the early 80s of we're gonna start doing visual design in our show.
00:32:04.480 --> 00:32:08.240
And so those things And I bet the crowd effect was phenomenal.
00:32:08.480 --> 00:32:09.920
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:32:10.079 --> 00:32:14.079
The best one was when DCI, this is a rabbit chase.
00:32:14.240 --> 00:32:20.480
This is so hilarious because they were we were losing points and we thought it was political.
00:32:20.720 --> 00:32:29.599
And it was because we were just a core in the middle of the United States, we didn't have an East Coast judging preference or a West Coast, we were just kind of by ourselves in Kansas, you know.
00:32:29.759 --> 00:32:37.039
So at the end of the drum solo, our core director said uh George Todd Hilly goes, All right, now at the end of the drum feature, we turn around.
00:32:37.119 --> 00:32:40.000
Now, everyone kiss your fingers and slap your ass.
00:32:41.599 --> 00:32:43.680
That's a you know what to DCI.
00:32:45.200 --> 00:32:47.039
Kiss my butt DCI.
00:32:47.279 --> 00:32:51.440
And we did that, and the those judges were just incensed, and we didn't give them a pen.
00:32:52.000 --> 00:32:54.240
They were we didn't we didn't care at that point.
00:32:54.319 --> 00:32:57.759
It was uh it was definitely like kiss my ass, DCI, you know.
00:32:58.000 --> 00:33:02.559
So that that that it was it was a fun moment, you know, back in the day when you could be rebellious.
00:33:02.640 --> 00:33:02.880
Okay.
00:33:03.279 --> 00:33:05.039
So back to our podcast.
00:33:05.279 --> 00:33:05.599
Okay.
00:33:06.000 --> 00:33:07.440
Your keys to success.
00:33:07.680 --> 00:33:11.839
You reach a point of understanding the techniques and movement fundamentals that we've described.
00:33:12.000 --> 00:33:13.920
It'll take time, effort, and commitment.
00:33:14.079 --> 00:33:18.000
As you move through all these, um, you have to realize the core principles.
00:33:18.240 --> 00:33:23.680
One is realize, and I'm gonna name them here, and but I'm not gonna discuss them because that's gonna be the following podcast.
00:33:23.759 --> 00:33:26.000
This is your teaser for upcoming stuff, okay?
00:33:26.240 --> 00:33:43.839
The core principles relaxation, concentration, alignment, breathing, core strength, coordinate, coordination, fluidity, or as we said before, fluidity, fluidity, and stamina.
00:33:44.160 --> 00:33:46.640
Those are the core principles that we're trying to instill.
00:33:46.799 --> 00:33:47.039
Okay.
00:33:47.359 --> 00:33:53.279
So if we can instill those, which we might, you know, it's whatever bandit is, that's hard to get all that covered.
00:33:53.440 --> 00:33:58.960
You know, if all you can get is concentration and alignment and breathing, that's a that's a victory, my friends.
00:33:59.039 --> 00:34:01.519
But that is the holy grail, is to get all that.
00:34:01.680 --> 00:34:09.920
So our program overview, the big picture, it's important for each individual performer to understand how all these pieces fit together.
00:34:10.159 --> 00:34:14.400
Um, we're gonna use a technique called backward planning.
00:34:14.880 --> 00:34:15.920
Backward planning.
00:34:16.079 --> 00:34:17.440
It's a very corporate term.
00:34:17.599 --> 00:34:23.599
It's when you see what your goal is at the end and then you figure out what you're gonna do step by step to get there.
00:34:23.840 --> 00:34:29.199
It's much like if I decide I want to get my car and drive to New Jersey, then I'm gonna backward plan.
00:34:29.280 --> 00:34:32.159
I'm gonna go, okay, I'm gonna back out of my driveway.
00:34:32.559 --> 00:34:36.480
Then I'm gonna go down Rivercrest and I'm gonna turn right on 7th Street.
00:34:36.800 --> 00:34:38.960
You know, you know, you backward plan.
00:34:39.039 --> 00:34:42.719
So you go all the way to the beginning of the journey and you figure out what do I do first?
00:34:42.880 --> 00:34:45.280
Oh, I guess I need to start my car.
00:34:45.519 --> 00:34:45.760
Right.
00:34:45.920 --> 00:34:47.920
Because I can't back out without starting my car.
00:34:48.079 --> 00:34:49.920
So, band-wise, we're gonna do that.
00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:51.840
We're we're gonna go, we're gonna backward plan.
00:34:52.000 --> 00:34:53.519
This begins with the big picture.
00:34:53.679 --> 00:34:56.719
What do we want to have accomplished by the end of the season?
00:34:57.039 --> 00:35:01.840
Then we work backwards from that point to ensure that everything we do fits into that picture.
00:35:02.079 --> 00:35:08.960
Everything we do that doesn't fit in that picture is a waste of time, much like when I ramble on into a chasing a rabbit in our podcast.
00:35:09.119 --> 00:35:15.440
That is actually a waste of time to the podcast, but we enjoy it greatly, so we don't care, and it's our podcast.
00:35:16.400 --> 00:35:19.440
I would argue that that's yeah, that's great.
00:35:19.679 --> 00:35:23.599
But it's good stuff and it's it makes it fun to to talk about, you know.
00:35:23.679 --> 00:35:28.159
I mean, but as far as the context of giving information, it is a waste of time.
00:35:28.960 --> 00:35:29.599
It is.
00:35:29.760 --> 00:35:31.440
Um, but I don't care.
00:35:31.519 --> 00:35:32.320
We're gonna do it anyway.
00:35:32.480 --> 00:35:33.199
We're gonna chase right.
00:35:34.639 --> 00:35:48.800
Um, it is my hope that this series, uh I uh hope and pray that it'll give you tools to help your band be better and just as important, hopefully make your job easier, maybe take off some of those limitations that you think you got to do everything on day one.
00:35:49.199 --> 00:35:50.079
What a great statement.
00:35:50.239 --> 00:35:52.480
Yeah, and I would appreciate any feedback.
00:35:52.719 --> 00:35:56.800
Marching and visual work contains a lot of opinions.
00:35:56.960 --> 00:35:57.280
Yeah.
00:35:57.440 --> 00:36:02.719
And we all know the the the saying about opinions, and we're not gonna say it on air, you know.
00:36:02.800 --> 00:36:05.360
But everyone I know you said it several times already.
00:36:05.599 --> 00:36:07.039
Yeah, that's right.
00:36:08.880 --> 00:36:12.320
Yeah, but we'll we have to limit our the sensor.
00:36:12.400 --> 00:36:12.800
Uh I don't know.
00:36:13.519 --> 00:36:14.719
We'll use the word noses.
00:36:14.960 --> 00:36:15.199
Yeah.
00:36:15.519 --> 00:36:16.880
Does Tarpley have a sensor?
00:36:16.960 --> 00:36:17.920
Like uh I don't know.
00:36:18.000 --> 00:36:18.400
I don't know.
00:36:19.840 --> 00:36:21.920
I bet they call Rick before they call us.
00:36:22.079 --> 00:36:22.960
Yeah, they probably will.
00:36:23.119 --> 00:36:31.360
I think we operate like the uh, you know, we're like an underground episode that Tarpley's aware of, but are they not pirate podcasts?
00:36:31.519 --> 00:36:34.159
Yeah, we're a pirate podcast, you know.
00:36:36.079 --> 00:36:37.199
Let's keep it that way.
00:36:37.360 --> 00:36:40.719
In fact, let's keep changing up what we're doing just to keep Tarpley confused.
00:36:44.239 --> 00:36:46.400
Uh well I think these are awesome.
00:36:46.719 --> 00:36:50.800
And uh I think some of this stuff you can't say it enough times.
00:36:51.039 --> 00:36:53.760
So except for the bad words, but yes, yes.
00:36:54.480 --> 00:36:56.400
Aside from the opinions comment.
00:36:56.559 --> 00:37:08.639
Yeah, but I I listen, guys, we really the goal, as Mike just stated, is is a community that builds each other up and and helps.
00:37:09.039 --> 00:37:15.280
So if you do have feedback, uh something you thought of, hey, I like that you said that, but consider this.
00:37:15.440 --> 00:37:16.639
Great, we're open to that.
00:37:16.800 --> 00:37:23.199
If you say, hey, I didn't understand that, give us talk to us, tell us how we can help.
00:37:23.360 --> 00:37:26.159
That's it's the whole point of what we do.
