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The One Where we Stand Up To The School Administration
139 Plays7 months ago
This week we stand up to the school administration and advocate for our students. Our Guest host this week is the Band Director for Provo High School, Deven Halcomb. All this, News, and more on this week’s episode of On A Water Break!
Guest Host:
Deven Halcom - @provo_high_bands
Meet our Hosts
Jackie Brown - @spintronixguard
Stephen McCarrick - @stephenmccarick
Cindy Barry - @leandermomma
Nicole Younger - @o2bnpjs & @thecookoutcg
Trevor Bailey - @t_pain151
Trish O’Shea - @trishdish1002
Beth Beccone - @bether7189
Chris Rutt - @wildhornbrass1
Cynthia Bernard - @cynthiabern
Ashlee Amos - @famousamossss_
Theo Harrison - @harrisontheo07
Stephanie Click - @stephanieclick
Whitney Stone - @dancerwhit
Justin Surface - @J_dex07
Ashley Tran - @itsashleytran
Jack Goudreau - @goudreau_
Bill Woodward - @remoking100
Emily Nee - @tch.makes.art
Ricardo Robinson-Shinall - @ricardorrobinson
Callie Quire - @cnquire
Austin Hall - @Austin_hall10
Music provided by leydamusic.com Follow him @josh.leyda
Avatars provided by @tch.makes.art
Featuring
Lexi Duda - Host for On A Water Break In Rhinestones - The Stories of the Twirlers @lexi_duda
Thank you also to @guardcloset
#marchingband #colorguard #dci #podcast #onawaterbreak #wgi #drumline
Recommended
Transcript
Finals Prep and Administration Challenges
00:00:01
Speaker
Hey everyone, we are back for another week of exciting rehearsals. This week we prep for finals and stand up to the administration with our guest host, Devin Halcom. We also find out what made Trevor say. It was adorably hilarious watching them experience like getting on a tram for the first time and getting on the plane.
00:00:22
Speaker
And why Trish said, you don't know nothing, like have a conversation with somebody smacking the rackets into the floor. All this and more, so get out on the field and we will see you back on the sidelines for this week's episode of On A Water Break. Eight off the Met and go. Welcome to On A Water Break.
'On A Water Break' Podcast Intro
00:00:43
Speaker
A podcast where we talk everything marching arts.
00:00:49
Speaker
Everyone, bring it in. It's time for a water break.
00:00:56
Speaker
Welcome to another episode of season two of On A Water Break, the podcast where we talk about everything you and your friends are talking about at rehearsal on a water break. I'm Jackie Brown. I've missed you guys so, so, so much. I'm so happy to be back. It is the beginning of April, and we all know that means everyone's winter championships are right around the corner. But it's also the start of drum corps season. And there are people already planning for their fall marching band.
00:01:26
Speaker
It's a crazy time of year and we have our panel ready to get you through this week. So let's start with
Interview with Rob Jett
00:01:33
Speaker
Jack. You just had an episode drop with Rob Jett from Diamond Bar High School.
00:01:41
Speaker
Yeah, no. The interview went amazing and I love getting someone in a room who knows their stuff from tail end to tail end and allowing that individual to place their wisdom down, not only in their niche of parade guard, but also being able to bleed over into the winter guard room.
00:02:00
Speaker
their own approach to certain pedagogy is really interesting because I think new instructors need to hear it from these individuals who blazed the trail in order to build their own path themselves. So it was an awesome interview and I got to really get a picture of what Rob's journey was like and where he would want to see the art form go from there. So just an excellent interview from a winter guard standpoint and from a west coast parade guard standpoint as well too.
00:02:27
Speaker
I love seeing all the crossover that you guys are doing and like what you said about bringing these old pros, so to speak, I put that in quotes, to the front line to talk to our new instructors. That's something we totally were missing out on when I was a young instructor. So this is fantastic to be able to facilitate this with you guys.
Nostalgia Weekend Recap
00:02:49
Speaker
Love it. Absolutely.
00:02:51
Speaker
How did your nostalgia weekend go at your local show that you went to recently? Oh my gosh, it was so much fun. I wore my old team jacket, New York Royal Guardsmen. My coworker wore her Blessed Sacrament jacket. There were other people that popped in, Matt Hurley from AMP had a Zumba Marquis jacket. So much fun. I walked into that gym and got all the feels. They all just came rushing back.
