Kid-Safe iMessage & FaceTime

This Christmas, our oldest two kiddos got refurbished iPod Touches. They were excited with all of the normal uses for an iPod Touch: games/apps, music, taking pictures/videos. But they realized pretty quick that they wanted to iMessage and FaceTime.

Truthfully, I was hesitant to even allow these functions on their phone, but given the few family members that we are going to make available to them, I think we can monitor it pretty efficiently.

There was a pretty big hurdle in getting it set up though, as it was my desire to have everyone's iDevices (including our iPhones, iPad, MacBook and iMac) on the same Apple ID. Maybe that makes me a control freak, but I wanted to be responsible for all purchases and uses of the ID.

There's surprisingly little info on the internet showing how to accomplish this, so I'm blogging the steps I took to get it to work:

1. Create an email address for your child. Go ahead and store the password info in a new contact on your iDevice. You'll forget it. Don't ask me how I know...

2. Go into your child's device in Settings>General>Restrictions to be sure that FaceTime is allowed. (You should definitely spend some time working through the other Restrictions to ensure kid-safe content.)

3. Still under Settings, go to Messages>Send & Receive (it will display all email accounts associated with your Apple ID). At this point, you'll need to add your child's email address (Add Another Email...). It will ask for your Apple ID Password. Then your child's email address will be emailed by Apple to verify that the email address is legitimate for your Apple ID. 

4. At this point, your child's email address will come up as an option you can check for iMessage to be reached by. Uncheck all but your child's email addresses unless you want all of the iMessages to be duplicated on other devices.

5. In Settings, go into FaceTime and add the new child email there also. You shouldn't have to verify the address again, just list it.

6. At this point, you should be able make FaceTime calls and send iMessages (to other iDevice users). You can manage Contacts easily through FaceTime. 

I feel compelled to say something about safe use of these devices by kids: we take our kid's devices from them each evening and control when they are allowed to have them the next day. Of course, we snoop around on their devices to make sure everything looks respectable, too.

Good parents snoop, right?

Sight-Reading Contest Success and the Percussion Section

One of the most daunting aspects of getting your band ready for contest is preparing them for the Sight-Reading Room. With so much to consider -- from the actual music to your preferred procedure for how your band should approach the experience -- the percussion section can get lost in the mix. On a good day, the percussion may hardly even be noticed. On a bad day, the percussion section can be a real liability and can potentially create pitfalls that the rest of the band will fall treacherously fall into.

Fortunately this can be prevented when successful band programs actively apply the saying "plan your work and work your plan." This is no different when it comes to preparing your percussion section for success on the day of your contest.

Here are eight strategies that will make sure everyone knows their role, has a job to do and can reasonably understand what to expect when they set foot in the Sight-Reading room:

(Being from Texas, this is written from my experiences at UIL Sight-Reading Contest as a Band Director and as a Percussion Specialist. It can be expected, however, that many of these strategies will work in other Sight-Reading Contest formats.)

1. Make Percussion Assignments: Each year, the UIL Office publishes the percussion instrumentation needed for each level of Sight-Reading so you can be prepared for what parts/instruments are required. Take that list and go ahead and assign your percussion section to it. Don't wait until the contest is getting close or even the day of. As soon as the list is released, post the assignment chart for your students to see.

2. Assign Parts Based on Ability/Stability and Seniority: Generally, I stray away from viewing the snare drum as the most important percussion instrument and also from giving special preference to older players -- all percussion instruments are important and have their specific purpose and I've always considered someone's playing ability more important than their age, but this is the only case in which I fully embrace those views.

In most Sight-Reading pieces, the snare drum functions as the main/most active percussion instrument and should be played by your single most competent snare drummer. And when it comes to understanding how the Sight-Reading room works, your older players simply have more experience and are innately better prepared for what is going to be required of them.

The other standard percussion instruments are certainly important in the Sight-Reading room, but all too often, a tempo change, ritardando, accelarando or ending of the piece will hinge on your snare drummer being the catalyst and responding seemlesly with what you conduct.

3. Have a Plan for "Extra" Players: Often we will have more players in the section than is required in the sight-reading piece. Some directors prefer to double parts like the snare drum or one of the keyboard parts, but it has been my experience (from having hosted many band contests) that this can really open up a huge can of worms. When you double a part as crucial as the snare drum, you will inevitably get two interpretations of what you are conducting. What are your wind players supposed to do? Follow the student who is right with you or the one who is louder, gets nervous and begins to rush? It's too much to chance. Trust your assignments and trust your students to perform well.