00:37:26.400 --> 00:37:32.559
It was the whole impetus for Ask Mike was offering an opportunity for people to get questions answered.
00:37:32.639 --> 00:37:34.880
So yeah, love to hear from everybody.
00:37:35.119 --> 00:37:36.800
Uh I'm excited.
00:37:36.960 --> 00:37:40.559
You know, I'm I'm that guy that most directors roll their eyes at.
00:37:40.639 --> 00:37:42.239
Marching is kind of my thing.
00:37:42.320 --> 00:37:42.639
I love it.
00:37:43.920 --> 00:37:44.480
Always have.
00:37:44.639 --> 00:37:52.159
So uh never had the opportunity to uh raise a salute to the panel of judges as you described.
00:37:53.280 --> 00:37:55.440
I think that's awesome.
00:37:57.440 --> 00:37:58.320
All right, brother.
00:37:58.400 --> 00:37:59.519
We'll do it again next time.
00:37:59.679 --> 00:38:01.199
All right, we'll see you later, man.
00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:08.320
I just think, Mike, that we really ought to give this is the Ask Mike podcast, and and you come every time with great information.
00:00:08.480 --> 00:00:10.560
But I just want to give a shout out to Rick in the chair.
00:00:10.640 --> 00:00:12.800
Nobody ever sees him, nobody ever really hears him.
00:00:13.039 --> 00:00:22.480
But he does such a great job of of making us uh sound with the material we give him, with with what the clay he's got to work with.
00:00:26.399 --> 00:00:29.039
But he does a great job, and I appreciate him so very much.
00:00:29.280 --> 00:00:30.559
Yeah, we love Rick.
00:00:30.800 --> 00:00:33.359
And you better leave that in the podcast, my friend.
00:00:33.520 --> 00:00:34.960
So all right.
00:00:35.119 --> 00:00:44.159
So here we are, uh in the midst of a series of episodes referencing uh our upcoming marching season, right?
00:00:44.320 --> 00:00:45.759
How do we get ready for it?
00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:54.479
Uh what are the uh I don't know if we call them best practices, but things that we could do to be successful uh with our students.
00:00:54.640 --> 00:01:00.640
So last week we kind of talked about how to create a winning culture or how to win at marching van.
00:01:01.759 --> 00:01:04.319
And uh, where are you going to take us this week, my friend?
00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:12.480
Well, a lot of this info from uh today's podcast is from a book called Beyond the Basics by Nick Benson, Adam Oswald, and Dylan Thompson.
00:01:12.640 --> 00:01:14.159
So Beyond the Basics.
00:01:14.319 --> 00:01:18.480
So you can get that and it's a downloadable PDF and you you pay for the download or whatever.
00:01:18.640 --> 00:01:19.920
Uh it's amazing.
00:01:20.079 --> 00:01:21.280
It's really amazing.
00:01:21.439 --> 00:01:26.239
Uh, plus a lot of info from my personal experience in messing up marching bands for the past 38 years.
00:01:26.400 --> 00:01:30.799
Um basic efforts, plus performing the previous nine years before teaching.
00:01:30.959 --> 00:01:31.680
You know what I mean?
00:01:31.760 --> 00:01:36.640
So it's based on a lot of mistakes and a lot of the times when things accidentally happened well.
00:01:36.799 --> 00:01:38.799
But those guys are just brilliant.
00:01:39.040 --> 00:01:46.159
But you know, teaching marching does not always receive the attention and respect it probably deserves.
00:01:46.480 --> 00:01:47.439
I'd agree with that.
00:01:47.599 --> 00:01:54.560
You know, it's it's like, and granted, it we call it marching band, uh, and it needs to be more about the music.
00:01:54.799 --> 00:01:56.799
It does, but we can't ignore the marching.
00:01:56.959 --> 00:01:57.280
Okay.
00:01:57.599 --> 00:02:02.400
Um, and marching is kind of a pretty big term nowadays, you know.
00:02:02.719 --> 00:02:10.000
Um, so marching includes any kind of body movement that we're doing, any kind of speaking we're doing, any kind of foot movement we're doing.
00:02:10.400 --> 00:02:13.680
It's a pretty broad-based idea now, but it's all important.
00:02:13.759 --> 00:02:16.960
You know, whether it's some vagary involved in the term marching band.
00:02:17.280 --> 00:02:32.560
Yeah, whether it's an actual marching band, like our good old East Texas military marching bands, so I love watching those bands, or it's a drum and bugle core, you know, or indoor wind ensemble, uh, you know, indoor winds, like, you know, things for WGI.
00:02:32.719 --> 00:02:38.400
The quality of marching and movement training is often what makes it possible to create that type of music.
00:02:38.560 --> 00:02:40.560
It kind of conveys the show.
00:02:40.719 --> 00:02:49.520
Um, for me, the best approach to the visual caption, which is marching and choreography, um, is all about creating a certain look on the field.
00:02:49.680 --> 00:02:49.919
Okay.
00:02:50.319 --> 00:02:52.479
There has to be a look to your band, okay?
00:02:52.639 --> 00:02:54.000
There has to be a style to it.
00:02:54.159 --> 00:02:58.319
Today, and that's why I wore my nice little gray sports coat today.
00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:00.080
We want to convey a style.
00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:02.319
I I'm conveying my college professor.
00:03:02.479 --> 00:03:03.840
I need a, I don't have a turtleneck.
00:03:03.919 --> 00:03:10.719
I almost I tried to find a turtleneck because I was gonna wear a turtleneck and put a baton in the back, you know, like those real directors do at college.
00:03:10.879 --> 00:03:11.360
That's right.
00:03:11.680 --> 00:03:16.800
You know, so there has to be a certain look to what happens, and that look is going to be important to your band.
00:03:16.960 --> 00:03:21.120
Uh, the first part of that look, it has to demonstrate strength.
00:03:21.520 --> 00:03:23.199
It has to demonstrate strength.
00:03:23.360 --> 00:03:29.759
So even the way they stand on the ramp before they enter the field must demonstrate strength.
00:03:29.840 --> 00:03:34.000
And the question always comes up uh great, nice vague term there, Mike Lenny.
00:03:34.159 --> 00:03:35.199
Um, what are you talking about?
00:03:35.520 --> 00:03:40.560
You know, they're not wiggling around, they're not emptying water out of their horns, they're not turning around and talking to their neighbor behind them.
00:03:40.639 --> 00:03:45.280
They're not their heads not bobbing left and right, and they're not moving around, you know.
00:03:45.439 --> 00:03:55.120
Um, they they are standing in parade rest or second position or atheredi, whatever position you have them in, they're just simply standing there waiting to go.
00:03:55.360 --> 00:04:00.879
Can you imagine like an Olympic hundred-meter dash and everyone's wiggling on the starting blocks?
00:04:02.159 --> 00:04:11.520
No, it's not gonna happen because those are trained athletes, so they're absolutely perfectly still until that starter gun goes pop.
00:04:11.840 --> 00:04:15.439
And then every muscle in their body propels them off those blocks.
00:04:15.599 --> 00:04:20.560
They're not wiggling around and picking their nose and scratching their butt, you know, and like, oh, it's time to run.
00:04:20.800 --> 00:04:21.680
Wave into the crowd.
00:04:22.079 --> 00:04:23.199
Yeah, wave into the crowd.
00:04:23.360 --> 00:04:25.439
So it has to demonstrate that strength.
00:04:25.759 --> 00:04:28.480
Number two is actually to me, it's harder.
00:04:28.639 --> 00:04:31.360
Um, make the show look easy.
00:04:32.160 --> 00:04:41.519
It's got to you cannot feel, for better lack of a term, as an audience member, you cannot feel the difficulty of what the band's doing.
00:04:41.839 --> 00:04:42.079
Right.
00:04:42.240 --> 00:04:49.040
And I'm gonna stop you just for a second because whether they believe it or not, whether you believe it or not, Mr.
00:04:49.279 --> 00:05:08.800
Miss Educator, that conveys there is an uneasiness in the audience watching an undisciplined and not strong a band that doesn't display strength, however that term is defined, it makes me uneasy to watch you.
00:05:09.120 --> 00:05:11.040
You're waiting for something to go wrong.
00:05:11.279 --> 00:05:11.759
Oh, yeah.
00:05:11.839 --> 00:05:16.639
There's there's or you're your expectation is this is not going to be amazing.
00:05:16.800 --> 00:05:18.959
Yeah, maybe that's a kinder way to say that.
