One of those things we all do is get our teeth cleaned every 6 months.  When I lived in Atlanta, there was a span of about 3 or 4 years when I saw the same lovely dental hygienist every 6 months.  She always did a nice job on my teeth, but she was not the “sharpest dental instrument in the case.”  For whatever reason she would recognize my face but then not remember anything else about me.  So every 6 months, like clockwork, she would glance at my file, see that I was a band director, and then say, “You know, I ruined the band’s show when I was in high school.”  And then I would cringe and prepare myself to hear the story once again.

This is not the kind of story that anyone in our activity wants to hear, much less over and over.  I’ll begin the story here, and then I’m sure you can finish it yourself.  Her story went something like this:

“When I was in high school I had some friends who were in the band, and just before the biggest contest of the entire year they asked me to help lay out flags before the show.”

Do I need to say anything else?!?!?  We all know what happens next.  This poor future hygienist gets all confused, lays out the flags incorrectly, and the show is RUINED!  Then, to make matters worse, the entire band blames HER for the disaster and she is shunned from the band family!

TRAGIC!

But, of course, this was not the poor girl’s fault.  No one in their right mind would give such an important job to someone who doesn’t know the show, is not given adequate instruction or rehearsal time, AND may not be the brightest bolt of fabric in the store.

Sadly, this happens all the time.  For whatever reason, this show detail is often given no attention.  But preparing the show, and especially laying out the guard equipment, requires rehearsal time just like anything else.

Nothing says “Amateur” to a judging panel like a guard whose equipment is not correctly laid out, and who then end up marching around without a flag for an entire production.  When I sit at a contest I can always predict the calibre of the upcoming performance by the way the show is set up.  I’m not talking about the overblown pompous show entrance by many bands in certain states, but simply the way the guard equipment and props are set out before the show begins.  If the show prep runs like a well oiled machine, then I know that this band and its staff are on the ball, and the show invariably proves the point.

SO HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW.   The guard members should lay out their own guard equipment, and this should be rehearsed like any other part of the show.  I know the temptation is GREAT, as you are preparing frantically for the first show of the season, to discount this detail.  But let our hygienist be a warning to you!!!

Also, any props that are to be set up should be placed by the same person each time, and this person….whether parent, band student, or hygienist, must be given time to practice this numerous times.  I PROMISE that the hour spent with these individuals will pay off in spades throughout the season.

And so every 6 months, as I sat in the dentist chair with my mouth crammed full of metal instruments of torture, I would attempt to mumble to my hygienist that she was not at fault, that she was a victim of poor planning and bad management.  But alas, like Groundhog Day, I was destined to hear this story again and again.  This lesson was hammered home to me, and I hope you will take it seriously as well.  Let the tragedy of the hygienist be a lesson to us all!

The new season of Project Runway recently started and the first designer eliminated left the show because of bad hair.  I’m not talking of the woman’s personal hairstyle, which if I remember was quite questionable (some sort of dredlocky thing), but her great sin was the way she “styled” her model.  She had created a darling little dress but then she put her model in a giant mohawk.  This was the kiss of death for this poor girl, and though I do think some hideous boots were also involved, it was ultimately a bad hair choice that sent her home.

This got me to thinking about the way we style the hair of our color guard members.  Hair choices on the field (as in all theater) usually have to do with creating a “look” or style that matches the concept and theme of the show.  Some choices are easy, as a show of music from the 60’s would likely call for some rather large 60’s hair.  I also have a personal belief that college color guards should have big hair, worn down.  I’m not sure why, but it seems to go with the college mood, and crowds eat it up.  (I also have a thing for hair extensions for certain shows…don’t know why but they seem to have attitude, and the ability to throw them around…)

But for most bands under most circumstances, what the guard needs is to look clean.  Bands are striving for uniformity in performance and look, and many of the top guards in the top marching bands go for a clean look.  And that usually means “hair up.”

It’s sort of the female version of the “high and tight.”  Hair pulled back in a tight bun gives the performer a clean look and aids in the uniformity of movement and the perception of cleanliness.  (I don’t mean hygiene here but a clean show….well executed with no mistakes and uniformity.)

One of the masters of both good hair and color guard is Lauren Metts.  One of the southeast’s top dance instructors and choreographers, her work was legendary at Irmo High School with the dance team / color guard called “the Highsteppers.”  Lauren once told me that pulling the hair up and slicking it back always made her girls appear to perform better and score better.  In fact, she said that she could have the girls do the exact same show but just pull their hair up and back, and people would make comments like “They just look better tonight” and “The guard is really clean and performing extra well today.”  And it was just the hair.

maybe not...