00:03:18
Speaker
I told my kids, all I want today is a good show. I don't care about the score. I really do. But I don't really, I care about the, I just want a good show. And they did, they did well. They did well. It wasn't the, you know, the magic moment we've been waiting for, but it was way better. The score went up 11 points. So all good in that world. So yeah, it was a lot of fun. It was a great day. I mean, we were taking pictures with our jackets and it was just everything we hoped for.
00:03:46
Speaker
It's so exciting. I love getting to like go back and just, you know, experience those things with these people and like bring those feelings back and like, and kind of show that to the next generation. Kind of like what we were talking about with Jack, but more of the just what it feels like to do what we do. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Even Rob had that same level of camaraderie about looking back at the, at the groups he was part of, right? How that, these sort of, some good ones. Yeah, absolutely. Oh, absolutely.
00:04:14
Speaker
I love it so much. And I feel like there's been a lot of nostalgia for like the good old days of drum corps, the good old days of WGI and stuff like that lately. And it's just, it kind of, it's kind of coming full circle, I feel like.
Devin Halcom's Background and Role
00:04:29
Speaker
So we have an amazing guest clinician for this episode. I had to pull him in because he and I went to high school together, first of all. Yes. So there are very few people who understand the world of marching band through the lens that we both share very deeply in our souls. But welcome to the podcast, Devin Halcom. Hi.
00:05:00
Speaker
Hi Jackie, thanks for having me.
00:05:02
Speaker
It's been a minute. It has. We haven't talked in ages. But I tell you, I always, always see your Facebook posts about what's going on in your band room. And I didn't say this yet, but you are band director. And I'm honestly so, so happy that you are. Because how many people say they're going to be a band director when they're in band in high school, and then you followed through, and you did it, and it was amazing. And I love it. So I always look at your Facebook posts, though, and I'm like,
00:05:31
Speaker
Like you have such great things to say about our activity and so many like fun things happen in your classroom. I just, I absolutely love it. So I wanted to bring you on specifically to talk about what you are doing and how you recently had to advocate for your program. But before we get into that, we have a little tradition here. Has anyone told you about the 42 count life story yet?
00:05:57
Speaker
I think your producer mentioned something to me about it. I'm just worried about what the tempo is going to be. I don't know. I'm kind of a tempo queen, so I don't really ever know what the tempo is. It's not too bad, though. If you're like an adagio sight reading tempo, it just gets slower and slower.
00:06:23
Speaker
Well, tell you what, if you go over, we won't do any sort of punishments for you. How about that? Okay. Fair enough. All right. We'll give you eight off the met and then you just run from the beginning of your life to now. Sounds great.
00:06:43
Speaker
So my name is Devin Halcom. I was born in Michigan. And then in late elementary, I moved to South Central Missouri, where, as we already mentioned, Jackie and I went to high school together and an amazing band director building a program in the middle of nowhere. A few years later, I moved to Southeast Missouri, finished my studies there. And I started studying at Missouri State University, transferred to Brigham Young University, took my first job in California. I'm just kind of wandering all over the globe a little bit.
00:07:12
Speaker
And now I teach in Utah. Nice, that was perfect timing. All right, let's do it. Okay, so I didn't know you lived in Michigan. I lived in Michigan before I lived in Missouri. What's up with that? Small music world.
00:07:30
Speaker
crazy crazy um so tell us about this this what happened with your winter guard program you know it's been a really hot topic i feel like on all of the color guard instructor forums lately that color guard winter guards in particular are getting removed from their practice spaces
00:07:49
Speaker
because they're quote-unquote damaging the floor.
Winter Guards Facing Practice Space Issues
00:07:53
Speaker
And I will tell you- Oh my goodness. I have a lot on this, but you go right ahead, Dev. It's insane. Well, I just, Devin told a great story about what he did. So do you want to go ahead and let us know how, how did you advocate for your program when this happened? Um, so I,
00:08:09
Speaker
I'm a bit of a troublemaker. Sorry, not sorry. All good. My first year at my current job, our group had painted a floor. And if you've ever painted a floor before, you know you got to put something underneath it. But a first year instructor didn't get something underneath it and left just a couple bits of paint on the on the gym floor. That was our bad.
