"School Bands Should Not Be Entertainment Adjunct For Sports"

[The Other Mike]

I was band director at a national ranked high school "sports factory" for 20 years. If you took band you were expected to play at all football games from August till 2nd week of December EVERY year. Most of the kids in this private school music program were the ones getting the schools high ACT scores that the school bragged about.

Kids were also expected to pay their own charter bus fees for all travel games as well as bus fees and motel fees for out of state games.

While the band remained very musical, the numbers kept dropping because kids wanted to do things like visit relatives for Thanksgiving, duck hunting , hunting in general. If a student missed a game I was expected to give them an F for that grading period. Well, if a kid scores a 32 but gets his grade point average knocked down for missing a football game, they end up dropping band and just showing up for after school practice and the games they could attend.

Concert band was larger than marching band because many of those kids who enjoyed music and didn't mind onw afternoon a week practice. Didn't matter how good the concert band was or how good the marching band was, the marching band wasn't big enough. I gyess it's part MY fault since I refused to let the band become a 3 note wonder band.

25-30 kids in a school of 350 ( to me ) wasn't a bad size and the largest band in our football district, however, when the school schedules most pre district games with AAAA and AAAAA schools with enrollments of 2000 or higher, the other bands would be anywhere from 80-160 members. The "powers to be" could not understand why those schools had such larger bands than us. Really ?

No matter how you explain facts to them, it doesn't matter. Didn't matter how many Superiors we received in Concert band because that "didn't count". My job was to support the sports program with music.

Sorry, for the rant, been needing to get this off my chest for a few months now.

I think it was Mark Twain that said something like this:

God made idiots for practice before making school boards.

[ironlips]

"God made idiots for practice before making school boards." Now there's one priceless quote, no matter whose.

As to the article in question, though many of us may consider ourselves better informed than Frank Deford with respect to pageantry music, he has been an esteemed professional sportswriter for over 50 years, with countless awards. His work at Sports Illustrated is legendary.

He's the Michael Klesh, Pete Emmons and Ralph Hardimon of sports scribes. Naturally, he looks at life through the sportswriter's prism. In this case, it seems, Mr. Deford sees marching band as having a valid purpose in its own right, apart from its halftime function.

Most of us would agree I think, even while peering through our own particular lens.

[MikeN]

I agree with Stu here - for percussionists, it's apples and oranges b/w the two bands.

Mike

(Never been impressed with Frank Deford. Still better than Rick Reilly, though...)

[Some Random Drummer]

Wait a minute. We're talking about an unhealthy band and music culture in our schools?

I think if we can have $60 million high school football stadiums, then we can suffer some less-than-friendly band parents.

(Edit for clarity - The author of the article is saying that the band and music culture grows out of our obsession with high school/college sports. I get that. What I don't get is why that's the band peoples' fault. Yes, sometimes kids are "entertainment adjunct" to the "real event," which is football. But personally I would take being a side-show to some other club or team over having my funding cut.)

Edited March 15, 2013 by Some Random Drummer

[WWonka]

I guess I was just in too small a school to even realize this was a problem. We were 3A, marched about 120-130.

If you were in band you had 2 seasons, marching and concert. And if you played football lots of times we marched a whole in that spot at football games but you went to contests.

No one ever thought you could be in 1 and not the other.

Edited March 15, 2013 by WWonka

[perc2100]

I've always thought mandatory marching band policies to a bit questionable.

I've known of some Universities who require certain music majors to participate in the marching band for at least one or two semesters as part of their scholarship. I guess IMO if the school is paying for your education, sometimes you have to do what they want.

Also, FWIW, one of my former students got a scholarship just to play snare drum in the University marching band. Oddly enough, it was for several thousands dollars and the school has a football team that has consistently been in the BCS Championship hunt (and has won two BCS Championships in the last decade). This student is an engineer major, not a music major. I went to a Big 10 school, where getting into the marching band was super competitive, so school having to offer scholarships to be in band is kind of foreign to me.

[deftguy]

When I read some of the comments here about kids wanting to skip marching but do concert band, that was so foreign to me I could not even grasp it. At my school it was the exact opposite. Everyone wanted to march in the marching band, and almost no one wanted to do concert band. The band director made it a requirement that you have to do both so he would actually have a concert band.

At my school, sports sucked. I think the football team won about 7 games from the time I was in third grade all the way to graduation. When the games started, the stands were half full. During the halftime show, the place was packed, and after it was over, it went back to being half full. In a school of 800 students, a full 350 where involved in the band and colorguard every year. So at my school, that halftime show WAS the event, and the football game itself was a sideshow.

[MikeD]

When I read some of the comments here about kids wanting to skip marching but do concert band, that was so foreign to me I could not even grasp it. At my school it was the exact opposite. Everyone wanted to march in the marching band, and almost no one wanted to do concert band. The band director made it a requirement that you have to do both so he would actually have a concert band.

At my school, sports sucked. I think the football team won about 7 games from the time I was in third grade all the way to graduation. When the games started, the stands were half full. During the halftime show, the place was packed, and after it was over, it went back to being half full. In a school of 800 students, a full 350 where involved in the band and colorguard every year. So at my school, that halftime show WAS the event, and the football game itself was a sideshow.

The MB I teach has about 45 musicians...the three concert bands total around 180, plus there 200+ strings in the orchestras.

The MB is totally volunteer...we rehearse after school, just like any other club or sport. No grades for MB. The band classes (graded) are totally concert band from day one of school.

[Stu]

I agree with Stu here -

So you also had long memorable bus rides sitting next to a woodwind playing guard girl? Nice!!!!!

[drchuck9]

Though I don't take issue with the author's own opinions, I do take issue with the parent upset that the school "forced serious music students to attend band camp and march at football games," because this implies that marching band has no educational value. Instead, the marching music arts is just another performance venue similar to chamber choir, jazz band, concert band, etc. By requiring all music students to participate in multiple forms of music education, they become more well-rounded musicians.

I graduated college with a degree in mechanical engineering, but at the conclusion of my college years, I was required to take the 2-part "Fundamentals of Engineering" exam. The first 4-hours tests your breadth of knowledge in multiple engineering fields, such as electrical, chemical, structural, industrial, as well as mechanical engineering. The second 4-hours tests your depth of knowledge in the engineering field of your choice.

Though I have never in my 10 year career ever used a bit of chemical engineering, having a basic understanding of the field has made me a better engineer. The same is true for music education. "But high-stepping marching band has no education value," you say. The same could be said for a poorly run concert band, but this has to do with the music program itself, and not the genre of music.

Edited March 16, 2013 by drchuck9