So if you’re making decisions about the look of the hair, always remember that hair pulled up and back, maybe slicked back, but definitely “high and tight” can help to make their performance appear more clean and impressive.  And sometimes it’s a detail like this that makes all the difference!

A Classic show we all love

Each time I begin to work with a new client, one of the questions I always ask is “Are we creating this show to be crowd-friendly or to win contests?”  The answer is always “both.”  Everyone wants their marching band show to be loved by their home football crowd, but also win contests.  This is a goal that all show designers aspire to, or at least I always thought it was.

However, it has become clear that many of the top groups in our “marching elite” organizations have made a decision that winning is the goal, and any entertainment value or true emotional effect might be a happy accident.

Of course, those of us who are passionate about our activity like to believe that you can have it both ways.  It seems self-evident that any show that is well performed and very effective will also score well with judges.  Isn’t that what shows are all about?  I think this used to be true, but not now.

Spartacus -- Everything a show should be

Many of the top groups at DCI and BOA shows have created a product that is so calculated for the judge’s sheet that there is no emotional effect whatsoever.  As I have written before, watching these shows is like staring at a video screen that is flashing random images.  It’s crying out “look at me, watch this!” but the viewer is completely passive and unengaged.

At the Atlanta DCI Regional a few weeks ago I had a moment where this was completely crystal clear.  About 8 minutes into the Blue Devils’ show I was so bored that I starting looking around at those in the crowd near me.  Their faces were completely blank, staring dumbly at the field like zombies.  This was an eery moment as I had the sensation of being in some horror movie where all the emotion and life had been stripped from those around me.  But no, we were just being subjected to another crass production built to score well, audience be damned.

I watched this phenomenon play out recently in the figure skating competition at the Winter Olympics.  Figure Skating is, obviously, an art form that is difficult to judge because all art is so subjective.  However, recent scandals of tainted judging led that activity to implement a scoring system built basically on “checking off requirements on a list.”  The shows are so calculated that certain jumps are planned at exactly certain moments in the music….NOT to emphasize the beauty of the musical moment but solely because the scoring bonus kicked in at that moment.

As a result of this, all the skating routines seemed exactly alike, with all the same elements presented at the same time for maximum scoring.  It was still exciting just to watch the world’s best figure skaters, but I was only moved by their excellence and passion for performance, NOT by the artistry of the skating as it related to the music.  The only exception to this was in the Ice Dancing, where the very nature of the activity allows for musical expression over tricks.  That’s why the most memorable moment of the Olympics, and the most moving, was the performance by the Canadian Ice Dancing pair whose Mahler routine made me cry every time I watched it.

Today’s top marching units are also checking things off a checklist in an attempt to score points.  It’s not about moving the audience, but about winning.  Effects are now often planned for applause, not to move the viewer or interpret the music.  How else could you explain the fact that I could watch the Bluecoats and then not remember ONE SINGLE thing in their show?  The winning Blue Devils’ show is so calculated that it’s basically unwatchable, yet all the required elements are presented….in ways that you really can’t judge for execution… so they get the highest score.

I wonder if those of us in the activity could agree that there are other types of effects that deserve credit from judges.  The most memorable moment in Carolina Crown’s show was when everything stopped and the entire hornline was sitting on the ground at the beginning of the ballad.  The absence of excessive movement, coupled with gorgeous music, was truly moving and memorable.  Could we agree that these kinds of effects also deserve points on a score sheet?

Fans have called the music played by many BOA or DCI groups “noise.”  It seems to be a series of sound effects with no melody, created to elicit applause, not move the audience.  Sitting through an entire day of tuneless productions with no audience engagement can be a trying experience.  (But I do sometimes get a lot of reading done!)  We can do better than this!

I don’t fault the performers, who are achieving amazing things and performing shows that are incredibly difficult and complex.  But from the perspective of a fan in the stands, I couldn’t be more depressed.

I want all the groups I write for to do well at contests, but if I write a show from that perspective only, then the shows never turn out well for me.  All of my best loved and most successful shows have always been shows where I was striving every moment to create effect, to move the audience, to create exciting moments that interpreted the music in a way that is thrilling.

Winning should be the outcome from creating a show like this, not the outcome of a calculated math project.  Our hearts can tell the difference, and I defy anyone to truly explain this to me otherwise.