00:05:19.279 --> 00:05:22.800
You're already thinking to yourself, I'm gonna applaud at the end because they're finished.
00:05:23.199 --> 00:05:23.839
Right.
00:05:24.319 --> 00:05:26.000
Yay, that was another band.
00:05:26.560 --> 00:05:27.279
They're done.
00:05:27.519 --> 00:05:29.439
Okay, yay, they they finished, they finished.
00:05:29.519 --> 00:05:33.759
Red Riding Hood has run around and scared the wolf, and now we're gonna we're gonna run off the field.
00:05:34.079 --> 00:05:34.399
Okay.
00:05:34.560 --> 00:05:40.480
So I guess my point is though, is that that does communicate body language, 90% nonverbal communication.
00:05:40.879 --> 00:05:53.600
And we're not just um we're talking marching band, obviously, but doesn't that convey also to uh jazz band and to uh concert band and brass quintets and uh meeting someone for the very first time?
00:05:53.839 --> 00:06:02.959
You must convey some sort of strength, you know, uh a nice good handshake of what my daddy always said, you know, never shake a man's hand unless you're standing up.
00:06:03.519 --> 00:06:03.839
Right.
00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:04.959
You know, it conveys strength.
00:06:06.160 --> 00:06:06.720
Tell me the truth.
00:06:06.800 --> 00:06:10.560
Tell me if I'm wrong, as an adjudicator, have you not written this line?
00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:13.920
Because you could tell something weird happened that day.
00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:16.160
That's a strong band, but something weird happened today.
00:06:16.240 --> 00:06:19.120
I could tell something was off that or so, you know.
00:06:19.279 --> 00:06:21.439
I I don't know exactly how I was gonna phrase that.
00:06:21.600 --> 00:06:22.720
Oh, I know exactly what you're telling me.
00:06:22.879 --> 00:06:35.040
If the band's not strong, you're like, hey, we need to work on some fundamentals and we need to and you're ready to write things negatively, but if they approach it with strength and they approach it with grace, and and you can tell that's a good band.
00:06:35.279 --> 00:06:37.519
I could tell something's just something happened.
00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:40.560
I'm not sure what it was, but I could tell this is a good band.
00:06:40.720 --> 00:06:40.959
Yeah.
00:06:41.120 --> 00:06:42.319
How many times have you written that?
00:06:42.480 --> 00:06:42.879
Oh, yeah.
00:06:43.040 --> 00:06:45.519
And uh, and nowadays in March and we don't write a whole lot.
00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:46.959
Isn't that interesting on that competition?
00:06:47.120 --> 00:06:47.600
You can talk, okay.
00:06:58.800 --> 00:06:59.199
That's what I mean.
00:07:00.079 --> 00:07:01.040
There's a tear in the tempo.
00:07:01.279 --> 00:07:20.000
So uh so they kind of look at that for whatever level you might be going to next or whatever contest you have in the future or Friday night football game, said look at that and kind of said, in my opinion, it's because the people, the brass are so far front field, they're following the drum majors, and they can't follow the drum majors, they must follow the drum line because they're in front of the hash marks.
00:07:20.959 --> 00:07:24.240
But your opening to that was I could tell this is a good band.
00:07:24.480 --> 00:07:24.879
Yeah.
00:07:25.199 --> 00:07:32.399
Or conversely, if if you know it's a weaker band, you just like you said, you immediately go into let's talk about how we can make our fundamentals stronger.
00:07:32.639 --> 00:07:32.879
Right.
00:07:33.040 --> 00:07:40.800
You know, because we just assume that they're, you know, and I I've said it too, like a band will play really, really well, and then they'll just hit a clunker.
00:07:40.959 --> 00:07:41.439
You know what I mean?
00:07:42.720 --> 00:07:44.959
And you go, man, this band plays so pretty.
00:07:45.040 --> 00:07:47.120
Even that bad note sounded pretty.
00:07:48.160 --> 00:07:50.000
That gets the message across, doesn't it?
00:07:50.160 --> 00:07:53.040
It's like uh you don't sweat much for fat people compliment, you know.
00:07:53.199 --> 00:07:58.160
Yeah, it's kind of a backhanded compliment made in jovial, you know, manner.
00:07:58.399 --> 00:07:59.839
I'm not sure I've ever heard that before.
00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:00.560
That was good.
00:08:01.120 --> 00:08:02.399
Yeah, that's awesome.
00:08:02.480 --> 00:08:04.720
You don't sweat much for a fat guy, you know.
00:08:05.600 --> 00:08:08.240
So you see, is that a compliment or an insult?
00:08:09.120 --> 00:08:13.920
Yeah, but but I love saying that to a band when they play really pretty and then they just do something kind of dumb.
00:08:14.079 --> 00:08:14.959
You know, we all do.
00:08:15.439 --> 00:08:22.399
You know, it's like, man, y'all play so with such a pretty sound and so well in tune that even your even your bad note right there sounded really nice.
00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:32.399
So they you've you've acknowledged they screwed up, but you've given credit to the fact that you know they're disciplined and you know that they've been taught correctly and they're they're working hard on stage.
00:08:32.559 --> 00:08:36.559
So um uh the next thing is achieving graceful body lines.
00:08:36.720 --> 00:08:39.840
Oh my gosh, just making sure that there's a continuity.
00:08:39.919 --> 00:08:51.200
It's it's really weird to think about this, but it's a continuity between all the way from the head and shoulders, all the way down to the toes, where um in traditional marching style, that's not a big issue.
00:08:51.360 --> 00:08:58.240
It's like from the waist up, we're a musician with good horn posture, of course, but from the waist down, we're marching machines.
00:08:58.399 --> 00:08:58.799
Right.
00:08:59.039 --> 00:09:00.320
And those days are gone.
00:09:00.480 --> 00:09:00.799
Okay.
00:09:00.960 --> 00:09:05.759
So it has to be where it it operates as one continuous unit the whole time.
00:09:05.840 --> 00:09:16.080
That how we do our hips, how we do our shoulders is going to also affect what we do with our feet because we want that line all the way from our nose all the way down to the tip of our toes.
00:09:16.240 --> 00:09:24.240
You know, that we we that have a certain way that are the bend of our leg, how we how is our pelvis right underneath our body?
00:09:24.480 --> 00:09:27.519
Are we not pushing our rear end out or leaning back?
00:09:27.679 --> 00:09:30.639
Uh, what things are we doing that look different on field?
00:09:30.720 --> 00:09:37.840
And you know, so it's just a matter of making it all look the same, you know, and we have to move through each phrase, whether that's a drill phrase.
00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:41.840
We're talking drill phrases here with purpose and having presence in the field.
00:09:42.080 --> 00:09:48.639
And that's it's one of those things that's easy to recognize, but it's almost impossible to describe.
00:09:49.360 --> 00:09:50.320
Isn't that weird?
00:09:50.720 --> 00:09:52.080
That's the that's the tricky part.
00:09:52.240 --> 00:09:58.399
You can watch a band, and you know, I I could maybe if I had 30 minutes, I could describe it, but we don't have that as an audience member.
00:09:58.639 --> 00:10:04.799
We just see them march, and uh, even someone who's not really well trained in music will go, that's a really good band.
00:10:05.440 --> 00:10:07.200
And you'll say, Why is it a really good band?
00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:08.720
They'll go, I don't know.
00:10:09.039 --> 00:10:10.000
And it's a good band.
00:10:10.159 --> 00:10:15.120
It's just a good band, you know, so that they sound really nice and they look really good at what they're doing.
00:10:15.360 --> 00:10:16.799
Well, what are they doing good?
00:10:17.039 --> 00:10:18.879
I don't know, but they just look good.
00:10:19.519 --> 00:10:20.720
Whatever it is, they're doing it well.
00:10:20.960 --> 00:10:21.759
They're doing it well.
00:10:21.840 --> 00:10:27.679
You know, my dad was one of the best judges of marching bands and had no ability to play a musical instrument or sing at all.
00:10:27.759 --> 00:10:33.360
And he would say, uh, he could he could lay those first divisions and fifth divisions on a band quicker than anybody.
00:10:33.519 --> 00:10:37.440
And he was always he was always correct because he said, Oh, it's really easy.
00:10:37.600 --> 00:10:41.679
If the band really makes it look easy and it's fun to watch, that's a one.
00:10:41.840 --> 00:10:43.679
If you're a little uncomfortable, it's a two.
00:10:43.840 --> 00:10:46.320
If they make your butt pucker a little bit, it's a three.