00:08:32
Speaker
She should have checked it. I should have checked it. And then we get chewed out. I'm not allowed to use the main gym anymore. And I go back to look at the damage. I had to look at it like a state gaming official to see what level of damage it was. Based on the tone of the email, I thought they either spilled a can of paint. No. It was the total space over the entire floor smaller than the palm of someone's hand. It was 15 minutes to clean up at most.
00:09:01
Speaker
but they were all upset about it. So no more main gym. That's the one that has a raised second level where as an instructor, you can see the full floor layout.
00:09:10
Speaker
So most of the time they put us in the lunchroom comments. The problem is our guard is small. That year we made it work. We ended up with a new staff and the instructor, she's pregnant with her second child. They've got a small group and it's the like six or eight kids and a couple instructors and one of whom is carrying a child hauling dozens of these lunch tables out of the way so they can practice.
00:09:38
Speaker
And there were several issues that I started making a fit about. This is a Title IX issue. While our kids have a various spectrum of gender identities and things of the sort, in the eyes of the school, they're all girls. Hot topic for later. But either way, they were all just being, hey, go practice in the lunchroom.
00:09:57
Speaker
Meanwhile, the indoor percussion group that I host as well is more co-ed, but more male was getting access to the gyms. Now in my eyes, I don't think either group should be kicked out, but this is a definite inequity between these two activities. Number two, they were hosting all kinds of programs. So I'm hosting drums and guard, but they were hosting like seventh grade basketball.
00:10:23
Speaker
They don't even go here. Send them to the middle school. Play basketball there. Meanwhile, the drum lines were getting sent like, hey, go back and practice in the band room tonight because there's no gyms for you. We need a gym. We had to pull out this floor and set everything up. And so it was just not going well. And someone from the district facilities management had said, no more gyms for the guard. The drums were fine, but not the guard.
00:10:51
Speaker
In that space in between, they hosted an assembly. They had an ice block challenge. They gave the assembly, they pulled the kid down from each class, they set up a little kiddie pool with like a one foot by one foot by one foot cube of ice. You have to sit on the ice block and whoever melts it first wins. About 30 minutes later, they realize it's not gonna work. So they just start smashing it with these metal water bottles. No! Yeah, because that's not gonna damage the floor in the least bit.
00:11:19
Speaker
And then, as I'm looking out the sides, these kiddie pools are not holding up anything, because they've just been smashed through, and this water's leaking all over the floor. And it's just sitting there for 30 minutes in the assembly. And I walk over to the AED. I never want to hear anything about how the guard has damaged the floors again. Fast forward again, we have a different assembly, and one of the shop teachers brings in, admittedly, it was a very nice motorcycle, and just drives it all over the floor.
00:11:47
Speaker
I never want to hear about how the guard has damaged the floors again. We have a storage closet off of this same gym and I walk in there and softball pitchers and catchers are there practicing inside. Now I know very little about the sport of softball, but I'm pretty sure this dense chunk of
00:12:06
Speaker
of sports equipment getting thrown at high velocities. And this is warm up in practice for them. They're bouncing tons of them off the floor. And I say it with love because the catcher is one of my flute players. I'm still like, that should not be an inside on the good gym floor activity. No, it should not. Nope.
00:12:24
Speaker
And then the final straw, when I finally just blew a gasket, they had a wheelbarrow race. Not like the old fashioned where like you get on your arms and then a partner holds up your legs and you try to walk across the floor as fast. No, like out of your garden shed wheelbarrow. With a wheel on one end and these like sharp little metal legs and a kid done goofed, they get to the end of the race and he drops it and takes like a free throw lane gash into the floor.
00:12:51
Speaker
At which point I said, I'm never hearing about this again, get us a space by next week or I'm taking it to the district, and then I take one of the rifles from the kid, but first, I had to smash it. Now, human, I have been built like a Contra player since Jackie and I first met all those years ago. I'm not a small guy. I had to smash it into the floor, see nothing. Well, I'll see what we can do about getting you some gym space.
00:13:17
Speaker
Are you taking pictures of all this stuff? Cause that's what I do. Admittedly, I didn't, I didn't take pictures of the damage from their things cause they were running while they were going on. So I couldn't assess the damage while it was going on. But most of those events I described were in front of the entire school.
