12,377 Missed Opportunities?

[N.E. Brigand]

A little more than a month ago, I attended a few hours of the State Marching Band Finals conducted by the Ohio Music Education Association.

Before I proceed further, some words of explanation may be helpful for non-Buckeyes. Because of OMEA's emphasis on education, these "Finals" are not run like a drum corps or Bands of America competition. Instead, in September and early October, the OMEA sanctions about 60 local contests (which are roughly analogous to DCI shows), conducted by band booster organizations across the state with OMEA-approved judges on OMEA sheets. At these events, bands are awarded first place, second place, and so forth (in classes based on school size), but they also are rated against a non-competitive scale of I to V, or "Superior" to "Poor". (I have only occasionally seen a band awarded a III, and never a IV or V.) There is no absolute correlation between rank and rating at the local contests. Sometimes no band, even the day's "Grand Champion", will receive a rating of I (especially early in the season – just as no corps scores a 90 before mid-July, I suppose). Sometimes a band that only gets an "honorable mention" vs. the other bands in its class still gets a I rating.

Any band that earns a local "Superior" is then eligible to appear for "OMEA adjudicated performance" (as the announcer intones these days, the word "competition" having been dropped some time ago) in State Finals. At the Finals, bands are not ranked but only rated, again from I to V, with the understanding the grading will be tougher than in the local shows. (Not too tough: about half the bands that qualify for State Finals will receive a I there.) Compared to drum corps competition, this is very anticlimactic, and I've thought so since before I ever even heard of drum corps, when my H.S. first qualified for State when I was a freshman in 1986. The performances themselves, however, are sometimes quite good, and so from time to time, I try to attend to see what Ohio bands are up to these days.

Checking a few local contest results for this season, it appears that about two-thirds of the bands competing in local contests qualify for State. (This seemed high to me at first, but in DCI, after all, roughly the same percentage of corps competing in Prelims will qualify for Semifinals.) The number is large enough that OMEA spreads the event over the last weekend in October and first weekend in November, and sets it in multiple locations to make it easier for groups from all over the state to attend. This time the Finals were Saturday all day in a Columbus suburb of Hilliard, Sunday afternoon in Dayton, the next Friday evening and Saturday afternoon in the Cleveland exurb of Brunswick, and the last Sunday afternoon again in Dayton. I bought this year's program book, and found that all told, there were 122 bands in State Finals this year – slightly up from the past few years, but down from the mid-1990s.

Additionally, the program kindly lists the size of each band, which I have totaled: 12,377 students.

Why do I bring all this up? Well, in that 84-page book, there are 26 half- and full-page advertisements. This includes five ads for music stores or instrument companies, thirteen for university music departments, three for tour/travel companies, two for audio-video recording businesses, one for a fundraising class, one for an office support company, and one for Music for All, the parent group of the Bands of America competitions. In the Brunswick stadium where I spent that afternoon, there were also banners on display for a half-dozen of these organizations, including Music for All.

What was conspicuously absent (to me, anyway), was any outreach by DCI.

What's more, Brunswick is 50 miles from Canton, and 120 miles from Toledo. There were certainly bands that came from further away to compete, but no presence from Bluecoats or Glassmen.

Now, I don't know if there is some bad history between OMEA and DCI or those two corps. Or if the corps, at any rate, focus all their attention on college students. (But both corps sponsor shows that these kids could attend as audience, right?) Or if what OMEA charges for a program ad is exorbitant. Maybe DCI feels its advertising budget is better spent on some other market segment than marching band students (and their parents). (Though isn't one of the claims of the G-7 that DCI needs to reach more high school students?) I don't think we can assume that all or even most band students know about drum corps already. But maybe DCI had a display in the other venues, Dayton and Columbus being closer to Indianapolis.

Do you know what DCI or specific corps do in your area to reach high school marching band members? (Jeff Ream has lately observed that DCA didn't take advantage of band circuits based in Annapolis.) And what should they be doing? And not to let myself off the hook: What can individuals do to help? Perhaps DCI was willing to have a booth set up, but had no one free to staff it – do they need volunteers in this regard?

