Interesting Shows

Topics and polls that cover the overall marching band activity

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Matt for Recall
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Interesting Shows

Post by Matt for Recall » Tue Nov 11, 2003 12:40 am

I'm just curious what people think-
Is it more important for a clean show, or a cool show?
I mean, obviously, for the judges its all about cleanliness, but as a band member I like to get excited about something. For example, I can't resist tapping a foot to Helix's renditions of Tommy and I love Vista's Ballad this year. I'm just curious as to what other people think.



By the by- sidequestion, if you do think interesting is important, do you like our(RBV's) show is fun and interesting? Thanks for the feedback everyone!
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Post by percussion101 » Tue Nov 11, 2003 12:50 am

i am very glad you brought that up. this is my insight on things. first of all, cleanliness is very important. who would want to sit and watch a show that is not clean? second of all, the show should be interesting. sure anyone could watch a cleanly marched show but would it be interesting enough to pay attention to? that is the question that should be asked.

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Interesting

Post by Matt for Recall » Tue Nov 11, 2003 12:54 am

You bring up a good point. Even if the show is good I wouldn't wanna watch it if notes were cracked or visuals weren't very good. Thanks for the midnight hours reply, and best of luck to you in your performances. I'm sure you'll do great!
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Post by TrumpetsRule17 » Tue Nov 11, 2003 12:56 am

it also depends on the amount of movement
as one of directors were saying... it kind of depends on velocity to captivate the audience in a way
a show shud b clean and exciting at the same time
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Post by percussion101 » Tue Nov 11, 2003 1:09 am

amen to that

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Post by Personal » Tue Nov 11, 2003 1:11 am

Yeah...I am gonna have to say that visually clean and entertaining thave to go. Sometimes, there are shows that are extremely clean, but not entertaining, and that takes away from the fun...On the other hand, there are shows that are entertaining, but not clean, and that takes away from the enjoyment. Therefore, I conclude that they have to be both to need to be both.
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Post by jjmachuca » Tue Nov 11, 2003 9:50 am

Very good topic. Not being clean tells me that you dont understand what you're doing, and that takes all kind of "fun" away from the "entertaining" show. I could watch the most boring show and it being clean is better than a more entertaining show that was dirty. If you have a show, go ALL the way. Don't cop out. A clean show= students, or corprers, understand what they were taught and apply it to the show. Thats the best thing ever. If that happens in your band, you KNOW you're a good director.

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Post by ACE-Driving » Tue Nov 11, 2003 11:03 am

Clean shows are entertaining!

Personally, I like clean music over drill. Makes sense since music is the most important aspect of the show.
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Post by Matt for Recall » Tue Nov 11, 2003 11:30 am

I agree that cleanliness is very important for a good effect, but I don't quite agree that clean shows are entertaining. The most perfectly played and marched show in the world could win all kinds of awards but if it was boring musically or visually, no one would want to go see it.
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Post by ODannyBoi » Tue Nov 11, 2003 1:03 pm

Interesting is good, Clean is better.

Let me just, as fairly as possible, bring up some examples.
As a director (at my old school, not VHS) I programmed some terribly difficult shows that always souded better indoors (or on MIDI) than out. Bohemian Rhapsody, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, A concert version of The Sound of Music... the music was too tough for my kids and for me as a new director.

The Crouching Tiger show utilized a cello soloist (what was I thinking?!) and Taiko drums. I got some encouraging comments about programming, but the performance excellence this show demanded seemed to be a bit outside the grasp of my kids.

Furthermore, I always kept the drill on the difficult side. Backwards 6 to 5's along a curved path for the low brass at 166... not a problem. Try and get them to play the music like they did indoors... problem.

A school last year (I won't name them, but you can ID them if you remember their show) did a show based on flight set to 2 of my favorite pieces of band repertiore: To Tame Perilous Skies and October. It had one of my favorite moments from any field show I saw, a model of an early airplane flew just at the right moment. Serious whoa factor. But the show was dirty all over the place. I saw their show this year and the same thing happend: the music was too tough and the kids running running around the field unable to hit their intervals; it was beyond them. The director expects alot and arguably gets alot from her kids. They were beaten out that night last year by a band I like less doing a In-the-can Styx show with simple drill.

I'd like to forget I saw the Styx show. (Sorry, P.B.) I'll never forget the Flight show. Beautiful. (Thanks S.H.)

So the point... Interesting can touch on greatness. But unless you have the band program to back it up (clean it up), you are looking at a lot of Box 3's.

I learned my lesson this year. As VHS' new assistant director, when I heard that we were doing a Gloria Estefan show, I sighed. I never thought the show would suffer being called "hip" or "cutting edge". We were going for "fun" and "cool" and of course "excellent". What saved us was that the kids bought in; They liked the book and new that they could enjoy playing it all year. Furthermore, we had crowd appeal. That adds alot of energy to any performance. It seems to have added enough to land us into 3A championships, so something must be working.

Go Vikings! :viking:
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Interesting/Clean

Post by altohack » Tue Nov 11, 2003 1:24 pm

ODannyBoi wrote:Interesting is good, Clean is better.
They were beaten out that night last year by a band I like less doing a In-the-can Styx show with simple drill.

I'd like to forget I saw the Styx show. (Sorry, P.B.) I'll never forget the Flight show. Beautiful. (Thanks S.H.)

So the point... Interesting can touch on greatness.
Sorta brings up the judges choice on Diamond Bar and Arcadia's shows at Chino, how Phantom liked Arcadia's better, yet Diamond Bar's was more clean.
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Post by Matt for Recall » Tue Nov 11, 2003 4:03 pm

I marched the Styx show last year. I don't mind that you didn't like it, but please believe me when I say it wasn't simple drill. It really worked us hard to hit those sets and we had to really clean well. However, I do think you have good points about Interesting being good but Clean being better. Another however, though, in that I'd rather get people off their feet than get perfect scores and a spattering of applause.
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Post by MonsoonTrumpetSectLeadr05 » Tue Nov 11, 2003 4:05 pm

ODannyBoi wrote: They were beaten out that night last year by a band I like less doing a In-the-can Styx show with simple drill.

I'd like to forget I saw the Styx show. (Sorry, P.B.) I'll never forget the Flight show. Beautiful. (Thanks S.H.)
you better not be talking about our Styx show because our drill wasnt easy...and we had our stuff down which allowed us to win 1st often
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Post by ODannyBoi » Tue Nov 11, 2003 5:34 pm

MonsoonTrumpetSectLeadr05 wrote:
you better not be talking about our Styx show because our drill wasnt easy...and we had our stuff down which allowed us to win 1st often
Looking at your location (Lakewood), I don't think I was talking about your school's show (Or Matt's for that matter). But this does bring up an interesting point on how many schools performed the same music last year.

My point was how simpler shows are easier to clean and therefore often win the prizes. However, it's the risky shows that remain in your memory. The ideal of course is to have a band that can perform interesting shows with a good deal of excellence.
Daniel J. Magallanes
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Monrovia H.S. - Monrovia, CA
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Post by bandfanatic » Tue Nov 11, 2003 6:11 pm

ODannyBoi wrote: My point was how simpler shows are easier to clean and therefore often win the prizes. However, it's the risky shows that remain in your memory. The ideal of course is to have a band that can perform interesting shows with a good deal of excellence.
its not always the most interesting shows that you remember, the easier cleaner shows will also be remembered. for example, if you can compare arcadia to RB i would have to say arcadia has the risky show and RB has the simpler show but they do it amazingly well and i will remember both as a great show on the same level

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