Amplification/Electronics: 2011 Season

[garfield]

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.

I don't have to know a thing about his motivations and intentions to know that he's not marching a battery, but spending oodles on props. He's at BOA championships so he obviously has desires to place highly there. To exclude the battery from the marching program is most certainly intentional.

Do you really think he'd put on his website something like "We want to win BOA so battery percussionists need not apply"? But his actions speak the same, don't they?

Maybe some darn fine musicians among the brass and reeds (and maybe the mallets) but certainly not the marching battery, eh?

[chaddyt]

I don't have to know a thing about his motivations and intentions to know that he's not marching a battery, but spending oodles on props. He's at BOA championships so he obviously has desires to place highly there. To exclude the battery from the marching program is most certainly intentional.

Do you really think he'd put on his website something like "We want to win BOA so battery percussionists need not apply"? But his actions speak the same, don't they?

Maybe some darn fine musicians among the brass and reeds (and maybe the mallets) but certainly not the marching battery, eh?

See Boo's post above.

[chaddyt]

I don't have to know a thing about his motivations and intentions to know that he's not marching a battery, but spending oodles on props. He's at BOA championships so he obviously has desires to place highly there. To exclude the battery from the marching program is most certainly intentional.

Do you really think he'd put on his website something like "We want to win BOA so battery percussionists need not apply"? But his actions speak the same, don't they?

Maybe some darn fine musicians among the brass and reeds (and maybe the mallets) but certainly not the marching battery, eh?

So he should've just went to Marching Percussionists R Us and bought himself a battery? Why bring the program's budget into it?

[garfield]

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.

Michael, I defer to your expertise and knowledge of the program, but I still call B.S. He certainly had enough percussionists to fill out that pit! He didn't have the creativity to put ANY battery on the field? Not a single snare, bass, or tenor? With the avant-guard nature of that show I would think he could work in the few battery percussionists you say he had.

If he's the ONLY high school level teacher he most definitely has input on the development of younger players. I appreciate your interviews of 20 years ago, but in that time could a middle school percussion program have been developed? You know, as I do, that most band directors have more drummers than they know what to do with. That hasn't changed over 20 years, or 40 for that matter. Pinellas County is not small geographically.

I certainly hope that his indoor line draws attention to marching battery, but I would think the effort would be better implemented at the elementary level.

[garfield]

So he should've just went to Marching Percussionists R Us and bought himself a battery? Why bring the program's budget into it?

Because the dollars spent on props could have just as easily used to develop battery level instruction for his budding concert percussionists.

Still I ask (although it's all speculation until I get an answer to my email to the director), there was no room in that show for the, supposed, too few marching percussionists to have a place?

I don't buy it, even if he answers that he only had two drummers interested in marching.

[garfield]

Tarpon Springs' website is certainly impressive. Especially under the "Percussion" tab, where I find this sentence:

"No band or musical ensemble of any kind can effectively perform without a competent percussion and/or rhythm section."

While mentioning "the Pit (in marching band lingo)" the site describes many different types of percussion instrumentation for discovering "the beat".

The contradiction is stark, IMO.

[audiodb]

It hasn't been a decade though. it's been 6 years,

No. A&E have been in use in marching band for over 30 years. Whatever lessons are to be learned have had three decades of study there, sometimes by the same people that have implemented these devices in drum corps.

[chaddyt]

Because the dollars spent on props could have just as easily used to develop battery level instruction for his budding concert percussionists.

Still I ask (although it's all speculation until I get an answer to my email to the director), there was no room in that show for the, supposed, too few marching percussionists to have a place?

I don't buy it, even if he answers that he only had two drummers interested in marching.

Sounds like you already have your mind made up.

Good thing you emailed him.

[Michael Boo]

Michael, I defer to your expertise and knowledge of the program, but I still call B.S. He certainly had enough percussionists to fill out that pit! He didn't have the creativity to put ANY battery on the field? Not a single snare, bass, or tenor? With the avant-guard nature of that show I would think he could work in the few battery percussionists you say he had.

I don't know it as a fact regarding Tarpon Springs HS this year, but typically, a lot of mallet players in pits come from woodwind players, even in many larger bands.

If he's the ONLY high school level teacher he most definitely has input on the development of younger players. I appreciate your interviews of 20 years ago, but in that time could a middle school percussion program have been developed? You know, as I do, that most band directors have more drummers than they know what to do with. That hasn't changed over 20 years, or 40 for that matter. Pinellas County is not small geographically.

A lot of that would depend on whether a middle school director wants to develop such a program. Having taught at that level, I can attest that sometimes it takes everything one has to just do what one is hired to do, without time left over to establish separate programs that take up additional time that isn't available.

I certainly hope that his indoor line draws attention to marching battery, but I would think the effort would be better implemented at the elementary level.

All in all, what Kevin Ford does at Tarpon Springs is amazing. Perhaps he won't fit everyone's criteria for being thoroughly impressed. That's too bad. I prefer to applaud the things that do amaze me.

[garfield]

Sounds like you already have your mind made up.

Good thing you emailed him.

Yes, it is, because I want to get the facts from him, not you or anyone else. And my email to him did not contain the condescending tone of your comment.