[N.E. Brigand]

Postscript the First

If Ohio bands hold no interest for you, by all means skip this particular post. (And the next one, and maybe the one after that.) But having entered all the numbers into a spreadsheet, I thought a few people might want to know how many members were in each band. And so, from largest to smallest:

North Royalton (258); Grove City (246); Lakota West (240); Medina (227); Copley (225); Mentor (224); Dublin Coffmann (217); Fairmont (215); Beavercreek (210); Fairfield (205); Marysville (204); Lakota East (200); Pickerington Central (174); Brunswick (173); Pickerington North (172); Perry (170); Groveport-Madison (165); Miamisburg (162); Hilliard Davidson (161); Troy (155); Perkins (155); Hilliard Darby (152); Hilliard Bradley (150); Central Crossing (145); Marion L. Steele (140); Thomas Worthington (136); Middletown (135); Nordonia (131); Dublin Jerome (129); Big Walnut (125); Loveland (125); Tippecanoe (124); Sycamore (121); Louisville (120); Revere (120); Bellefontaine (118); Norton (118); Walter E. Stebbins (116); Turpin (114); Finneytown (113); Westerville South (110); Westland (110); Springboro (110); Colerain (110); Watkins Memorial (110); Marion Harding (110); New Philadelphia (107); Anderson (106); Reynoldsburg (104); Lancaster (104); Olentangy (100); Madeira (99); Madison (99); Dublin Scioto (95); Marietta (93); Franklin Heights (92); Teays Valley (92); Ross (92); Wauseon (91); Licking Heights (89); Olentangy Liberty (86); Avon (85); Newark (84); Wilmington (80); Crestwood (80); South [Willoughby] (80); Cloverleaf (79); Portsmouth West (79); Rutherford B. Hayes (78); Canal Winchester (78); Tallmadge (78); Deer Park (77); Swanton (76); Madison-Plains (75); Logan Elm (75); London (75); Maumee (74); Westerville Central (74); Northwest (74); Berne Union (73); Tri-Valley (70); Shawnee (69); St. Edward (69); Bloom-Carroll (67); Walnut Hills (67); Rock Hill (65); Columbus Grove (64); Kalida (64); Circleville (64); Ottawa-Glandorf (64); John Glenn (63); River View (63); Lexington (62); Liberty Union (62); Green (61); Wellston (59); Bethel (55); Buckeye (52); Fredericktown (52); Meadowbrook (52); New Bremen (52); Ridgewood (51); South Point (50); Maysville (50); Athens (50); Tecumseh (49); Dawson-Bryant (49); Licking Valley (48); Fort Recovery (47); Woodmore (45); Newton (45); Milton-Union (45); Arcadia (44); Chesapeake (43); Cambridge (43); Versailles (43); Twin Valley (41); Marion Local (40); Cory-Rawson (35); Shenandoah (32); Wellington (32); Waterford (26)

The average size is 101, and the median is 86. By comparison, I have some information for 1991 –though with a sample size of only 84 of 122 bands (some details are missing from that year's program book)– when the average seems to have been slightly larger at 104, with a significantly higher median of 100: only 6 bands then had fewer than 50 members, as opposed to 17 such bands in 2012.

According to Wikipedia, by the way, there are 876 high schools in Ohio. I would venture a wild guess that perhaps 80% have marching bands. As noted above, it appears that about 180 bands perform in the OMEA local competitions. Another dozen or so seem to compete only in BoA competitions. (A few bands compete in both.) So probably 500 Ohio marching bands play only at football games. If we assume a low average of 50 members in those groups, that's 25,000 more students in Ohio who might find drum corps of some interest, if only DCI (or DCA) could reach them.

