I think that
too often, as marching band
directors, we forget our role as
music educators. Very few of
us willfully sacrifice our concert
bands to the marching season, but
it seems to happen to many of us
anyway.
I love drum corps. I marched
in one of the best, and have
served on the board of directors
for our local drum corps show.
But
a band isn't a drum corps, it's
a band.
When you see a drum corps on TV,
you need to realize that that
group of kids has spent at least
four hours a day, seven days a
week for the past four or five
months just on the marching
show. That's upwards of
three thousand hours of marching
rehearsal concentrated into one
summer.
Most directors see their marching
band between five and ten hours a
week. At ten hours a week,
you have about 120 hours of total
rehearsal time during August,
September and October. If
you add a week of band camp, and
you rehearse 10 hours a day, you
get an additonal sixty hours, for
a total of 180 hours. This
time must be spent on music, on
drill, and on business. If
you spend half your time on drill,
you'll have 90 hours total.
The ratio of band rehearsal time
to drumcorps rehearsal time is
something like
90/3000. Expressed as
a percentage, it's 3%.
Band's only have 3% the rehearsal
times the big corps use.
Here's a scenario, adapted from a
lecture by Timothy Salzman, a
member of the DCI hall of fame.
Too often a band director looks at
a video of a drum corps doing an
exciting move, and thinks, "WOW,
I've got to have my kids do that!
AND THAT!" So he watches the
video a hundred times, gets all
the counts, and charts it for his
band, or sends a link to the drill
designer and says, "I want exactly
this and nothing else." The
next thing you know, Susie the
sophomore, a third clarinet, is
flying around the field,
whiplashed on the end of a line,
because that's where the clarinets
usually end up. She's
marching six to fives while trying
to play arpeggios across the
break. Susie gets frustrated and
says, "This is too hard, I can't
do it." And the band
director says, "Just squat down a
little and you can make it. I know
you can."
Well she can't, because she
doesn't have enough time in
rehearsal to learn it. She
doesn't have half the time it
would take. In fact, she only has
3% of the time she really
needs. The director COULD
sacrifice the musical aspect to
teach the drill, but that's no
good either. And the next
year Susie's not in band.
Concert season comes, and there
never seems to be enough clarinet
players. That's my gripe,
and it's a common one. Band
shouldn't inspire fear in the
performer, but too often it does.
There's an easy solution.
Right now, during the summer,
figure out how much marching band
rehearsal time you're going to
have. Break it down.
You'll need to spend time on music
ensemble, music sectionals,
marching, and marching with
music. Leave enough time at
the end of each rehearsal for at
least one run through of the
program, and time to talk about
business.
Now, out of the marching time, you
need to allocate some for basic
technique, some for blocking new
drill, and some for cleaning the
drill the kids know. How
much blocking time do you
have? How will you spend it?
A really good band and competent
set of instructors can learn and
teach one page about every ten
minutes, with time for review and
runthroughs. If you're
teaching alone, or with limited
help, you need to plan on
accomplishing less. It may be wise
to plan on half of that - one page
every twenty minutes, or three an
hour. If you're good, you
might teach four pages an hour.
From there the math is easy.
If you plan to learn the show
during band camp, and you've
allocated two hours a day for
learning the marching part of the
show, your presentation should
have between thirty and forty
pages of drill. Unless you
boost the rehearsal time, any more
than that might not be fair to the
kids or to the music.
I use an easy form to work this
all out. You're welcome
(encouraged) to use it, even if
you don't get your marching band
drill designed here.
In one show, the Cavaliers, a
world class drum corps,
marched nintey-six pages of drill
in their opener. I don't
know the total for the whole show,
but it could be as high as two or
three hundred. The Cavaliers
also have a student to instructor
ratio that is something like ten
to one. You probably
don't. And they have lots
more time to rehearse than you
do. You shouldn't march a
drum corps show. If you do,
it will probably be at the
eventual expense of your concert
quality. It's regrettable
when that happens.
I write drill that is exciting to
watch, and fun to march. My drill
has helped bands place first in 17
states. In 2014, bands
marching my drill won state
championships in their size class
in four states. My
drill has been seen on Monday
Night Football and on locally and
nationally televised college
games. The University of Utah
has framed samples of my
drill as decorations in their band
room. Search for BYU
marching band on youtube and you
find my drill. I have been
to hundreds of drum corps shows
over the last thirty years.
I marched with one of the finest
drum corps. I know the moves
and the tricks. I am a very
good drill writer in the drum
corps tradition and style.
But I am also, before all that, a
music teacher and a band
director. I never sacrifice
music to motion.
Victor Neves
To order a show or just to ask
questions, send email to victor.neves@bandtek.com
or leave a message at 801-763-9915
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