00:10:46.559 --> 00:10:50.799
If you're embarrassed for the kids, or excuse me, if you're embarrassed for the director, it's a four.
00:10:50.879 --> 00:10:53.279
If you're embarrassed for the kids, it's a five.
00:10:53.919 --> 00:10:54.480
Wow.
00:10:54.720 --> 00:10:56.480
Not one musical comment at all.
00:10:56.720 --> 00:11:01.440
He could watch a band and go, that's a fifth division band, because I'm embarrassed for the kids right now.
00:11:01.679 --> 00:11:03.759
Or that that's a second division band.
00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:05.440
That's a little uncomfortable.
00:11:06.240 --> 00:11:07.679
Man, they really made my butt pucker.
00:11:07.919 --> 00:11:10.720
You know, that's it's there's some cringy moments happening out there.
00:11:10.799 --> 00:11:12.000
That's a third division.
00:11:12.159 --> 00:11:13.440
And you know what?
00:11:13.840 --> 00:11:15.519
That's a pretty good rubric.
00:11:15.679 --> 00:11:18.639
It has nothing to do with music, phrasing, breathing.
00:11:18.799 --> 00:11:20.960
Uh probably won't see it printed.
00:11:21.120 --> 00:11:28.080
Oh no, it won't be printed, but um, I hate to say this, but I judge a lot of marching contests, but that little rubric runs through my head.
00:11:28.639 --> 00:11:29.360
But Pucker.
00:11:29.759 --> 00:11:31.519
Well, what do what would my dad think?
00:11:31.759 --> 00:11:36.080
What would my dad think of this as an Air Force sergeant who loaded B-52s for a living?
00:11:37.200 --> 00:11:39.600
He loaded bombs, he was in charge of munitions.
00:11:39.759 --> 00:11:42.559
Um, so you know, that's the tricky part.
00:11:42.639 --> 00:11:44.320
You've got to see that in the band, okay?
00:11:44.480 --> 00:11:54.720
But it's our job as a band director to communicate these ideas to our audience through the way we move, because the way we move on the field transmits the concept of the show.
00:11:54.960 --> 00:11:59.200
Not one person dressed in a costume, jumping up and down and dancing around.
00:11:59.360 --> 00:12:01.360
That's not performative, okay?
00:12:01.519 --> 00:12:01.759
Right.
00:12:01.919 --> 00:12:03.279
That's just distracting.
00:12:03.440 --> 00:12:03.679
Okay.
00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:05.679
It has to do with every person on the field.
00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:19.279
If you've got a band with really bad posture and really bad horn position, and two people who are theater arts majors that are doing this great Shakespearean theatrical production in front of you, that's almost counter to what we're trying to do.
00:12:19.440 --> 00:12:23.360
Because you see uh the good with the absolute ugly.
00:12:23.919 --> 00:12:26.480
And I think it's like, oh, this sucks, you know.
00:12:26.879 --> 00:12:37.759
I totally ignore the soloistic type situation you're talking about because part of my cynical nature says you're trying to distract me from actually watching what the band's doing.
00:12:37.919 --> 00:12:38.240
Yeah.
00:12:38.399 --> 00:12:47.840
If I follow that little Red Riding Hood all over the field, I completely ignored the other 50 to 100 people that I'm supposed to be watching.
00:12:48.080 --> 00:12:48.399
Yeah.
00:12:48.559 --> 00:12:49.200
So yeah.
00:12:49.440 --> 00:12:52.720
And just uh I don't suggest doing this.
00:12:52.799 --> 00:13:00.480
You know, you're talking about trying to distract people, but we had a situation where our drill was not really strong on this one move in our band.
00:13:00.639 --> 00:13:02.240
And so we're at area finals.
00:13:02.320 --> 00:13:07.600
So I tell all the trombones to make sure to accidentally play an A natural there instead of an A flat.
00:13:08.080 --> 00:13:09.279
And they all looked at me.
00:13:09.519 --> 00:13:11.039
This is back when it was five judges.
00:13:11.120 --> 00:13:12.399
There weren't any captions.
00:13:12.799 --> 00:13:20.080
And then they looked at me, I said, because all five judges will talk about that A-flat for the next 20 seconds, they won't notice us falling apart on the drill.
00:13:20.879 --> 00:13:21.679
And it worked.
00:13:22.639 --> 00:13:27.279
Every cassette I got back in those days of cassettes, I got the cassettes and I played it for my trombone section.
00:13:27.360 --> 00:13:28.799
And they go, Oh, trombones?
00:13:29.039 --> 00:13:29.759
That's the wrong note.
00:13:29.840 --> 00:13:32.879
But man, this is a really good band, but you got to make sure you read your key.
00:13:32.960 --> 00:13:35.919
You can't just play uh an A-flat there when it's supposed to be an A natural.
00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:36.480
It can't be done.
00:13:36.879 --> 00:13:38.480
Meanwhile, he's like crashing burn.
00:13:38.720 --> 00:13:40.080
It's a train wreck on the field.
00:13:40.480 --> 00:13:44.960
They didn't mention one thing about the drill, all of a sudden the drill's fine, and they're like, This is a really good band.
00:13:45.360 --> 00:13:46.080
That's great.
00:13:46.320 --> 00:13:52.639
You dance to the state with the context, purposely playing the wrong note in the show to distract the judges.
00:13:52.799 --> 00:14:00.320
So judges, it's like I'm a judge, but it's like we've got a ring in our nose, and you can grab that ring and you can move that judge around.
00:14:00.720 --> 00:14:01.600
Lead us around the field.
00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:05.679
You can force them to look at what you want them to look at if you're devious enough.
00:14:05.840 --> 00:14:06.159
Okay.
00:14:06.559 --> 00:14:11.440
So if you want more of those tricks, we'll have to do those over at the Marriott Bar at TBA.
00:14:12.399 --> 00:14:13.200
That's great.
00:14:13.360 --> 00:14:14.080
That's the quiet part.
00:14:14.399 --> 00:14:15.279
Find me in the cafe.
00:14:15.519 --> 00:14:22.399
Yeah, just don't just don't turn me into UIL powers to do because they might uh ban me from marching from uh judging anymore.
00:14:22.480 --> 00:14:22.559
Okay.
00:14:22.960 --> 00:14:24.399
Yanked that certification.
00:14:24.639 --> 00:14:26.879
Yeah, he just lost his accreditation.
00:14:27.279 --> 00:14:36.159
And to begin working towards this goal, it helps to recognize how the visual part of our program in our group overlaps with the various components of our marching band.
00:14:36.480 --> 00:14:38.399
It works with the music at the same time.
00:14:38.559 --> 00:14:50.080
And a lot of times directors think in terms of let's work the drill, then let's add choreography, then let's see how that affects what we do musically.
00:14:50.320 --> 00:14:56.879
When I know it seems like a slower process, but do all that to the best of your ability at the same time as you're teaching it.
00:14:57.360 --> 00:15:05.600
This is the drill move, this is the crescendo, this is the woodwind feature, this is how we're gonna stage this, this is how we're gonna do our choreo.
00:15:05.840 --> 00:15:14.000
Don't add it later because you most directors wouldn't do that in any other aspect of their job, but it seems like it makes sense to us in marching.
00:15:14.080 --> 00:15:18.320
And I don't know why it does, but it's not a sensible way to approach it, you know.
00:15:18.480 --> 00:15:27.759
Because um, I've gone, it's like I'll clinic a band like the week before region, and I'll say, man, just like choreography, that those body movements, it's not really together yet.
00:15:27.840 --> 00:15:30.080
Oh, yeah, we just put that in two days ago.
00:15:30.639 --> 00:15:31.279
Why?
00:15:32.639 --> 00:15:33.279
Just that move?
00:15:33.360 --> 00:15:34.480
No, all our choreography.
00:15:34.559 --> 00:15:37.039
We spent the last four days doing our choreography.
00:15:37.440 --> 00:15:38.080
What?
00:15:39.200 --> 00:15:45.200
Can you imagine having a concert band and going, all right, we've got all the notes and rhythms worked out to Moscow 1941.
00:15:45.279 --> 00:15:48.879
Now it's five days before contest evaluation.
00:15:49.679 --> 00:15:51.679
Let's do dynamics.
00:15:54.240 --> 00:15:55.440
That's great.
00:15:56.080 --> 00:15:59.759
We wouldn't do that to our concert band, but give us a second, man.