[N.E. Brigand]

Postscript the Second

Further Ohio band trivia. The program book helpfully includes a three-page chart listing all State Finals results from 1991-2011. (A version of this list also appears on the OMEA website.) However, OMEA began adjudicating competitions in 1980. As noted above, I also have the program book from 1991, which has a one-page chart listing all state finals results back to the first year. (My college marching band director arranged for a dozen of the band's member to work the Finals that year and the next, when it was held over three days at Cooper Stadium in Columbus; I sold programs.) There are some mistakes I have yet to sort out –mostly due to a few high schools having the same name: two Greens, two Shawnees, and so forth–, but with that caveat, I have been able to compile a table showing appearances by 295 bands over the years.

Don't fear: I will not be posting it here! More briefly, however, I note that 35 groups seem to have only made one appearance, while at the other end of the attendance spectrum, only four bands have been seen in all 33 contests from 1980 through 2012. These are the nineteen bands with 30 or more appearances, for anyone interested in longevity in this area:

33—Marion Local, Newark, Perkins, Troy; 32—Grove City, Hilliard(-Davidson), Lancaster, Newton, Teays Valley; 31—Berne Union, Brunswick, Cloverleaf, Dublin(-Coffman), Marietta, Meadowbrook, Tri-Valley; 30—Athens, Lakota(-West), Pickerington(-Central)

The names in parentheses represent the several school districts that underwent sufficient growth through the years to build new high schools: Hilliard H.S. became Hilliard Davidson H.S. and so on. Most of these are in the Columbus suburbs. (At the same time, some small rural high schools that once had competing bands seem to have closed as districts were merged.)

As I mentioned earlier, high ratings are awarded pretty generously, and so they are only approximate guides to quality (if you're thinking of seeking a group out on youtube). But consistent Superior ratings are suggestive of solid programs, at least. (Consider them the key schools for DCI to target?) Roughly eleven bands have earned a I rating 25 times or more: Grove City, Hilliard(-Davidson), Dublin(-Coffmann), Marion Local, Newark, Lakota(-West), North Royalton, Troy, Marietta, New Bremen, and Lexington. Another eleven or so have at least 20 Superiors. (I'm being approximate because I don't know all the results for this year.) Of those, only the first two have done so in every one of their appearances. (Grove City, by the way, missed Finals only in 2009, when a school levy failed.) However, it's worth noting again that the Ohio's sometime-powerhouses in BoA, like Centerville and Westerville South, chose to make only sporadic appearances at OMEA events.

[N.E. Brigand]

Postscript the Third

Finally, one pleasant surprise for me attending this competition was discovering, as I read the program, that my high school band director, now retired, was one of two music judges for that session. (He had earlier been the director of one of the four 33-appearance bands mentioned above, and I think in the year they first qualified.) Between sets, I was able to signal someone in the booth who called him over so we could chat for a few minutes. I mention this happy meeting because it reminded me that when I was a student, he would have us, when participating in State Finals, go into the stadium about two hours before we were to perform and watch another band. This was primarily to acquaint us with the stadium, but as I recall, on one such occasion (I think it was 1988), he was eager for us to see one group in particular.

That marching band was Newton High School's, from the little town of Pleasant Hill, about 30 miles north of Dayton (and thus more than 200 miles from our Cleveland suburb). Newton was held up to us as an exemplar of what we should hope to achieve. The school, he said, had a marching band but no football team. (Mind you, since our own football team had a record of 6-35 in my years there, I'm not sure we were so different!) The total enrollment was typically 150-200, and of that number, nearly half were in the band: 75 or more students. I don't know if that's still true: the 2012 program book doesn’t indicate school sizes, but on reviewing the 1991 program, which did list those figures, I find Newton was not alone in that impressive average; in fact, five small schools in 1991 had an even greater percentage of students in the band, led by tiny Mendon-Union (since consolidated into another district), with a band of 37 members in a school whose 10th-12th grade enrollment was 54.