So, what should you do with extra players? Everyone should have a job, so you can take additional players and make them "assistants" and "equipment managers." "Assistants" silently help students count rests or point out important functions of the music like accidentals or tempo or dynamic changes. "Equipment Managers" are those students who can contribute by making sure equipment is carried from the stage to the Sight-Reading room and can also be in charge of sticks, mallets, accessories or anything else you can foresee. Regardless of a student's role, be sure that everyone is fully engaged in the process -- especially during any judge's instructions or conductor's explanation periods.

No one needs to sit down, and everyone needs to have as professional demeanor as possible.

With all of that about assignments being said, this is what your assignment chart might look like:

Snare Drum: John (single best player, most reliable, straight-A student)
Bells: George (best keyboard player, doesn't miss the key, etc.)
Timpani: Ringo (a strong snare drummer, but might be a younger student)
Crash Cymbals: Paul (not the strongest player, but won't cave if there are exposed crashes)
Bass Drum: Eddie (keeps a solid pulse and will follow the snare drummer's lead)
Triangle: Mary (greater counter, and takes the instrument seriously)
Esther: Assist John (younger student)
Tabitha: Assist George (younger student)
Rufus: Equipment Manager (potential eligibility risk?)

4. Use Your Percussion Assignments in Rehearsal: Each time you sight-read in class, be sure that your percussionists are playing their assigned part. There is something to be said for rotating parts in other situations, but the routine of each student playing the same part in sight-reading practice and in the Sight-Reading Room will help to bolster their confidence on the day of contest and helps students to be best prepared for the type of writing they can expect to see for that part.

There will be some differences in instrumentation from the old Sight-Reading pieces you use to practice with and the actual newly-written piece you'll see in the actual Sight-Reading room. In those cases, be sure to take an extra two minutes and "call an audible" so that your percussionists are playing as similar an instrument as possible. (If Jimmy usually plays tambourine, but there's only a triangle part, then that's the part Jimmy plays -- on tambourine. The same could be said for any number of keyboard instruments.)

Suppose there is an unusual instrument required for Sight-Reading one year (Spring 2013, Level One Maracas... I'm looking at YOU!). The best thing you could do is to have the unusual instrument play an unused instrument part. For instance, play the triangle part or double the tambourine part on maracas. If you are super concerned about the maraca part, have the maraca player play alternating 8th notes each time the snare drum is playing (they need to look off the snare drum part not just start playing whenever they hear snare drum!).

5. Use a Director to Tune Timpani: A director is allowed to tune the timpani, so unless you have a very mature student who can tune timpani correctly every time, you or an assistant director should be in charge of tuning.

6. Respond Quickly to Eligibility Problems: If any of your percussionists fails, update the percussion assignments immediately (which can also be said of your concert pieces as well). Make sure the students feel comfortable with their new assignments and make the ineligible player responsible for getting the new student caught up to speed.

7. Students should "Air Drum" but not with Sticks!: In the same way that you want your wind students to "pop" their fingers and move their slides during the explanation period, you want your percussionists to be physically involved in "air drumming" their parts. Tell your students to "air drum" their parts as realistically as possible but also in a way in which they cannot possibly make an accidental sound. If a student has sticks or mallets in their hands, they are likely to drop a stick or accidentally play their instrument and that can be disastrous.

Have your snare drummer "air drum" up high so you can look back and easily see if his hands are moving at the right time and even the right rhythms.

8. Think Like a Sight-Reading Judge: In most cases, the music that your percussionists play in the Sight-Reading room will be significantly easier than what they just performed on stage. Your students can be lulled into a sense of boredom if they're not careful. But, if you and they think like a Sight-Reading Judge does, they will be more alert.

Most Sight-Reading Judges are not terribly concerned with the percussion section. They are generally looking to see if the band plays in the key signature well, with the correct rhythms and can demonstrate dynamics. In terms of the percussion section, the items that will be most on a judge's radar are things like tempo as set by the conductor and snare drummer, notes that are solos (a big crash or a triangle note on count '4' while everyone else is silent) and when the bells play, do they play in the key signature.