00:15:59.840 --> 00:16:02.240
And we're we're crazy, we're crazy people as directors.
00:16:02.320 --> 00:16:03.519
We'll do that to the marching band.
00:16:03.600 --> 00:16:05.279
And you know why we do it, Derek?
00:16:06.240 --> 00:16:08.159
Because we're not comfortable with the body movement.
00:16:08.320 --> 00:16:09.759
We don't know exactly how to teach it.
00:16:09.840 --> 00:16:11.600
We know how to teach the music and drill.
00:16:11.759 --> 00:16:14.320
The body movement, that's a whole nother animal, isn't it?
00:16:14.480 --> 00:16:15.519
So you got to force yourself.
00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:16.559
That'll be another podcast.
00:16:16.639 --> 00:16:16.799
Okay.
00:16:17.039 --> 00:16:22.320
But look, I was gonna say, haven't I heard you say before that you incorporate some of this stuff into your warmup block?
00:16:22.639 --> 00:16:23.120
Oh, yeah.
00:16:23.200 --> 00:16:23.440
Yeah.
00:16:23.600 --> 00:16:34.480
These exercises that tend to focus on overlaps and stretching, strengthening, endurance training, movement skills, marching technique, ensemble clarity, that all happens at the same time.
00:16:34.559 --> 00:16:35.200
You can do an F.
00:16:35.360 --> 00:16:39.120
Remington warm-up or you could do a corral and you could do body movement to it.
00:16:39.200 --> 00:16:46.960
You can say, okay, we're gonna do eight counts of plie and then recovery, and then we're gonna do a Ram de Jam and we're gonna do this and this.
00:16:47.039 --> 00:16:53.840
And you can incorporate all that into your warm-up chorale from day one because they'll learn the notes pretty quick, you know, most things.
00:16:54.240 --> 00:16:56.159
If not, have an easier chorale.
00:16:56.240 --> 00:16:58.320
You know, the chorale only has like four notes in it.
00:16:58.399 --> 00:17:01.120
And there's nothing wrong with that because the chorale is not meant to wow.
00:17:02.320 --> 00:17:03.360
Learn the purpose.
00:17:03.600 --> 00:17:05.039
Yeah, learn learn what the purpose is.
00:17:05.200 --> 00:17:10.480
Our purpose is not to do salvation is created, you know, and make it sound like an orchestral excerpt.
00:17:10.640 --> 00:17:16.480
You know, our goal is to let's make a pretty sound, play in tune, do our body movement, and incorporate all that together.
00:17:16.640 --> 00:17:20.960
Um, the best exercises cover multiple skill areas.
00:17:21.119 --> 00:17:25.279
However, a number of these exercises also focus on developing a single issue.
00:17:25.519 --> 00:17:37.359
You know, so it's like our goal right now is to get our prettiest sound possible on our on our Remington warm-up or our Clark study that we're doing, our lipslur exercise with chromatics in the woodwinds.
00:17:37.440 --> 00:17:41.039
We want to make sure we use our chromatic fingerings on clarinet and saxophone.
00:17:41.599 --> 00:17:45.759
But while you're doing this, you are gonna do a plie for eight counts.
00:17:45.920 --> 00:17:50.880
You're gonna do a rhom de jam, now you're gonna do an arabesque, now you're gonna do a coupe.
00:17:51.200 --> 00:18:01.440
So you give all this terminology to them and teach them how to do all this so they're doing one thing and having to do the other, much like a piano player forcing themselves to use both hands on the piano.
00:18:01.759 --> 00:18:02.000
Right.
00:18:02.160 --> 00:18:08.960
Or I liken it to a lot as a guitar player, a lot of times I've heard people say this and I believe this.
00:18:09.279 --> 00:18:13.119
Don't learn the guitar part and then start trying to sing with it.
00:18:13.359 --> 00:18:16.480
Do them both at the same time, or you'll never be able to do it.
00:18:16.640 --> 00:18:20.240
I mean, it just became you've increased the difficult level.
00:18:20.480 --> 00:18:24.880
If you don't do it all at the same time from the beginning, you've just made things harder on yourself.
00:18:25.119 --> 00:18:26.079
And you're exactly right.
00:18:26.160 --> 00:18:39.359
If you if you wait till later to teach some kind of choreography or some kind of marching thing that you want to incorporate in your show, a big drill move, then all of a sudden they're gonna suffer musically, and it'll take them twice as long to recover musically.
00:18:39.599 --> 00:18:40.400
To recover, right?
00:18:40.640 --> 00:18:42.400
If you just taught it to them in the first place.
00:18:42.559 --> 00:18:47.279
Now, granted, we do have to change things as the season progresses, but try to keep that to a minimum.
00:18:47.359 --> 00:18:54.000
Um, it's also important that we develop clear, this is a must, clear and consistent definitions for everything we do.
00:18:54.240 --> 00:19:00.319
It can't be that the flutes call it a step off and the trumpets call it a get and go.
00:19:00.559 --> 00:19:01.839
I'm just making up stuff now.
00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:05.279
And trombones call it something I miss every time, you know.
00:19:05.359 --> 00:19:14.960
Um, but there has to be a definition for, you know, when we say uh uh let's say Ram de Jam for a body movement, if that's the terminology you want to use, use it.
00:19:15.039 --> 00:19:19.599
If you want to call it a toe circle, that's okay too, because it's kind of a toe circle.
00:19:19.759 --> 00:19:20.480
You know what I mean?
00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:24.480
So, whatever definition you have, you can't have 15 definitions floating around out there.
00:19:24.640 --> 00:19:31.599
At the end of the day, this activity focuses, this activity we do every single day in band, it focuses on uniformity.
00:19:31.920 --> 00:19:35.119
And only through uniformity do we get artistic expression.
00:19:36.400 --> 00:19:42.160
You look at a great symphony orchestra, all those bows move the same direction.
00:19:43.119 --> 00:19:44.000
At the same time.
00:19:44.240 --> 00:19:44.880
At the same time.
00:19:45.039 --> 00:19:45.680
Think about that.
00:19:45.759 --> 00:19:46.880
It's very uniform.
00:19:47.039 --> 00:19:59.440
And so I've heard people uh prophesy that uh, you know, said, well, you know, we just want to be emotive and musical, so it's not gonna no, no, the most unmusical thing in the world is not being uniform.
00:19:59.599 --> 00:20:05.039
It has to be uniform first, and then we can emote, then we can emote, and we can be artistic.
00:20:05.200 --> 00:20:08.799
Whether that's a jazz band or whether that's a trumpet ensemble, it doesn't matter.
00:20:09.039 --> 00:20:16.160
So the purpose of this whole podcast series, and then if you've if you dived in with us this far, here's our purpose.
00:20:16.319 --> 00:20:17.359
I'll be the educator.
00:20:17.519 --> 00:20:24.480
Here's our goal is to have the key points of our movement and our marching program eventually all in written form.
00:20:25.839 --> 00:20:26.720
And Mr.
00:20:26.799 --> 00:20:34.160
Rick over in the chair, he has a copy of the PDF that I've updated with um new terminology and I've changed a few things in it.
00:20:34.319 --> 00:20:39.680
He's gonna post that uh through the Tarpley system so we can kind of have people can download it.
00:20:39.839 --> 00:20:43.039
Um, it's done in a uh I have to check with Rick.
00:20:43.119 --> 00:20:44.400
I might have sent it to him as a PDF.
00:20:44.480 --> 00:20:46.160
It might be a I hope it's a word file.
00:20:46.559 --> 00:20:48.960
He did a get thumbs up, it's a word file.
00:20:50.240 --> 00:20:50.559
Okay.
00:20:50.799 --> 00:20:54.240
So with a word file, what I like about it is every director can change it.
00:20:54.480 --> 00:20:56.640
A PDF, you have to retype the whole dang thing.
00:20:56.799 --> 00:21:00.160
But you know, if you want to call it something different, you have my blessing.
00:21:00.319 --> 00:21:04.319
Everything on that page is stolen, stolen with a vengeance, okay?
00:21:04.559 --> 00:21:07.359
Nothing on that was unapologetically not stolen.
00:21:07.519 --> 00:21:10.160
Okay, so it was stolen and too bad, so sad.
00:21:10.240 --> 00:21:11.039
I just stole that.
00:21:11.200 --> 00:21:12.880
So feel free to steal it all.
00:21:12.960 --> 00:21:17.119
And if you want to erase everything but one sentence, you have my blessing, okay?