Tim Hinton Drum Corps Review 2010

A lament on the state of drum corps in 2010.

I am sad that we live in such a “short attention span” society.  No one has time to listen to an hour long symphony and hear it develop and grow over time.  Who has time to read an 800 page novel and be moved by the development of characters and story over a span of time?  We all go to the movies to watch some exciting action sequences, but the current fad of short cuts and fast flashes of action shots makes it totally impossible to follow the action.

I gave up watching “So You Think You Can Dance” because it’s impossible to watch the beautiful choreography because the camera must constantly swoop and revolve.  The camera shots flash and change so quickly you can’t even follow the movement.  (Not to mention my inability to tolerate all the pre-teen girl screams that constantly pierce the air.)

So call me an old fuddy-duddy, but I lament that our younger generation can’t sit still and hold a thought.  Apparently we must constantly bombard them with activity and changing images all the time.

So this brings us to Drum & Bugle Corps in 2010.  An unfortunate trend that has been developing the last few years has taken hold in many of the top corps, and is being rewarded by the judges.  Many of the top shows as now so busy, and have seemingly 5, 10, or 20 things going on at the same time, that it’s really quite impossible to watch.

This trend started with WGI and many top color guards.  Rather than controlling our focus and shifting the top responsibility from one group to another, now many of the top guards seems to have numerous things going on at the same time.  I realize that this can be viewed as “innovative” or “complex,” but I find it often is just a muddy mess.  If I’m going to be engaged and moved by a performance then I need to be taken with them on a journey, guided by the performers and the design to know what to watch, what to feel, and then grow to a place where I’m emotionally involved.  I want to feel something.

I’m not the only one to say that these “super-complex” shows leave one cold.  It’s like watching a video screen with constantly flashing images that change constantly.  What am I to see?  How can I focus?  Even a three ring circus rotates from ring to ring.  But recent designs have the entire circus performing at one time.  Where to look?

I find I can tolerate this easier in the color guard world because the venue is smaller and the number of performers is less.  I can sit in Dayton and pretty much take in the entire performance stage at one time.  I still don’t enjoy the multiple focuses, but I can work my way through it easier.  That said, my favorite shows are not the ones that throw it all at me at one time, but the ones where I can feel something.  I don’t want to just watch a machine being busy.

On the football field with drum corps and marching band, the stage is simply humongous.  It may be complex thinking to have 6 events at the same time at the beginning of the Santa Clara show this year, but it just gave me a headache.  Okay, I could even go with the idea for 90 seconds, but you’re not going to keep my attention this way for 10 minutes.

So we have shows with everything going on at once, and very little if any clue as to where the designers want me to look.  It’s impossible to take it all in, and I find myself uncomfortable, working constantly to make decisions and try to see it all.  Then add some obtuse music with no melody and you have the start of Excedrin Headache #42.  (I like Bartok, I just didn’t think they honored the originals very much.)

There are some corps which do a much better job of finding a middle ground.  I found that Carolina Crown seems to be adding this advanced movement complexity but still stops and gives me a breather by allowing me to know where to look quite often.  Body moves are not so frantic and are tastefully matched to the music.  There are still many times when it seems too much, but I find it less egregious than some of the other groups.  But, sorry to say, I still was not moved by Crown’s show.

Cavies seemed to take these ideas but work them in the framework of their traditional show style and construction which I love.  I may have been uncomfortable watching their show, but it was because they wanted me to be.  It was their effect, their intent, and it came much closer to moving me.  That said, I found it odd that at the end of their show I only remembered the guard, the flags, and the rifle moment.  How odd that no Cavies drill “coolness” left an impression on me this year.

Santa Clara just seemed angry, and all the red and the constant barrage of multiple focuses just left me flat.  I also bristle at the idea that an existing piece of work can’t just be played and enjoyed.  Sorry, Crossmen, but I found the butchering of Metheny’s gorgeous melodies hard to take.  (Hey, just my opinion.)

So who did I enjoy?  I spoke with my 80 year old father who sat with us at the show and, interestingly, he liked the same two corps that I did.  Maybe this makes me an old soul, or maybe it’s because, like him, I like the shows where they played melodies I could recognize, and played the music (for a while at least) without having to muck it up with needless creativity.