If you and your students are on the look out for those specific items, you are much more likely to perform them well. Be sure that you point them out to your students, too. You might have the percussion section from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra who need no instruction whatsoever, but it's important for the judges to hear you address those items specifically. (And let's face it, no matter how good your percussion section is, they still need to be "instructed" and involved in the explanation process because they are as important as the wind musicians in your ensemble.)

In closing, having a plan of action when preparing your percussion section for Sight-Reading is the single most important thing you could do to ensure their success. I've often said that I'd rather have a plan that had to be changed, than no plan at all. At the very least, putting even a preliminary plan in place will provide peace of mind for everyone involved.

Good luck!

Junior High Percussion Clinic

Originally Posted on April 5th, 2012

Last year, Ralph Hicks and I released a book through Tapspace Publications called “Beyond Basic Percussion.” The book contains 10 percussion ensembles for the percussion student who has finished their beginning percussion year. Each ensemble is geared to teach a certain concept to better familiarize the students with information that is important to know beyond simply being able to play snare drum and keyboard well.

Some of those concepts include: playing accessory percussion instruments, using a trap table, switching mallets or sticks, basic multi-percussion set-ups as well as ensembles for chromatic passages, 16th note syncopation/timing and even Latin Percussion.

One thing Ralph and I agreed on was that the information we put in the book would make a great TMEA clinic. So, in May of 2011, we applied to give a clinic at TMEA. Part of our proposal relied heavily on the performances of our students. A clinic with great information is one thing, but when you can see the lessons pragmatically applied, it often has a greater impact on the clinic attendee.

Our clinic was accepted. We were overjoyed to have the opportunity (not to mention terrified to put together something of the scope of such a clinic!). Planning began immediately as we spread the news to our students and notified industry sponsors who we hoped would be willing to provide equipment for the clinic.

Ralph and I tried as much as possible to stay conscious of not letting the clinic be a “bait and switch” sort of ordeal where the clinic was touted as a way to learn a number of these concepts, but upon arriving, having a product beaten over your head in hopes that you’ll buy it. We’d both been to such clinics and were incredibly disappointed to have wasted our time on an hour-long commercial. 

This awareness effected a lot of the way we approached the clinic. Yes, I’ll be the first to admit: we were hoping that people would buy our book having seen the information in action. But more importantly, we were hoping that people would learn a lot from the clinic and be inspired that these concepts could be taught in their band halls back home.

We not only set out to cover a number of the topics that we engaged in in the book, but also added some additional teaching/playing strategies. From the book we focused in on the topics that we thought would have the most immediate impression on the average convention-goer: the importance of playing accessory percussion well, the use of a trap table and navigating a multiple percussion part. For material that was not a part of the book, we discussed utilizing student’s band warm-up time either being able to do “five minute drills” on snare drum or keyboard in a separate room, or having your percussion section be a part of the band warm-up using various parts that are “retro-fitted” to the existing band warm-up. For each segment throughout the clinic, we used students to demonstrate.

We capped off the performance with something that we thought would just be fun: a performance of my percussion ensemble Clave and Sons. Clave and Sons is a latin percussion primer intended to not only teach students about all of the different latin percussion instruments, their rhythms and their techniques, but also to put it all together to form an authentic latin piece. The students really had a blast with it and it turned out to be the perfect way to finish out the clinic!

In the future, I’ll be writing about this clinic from the student’s perspective and what it took for them to get ready for that day!

In the meantime, if you’re interested, the clinic is on YouTube in seven parts. The link to the first part is below.

http://youtu.be/-NHeEJG51jU

Parenting, A Sports Analogy

Originally Posted on March 5th, 2012

So, I’m big on sport’s analogies. I find that basketball and football make for the best ones and I’m almost always able to find a better way to describe something to my band through a good one. 

Some friends of ours at our church had their third child in the fall. We also have three children, so this came up in conversation one day.

“Is having three children all that different from having two?”

My response was, “Well the way I see it, parenting is like playing defense. When you have one child, the parents can double-team the child. When you have two children, you move to a man-to-man defense. And when you have three, you’re outnumbered, so you have to do your best zone defense.”

Then I remembered the scenario in hockey where you can actually have a team member in the penalty box while the rest of your team is down a man. That’s what having three children seems like. Only, who’s in the penalty box? And what did they do?

To my friends with three or more children, here’s to hoping you have a solid bluff and a killer zone defense!