However, Newton was almost alone among these little schools in one respect. Their three-grade enrollment that put them in the lowest competitive class, C. (The divisions currently are AA [901+], A [501-900], B [301-500], and C [300 and below]; the number represents three grades rather than four because in some districts, the 9th grade is part of the middle school rather than the high school.) But Newton regularly competed two classes up, as an A band – and always got a Superior. (That streak ended in 1997.) And in one year, they actually competed in the top class, earning a I as a AA band. (The Newton director in the 1980s, George Edge, would later become the director of the already very successful band noted above, Grove City, and carry on their winning traditions.)

From the program books, I have learned that another Ohio band, Marion Local High School from the hamlet of Maria Stein, would go on to accomplish that same feat thirteen times. I don't think I ever saw them perform.. As for Newton, twenty-four years later, I don't remember anything about their 1988 performance except that it was impressively disciplined. But lately I found that eleven months ago, someone posted four of Newton's earlier shows to youtube. It can be dangerous to revisit things admired in one's youth. And watching all four performances, it's clear that Newton followed a formula, and were still very much influenced by 1970s drum corps: entering from the left endzone and exiting from the right, with much symmetrical drill, some high-step marking time, and no rhyme or reason to the music selections ("Crown Imperial", "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", "Lullaby of Broadway", and "1812 Overture"?)—but for the most part, it works very well, and they demonstrate real showmanship. I think the best one is 1986, which is the year I mentioned above, in which Newton competed three classes up. No, this isn't drum corps, by the standards of any year, but it's not just a quaint period piece either: a real gem, in my opinion, and all the more impressive for a small school. Far above the twelve bands I saw live in November, and better than much else on youtube. Dig that trumpet soloist on "Carnival of Venice"! If you watch the video, be sure to view the whole thing: they are impressive even when coming on, and especially off, the field:

(It seems that just as in DCI, the OMEA rules as to show length must have changed. Newton's actual show runs 10 min. 20 sec., while nowadays Ohio band performances tend to last about 9 min.)

[PunkRawkBandGeek]

Fascinating.

I know in the past, the de facto Illinois state championships have had either print ads, or physical table presence, by a number of corps. I can recall sporadic representation over the years by the Cavaliers, Phantom, Madison, Blue Stars, Colts, and Glassmen, if not others.

[PunkRawkBandGeek]

Agreed, btw--both DCI and individual corps should be tapping the various states' marching band finals.

[Crown Phan]

I must say reading the description of OMEAs rating system had me steaming (I've never agreed with it) but the OP bring up a great point. Other than Bluecoats and Glassmen DCI has very little presence in Ohio. They don't even show up to our music education conference. This is very disappointing.

[drumcorpsfever]

I couldn't agree more. I've noticed the same thing at a few band shows that I've attended - in the same area. I, too, shared my thoughts on DCP as well as reaching out to DCI to make a suggestion about improved outreach at these kinds of events. I never received a response from DCI from my input of about 2 months ago.

[glory]

And with DCI based now in Indianapolis, it seems all the more convenient to reach out to a state so close and so large. That said, DCI isn't Coca-Cola when it comes to marketing staff or budget. So could nuts like us stand in a booth and plug in videos? Yes, if DCI provided the booth, screens, speakers, etc. Oy. That's what it comes down to - electronics! Not again!

HH

[Stu]

> What can or should DCI be doing to recruit marching band members?

Most every band kid I have ever met knows of, has seen on Youtube or live, multiple DCI corps. So exposure to drum corps is 'not' the problem; and neither is recruiting a problem. However, I have encountered two very real reasons they do not pursue DCI: 1) Many of the students in hs band are there just for social reasons not musical or academic reasons which means 12 hour a day rehearsals are not in their plans; and 2) When an overwhelming majority of these kids discover it takes massive amounts of cash to travel to and from camps, combined with 'multi-thousands' of dollars in dues, all of which could go toward a university education, they tend to choose formal education over drum corps (which leads back to DCI just being a 'rich' person's activity).

Edited December 12, 2012 by Stu