garfield Posted December 31, 2010 Share Posted December 31, 2010 (edited) A few months ago I would have agreed with you. Then on of my friends showed me a video from BOA Grand Nationals, the group from Tarpon Springs High School with their show "Paranormal"... snip Well, I went to that other site and watched that show. What's my kid to do if he wants to march in the battery at that school? It's pretty obvious that there will be no battery instructors emanating out of that program. Is that director really providing full music education by eliminating the battery? Geesh, and the G8 wants to align itself with, and emulate, the "scholastic" music programs? Are they kidding? God help us if this is the future... EDIT: And all that room they saved by not hauling around a battery they used hauling around all those props. I mean, a BED? And, golly!, they levitated the girl out of the bed! Wow! What hydraulics they must have used! (I half expected the girl's head to spin around and spit pea soup.) I realize the audio was bad in the video, but I could barely hear the musicians. I wonder why he marched any instruments at all! Would have been better to just march 150 guard and use the synth for all the music. Edited December 31, 2010 by garfield Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hrothgar15 Posted December 31, 2010 Author Share Posted December 31, 2010 I think I'm going to view this Tarpon Springs performance everyone's talking about, making sure to evaluate it as a performance, and again as a performance if I saw it as billed as a "drum corps" show. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaddyt Posted December 31, 2010 Share Posted December 31, 2010 Well, I went to that other site and watched that show. What's my kid to do if he wants to march in the battery at that school? It's pretty obvious that there will be no battery instructors emanating out of that program. Is that director really providing full music education by eliminating the battery? Geesh, and the G8 wants to align itself with, and emulate, the "scholastic" music programs? Are they kidding? God help us if this is the future... EDIT: And all that room they saved by not hauling around a battery they used hauling around all those props. I mean, a BED? And, golly!, they levitated the girl out of the bed! Wow! What hydraulics they must have used! (I half expected the girl's head to spin around and spit pea soup.) I realize the audio was bad in the video, but I could barely hear the musicians. I wonder why he marched any instruments at all! Would have been better to just march 150 guard and use the synth for all the music. What's your kid to do if he wants to play football but doesn't make it through try-outs? Would you move? While I can't speak for Tarpon Springs, the high school program I help out with didn't march a full battery this past year, due to the fact that we graduated too many seniors the year before and didn't have enough returning members to fill out the line. We had segments where basses or tenors would be implemented with members from the pit, but that's it. I highly doubt Tarpon Springs' musical program or director is slighting the students' musical education in any way due to not having a battery. I'm sure a school that can put a program like that on the field is pretty solid all around, and like most programs throughout the country, have the kids in concert band or wind ensembles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaddyt Posted December 31, 2010 Share Posted December 31, 2010 Good point, actually. But when DCI goes belly up in 10 years, all of this will be irrelevant anyway. You mind if I borrow that crystal ball of yours? Mega Millions is pushing $250 million. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted December 31, 2010 Share Posted December 31, 2010 What's your kid to do if he wants to play football but doesn't make it through try-outs? Would you move? While I can't speak for Tarpon Springs, the high school program I help out with didn't march a full battery this past year, due to the fact that we graduated too many seniors the year before and didn't have enough returning members to fill out the line. We had segments where basses or tenors would be implemented with members from the pit, but that's it. I highly doubt Tarpon Springs' musical program or director is slighting the students' musical education in any way due to not having a battery. I'm sure a school that can put a program like that on the field is pretty solid all around, and like most programs throughout the country, have the kids in concert band or wind ensembles. In both of the examples above - the football program and your school - the programs were offered. That's significantly different than not marching a battery at all. They sure filled out that pit, though! Your school not having enough drummers to fill out a basic line is the fault of the music program not developing drummers early on. It's obvious that TS places little emphasis on marching percussion so why would they bother developing young players? I find it awfully hard to believe that there aren't enough young kids interested in being drummers in TS school program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted December 31, 2010 Share Posted December 31, 2010 I think I'm going to view this Tarpon Springs performance everyone's talking about, making sure to evaluate it as a performance, and again as a performance if I saw it as billed as a "drum corps" show. Can't wait, Hroth. Tell me how you view it, PLEASE! (Oh, and forget about evaluating it as a drum corps show.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted December 31, 2010 Share Posted December 31, 2010 You mind if I borrow that crystal ball of yours? Mega Millions is pushing $250 million. (Running up to the gas station to buy me some winning tickets!