Thursday Interlude: Saturday Night Lights

And I do mean lights. Pardon the glare.
Photos by RF

Afternoon all. Where has this day gone? I am in the middle of my monthly time warp where I work on the online version of November Music Educators Journal and at the same time conducting interviews and writing stories for December Teaching Music. Fun stuff, but due to juggling, I will keep my entry short.


I did want to share you with you a really cool experience I has last weekend. On Saturday I spent a good part of my evening listening to some great high school bands, viewing some great spectacle and marveling at some mighty fine pit crew work. Pit crews? Not the kind where a bunch of guys swarm a NASCAR, pop off a blown tire or fill a thirsty tank.

No, these pit crews deftly loaded equipment trailers or equipment, assembled (and unassembled) the directors stand, and hauled equipment on/off the field for their various bands. Shortly after pit crews swarmed on the field, a band stood at the ready awaiting a downbeat from drum majors. Band boosters. can't live without them.

The occasion was the 11th Virginia's Showcase of Bands of the U.S. Scholastic Band Association, which was held at Herndon (Va.) High School. The Pride of Herndon Band hosted the event on its home field. Bands from throughout Virginia and a few from Maryland participated.

The music was great, ranging from spy music from James Bond and Austin Powers movies, to patriotic to Moroccan to Ray Charles, the footwork was intricate and the drum corps members expertly swirled their flags. It was obvious that weeks of hard work was on display.

The long view at Virginia's Showcase of Bands on Sept. 29.

As I watched, I talked to a number of proud parents attested to that. One beaming mom told me that she was seeing the full program after seeing her daughters, one playing flute, the other tuba. "They sound so great," she said. "All of those rehearsals paid off," she added.

Later, I bumped into MENC member and band director Richard Purvis of York High School in Yorktown, VA. Yorktown is near Williamsburg, Virginia. His band had performed earlier and he was watching the end of the show.

He acknowledged that performances like these are a lot of work, but he said he and his students enjoy seeing how they stack up to other bands.

At the Band Showcase drum majors took to the field to await the judging results which resulted in ginormous trophies for bands with the highest scores.

I will leave you with one more thing. Last Saturday morning I went out for breakfast with some friends, one of whom had just attended a high school renuion. She was in color guard and met up with some guard members she hadn't seen in years. It was a fun encounter for her.
Anyway, somehow the conversation wandered over to the link between music and other disicplines like science.

Later that day I listened to one of my favorite NPR Shows, Studio 360, which exmines and celebrates the arts. I heard an interview show host Kurt Andersen did with jazz legend Herbie Hancock in which they discussed the very same thing. Here is the link if you would like to listen in.

Buh Bye
Have a great holiday weekend.
RF

Thursday Interlude: All Together Now

Hi All

So yesterday my son Matt had a freshman football game on a opposing field several miles away. As my husband and I were walking into the stadium, the teams, our kids and the opposing team were warming up. The first thing I noticed was there team was a lot bigger than ours. And no I don't mean they were giant, hulking 14-year-olds. No, they outnumbered out team by quite a lot.

As I walked past, I heard one of the coaches say to the opposing team as they did furious versions of jumping jacks "How bad do you want this? How bad?" The players grunted something back and I headed over to our bleachers to wait for the game. My husband Steve is a walking, talking, stats book, so he told me how the other team was 2-0, how their team was good because the feeder program for the high school was so strong and yada, yada, yada. Still, I felt relatively good about the game because...because....well, just because.

Do you ever have a good feeling about something for no reason? Well,that is how I felt last night as our freshmen Hornets took the field. I wasn't sure Matt would actually play. His back bothered him this week and spent more time with the trainers than the coaches at practice this week, but in the warm-ups he appeared to be running and moving normally.

The game was really neat for our baby Hornets. An interception. Three successful goal line stands. Some clock-eating offensive drives. We led 7-0 at halftime and later with about five minutes to go in the game, we were ahead 14-6. Right after the opposing team scored their first touchdown, they missed their extra point. Yea for us! Still, they decided to try an onside kick so they could try and get the ball back right away and score again.

Matt's big contribution to the game was recovering the onside kick to give us the ball back. We held on to win, which was great because the past two games, they took an early lead and then kind of fell apart in the second half and lost. That they believed in themselves enough to win this time around was really great. Matt told me later at home that no one at school believed they would win, but they believed, which was all that mattered.

The players were so pumped after the game. After huddling with the coaches, they ran off the field, big grins on their faces to the buses. How did they celebrate the big win on the way home? Well, since champagne is frowned upon during high school bus rides, they sang. Sang all the way back to school. At the top of their lungs. And what did they sing? A song I am sure they all learned in preschool. I know Matt learned it from watching Barney when he was four or so. Shh. Don't tell him I told you that.

I quote from the venerable Wikipedia:

John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt is a traditional children's song of obscure origin. Its lyrics are:

John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt,

His name is my name too.

Whenever we go out

The people always shout,

"John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt."

La, la, la, la, la, la, la

John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt,

His name... [repeat ad infinitum]

The song is frequently sung by young children at communal outings such as long bus rides.

Perhaps I should edit the Wikipedia entry to add ... "and freshmen football players"

My sincere apologies to the bus driver last night. And my sincere thanks to getting all of the players back to the high school safely. La La La La La La La. Ad infinitum.

Tomorrow night we play the varsity version of the the same team at our school and I plan to go to the game, in part so I can see the marching band in action. And, and, and I am really excited about this: On Saturday the school will host a Showcase of Bands, from noon to 10 pm. More than 30 bands will perform their routines. I am not sure I will be able to hang out for ten hours, but I will go for a good chunk of it.

As I write this, I am reminded that little mini dramas are playing out on fields all over the country as kids win football games or perform intricate marching routines and master tricky notes at the same time. Then there are all of the cross-country meets and field hockey games.

One of my favorite parts of work here is that I get information from lots of members. Sometimes I can use it right way, other times not. I receive frequent emails from teachers letting me (and others on the MENC staff) what is going on in their music programs.

I received the email below from Joseph Rutkowski, one of our more frequent pen pals. Rutkowski has been director of Instrumental Music at Great Neck North High since 1991.

Members of the Great Neck( New York) North High School Pep Band practice for
Saturday's Homecoming performance

Earlier this week Rutkowski wrote:

YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO
The Season's Opening Public Performance of the Great Neck( New York) North High School Pep Band on Polo Road in Great Neck at the FOOTBALL FIELD
halfway between Old Mill Road and Arrandale Avenue
on Saturday, September 29 at 1:30 PM
with Maestri Jonathan Yousefzadeh, Nadav Levy and Matthew Shore Conductors
in a program of popular, patriotic and classic works by
John Phillip Sousa, John Williams, Marvin Hamlisch, Lalo Schifrin, and
Satchmo!
Featuring the future legends of the GNNHS Symphonic Band.

I liked that last part. Future legends.

Now, I can't make it up to Great Neck myself this weekend, but if you are in the area, drop by.

And if you would like to let me know what is going on in your music program, my email is Rozf@menc.org. I would love to hear from you. I can't guarantee I will use it the journal news or online, but I just might.

This week was one of transition for me. MB sent November Music Educators Journal to the printer and I had my news meeting to discuss stories for December Teaching Music. Starting interview process for those stories. Any who I guess I will get back to my day job.

I will try to remember to shoot some video at the Showcase of Bands event this weekend so I can share that with you next week.

Til Next Thursday

La La La La La La La

RF