00:21:17.359 --> 00:21:19.440
But you need to have it all written down somewhere.
00:21:19.599 --> 00:21:23.359
It has to be written down where you can hand it to whoever's working with your band.
00:21:23.440 --> 00:21:23.759
Okay.
00:21:24.160 --> 00:21:29.039
Um, it'll help enhance the clarity and consistency of your approach to your band.
00:21:29.200 --> 00:21:33.839
It provides tools for each performer to maximize their development in this caption.
00:21:34.400 --> 00:21:41.440
All teachers, and that includes students who are teaching, all teachers in the program must teach exactly the same way.
00:21:42.640 --> 00:21:48.000
We can't have four different ways to step off just because the bear tones like to do it this way.
00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:50.319
You know, everyone has to be on the same page.
00:21:50.480 --> 00:21:59.119
That sounds obvious, but if you watch a marching band, now I'm gonna make some of you guys out there that uh you know tend to watch other marching bands, you know what I mean?
00:21:59.359 --> 00:22:08.000
You'll you'll Start to be more analytical when you watch them, you're you'll realize that the low brass have a different foot technique than the woodwinds.
00:22:08.640 --> 00:22:09.759
That's kind of weird.
00:22:09.920 --> 00:22:21.759
And they just kind of, you know, they we just kind of develop our own cultish pod of how we do things when we're brass players versus woodwinds versus front ensemble versus whatever, you know.
00:22:21.920 --> 00:22:26.319
Um, so you've got to make sure that we all teach it the same way and we stick to that.
00:22:26.559 --> 00:22:28.720
We just got to stick to that uniformity.
00:22:29.119 --> 00:22:42.160
Um, the focus on movement training, the way muscle groups and body awareness is developed in dance settings, offers an excellent means to create the look we're after.
00:22:42.400 --> 00:22:44.799
We're looking for a certain look.
00:22:44.960 --> 00:22:53.359
Our goal is to have a look to our band, at the same time, covering a full range of physical conditioning in a way that is relevant to our marching technique.
00:22:53.680 --> 00:23:09.119
Because I don't know how many times, you know, I'll I'll I'll see a band and I'll maybe work in like the day before state marching contest, believe it or not, just to kind of catch a few things and they'll say, What can we do on this body movement to make this better for tomorrow when we go to prelims?
00:23:09.440 --> 00:23:13.920
And I'll just kind of turn my mic off and look at them and say, There's nothing you can do to make that look better.
00:23:14.160 --> 00:23:18.799
They do not have the core muscle strength to make that look better.
00:23:19.039 --> 00:23:19.359
Right.
00:23:19.599 --> 00:23:20.799
It's not going to look better.
00:23:20.960 --> 00:23:26.480
Um, so just have them do the best they can, which is fine because it was a really good band, by the way.
00:23:26.720 --> 00:23:29.039
Or or take that body movement out.
00:23:29.839 --> 00:23:34.480
I would rather a judge say, we could really use some body movement here instead of the body movement.
00:23:34.960 --> 00:23:35.359
That was bad.
00:23:35.599 --> 00:23:36.640
That really sucked, you know.
00:23:36.799 --> 00:23:39.440
So it'd be nice if we did that together, you know.
00:23:39.680 --> 00:23:40.960
And sometimes it's core strength.
00:23:41.039 --> 00:23:46.079
We're gonna have a podcast here somewhere along the way with uh with uh Denver City Michael Munoz.
00:23:46.480 --> 00:23:50.160
He is a whole system for core body strength with a resistance band.
00:23:50.480 --> 00:23:52.720
It's the coolest thing you've ever seen in your life.
00:23:52.880 --> 00:23:56.319
And we're gonna get him to do some videos for us and stuff and post those.
00:23:56.480 --> 00:24:12.960
But um, it's a real precise way for a band that's in class 3A, so it's not like some big old 6A monster BOA band, you know, that has the full eight hours a week after school to work that he's incorporated within his program has been very successful.
00:24:13.119 --> 00:24:15.759
His kids have core muscle strength.
00:24:15.920 --> 00:24:32.960
I judged them last year, and it was stunning how strong they were physically, you know, and consequently they did well as far as being a good band, and they did well as far as points on the sheet because they had the physical body strength to do the things he was asking them to do.
00:24:33.119 --> 00:24:39.519
Okay, so it can be done, and we're gonna utilize his uh brilliant because he did all this on his own, by the way.
00:24:40.400 --> 00:24:41.359
It's absolutely amazing.
00:24:41.440 --> 00:24:44.079
I watched him, I watched him say, Oh my gosh, this is amazing.
00:24:44.240 --> 00:24:44.559
Okay.
00:24:44.880 --> 00:24:48.240
Um, so our goal is to move well as humans first.
00:24:49.839 --> 00:24:50.799
Think about that.
00:24:50.960 --> 00:24:52.319
To move well as humans first.
00:24:52.400 --> 00:24:56.480
We don't want it to look awkward, then apply those movement concepts to our marching.
00:24:56.720 --> 00:25:02.799
Do what we can with the allowed time and the student ability.
00:25:03.119 --> 00:25:03.519
Right.
00:25:04.160 --> 00:25:04.960
I think that's key.
00:25:05.200 --> 00:25:06.400
That's our limitations.
00:25:06.480 --> 00:25:13.440
You there if you're at a BOA grand nationals top 12 finalists band, bless you.
00:25:13.680 --> 00:25:20.480
Because those kids can do more because they have a culture built in, and if they have more, they take more time, they're more centered in what they're doing.
00:25:20.640 --> 00:25:28.240
But if if you I my first 13 years was 1A2A, and I was the only band director, there's only X amount of hours in rehearsal.
00:25:28.480 --> 00:25:36.720
And if it's after school, now you got ag and you got volleyball and you've got you know, the kids have to go work with their families, you know what I mean?
00:25:36.799 --> 00:25:38.720
So there's there's a lot of things going on.
00:25:38.880 --> 00:25:42.640
So you don't have the ability to go, we're gonna work for eight hours after school this week.
00:25:42.799 --> 00:25:44.000
You don't have that ability.
00:25:44.240 --> 00:25:46.559
Um so the lotted time.
00:25:46.640 --> 00:25:51.200
Um, you may have heard the distinction between marching well and moving well before.
00:25:51.519 --> 00:25:55.119
For our purposes, this is how I like to define the difference.
00:25:55.440 --> 00:25:59.359
Marching well, this is to me, this is a cool concept.
00:25:59.519 --> 00:26:01.519
So I'm I'm geeking out here on you.
00:26:01.680 --> 00:26:06.000
Marching well means separating the upper half of your body from the lower half.
00:26:06.240 --> 00:26:08.880
You're thinking, what am I doing with my above my waist?
00:26:08.960 --> 00:26:11.039
What am I doing from my waist down to my toes?
00:26:11.279 --> 00:26:13.119
That's what I call marching.
00:26:13.359 --> 00:26:16.240
If a band marches well, I can see that.
00:26:16.480 --> 00:26:21.599
If they're moving well, it means integrating the upper half with the lower half.
00:26:22.160 --> 00:26:24.640
So it's all one continuous motion.
00:26:24.799 --> 00:26:27.759
It's not separate entities that are moving on the field.
00:26:27.920 --> 00:26:33.359
Neither one is bad or good, but I'll promise you this out there in uh listener land.
00:26:33.759 --> 00:26:40.960
If your band is keyed as they move well, they will earn more points in the visual caption.
00:26:41.759 --> 00:26:42.079
Right.
00:26:42.480 --> 00:26:43.359
Well makes sense.
00:26:43.519 --> 00:26:45.680
And artistically, it'll fit the music better.
00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:47.200
It'll fit the music better.
00:26:47.359 --> 00:26:47.680
Okay.
00:26:47.920 --> 00:26:48.720
Can we do both?
00:26:48.880 --> 00:26:49.920
March well and move well?
00:26:50.079 --> 00:26:50.799
Absolutely.
00:26:51.039 --> 00:27:04.240
The biggest difference has to do with the approach, treating each each part of that um as an exercise as a full body experience rather than having separate exercises for the upper body and lower body.
00:27:04.480 --> 00:27:08.799
So we want to make sure that as we're doing a plie, maybe we're doing a horn move.
00:27:08.960 --> 00:27:14.480
Maybe we're doing something with our upper body with a horns coming down to trail and coming back up while we're doing a plie.
00:27:15.039 --> 00:27:24.799
So I'm incorporating what I'm doing upper body with lower body at the same time, much like our guitar players and piano players having to figure out two hands to play an instrument or a saxophone player.