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted December 31, 2010 Share Posted December 31, 2010 (edited) What's your kid to do if he wants to play football but doesn't make it through try-outs? Would you move? While I can't speak for Tarpon Springs, the high school program I help out with didn't march a full battery this past year, due to the fact that we graduated too many seniors the year before and didn't have enough returning members to fill out the line. We had segments where basses or tenors would be implemented with members from the pit, but that's it. I highly doubt Tarpon Springs' musical program or director is slighting the students' musical education in any way due to not having a battery. I'm sure a school that can put a program like that on the field is pretty solid all around, and like most programs throughout the country, have the kids in concert band or wind ensembles. Presuming he has enough drummers who want to march in the battery he most definitely is slighting the percussion program! Is he grooming future band directors to ignore the battery as well? What if a concert drummer wants to join his college marching band? You're going to try to convince me that a concert bass drummer can pick a pair of mallets and make the cut in a college band having never carried a drum? Please. If he doesn't have enough kids to field a battery (I HIGHLY doubt it!) his program is still at fault for not developing drummers in the younger ages. I even thought about the parallel to a reed player being excluded from drum corps, and the argument doesn't fly either. A reed player has an embouchure than can be translated to a horn. How does one translate a concert percussionist's hands into a horn or reed player to fit into TS band? A concert snare drum roll or bass drum technique is completely different from its marching equivalent. To eliminate the marching education from the percussion section is, most definitely, doing a disservice to the percussion students. All in the name of winning BOA. What a shame. Edited December 31, 2010 by garfield Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaddyt Posted December 31, 2010 Share Posted December 31, 2010 Presuming he has enough drummers who want to march in the battery he most definitely is slighting the percussion program! Is he grooming future band directors to ignore the battery as well? What if a concert drummer wants to join his college marching band? You're going to try to convince me that a concert bass drummer can pick a pair of mallets and make the cut in a college band having never carried a drum? Please. If he doesn't have enough kids to field a battery (I HIGHLY doubt it!) his program is still at fault for not developing drummers in the younger ages. I even thought about the parallel to a reed player being excluded from drum corps, and the argument doesn't fly either. A reed player has an embouchure than can be translated to a horn. How does one translate a concert percussionist's hands into a horn or reed player to fit into TS band? A concert snare drum roll or bass drum technique is completely different from its marching equivalent. To eliminate the marching education from the percussion section is, most definitely, doing a disservice to the percussion students. All in the name of winning BOA. What a shame. You seem to know a lot of this band director's motivations and intentions. I checked out their website and really didn't see any proclamation about winning BOA at the expense of fielding a battery. To the contrary, it seems like the entire music program at the school is focused on churning out some #### fine musicians. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Boo Posted December 31, 2010 Share Posted December 31, 2010 Presuming he has enough drummers who want to march in the battery he most definitely is slighting the percussion program! Is he grooming future band directors to ignore the battery as well? What if a concert drummer wants to join his college marching band? You're going to try to convince me that a concert bass drummer can pick a pair of mallets and make the cut in a college band having never carried a drum? Please. If he doesn't have enough kids to field a battery (I HIGHLY doubt it!) his program is still at fault for not developing drummers in the younger ages. I even thought about the parallel to a reed player being excluded from drum corps, and the argument doesn't fly either. A reed player has an embouchure than can be translated to a horn. How does one translate a concert percussionist's hands into a horn or reed player to fit into TS band? A concert snare drum roll or bass drum technique is completely different from its marching equivalent. To eliminate the marching education from the percussion section is, most definitely, doing a disservice to the percussion students. All in the name of winning BOA. What a shame. Please allow me to introduce some facts here. Tarpon Springs HS Marching Band is not a large ensemble. It never has been. The reason Kevin Ford went with a grounded percussion section this year is due to smaller numbers in the percussion section. He's not trying to make life difficult for the drummers. He's also not at fault for not developing drummers in the earlier school levels as he's only the band director at the high school level. In Pinellas County (where I had a couple of interviews about 20 years ago), high school directors have little influence at the elementary level. In my opinion, he made the best out of the situation, but he's not satisfied to not have a battery for the sake of not having a battery, which is why the school is starting an indoor marching percussion program this year...the hopes being that doing so will help foster increased numbers for a marching battery in the marching band for the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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