Buying Brand Names vs. Store Brand

Originally Posted on September 10, 2011

Ready for a completely unscientific and thoroughly opinionated post? Great!

So, I had a friend in college who upon moving in with a new roommate, complained about her new roommate’s shopping habits:

“We spent so much money today! She doesn’t buy a single thing in the store brand version!”

Point well taken. If you buy only name brands, are you going to break the bank? She seemed to think so. Plus, it wasn’t exactly a good first step towards building that oh-so-important roommate bond. (Now, I think they turned out fine, but there may have been a serious “talking-to” about how not every purchase needs to be brand name.)

I realize that you didn’t really ask for this, but won’t this be kinda fun? Yes, most definitely! That’s the spirit!

Here’s a list of items I regularly purchase and whether I buy strictly “store brand” (SB) or “brand name” (BN).

Sunglasses - store brand (I lose sunglasses, don’t think I look cool in them and am generally hard on them. So, why pay top dollar for something I’m going to sit on anyways!?)

Sunscreen - brand name (Have you seen how light complected I am? We do NOT mess around with sunburns people!)

Cereal - SB (Avast ye Marshmallow Maties!)

Soda/Pop/Cokes - BN (Diet Dr. Thunder? Not so much...)

Canned Fruits/Veggies - SB

Ketchup/Mustard - SB

Barbeque Sauce - BN (and only Head Country is acceptable.)

Over-the-counter-drugs/Vitamins - SB (in most cases, it is literally the SAME product and you are only paying for the “claritin” -type name.)

Eggs/Milk/Bread - SB

Napkins/Paper Towels - SB (unless the BN version’s price is pretty close.)

Toilet Paper - BN (The more dogs/clouds/babies/cherubs on the packaging, the better.)

Ice Cream - BN (Pretty much only Blue Bell, at that.)

Honey - SB

Salsa - Local BN (the stuff made in your backyard is the best! Or the stuff I make when I get the motivation about every three years...)

Coffee - BN 

Coffee Filters - SB

Cookies/Pastries/Cakes - out of the store’s own bakery

Deodorant/Toothpaste/Razors - BN (I think the advertising is working here...)

Aluminum Foil - BN (I will NOT make that mistake again!)

And...

Printer Paper - SB (But who prints anything out anymore???)

Summer's Over... Fire Up the Band!

Originally Posted on August 12, 2011

Well, it kinda felt like it came out of nowhere... August! I was so busy writing this summer, that even though I was aware of what day it was, it just felt like summer flew by. 

We’ve been working through our summer band and it has been going well. Each year I try to think about the sacrifice our students are making to be at summer band. It’s still their summer and yet they give a piece of it up every day so they can come to school a few weeks early. It’s truly remarkable. 

The toughest part of our summer band schedule is that everything is at night. I’m used to being home at night and being able to play with the kids. It’s just a weird flip-flop to see them in the morning for a while, then not again until the next day. (Well, Kayla has been bringing them to the band hall for dinner, so that’s saying something!)

While I like how much we get to focus on band and only band, I am ready for school to start. Mainly, I think I’m ready to settle into a routine and get to work with a new crop of beginners. Man, isn’t teaching beginners great?! 

There are a few other possible things coming down the pipeline that I don’t want to jinx, so I’ll just say that if they happen, you’ll surely hear about them here.

It was an otherwise quiet summer. 

Now, when can we expect cooler weather???

Summer!

Originally Posted on July 29th, 2011

Well, it’s been quite a summer! As you can see, our kids are growing up!

Here are some of the highlights, without going into too much detail:

My first year at Panhandle HS concluded! 

My private percussion students and I gave a recital at Amarillo College in May.

We took our HS Band Trip to Southern California! It was a BLAST!

Our family was officially “homeless” while we waited to close on our new house (don’t worry, we stayed with Kayla’s parents!).

We moved to Panhandle! (I am so class to the band hall that I plan on walking or riding my bike to school.)

We took a family trip to Breckenridge, CO. (Just in time for record highs in the Panhandle of Texas. It was only 70 degrees there. That family trip will probably be it’s own blog post. It totally kicked butt!)

I wrote marching band music like a mad man! (Over the last few months, I wrote 8 shows! Man, I’m kinda tired...)

Our kids attended our church’s Vacation Bible School Program. Kayla was a volunteer and they all had a great time.

