Early Season Scoring

[Danpod]

The season is off and running! If you haven't learned all the music from your show yet, I suggest you get on the ball before a judge sticks his tape recorder in the bell of your instrument. Is there anything scarier than looking at a judge right in the eyes while you're playing? That very situation happened to me at the BOA Houston Regional when I was a Freshman. Let's just say that I was very glad that I was wearing black pants.....Enjoy the following analysis of what early season scoring really means. Once again, these are my opinions and I'll be happy to discuss or defend the electronic letters in your replies below.

 

Contests before the middle of October will almost always produce an "upset".

We all must understand that programs learn their marching shows at different paces. Some programs hammer out a complete show before their first contest. Other programs decide to only complete about 70% of the show and clean what they have. Is one method better than the other? Not really, as long as the students understand what their director is trying to accomplish and why. Long story short, judges can only evaluate what they see and hear and NOT what they will eventually see further down the road.

 

An early victory by a surprise program will show the true colors of said program.

Success can be a very tricky slope to travel. Being a part of the activity for nearly 10 years, I cannot begin to name all of the programs who thought they were hot **** when they beat a rival or a historically "better" quality program than themselves. Usually, the program tends to unravel, they quit working, and they fall short of the end-of-the-year goals.

 

True story: In 2002, my Senior year, my program was defeated by a program in San Antonio at a local contest. I was the Drum Major that year and during the Summer, I had developed a decent friendship with the Drum Majors from the program that beat ours. When I met them at the Drum Major Academy that Summer, they seemed like very humble people. Genuinely nice. I went to shake hands and congratulate them on the field. They laughed in my face, slapped my hand away, and proceeded to jump in to the stands with their band mates. I brushed the whole incident off because I knew we had bigger goals in mind. I also accounted for the whole "Heat of The Moment" thing that people talk about all the time. When the season ended, my program placed 4th at State Contest and 10th at Grand Nationals Finals. The other program did not do so well. But hey, it's not about placements, right?

 

Look at the judging system used at the end of the season.

What's your goal? BOA or UIL? Chances are that your program will end its season in one of those two systems. Early season contest results can be somewhat misleading because they aren't necessarily reflective of how the show will be evaluated during crunch time. The show changes, the people judging the show change, and the evaluation criteria changes. When looking at these results, ask yourself how it would hold up at Area Contest or the Super Regional. You'd be surprised how much can change in just a few months.

 

That's all for me. I'll keep chiming in with these little deals until you people get sick of me. If you've enjoyed it, I'm Daniel Valdez. If not, I'm Penn and Teller.

[ProudBandDad]

Daniel Valdez, you are wise beyond your years!

 

I've been a band parent for 6 seasons now and your observations ring true. It amazes me each year how a show grows and evolves into the final product. As you said, directors take different approaches to putting their show on the field. The October 1st show can be a complete show with much room for improvement or 3/5's of a show that is very clean - but either way, the show on November 5th most likely will be on a different level.

 

 

Love to read the Danpod posts (as do dozens of my fellow band parents).

 

 

Keep up the great work and best of luck to all the hard working kids out there!

 

--- ProudBandDad