What makes a school win year after year?

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Music Mom
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What makes a school win year after year?

Post by Music Mom » Mon Sep 30, 2013 8:37 pm

Here we are in a new year and once again Golden Valley HS in Merced is an excellent band - sweeping the Delta Band Review. How do they do it? And with a new director!

JCYS
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Re: What makes a school win year after year?

Post by JCYS » Tue Oct 01, 2013 9:13 am

Music Mom wrote:Here we are in a new year and once again Golden Valley HS in Merced is an excellent band - sweeping the Delta Band Review. How do they do it? And with a new director!
High expectations of excellence. Good director. Good feeder schools. And tradition doesn't hurt either.

dr
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Re: What makes a school win year after year?

Post by dr » Tue Oct 01, 2013 2:44 pm

It isn't often mentioned, but once a band reaches a certain level of consistent high quality it isn't the OTHER bands you are competing against, but instead you are competing with your own standards that you have developed through your band's own history. Your toughest competitor turns out to be the band you were LAST year. Hence Arcadia, RB, RK, MC, and all the other powerhouse bands in SoCal, too. You certainly don't want to be identified as not being as good as last year's band. NO pressure is more intimidating as that which originates within your band to at least be as good as you were last year.
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fidave
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Re: What makes a school win year after year?

Post by fidave » Tue Oct 01, 2013 10:08 pm

Great point Dennis.

Successful programs have a way of being self-perpetuating, as younger brothers and sisters begin thinking about becoming members of the high school group from elementary and middle school age. A consistent supply of new members well-versed in the history and expectations of the group is a significant positive.

Successful programs have successful directors. While some of them are great musicians, most are great motivators with a strong sense of matching musical selections (street/field) to the strengths of their specific instrumentation and student quality. These men and women know when to push (and how hard) and when to back off. And when their group reaches a milestone or plateau, they know how to nudge the bar just a bit higher. So the students can't get complacent.

Being a former member of one of the programs mentioned, I can confirm that the most successful programs do compete against both the groups at the specific event as well as the history of your own group.

Finally, while it may be possible to produce a successful instrumental music program without the support of school district administrators, I think these examples are few and far between.
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Re: What makes a school win year after year?

Post by clarinetking » Wed Oct 02, 2013 5:27 pm

Good kids, good boosters and a great band director. It works every time.

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