00:13:38
Speaker
You know, and I'm like, and they were just guessing. Yeah, go ahead. What's up? What was their initial like response? Like, what was the district's response when they kicked the guard out? Like, what was their justification for that? Like, did they have that? Like, I mean, it was like smaller than a palm, right? Like on the floor and it can be taken off, right? I'm taking. Yeah. And then when it came to the to the dents on the floor, this was the other kicker. I didn't even mention it when I was going off about this thing. I went and checked the damage.
00:14:06
Speaker
I am not a guard instructor. I love guard instructors. I do my best to listen and learn, as best I can to support the guard. I don't do the whoosh toss catch very well. But I have never seen a guard that practices by the front door of a gym. I walk and I look down, here's all these pings on the floor. Yeah, because they're gonna practice their five tosses by the door. That makes zero sense. Happen to us too. I don't wanna, you know,
00:14:34
Speaker
you know, jump in on your story, but same exact thing happened to us. The school ended up buying us these huge mats. I'll take a picture next week when I go back that the kids have to roll out and put the floor on top of because we had the same issue. But in referring to what you're talking about by the door, there was one night that I was sitting, I mean, we could go back and forth with this for years now that we have the mats and we don't hear about it too much.
00:15:01
Speaker
But we went through this, you know, the guards denting the floor, they can't use the gym, they can't go. We went through this whole thing. But one night I was sitting on the edge of the bleachers, talking to my staff, and I looked down and they were dense by the bleachers. So I took my phone out and I took a video and I said, okay, they're dense right here, but we don't practice here. We practice here. And I took a picture of the kids on the 50 by 70 space.
00:15:26
Speaker
I mean, a video and the admin was like, thank God you make that video because you would have gotten blamed for that too. What they found out was what they found out was the kids at gym class playing badminton was sitting on the edge of those bleachers smacking the badminton rackets into the floor. Like just, you know, nothing like having a conversation with somebody smacking the rackets into the floor. But we would have gotten blamed for that. Well, and that's and that's the messed up part.
00:15:53
Speaker
is with so many of these things, they just assume that's the kids throwing stuff in the air without realizing that like rifle technology has developed a lot in the last 20, 30 years. So what the AD didn't know was ours had that comfortable pad on the end. That was the best spot to drop it. Right. Right.
00:16:13
Speaker
So just the assumption, it must be the guard kids. But when you're going back to what you said about the gender issue and all that kind of stuff, it's not even so much, if that's an issue in your school, that wasn't so much an issue in my school, but I kind of feel the same way that you feel.
00:16:33
Speaker
Why can't the space that is a part of their school be for anybody? Why does it have to be like, we do an activity that dents the floors? Okay, so you came up with like, why? Okay, but like, we're doing something positive too. Like, why is that? You know, I always feel like, all right, come on, guys, we have to leave so they can go in, you know,
00:16:55
Speaker
And it's, you know, it's great to the kids, honestly. And again, they worked it out on our end. We haven't heard anything in a while. But I feel you. And this is like a nationwide problem for real. Definitely. I made a meme about this because one of my guard instructor friends sent me a picture of herself. They had a donkey basketball tournament in their gym.
00:17:23
Speaker
And she sent me a picture of herself riding a donkey in the gym. And she was like, why is my guard not allowed to practice in this gym that I'm currently riding a donkey in? So if you ever see that guy going around, that's why. I do have to say donkey basketball. Well, I need to welcome Whitney. Hey, girl.
00:17:50
Speaker
Yeah, hi Whitney. Hi, is it delayed? Am I delayed? Am I the problem? Okay. I love my computer. Not anymore. Okay, cool. It was just like being really slow. Hi, I'm here. I'm late again. It's a consistent issue. Fire me.
00:18:11
Speaker
You're late because you're out doing the best you can in the world for everybody that meets you. You're just so in demand. You know what? You know what? We made state and I'm not gonna apologize for it. So like we had rehearsal and I had to put a kid in an eligible. Heck no. I know, yep. I had to put a kid in, a JV kid in a varsity member spot because she went in eligible, yay Texas. And then a senior decided to quit today.
00:18:39
Speaker
So I had to close the second, yeah. Yay, we made stain. These kids. All right, everybody, if you have not listened recently, we have changed up the format of our show a little bit. So this is my first show with the new format. So excuse me while I get used to it. So this might be a little bit weird for me, but let's start with the news.