I played in a 4th of July Concert with the Amarillo Symphony Orchestra. It was a lot of snare drum. A lot.

Our youngest, McKinley, had to spend a couple of days in the hospital because she wasn’t getting over her Strep fast enough. I don’t think she enjoyed it one bit, but she’s great now and is starting to walk!

I taught at WTAMU Band Camp for two weeks!

I rode my bike for the first time in about 7 years! (Fortunately, it was like, um, riding a bike.)

Then, instead of going to TBA (Texas Bandmaster’s Association Convention), I stayed home to write. Did I mention that I kept really busy writing all summer???

That’s it for now. Now that I’m not commuting from Amarillo to Panhandle, I hope to have more time to blog. (Empty promises.... Ready... Go!)

Thoughts on "The Shack" Part 2

Originally Posted on April 24th, 2011

Heresy?

That seemed a bit strong for this particular book. Unfortunately, that word appears to get thrown around too often and I wonder if that cheapens its usage and in doing so, means that we lose the impact and true definition of the word.

So, is it Heresy? 

In my opinion, it is not.

I will say that there were some things that bothered me about the book. In “The Shack,” the author paints a picture of the Holy Trinity as three separate individuals: God, the Father is an overweight black woman who is awkwardly referred to as ‘Papa.’ The mental image I kept getting was of the “Oracle” from “The Matrix” Trilogy of movies. She cooks and is whimsical and is probably modeled after a strong southern woman who’s lived a long life and is a bit tired. 

Jesus, is well, Jesus. But in this regard, he’s described as a sort of Arab auto mechanic. He’s good with tools. He’s a nuts and bolts sort of guy. He’s a carpenter (go figure). He comes across as very human. I actually didn’t have much of a problem with His portrayal. (It also wasn’t much of a stretch...)

The Holy Spirit is ‘Sarayu’ who is almost an apparition in the way She is described as moving about. Truthfully, She comes across as a sort of ditsy type of japanese anime character. Like if Bjork was a Pokemon character. 

Now, I understand that the author had to make these Parts “writable,” but I think that’s where a fatal flaw occurs. In making them “writable,” the author created them in his image. They aren’t all that biblically based and I fear that that will give an unstudied person the wrong idea about the nature of God. 

Plus, the biggest concern I have about these “human” figures is that they don’t behave the way you might expect God to behave. For instance, the most troubling aspect of all of this is that God is not most interested in His Holiness and His Glory. Rather, the story is far too man-centered to be fully credible. ‘Papa’ admits to “not intervening” or watching human events unfold as if He is powerless to effect them. This, to me, is a dangerous view of God’s sovereignty. The God of the bible is all-knowing and all-powerful and is not relegated to merely setting events into motion and crossing His fingers that they play out the way He wants.

Like watching someone spinning plates. (Cue Sabre Dance)

The other thing that I thought was troublesome was the notion the book flirts with that there is no punishment in a real place called Hell. Eternal punishment is never really “locked down” within discussions in the book. The best line that illustrates this is, “Sin is its own punishment.”

Really?

But, the thing that really jumped out at me was the absolute and complete lack of an scripture reference anywhere in the book. Now, I realize that it’s a work of fiction and that the author may have had his own ideas about whether to include a lot of scripture, but the absolute lack of it is appalling. 

Never once does any of the characters refer to scripture in a way that would further prove their point. Wouldn’t it have made sense and been impactful if one of the characters had used scripture to further illustrate? “Isn’t it written in [a particular book, chapter and verse] that it would be this way?” Or “I said in [book, chapter and verse] that this is the way such-and-such is. I wanted you to know that, which is why it’s in my Holy Book.”

But nothing of the sort. 

So while there are some very nice moments within the book, I don’t think I would recommend it as something worth your time. Keep in mind that I’m not saying “don’t read it.” If you want to read it, go right ahead. I’d be curious to know what your take on the book is, but I just don’t think it’s something you have to read. If you skip it, I don’t think you’re skipping much. 

Overall, it’s a good concept but it’s executed poorly and it leaves enough wiggle room that the reader without a strong bible background may be easily confused or mis-guided. I wouldn’t necessarily say that I have a strong bible background, but my background was strong enough to see the apparent inconsistencies between “The Shack” and God’s inerrant Word.

