How does your band rehearse

[I MARCH]

What do you do to get an effective rehearsal? My band my be ok but there not the best and i wanna get to nthe next level. How do you get a productive rehearsel every practice?

I also wanna know how do you stop drama between the sections and how many of youhave had problems in your band? Does it affect the whole band when sections are fueding? I need help!!!!!!!

[mbui]

How much does the band rehearse?

 

8 hours a week. Just kidding.

[I MARCH]

  mbui said:

How much does the band rehearse?

 

8 hours a week. Just kidding.

 

 

lol nice one

[Mark9500]

I have worked with over 20 different bands and drum corps. Rehearsals work best when you have a plan and stick to it. Don't get sidetracked and make sure you know how long you will rehearse something. Spending an hour on 8 counts really reaches the limit of no return very quickly.

 

One person should run the rehearsal, this can be the person on the ground or in the stands, (tower, pressbox) but it does work best with the upstairs person running it. That person sets the pace and has the power to do things over or not. They should have the field staff give input to students and make their own comments, but keep the comments short and relative to what is being worked on. A rehearsal like this is NOT sectional time. Sometimes a wind tech might want to turn it into one. The leader should take input from the staff, and if you have a good professional working relationship compromise during rehearsals can be reached. The person is a rehearsal leader not a dictator.

 

As much as we respect our student leaders and value their help, there should be NO talking on the field from the performers. One school I work with has the hardest time with this. The students are very, very smart and often want to know "why" things are being done. Often you can satisfy them by clearly stating this in the corrections or instructions. Often student leaders will not have the same priority. They see a diagonal that is not working from their view, but from upstairs it always forms fine and the more they yell, the less productive it becomes. So, there should be NO talking from students on the field. You can ask if there are questions, and group responses are good, but 20 chiefs and no indians is a bad idea.

 

If you start rehearsal on time, END it on time. You expect students to be in place at 3:30 and they are, they should expect to be let out when they are supposed to be. If students are wasteing time, you should still end on time. If you dont accomplish what was set out, tell them. Communicate cleary and ahead of time. I.e. Do not let them dictate rehearsal time. "you guys were 10 min late, so we will finish 10 min late" What if they come 30 min late the next time? Stick to a schedule, you are the professional.

 

Lastly, if you are going to "talk the talk" -Dedicatiion, commitment - hard work- energy - excitement - being on time- going the extra step- remembering your EQ, you better "Walk the Walk". Everyone is human and a band director might forget his set book once, or misplace the extra batteries for the head set, but if you do this over and over it is a sign to the students that you might not be commiting as much to the program as they are.

 

Focus and have fun.

[I MARCH]

  Mark9500 said:

I have worked with over 20 different bands and drum corps. Rehearsals work best when you have a plan and stick to it. Don't get sidetracked and make sure you know how long you will rehearse something. Spending an hour on 8 counts really reaches the limit of no return very quickly.

 

One person should run the rehearsal, this can be the person on the ground or in the stands, (tower, pressbox) but it does work best with the upstairs person running it. That person sets the pace and has the power to do things over or not. They should have the field staff give input to students and make their own comments, but keep the comments short and relative to what is being worked on. A rehearsal like this is NOT sectional time. Sometimes a wind tech might want to turn it into one. The leader should take input from the staff, and if you have a good professional working relationship compromise during rehearsals can be reached. The person is a rehearsal leader not a dictator.

 

As much as we respect our student leaders and value their help, there should be NO talking on the field from the performers. One school I work with has the hardest time with this. The students are very, very smart and often want to know "why" things are being done. Often you can satisfy them by clearly stating this in the corrections or instructions. Often student leaders will not have the same priority. They see a diagonal that is not working from their view, but from upstairs it always forms fine and the more they yell, the less productive it becomes. So, there should be NO talking from students on the field. You can ask if there are questions, and group responses are good, but 20 chiefs and no indians is a bad idea.

