5 Marching Band Takeaways After Two Shows

Hey everyone! We are 2 weeks into the performance part of the marching band season here in Ohio. I wanted to share five takeaways I have through the season so far.

1 - PREPARATION! Not only for the students but the staff. Do you have a game plan for once you arrive at a show site? Do the students have time to use the bathroom and get changed? Does everyone that is prepping things at the show (props, electronics, front ensemble, etc.) know what their responsiblities are? Does the staff have the show schedule? Are you stretching before warm up, or during warm up? Does our arrival time give us enough time to get everything done.

We need to make sure that we are prepared for all these things so that the show preparation does not feel frantic to us or to the students. I know that the best performances my students have had where at shows that I was calm at. I also know that shows that I was frantic at (usually do to not having a great prep plan) were not as great. So make sure you have a plan and that that plan is communicated to everyone that needs it.

2 - Plan Your Warm Up Time! In Ohio, we get 45 mintues to warm up at shows. I know roughly how long each exercise is I am going to do, and how many reps of each exercise I want to do. I know the reminders I need to give the students to be successful and factor that talking as well. I personally also like to start with a minute or 2 of hack time for the students to get themselves ready. This also gives me a minute or 2 to get everything plugged in that we are using for warm up. So I get 15 minutes of front ensemble time, and then 10-15 mintues of percussion ensemble time before we do some full band. Here is what my warm up plan will lookin like -

7:30 - Move into Warm Up/Hack

7:32 - Exercises

6-3-2-1 (4 reps - Full, 3", Up-Down, RH Lead)

Chromatic-Up/Major-Down - 1 rep - 16th Note/Triplet Alternating 2 in between

Chromatic-Up/Major-Down - 1 rep - rhythmic version - sing, on C, move it

Gameday Samba - 1 rep - Decrescendo/Crescendo

Everything All at Once - 1 rep

7:42 - Part 2 Top to J (Front Ensemble Moment) - 2-3 reps while the battery transitions

7:45 - Percussion Ensemble

Part 1 - Pages 1-10 - 2 reps

Part 1 - Pages 10-20 - 2 reps

Part 1 - Pages 20-31 - 2 reps (this is 10 minutes with staff comment)

Part 1 - Full Run (while band transitions)

8:00 - Full Band (Band Director Runs this)

8:15 - MOVE

There is nothing worse than being unprepared for warm up and feeling like you did not set the students up for success. A close second is leaving a great warm up early by accident and having to start at the gate an extra 10 minutes. A lot of focus can be lost in those 10 minutes.

3 - Walk the Route! Do you know where warm up is? Do you know where the entrance is? How long does it take to get there? Do you pass by the trucks after warm up on the way to the show?

There are not many shows I go to anymore that I have not been to before, and I still walk the route. Sometimes I will time the walk if I think it is going to be a long walk. I know that if we are going by the truck after warm up, I only need to take 1 speaker stack to warm up (because we only use 1 in warm up) and I can pick up the 2nd stack and center fill on the way by the truck. Walking to the warm up area also gives me the opportunity to figure out where the front ensemble needs to set up and which direction they need to face before I get there. The more information I have before moving means I can give clearer instructions if I can't be at the front of the line.

4 - Review your logistics! Does everyone know their on/off responsibilities? Do we know the plug in responsibilities? Do we know the order of operations when pluggin in? Do we have a way to communicate when the board is muted, or are we going to get a bunch of pops when things are getting plugged in?

This is your first impression, and you are being watched. No one says it, but you can usually tell how good a band is when you watch them come on the field. And if you are great, a bad first impression means you are starting by digging your way out of a hole instead of being impressive from the start.

5 - Electronics Matter! Not just from a balance standpoint, but from a quality/fidelity/professionalism standpoint. If you show starts with electronics, they need to sound professional. If the first thing we hear is a "First Act" piano sound, we kinda expect that that is what we will get from the band and presentation. We spend so much time as teachers getting out students to sound great, we have to remember to devote that same energy to our electronics because those are "permanent" adjustments. A computer is a lot better at recalling information than a 14 year freshmen is.

So those are my five big takeaways after two show weekends. And none of them are, the students need to move/play better. That will come over time. We need to do everything we can, as instructors, to allow them to be as successful as they can be at each point in the season so they can feel like this -