Thoughts on "The Shack" Part 1

Originally Posted on April 14th, 2011

When I first saw the book, “The Shack” it was on the bookshelf at my parents-in-law’s house. It looked fairly intriguing and the back cover description and critical reviews looked promising. My mother-in-law explained that it had been lent to them, but neither her or my father-in-law had yet to be able to read it. So, I asked if I could.

I won’t try to do much in the way of a synopsis of the book; my job is not to write a book review. Rather, I’d like to give some of my impressions of what I read. (If you’re looking for a synopsis, I’m sure you can “google” it.) 

My initial thoughts of the book were that it is poorly written. In fact, though I was moved by some of the more emotional passages, I never once thought “now, this is a well-written book!” Again, I’m not a book reviewer, but if it had been better written, it would have surely been easier to read or enjoy and it might have made the message stronger and more captivating. I will commend the author for his first effort. To get this much attention and controversy with your first book is quite an accomplishment.

So... controversy? About 3/4’s of the way through the book, I mentioned to a friend of mine that I was reading it. This particular friend has two theology degrees and tends to be fairly opinionated and authoritative about his viewpoints. His reaction was, “that book has been pretty thoroughly debunked by a good many folks in the Christian community.”

Well, that caught my attention! There had been several places in the book that I felt like the religious picture Young was painting was weak or “loose,” but I hadn’t really thought about it being something that would need to be “debunked.”

I was curious and started to look online for material that supported this “debunking.” Within a search or two the ‘H’ word popped up. 

The ‘H’ word?

Yep. “Heresy.”

Would I go so far as to say it’s heretical? Hang on for part two and I’ll let you know what conclusions I came up with...

Commissioning Part 2

Originally Posted on August 6, 2010

So, why are we so quick to commission for Marching Band and not for Concert Band? If we look at why we spend so much money on Marching Band, it may become pretty clear.

Frankly, we don’t mind shelling out a lot of money for Marching Band because it is such a public extension of our program. Like I mentioned in the last post, the Marching Band is what people “see.” Even if they’ve come to a football game with no particular interest in seeing the band, they probably still watch the band perform. So, when we hear about our hometown Marching Band doing well at a contest or making it’s way through the ranks of the Area Marching Contest -- maybe even competing at the State Marching Contest (or BOA or USSBA) -- there’s a connection for the run-of-the-mill community member who may or may not have any ties to the band program. A little bit more pride can be taken in seeing what the band has done.

However, that run-of-the-mill community member is not going to come to your Christmas Concert. They are definitely not going to come to see your band perform at Band Contest, either. So, what about when you commission a piece of music, make a big “to-do” about it and premiere it on your spring concert? Yep, they’re still not coming.

So, not only are we willing to spend the money on Marching Band because it helps up be more competitive through intelligent show design, we also know that our community will be more likely to “get behind” the band if we are successful in competition and we -- oh yeah, here’s a big shock to our system -- produce a show that the audience will actually enjoy (and skip the concession stand lines to see).

(Maybe I’ll do a blog about marching band shows that audiences enjoy. Then again, maybe I’ll decide that I’d rather not take that “controversial” topic on, either...)

Why then should we care to commission composers to write Concert Band music for us if we will not see the direct results of that commission?

I believe the answer lies in our prospective: Commissioning for Marching Band is for the “short view.” Commissioning for Concert Band is for the “long view.”

Here’s an example: Recently I worked to arrange several Concert Band pieces for Marching Band. The first one was the Great Locomotive Chase by Robert W. Smith. The second was Quad City Stomp by Michael Sweeney. Upon opening the front page on both scores, I read that each had been a commission. 

Both of those compositions are enjoyable for students to play and for audiences to hear, but they probably wouldn’t have existed unless someone had commissioned those composers to write them. Robert W. Smith and Michael Sweeney are both professional composers. (Yes, I’m aware that they have jobs in addition to composing, but those jobs are very much related to their work as composers.) Because these composers are professionals and write as their life-work, they have to seek commissions to make a living. If we don’t commission music, quite simply this music won’t exist.

So, in the “long view” our commissioning a composer to write us a piece, helps to insure that talented composers can continue to provide music for our concerts and our libraries and (I’ll admit) they are also secondarily providing music for us to arrange into Marching Band scores as well as something that we might play at Band Contest, too. 

Commissioning a composer to write music for your band helps to leave a legacy of repertoire for generations of band directors and band students who need something to play. By the time you put away your Marching Band gear, your show will only live on on video and as a fading memory. But, in all likelihood, it will not get performed again to the same degree a Concert Band commission will. 