00:27:24.960 --> 00:27:30.480
They can't just work on the fingerings of their left hand and then say, Well, I guess I need to use this hand also.
00:27:30.720 --> 00:27:32.640
No, they do it all at the same time, don't they?
00:27:32.799 --> 00:27:35.279
You know, so we it's up to us to make that happen.
00:27:35.440 --> 00:27:41.759
You know, utilize dance technique is often a new experience for us for especially a younger band.
00:27:41.839 --> 00:27:45.440
And uh, an ensemble's expecting, you know, they're expecting to march.
00:27:45.599 --> 00:27:46.400
You know what I mean?
00:27:46.559 --> 00:27:47.920
It's uh we're a marching band.
00:27:48.079 --> 00:27:48.880
We we march.
00:27:49.200 --> 00:27:51.599
You know, so at first they'll be resistant.
00:27:51.839 --> 00:27:56.799
Um, if they're resistant, uh we mentioned earlier, call these things by different names.
00:27:57.039 --> 00:28:01.839
Ram de jam is toe circles, a plie is a squat, a tondue is a toe point.
00:28:02.880 --> 00:28:03.039
Right.
00:28:03.279 --> 00:28:04.000
You know what I mean?
00:28:04.079 --> 00:28:09.759
So you just figure out what you want to call them, and that they can and you don't have to call them by their ballet terms.
00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:17.920
In fact, if you have some, if you're lucky enough to have people who dance ballet in your band, they will be horrified by your terminology.
00:28:18.559 --> 00:28:20.640
Loose interpretation of their definition.
00:28:21.039 --> 00:28:24.000
It's like that is that's not even close to a Tom Doo.
00:28:25.200 --> 00:28:25.839
I'm sorry.
00:28:26.079 --> 00:28:26.480
Really?
00:28:26.720 --> 00:28:31.599
I I know you dance lead, you're Claire and Swan Lake or whatever, nutcracker, whatever it is.
00:28:31.759 --> 00:28:33.200
Nutcracker is Claire, isn't it?
00:28:33.279 --> 00:28:36.079
You know, so you dance the lead and nutcracker.
00:28:36.240 --> 00:28:37.279
I respect that.
00:28:37.440 --> 00:28:43.359
Just go with us and just kind of plug your ears and just pretend like it's a different kind of nutcracker.
00:28:43.519 --> 00:28:45.119
This is a different kind of nutcracker.
00:28:45.680 --> 00:28:47.440
That's a quote to remember right there.
00:28:47.839 --> 00:28:49.839
Baby, this is a different kind of nutcracker here.
00:28:49.920 --> 00:28:51.519
Just shut up and get in your spot.
00:28:53.039 --> 00:28:55.519
Get those stupid ballet shoes off your feet.
00:28:55.599 --> 00:28:58.240
We are wearing dinkle black shoes.
00:28:58.400 --> 00:28:59.440
Uh goodness.
00:28:59.839 --> 00:29:03.440
Traditional marching tends to focus on uniformity over technique.
00:29:04.000 --> 00:29:04.720
It does.
00:29:04.880 --> 00:29:09.839
And uh setting the bar so that everyone can achieve the marching style with relative ease.
00:29:09.920 --> 00:29:13.680
You know, if you're a military marching band, um, I say relative ease.
00:29:13.759 --> 00:29:14.799
I did not say it was easy.
00:29:14.880 --> 00:29:17.599
So don't kill me if you're a military marching person.
00:29:17.839 --> 00:29:27.279
But you got to admit that it's if everything's 120 beats a minute and our upper body never has to do any body movement other than horn position, that does simplify the process a little bit.
00:29:27.440 --> 00:29:32.400
And our feet do the same thing the whole time and we're marching six to five, never any different.
00:29:32.559 --> 00:29:38.799
You know, we face the end zone, we do our fanfare at a 45 degree oblique, we do counter left, segue rights.
00:29:38.960 --> 00:29:44.640
Um, we do our thing and we do it over and over and over to ad nauseum until it's totally uniform.
00:29:44.799 --> 00:29:48.240
And that I think that's awesome because I love my military marching bands.
00:29:48.400 --> 00:29:48.720
Okay.
00:29:49.039 --> 00:30:01.279
Um, but if you're actually looking at uh what is now termed as open class marching, open class in in at least in Texas, is I guess what most people call core style.
00:30:01.599 --> 00:30:07.519
Yeah, I think core style is probably the more familiar term for the older folks, but yeah, for the older for old people.
00:30:07.680 --> 00:30:09.759
For young people, that's like core style.
00:30:09.839 --> 00:30:11.680
What what does that mean?
00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:14.079
Yeah, like we're all gonna carry drums.
00:30:14.160 --> 00:30:15.200
What are we talking about here?
00:30:15.920 --> 00:30:31.279
You know, um, and we'll present some of that later, but when it's applied correctly, the concepts presented in this podcast series as we get through all these different units, there's not a lot of them, uh it'll create body awareness, strengthening, flexibility exercises.
00:30:31.440 --> 00:30:35.759
Um, but again, only do what your group can handle in the time you were given.
00:30:35.920 --> 00:30:37.920
You might only be able to do one thing.
00:30:38.079 --> 00:30:46.079
Um, I can remember way you talk about way, way back in time, 1981, when I marched in the Skyriders.
00:30:46.400 --> 00:30:51.519
Lee Carlson, who right now is in charge of all judging in DCI, think about that.
00:30:51.680 --> 00:30:53.440
He he was our color guard person.
00:30:53.599 --> 00:30:56.720
Okay, and he decided the horn line was gonna do a visual.
00:30:56.799 --> 00:31:02.079
Uh, we were playing uh uh uh oh gosh, here's that rainy day.
00:31:02.319 --> 00:31:05.119
Beautiful jazz tune going into over the rainbow.
00:31:05.200 --> 00:31:18.319
And he said, after the drum solo feature, that date you too, drum solo, you know, we're all gonna turn and look at the sky and we're gonna hold our right hand up and we're gonna keep it in a cup and we're gonna look at our fingertips like we're looking for rain in the sky.
00:31:18.880 --> 00:31:21.440
That's the first time I'd ever heard of a visual.
00:31:22.079 --> 00:31:24.880
That's the only one we did the whole year.
00:31:25.119 --> 00:31:27.440
Pissed off the DCI judges to no end.
00:31:27.680 --> 00:31:28.319
Did it really?
00:31:28.720 --> 00:31:30.960
Oh God, we were so pissed off.
00:31:31.200 --> 00:31:32.000
How do I judge this?
00:31:32.079 --> 00:31:32.559
This is stupid.
00:31:32.880 --> 00:31:33.519
What are you doing?
00:31:33.920 --> 00:31:40.319
You know, they they've got their cassette players and they're griping at us, and I can hear them griping because we're sitting there staring at our fingertips.
00:31:40.480 --> 00:31:44.319
And the marching and maneuvering judges, isn't that funny?
00:31:44.400 --> 00:31:45.359
The MM judges.
00:31:45.759 --> 00:31:46.400
Maneuvering.
00:31:46.559 --> 00:31:51.519
Yeah, marching and maneuvering judges or with their tick system are walking around us going, What are you doing?
00:31:51.759 --> 00:31:55.119
You know, they were just astounded by the stupidity of what we were doing.
00:31:55.279 --> 00:32:04.319
Um, but we did it, and uh, and then we weren't the only core, but it was kind of a movement during the early 80s of we're gonna start doing visual design in our show.
00:32:04.480 --> 00:32:08.240
And so those things And I bet the crowd effect was phenomenal.
00:32:08.480 --> 00:32:09.920
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:32:10.079 --> 00:32:14.079
The best one was when DCI, this is a rabbit chase.
00:32:14.240 --> 00:32:20.480
This is so hilarious because they were we were losing points and we thought it was political.
00:32:20.720 --> 00:32:29.599
And it was because we were just a core in the middle of the United States, we didn't have an East Coast judging preference or a West Coast, we were just kind of by ourselves in Kansas, you know.
00:32:29.759 --> 00:32:37.039
So at the end of the drum solo, our core director said uh George Todd Hilly goes, All right, now at the end of the drum feature, we turn around.
00:32:37.119 --> 00:32:40.000
Now, everyone kiss your fingers and slap your ass.
00:32:41.599 --> 00:32:43.680
That's a you know what to DCI.