00:19:23
Speaker
Devin, not to put you on the spot, but do you want to start with your article first?
00:19:29
Speaker
Yeah, so I currently teach in Utah. Just north of us is the University of Idaho, the next state north, and they were asked to fill in for Yale's pet band at the NCAA tournament last weekend.
00:19:46
Speaker
When you look at it, it's not surprising at first. Bands are really great about supporting each other as best they can. I've been able to borrow equipment from opposing pet bands, things like that. The band kids aren't where this stuff gets spicy. But when you look into it, just how much work it took, they even got like Yale shirts.
00:20:05
Speaker
they had a rehearsal where they had to learn the Yale fight song. They changed the lyrics from one of their other tunes to make it match Yale. They had a cheer about Idaho and they made it about Yale Bulldogs. They did so much to make sure that the Yale folks felt supported by a basketball team. They worked their cheer squad. They caught the players off guard because the band didn't fly with them. They just threw up the cheerleaders and so, wait, there's a band here? Where did the band come from?
00:20:33
Speaker
It's the folks from Idaho, so really quite awesome just seeing folks supporting each other. I love that so much. Whitney, is yours working for you there?
00:20:48
Speaker
Yep, I'm ready, I think. Just being real slow. Okay. Jonesboro High School band members are performing at the White House at the Easter Egg Roll.
Jonesboro Band's White House Performance
00:21:00
Speaker
I didn't know the Easter Egg Roll was even a thing. The majestic marching cardinals from Jonesboro High School are headed to the White House for a special performance during the 2024 White House Easter Egg Roll.
00:21:12
Speaker
on April 1st. First Lady Jill Biden and the school's director of bands Lionel Goodwin surprised the more than 150 students during an afterschool rehearsal with the news.
00:21:22
Speaker
Dr. Biden expressed her excitement and thanked the students for putting in the extra work after class and practice for their upcoming performance at the White House. The band's upperclassmen will be featured performers at the Egg Roll. The Metro Atlanta band was recently featured in the Apple Music Super Bowl commercial with Usher, and they are slated to perform at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade this year.
00:21:45
Speaker
And Jill Biden is just really excited and she's been an educator for more than 30 years. I think a lot of people know that. And this is continuing her theme of egg-ucation at this year's White House Easter Egg Roll, transforming the South Lawn and ellipse into a school community full of fun educational activities for children of all ages to enjoy. So they're getting all kinds of opportunities.
00:22:13
Speaker
I love it. Jonesboro, and this is Jonesboro, Georgia. I always get them in Arkansas my stuff, because Arkansas is so close to me. I will come find you guys at the Macy's parade. So don't step off until somebody's had a picture with me. Just hold up the whole parade. Like, nope, Jackie hasn't gotten here yet. Could you imagine? My word. All right, Jack, what do you got for us?
00:22:43
Speaker
Yeah, so speaking of opening up opportunity for performing artists, we have the Indiana Band Showcase. They will be returning to the 2024 DCI World Championships. So for people who don't know, the Indiana Band Showcase is a statewide band group from basically the state of Indiana. And what they allow is a marching band-esque-like experience, or high school students can go park and blow.
00:23:10
Speaker
in front of an awesome audience. And this is really giving individuals from smaller bands the opportunity to perform at a world level event and have that awesome once in a lifetime experience. So I'm always an advocate for giving individuals from smaller groups the opportunity to shine because really any band program students have the opportunity to shine. So giving that
00:23:36
Speaker
access to those individuals is super meaningful. So I'm excited to see them return for the 2024 DCI World Championships. Nice. Trish, you've got a really important one this week.
00:23:52
Speaker
I do. It's about concussions. And apparently, according to this article, we've been treating concussions all wrong, that according to this panel of experts,
00:24:07
Speaker
The most up-to-date consensus statement on concussion in sport completely discourages total rest when someone has a concussion, that the brain needs active rehabilitation.
00:24:22
Speaker
to you know to you know kill itself so you know this is this is gonna change a lot of things now how do we handle this in our activity i mean when we watch nfl games and we see players being rushed to a dark tent
00:24:39
Speaker
you know, to assess their concussion status, you know, how are we going to tell our parents and our students now that, I mean, if this, in fact, you know, takes off this, this theory takes off, how are we going to tell I see this being a big thing? Like, I can't imagine telling my parents. Yeah, but they still have to practice because, you know, the brain needs active rehabilitation. I think until we get more information, I think it's going to be very interesting to see how this all plays out.