Madison was the most enjoyable show this year, in my opinion.  Smart, smart, smart for that corps, and the music sounded great.  The concept for the guard and movement worked really well, and the energy from the field was unsurpassed all night.  It wasn’t just a glut of frantic movement, and it wasn’t 20 ideas competing for my attention at the same time.   It was great music played well.  It was exciting, and it was old school “ENOUGH” that it was a tip of the hat to the past as well as working well in today’s activity.

I also loved Blue Knights.  The music sounded great, was treated with dignity, and was beautifully interpreted with color and movement.  The show built visually, musically, and especially EMOTIONALLY to a climax in just the right way.  At the very end of the show I was “Swept up” in the moment and couldn’t wait to leap to my feet and enjoy it with them.

The most rewarded corps of the evening left me the most dissatisfied.  The Blue Devils’ use of mirror props was innovative and interesting, but then pairing it with the most extreme use of this cacophony of focus and movement create a show that, quite frankly, I could not watch.  I just couldn’t see the performers.  Certainly I realize that the show concept with the mirrors wanted to challenge me as they moved in and out, played at reflections, etc.  But when this became all that the show was, they lost me.  The guard uniforms were so disjunctive that I felt I couldn’t see what they were doing.  Throw in the mirrors and it all became a wash to me.

But as I left the stadium late Saturday night, I was sad because I had been swept away exactly twice that entire night.  I was actually astonished that I sat through 8 hours of drum corps and was swept up emotionally twice.  End of Blue Knights.  End of Madison.  Then…..

I also left the stadium thinking that there were maybe 2 or 3 shows that I would care to ever see again.  This is a shocking reaction to an entire day of drum corps.  I simply have no interest in seeing it again, on video or otherwise.

This makes me sad for the direction of the activity.  I hope to hear from my friends in the band and corps world with their opinions.  I am happy to learn, to hear differing views, to find out what others are seeing that I’m not.  But this orgy of movement and competing multiple focuses….seemingly for the sake of just showing how complex you can be, and to be rewarded, is leaving me cold.  Drum Corps that makes me feel nothing??!?!!!??

There was a time in the early 90’s where a debate swept the activity about the performance of challenging and “high-brow” music.  I felt that this development was good for the corps, and I think that the activity found a way to take this “new” music and find ways to keep the audience engaged.   I hope that this new trend finds a similar way to moderate and not leave generations behind.  Are we only writing for a video-game generation who needs constant stimulation and can’t hold a thought?

I expect to get some reactions, possibly justified, that I’m just not sophisticated enough to “get it” or understand.  Hopefully those that claim that my 33 years of watching drum corps leaves me unprepared to evaluate this trend will take the time and courtesy to explain to me what I’m missing, how I need to learn to watch, or why this crazed focus frenzy is an improvement.

For me, if I have to choose between watching the frenzy of camera cuts in “The Dark Knight” or watching the classic perfection of a car chase in “The French Connection” I’m going with the old school without question.  Move me emotionally.  Allow me to follow your thoughts process.  And please don’t make me say again, as I did after the Devils on Saturday, that “I just didn’t take enough drugs to understand or enjoy that show.”

Let me hear from you with your thoughts and opinions.

Tim Hinton

If you’re a fan of HGTV and its home decorating shows, then you know that all episodes end with “The Big Reveal.”  The new space is unveiled in all its new glory, and often tears and multiple cries of “Oh My GOD” fill the air.

In the world of marching band, we have our own big reveal.  In seriously competitive groups, there is always much anticipation about what the band’s show will be the next season.  What will the music be?  What is the show’s theme or concept?  For students (and their parents) who will be spending hour upon hour (and much money, blood, sweat, and often tears) working on a band show, this is an important bit of information.

All bands reveal their new show in different ways, but many will make this unveiling into a major event.  This often happens at a Spring Marching Camp when the students get together, add in the new members from the middle school, and begin to work on marching technique and playing skills with an eye on the Fall.

I have seen bands turn out the lights in the bandroom, then dramatically blast the music over the speakers.  Sometimes show shirts are handed out (THAT requires a lot of planning!) and often the music will be handed out and the students get their first chance to play the show.

I used to unveal the show music and theme at my Spring Band Banquet, sometimes even having the guard captain appear in the guard uniform for the next season!  Drama and flair are a plus when making this moment memorable!

All of this may seem a bit “overblown,” but I do think it is always good to create excitement about the marching band.  It gets the community talking, and often encourages new students to stay in the band and participate in the Fall.  An exciting show and concept, and music that makes a great first impression, can really keep students engaged and on task for the Fall.  Make your “big reveal” something that will build momentum towards your best Fall ever!