00:32:45.200 --> 00:32:47.039
Kiss my butt DCI.
00:32:47.279 --> 00:32:51.440
And we did that, and the those judges were just incensed, and we didn't give them a pen.
00:32:52.000 --> 00:32:54.240
They were we didn't we didn't care at that point.
00:32:54.319 --> 00:32:57.759
It was uh it was definitely like kiss my ass, DCI, you know.
00:32:58.000 --> 00:33:02.559
So that that that it was it was a fun moment, you know, back in the day when you could be rebellious.
00:33:02.640 --> 00:33:02.880
Okay.
00:33:03.279 --> 00:33:05.039
So back to our podcast.
00:33:05.279 --> 00:33:05.599
Okay.
00:33:06.000 --> 00:33:07.440
Your keys to success.
00:33:07.680 --> 00:33:11.839
You reach a point of understanding the techniques and movement fundamentals that we've described.
00:33:12.000 --> 00:33:13.920
It'll take time, effort, and commitment.
00:33:14.079 --> 00:33:18.000
As you move through all these, um, you have to realize the core principles.
00:33:18.240 --> 00:33:23.680
One is realize, and I'm gonna name them here, and but I'm not gonna discuss them because that's gonna be the following podcast.
00:33:23.759 --> 00:33:26.000
This is your teaser for upcoming stuff, okay?
00:33:26.240 --> 00:33:43.839
The core principles relaxation, concentration, alignment, breathing, core strength, coordinate, coordination, fluidity, or as we said before, fluidity, fluidity, and stamina.
00:33:44.160 --> 00:33:46.640
Those are the core principles that we're trying to instill.
00:33:46.799 --> 00:33:47.039
Okay.
00:33:47.359 --> 00:33:53.279
So if we can instill those, which we might, you know, it's whatever bandit is, that's hard to get all that covered.
00:33:53.440 --> 00:33:58.960
You know, if all you can get is concentration and alignment and breathing, that's a that's a victory, my friends.
00:33:59.039 --> 00:34:01.519
But that is the holy grail, is to get all that.
00:34:01.680 --> 00:34:09.920
So our program overview, the big picture, it's important for each individual performer to understand how all these pieces fit together.
00:34:10.159 --> 00:34:14.400
Um, we're gonna use a technique called backward planning.
00:34:14.880 --> 00:34:15.920
Backward planning.
00:34:16.079 --> 00:34:17.440
It's a very corporate term.
00:34:17.599 --> 00:34:23.599
It's when you see what your goal is at the end and then you figure out what you're gonna do step by step to get there.
00:34:23.840 --> 00:34:29.199
It's much like if I decide I want to get my car and drive to New Jersey, then I'm gonna backward plan.
00:34:29.280 --> 00:34:32.159
I'm gonna go, okay, I'm gonna back out of my driveway.
00:34:32.559 --> 00:34:36.480
Then I'm gonna go down Rivercrest and I'm gonna turn right on 7th Street.
00:34:36.800 --> 00:34:38.960
You know, you know, you backward plan.
00:34:39.039 --> 00:34:42.719
So you go all the way to the beginning of the journey and you figure out what do I do first?
00:34:42.880 --> 00:34:45.280
Oh, I guess I need to start my car.
00:34:45.519 --> 00:34:45.760
Right.
00:34:45.920 --> 00:34:47.920
Because I can't back out without starting my car.
00:34:48.079 --> 00:34:49.920
So, band-wise, we're gonna do that.
00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:51.840
We're we're gonna go, we're gonna backward plan.
00:34:52.000 --> 00:34:53.519
This begins with the big picture.
00:34:53.679 --> 00:34:56.719
What do we want to have accomplished by the end of the season?
00:34:57.039 --> 00:35:01.840
Then we work backwards from that point to ensure that everything we do fits into that picture.
00:35:02.079 --> 00:35:08.960
Everything we do that doesn't fit in that picture is a waste of time, much like when I ramble on into a chasing a rabbit in our podcast.
00:35:09.119 --> 00:35:15.440
That is actually a waste of time to the podcast, but we enjoy it greatly, so we don't care, and it's our podcast.
00:35:16.400 --> 00:35:19.440
I would argue that that's yeah, that's great.
00:35:19.679 --> 00:35:23.599
But it's good stuff and it's it makes it fun to to talk about, you know.
00:35:23.679 --> 00:35:28.159
I mean, but as far as the context of giving information, it is a waste of time.
00:35:28.960 --> 00:35:29.599
It is.
00:35:29.760 --> 00:35:31.440
Um, but I don't care.
00:35:31.519 --> 00:35:32.320
We're gonna do it anyway.
00:35:32.480 --> 00:35:33.199
We're gonna chase right.
00:35:34.639 --> 00:35:48.800
Um, it is my hope that this series, uh I uh hope and pray that it'll give you tools to help your band be better and just as important, hopefully make your job easier, maybe take off some of those limitations that you think you got to do everything on day one.
00:35:49.199 --> 00:35:50.079
What a great statement.
00:35:50.239 --> 00:35:52.480
Yeah, and I would appreciate any feedback.
00:35:52.719 --> 00:35:56.800
Marching and visual work contains a lot of opinions.
00:35:56.960 --> 00:35:57.280
Yeah.
00:35:57.440 --> 00:36:02.719
And we all know the the the saying about opinions, and we're not gonna say it on air, you know.
00:36:02.800 --> 00:36:05.360
But everyone I know you said it several times already.
00:36:05.599 --> 00:36:07.039
Yeah, that's right.
00:36:08.880 --> 00:36:12.320
Yeah, but we'll we have to limit our the sensor.
00:36:12.400 --> 00:36:12.800
Uh I don't know.
00:36:13.519 --> 00:36:14.719
We'll use the word noses.
00:36:14.960 --> 00:36:15.199
Yeah.
00:36:15.519 --> 00:36:16.880
Does Tarpley have a sensor?
00:36:16.960 --> 00:36:17.920
Like uh I don't know.
00:36:18.000 --> 00:36:18.400
I don't know.
00:36:19.840 --> 00:36:21.920
I bet they call Rick before they call us.
00:36:22.079 --> 00:36:22.960
Yeah, they probably will.
00:36:23.119 --> 00:36:31.360
I think we operate like the uh, you know, we're like an underground episode that Tarpley's aware of, but are they not pirate podcasts?
00:36:31.519 --> 00:36:34.159
Yeah, we're a pirate podcast, you know.
00:36:36.079 --> 00:36:37.199
Let's keep it that way.
00:36:37.360 --> 00:36:40.719
In fact, let's keep changing up what we're doing just to keep Tarpley confused.
00:36:44.239 --> 00:36:46.400
Uh well I think these are awesome.
00:36:46.719 --> 00:36:50.800
And uh I think some of this stuff you can't say it enough times.
00:36:51.039 --> 00:36:53.760
So except for the bad words, but yes, yes.
00:36:54.480 --> 00:36:56.400
Aside from the opinions comment.
00:36:56.559 --> 00:37:08.639
Yeah, but I I listen, guys, we really the goal, as Mike just stated, is is a community that builds each other up and and helps.
00:37:09.039 --> 00:37:15.280
So if you do have feedback, uh something you thought of, hey, I like that you said that, but consider this.
00:37:15.440 --> 00:37:16.639
Great, we're open to that.
00:37:16.800 --> 00:37:23.199
If you say, hey, I didn't understand that, give us talk to us, tell us how we can help.
00:37:23.360 --> 00:37:26.159
That's it's the whole point of what we do.
00:37:26.400 --> 00:37:32.559
It was the whole impetus for Ask Mike was offering an opportunity for people to get questions answered.
00:37:32.639 --> 00:37:34.880
So yeah, love to hear from everybody.
00:37:35.119 --> 00:37:36.800
Uh I'm excited.
00:37:36.960 --> 00:37:40.559
You know, I'm I'm that guy that most directors roll their eyes at.
00:37:40.639 --> 00:37:42.239
Marching is kind of my thing.
00:37:42.320 --> 00:37:42.639
I love it.
00:37:43.920 --> 00:37:44.480
Always have.
00:37:44.639 --> 00:37:52.159
So uh never had the opportunity to uh raise a salute to the panel of judges as you described.
00:37:53.280 --> 00:37:55.440
I think that's awesome.
00:37:57.440 --> 00:37:58.320
All right, brother.
00:37:58.400 --> 00:37:59.519
We'll do it again next time.
00:37:59.679 --> 00:38:01.199
All right, we'll see you later, man.
