ASBA Newsletter

Thank You Notes

With a nod to late-night host Jimmy Fallon, I present some of my own special thank you notes.

Thank you… Skeet Shooting Club sponsor for not notifying the faculty of your field trip to Pea Ridge until the morning of the trip. The late notification gave me the adrenaline-filled thrill of re-planning for a rehearsal that will be missing a third of my band. (And we have to perform at the game tonight.)

Thank you… school maintenance crew for lining the football field the same period as our final run-through even though I notified you two weeks before our rehearsal that we would be needing the field that hour. Our bass drummer discovered his heretofore unknown gymnastic and juggling talent when he tripped over an unnoticed string and went flying with his drum end over end.

Thank you… Monday morning hall duty. Because of you, not only do I start on my precious paperwork thirty minutes later, but the time I spend monitoring the lobby door goes so slowly that it seems as though I am adding years to my life.

Thank you… fellow faculty member for raising your hand at the end of a two-hour faculty meeting to ask as question you could have asked after everyone else was gone. (And in my case, back to work.)

Thank you…instrument that malfunctions the day of a performance for the extra excitement and challenge you provide at the last minute.

Thank you…Always Tardy Student for giving me something I can always count on. The knowledge that I can see you scurry and slink down into your chair seconds before every performance brings such comfort. You also amaze me that you can have a different excuse every time.

Thank you…sousaphone. You give me and my students a great full body work-out as we try to remove or insert the bell into the body of the instrument each week.

Thank you…loose horn string. The intellectual challenge you provide as we all try to figure out how to retie you produces a bonding experience I would never otherwise have with my students.

Thank you…marching band trumpet players for playing the end of the song up an octave and holding the last note over just a bit. It helps me remember that you are there.

Thank you…duct tape for also being called Duck Tape so I am right either way that I choose to pronounce or spell it. You do a great jab of holding all of our equipment together at the end of the year when our repair budget is gone.

Thank you…drummers for making me feel needed by leaving all of your sticks, auxiliary instruments, and music all over the floor so I can crawl around retrieving it. It’s great for my abs, too.

Thank you…jazz band rhythm section for playing nothing but excruciatingly loud heavy metal and grunge in your spare time. It allows me to see which drum heads are the strongest and which guitar amps can go without exploding.

Thank you...alma mater for being one of the last sappy things on this earth. It’s actually refreshing. Barry Manilow would be proud.

Thank you…fight song for still existing even though the very concept of you is politically incorrect. Live long and prosper! Fight! Fight! Fight!

From Leadershift by John Maxwell:

Pleasing people is not the same as leading people. Wanting to make everyone happy is a set-up for failure. We should become the leader that others need, not necessarily what they want. We should leadershift from pleasing people to challenging them.

Many auditions, both junior and senior high, are coming soon. Here are some tips to get the best from your students. Please share this information with them.

1. The first thing you do when you arrive is become familiar with the layout of the tryout area. Take your instrument (with your name and school name on the case) to the warm-up area. Find your tryout room. Some instruments have two rooms so find them both.

2. The tryout music will be posted thirty minutes before tryouts begin. Take a pencil and mark your music and write down the required scales or rudiments. (Write the scales down in order; they must be played that way.) Percussionists will have exercises selected for snare, timpani, and keyboard.

3. Get to your room early.

4. While waiting in the halls, do not play, but gently blow warm air through your instrument. Periodically take a deep breath to relax yourself. Some of the larger sections will have two rooms to tryout in—one for prepared material and another for sight-reading and scales. The prepared room is generally first. After you finish that room, you will go directly to the sight-reading and scales room. Percussionists will have three try-out rooms, one each for snare, keyboard, and timpani.

5. Scales must be memorized. Use your own music in the prepared tryout room. If a monitor says you cannot use it, they are wrong. If for some reason you have lost your music, there will be some provided in the tryout room. Do not use a friend’s music unless he or she is finished—otherwise it may cause a mix-up.

6. Wind players may choose to stand or sit when they play. Adjust the music stand if necessary. The judges will be behind a hanging curtain or sheet. They will not be able to see you.

7. Play the first note of each exercise or scale to make sure you have the correct pitch before you begin the exercise. Concentrate on the correct tempo before you begin, and don’t let your nerves make you rush.

8. Move efficiently from one exercise to another. Do not talk in the tryout room if at all possible. Whisper to the monitor if you have a question. If you have to stop playing during an exercise, begin where you left off. Do not go back to the beginning.

9. You will have twenty seconds to look at the sight-reading. Use the procedures we have taught you. Play the exercise at a reasonable tempo and don’t quit!

10. When you are finished, load your instrument on the bus. We will have the results for you after all the tryouts are over. Results are not final until Monday.

General Guidelines

1. If your instrument breaks at any time, just relax. Find a band director in the library (not necessarily one of us, we may be judging) and ask them to look at it. If they can’t fix it, borrow one. Inform the monitor if you are going to be late. If your instrument or reed breaks while in the tryout room, tell the monitor. They can then tell the judge and something can be done. Woodwinds should have other playable reeds in their cases.

2. Do not leave the campus area.

3. Have respect for the host’s facilities. You are representing our school. Do not draw undue attention to yourselves. Any attention you receive should be for being a class act.

4. Bring money for lunch. There will be food at the tryouts.

5. We will not be able to answer a hundred questions at tryouts. You will be tempted to ask us something as soon as it pops into your head. Resist this temptation. If you have a question, follow this plan:

Think real hard for five minutes and figure out if an answer has already been explained.

Find a friend and think real hard for another five minutes.

Find several friends (maybe even someone who has been to tryouts before) and think real hard for five more minutes.

If by then you cannot figure things out, ask one of us.

Do not tell us your try-out time or number.

6. Just do your best. You are valuable to our band program whether you earn a position or not. No matter what happens, we still love you.

"Without music, life would be a mistake."--Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

"Bagpipes are the missing link between music and noise."-- E.K. Kruger