 

If you start rehearsal on time, END it on time. You expect students to be in place at 3:30 and they are, they should expect to be let out when they are supposed to be. If students are wasteing time, you should still end on time. If you dont accomplish what was set out, tell them. Communicate cleary and ahead of time. I.e. Do not let them dictate rehearsal time. "you guys were 10 min late, so we will finish 10 min late" What if they come 30 min late the next time? Stick to a schedule, you are the professional.

 

Lastly, if you are going to "talk the talk" -Dedicatiion, commitment - hard work- energy - excitement - being on time- going the extra step- remembering your EQ, you better "Walk the Walk". Everyone is human and a band director might forget his set book once, or misplace the extra batteries for the head set, but if you do this over and over it is a sign to the students that you might not be commiting as much to the program as they are.

 

Focus and have fun.

Thanks and another question is how do you fix the trumpets from being so "immature" In my band there the most immature section and these aren't freshman so the freshman that do look up to them will sound and act like that. I wanna is there anything you can do to change attitude.

And also how to get people to practice more?

[rawresque]

sorry this is as best as i could delete this information as i am closing my account or at least trying to

Edited March 31, 2010 by rawresque

[I MARCH]

  rawresque said:

hmm. we practice 8 hours a week after school mon thru thurs (2 hours a day; 4:30 to 6:30)

then we perform at friday nights football game. to prep for the football game we have like an hour rehearsal before school on friday but thats it. (btw! this is still under UIL regulations as they allow an hour rehearsal on the day of a performance) followed by on saturday for a contest which entails another hour rehearsal ^^

 

 

we also spray paint our "dots" (i.e 1 page of drill) onto a parking lot & we just run thru drill that way. the only time we ever get to use astroturf under our feet is on a friday night or if we're lucky we get to go to a seperate schools football stadium & tape up the field there.

 

we are very very detail oriented. it is stecatto not legato or slurred. so pls play it stecatto. that line is outta whack pls fix it & have it stay fixed.

 

our director has a tower & uses a megaphone to "call us out" on our marching. a good goal is to never be called out unless it is for a good thing. because the entire band will hear it and it is embarrassing to some. we also have drill techs who walk around looking at our feet to make sure they are in time and to make sure we take the right stepouts & etc. (btw these are volunteers! usually alums or ppl who respect our program)

 

we usually prep for a bit on fundamentals in a block & then head into drill. we also have drillbooks so then we can easily refer to what is going on at each set. i think most schools have this but our drillbooks are legit they have the entire picture of drill on the top then the music we paste in (in case we forget or it is insanely technical), our coords for a football field, the measure #,steps & counts & then we have to circle or write a transition that we do to the next set.

 

we have musical pass-offs (passed off by a student leader in your section) & each week you need to pass off more & more stuff. if you fail to pass sth (something) off, you get your mouthpiece pulled at the football game. yes, your mouthpiece is away from your instrument but you still get to keep your instrument o_O

 

we are also not allowed to speak during rehearsal. & sometimes we run a shako rehearsal so the director can see if we are talking or ask why our head is turned a certain direction. however our x-files do all of the talking as their drill is easier and the attention is focused on the ppl who have spots not them.

 

speaking of which, since there are so many ppl who attend my school, only so many ppl can have a spot without it looking trashy so we have challenges; which is some "justified" way to get a spot. the challenge consists of a random selection of music from the show doing stepouts in front of a director while being videotaped.

 

again with the detail, girls have to wear what we call performance buns & guys have to have their hair trimmed as well. it is meant for shako purposes because to us, it looks "ghetto" if your hair is outside of the shako. girls are not allowed to wear makeup either unless they are in guard & the girls in guard each have matching lipstick down to the very color number. if they forget just a single earring, they are not allowed to perform on friday.

 

we are told to look professional at all times because "that is what seperates us from other bands". there is a reason why we do not talk in retreat. & professionalism is why.

 

we are also told that we are "guardians of a well kept secret". therefore, we are not allowed to speak on the internet like this & give away secrets to our show or music or anything. but i am quitting so what does it matter?

do you go to LD Bell or Marcus

[takigan]

Profile says Marcus. Based on the poster's long-winded but informative/detailed description, I don't doubt it.