In fifty years will people still view Marching Band with any sort of similarity to how we view it today? Of course not. But are they likely to still be performing any number of famous pieces of music that were commissioned (Blue Shades, A Movement for Rosa, Satiric Dances, Chant and Jubilo, October, Aurora Awakes)?

That’s the “long view.” 

Concert Music vs. Marching Music: Commissioning

Originally Posted on July 10, 2010

For the last couple of days, I’ve been thinking a lot about our musical priorities in Music Education. Namely, the battle of Concert Music versus Marching Music has been swirling around in my head. More specifically though, I’ve been thinking about the commissioning process.

My biggest career pursuit right now is to “make it” as a composer. (Don’t get me wrong, I love teaching band and want to do it for a long, long time. But, I’ve been a band director since I graduated college. Check. “Make it” as a composer? That’s a lot harder. And it will take a while before I can check that off the list!) I’ve always really loved marching band. I loved doing it in High School, College and Drum Corps and when I started “teching” drumlines I loved every aspect of teaching marching band. So it wasn’t a stretch when I started writing percussion books. In the last couple of years I have started to write marching band wind scores as well.

All of this has been while taking steps to “make it” as a composer. 

So within my dichotomy as a writer: a marching band guy (who wears wind pants and should shower more often) and a “classical” composer guy (who drinks fine wine, goes to cocktail parties and has a thorough understanding of the libretto for ANY opera), I often have this battle.

Here’s why: frankly, marching band “pays the bills.” (Truthfully, band directing pays the bills. But marching band is a nice little side income.) At this stage of the game, I can get about as much work for marching band arranging/composing as I can handle. But commissions for new concert works? Well, in 2009 and 2010 combined, I’ve had three. (Conversely, in two years for marching band I’ve had about 15-18 shows that I’ve written, or written the percussion book for.)

Why such a disparity? I believe it ultimately goes to a sense of competition and community. The marching band is THE most visual aspect of the band program as far as the community is concerned. If the band looks good, sounds good and competes well, the general public, administrators, school board and average “Joe and Jane” will be happy with the band. (But, when was the last time you had anyone at your spring concert who wasn’t a family member of a band kid? It happens; sure. But it’s not the overwhelming make up of your audience...) 

There’s a lot more to be said for this -- especially when it comes down to money! So stay tuned for Part 2!

My Birthday

Originally posted on June 27, 2010

Today (well yesterday, June 26th) was my birthday. I turned 32 and didn’t feel a single day older. But the reality is that I am older. Now that I am firmly in my 30’s (30 and 31 weren’t?), I feel more of my youth slipping away. I don’t mean that in a physical sense (although that’s true). I mean it more in a responsibility, adult sort of way.

Nothing has made me feel more like an adult than having kids of my own. Now, I’m a teacher, so I’m around kids all the time, but I haven’t been the one “responsible” for them. And by that I mean, if one of my old band kids were to be arrested for some heinous crime; then on some program like 20/20 or Primetime Live they did a story on him and psycho-analyzed him; they wouldn’t suggest that the reason he’d turned out so bad was because of his high school band director.

No. These are MY kids. As they grow up, people will judge the job of parenting I’ve done based on how my own kids act. That, and all of the day-to-day of raising kids (“Don’t put that in your mouth!,” “Grant, put that down!,” “You guys need to get hug each other and say ‘sorry.’”) has made me grow up the most. 

And you know what? I’m really okay with it. When I think about my high school or college years, I always wanted what was next. In high school, I wanted to graduate and go to college. In college, I couldn’t wait to get out and teach. In my second year of teaching, I wanted to go right back to college! After that, marriage. Beyond that, kids. 

I’m okay with that because life is good. When I look to the future, I don’t want it to come. I’m enjoying my beautiful wife and kids NOW. I love tickling my kids NOW. I love hearing about how their day went NOW. What’s in the future? Well, not exactly that.

My timer just went off (I only give myself a few minutes to write blog entries, or I’m likely to ramble on. You’re welcome.). So, I will close with this: There’s a Rush song called “Time Stand Still.” I never really “got” that song in my youth. It seemed like something an adult would say. But,  it’s a pretty good look at where I am in life now. And where I am now is adulthood. And I’m totally okay with that.