00:25:06
Speaker
If, you know, this is going to be, you know, a consensus thing that this is going to take off now that all doctors are going to recommend active rehabilitation as opposed to complete rest. So I mean, I guess there's two different ends of it. You can look at it from both ends of it. But I think in our activity, you know, a kid that's out on the DCI tour away from their families
00:25:28
Speaker
gets, you know, ends up with a concussion. I mean, you know, the parents are going to be so far away, they're going to wonder, you know, should we go get them? Should we let them out? What's the Corps doing to make sure that they're, you know, we have it correctly? So it's an interesting read if you get a chance to check it out. But it also it opens up a lot of the cans of worms. I think so as someone who's going to be attending the University of Western Michigan School of Medicine in July, I think one of the things that
00:26:02
Speaker
Thank you. So I think there's, there's a lot of nuance that comes with like these types of diagnoses, right? Where we originally thought it was very black and white, like, Oh, you either have a concussion or you don't, right? And so as the application of a certain, certain remedy, it was very black and white as well, too. But I think we're beginning to realize that a lot of medicine is a lot more nuanced than
00:26:26
Speaker
what it is. And I think what's going to be the best way forward is like finding that middle ground right between like, all right, we're not going to put you back to 100% yet, but at the same time, we're not freezing everything up too. And what does that gradual increase look like? I think that's where the definition of like,
00:26:41
Speaker
of what remedy will be is going to eventually look like. What is that gradual increase and how fast are we going to bring you back into the activity? Because I think it's really interesting. I think this opens up opportunity for the individual to still participate, even if at a limited capacity, but still find a way to contribute. And I think in the long term, not only just physically, but also emotionally and mentally, that that type of gradual increase will
00:27:06
Speaker
will be beneficial for the individual. But again, help trying to define how fast that return to normalcy is, I think is going to be the difficult part. One thing that we really need is more science on it. Absolutely. 100%. 100%.
00:27:23
Speaker
definitely seems like it's going that way because think about like when I was in school and like in elementary school and like a kid broke their leg or something like even though like that's a pretty clear cut injury you know they'd have a broken leg immobilize it put it in a cast for six weeks or whatever and then nowadays it's like oh they broke cool up part of their leg what severity is the break are we going to completely immobilize it are we going to put them in a walking boot and there's so many different
00:27:47
Speaker
options now at different levels. I think what you're saying is absolutely true. And I think, you know, concussions is just understanding concussions better is following that same long line of medical thinking of realizing, well, if you don't use it, your body's not going to heal it. It's going to be like, Oh, I don't need this anymore. So why do I need to heal this injury? Yeah, absolutely. Yep. All right, guys, let's get back out on the field. It is time to take some more reps.
00:28:28
Speaker
Hey, this is Christine Reem and Chris Green.
00:28:31
Speaker
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00:29:01
Speaker
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00:29:42
Speaker
Oh my gosh, Trevor, are your arms tired?
00:29:48
Speaker
They are all the way from Ireland. Guys, Trevor just joined us. Yeah. Oh my gosh. How was it? How was the trip?
Western Carolina's Dublin Trip
00:29:59
Speaker
Tell us about it. It was it was amazing. It was the first international trip for the Western Carolina University band, Proud of the Mountains. And we took 250 amazing souls over over the pond to
00:30:12
Speaker
performed in the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade in Dublin, Ireland, and it was absolutely amazing. The parade was attended by its largest crowd to date, according to their record keeping. Over a half a million people were at the parade.
00:30:31
Speaker
Oh, that day. Yeah, so it's pretty awesome. It seemed like every time you turned the corner and felt like the parade was going to be over, Jackie, but it was like, oh my God, that's like another 20,000 people right there. That's amazing. Was Kennedy High School from California there as well, too?
00:30:49
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I know some friends who went on that trip as well. I've heard that it's a monster of a parade. So that's awesome, dude. That's so cool. Yeah. We met a lot of cool high school bands from, you know, North Carolina, California. The other college band there was University of Missouri who made today. Mizzou. Mizzou was in the house and they did a really great job.
00:31:12
Speaker
They go every four years to that parade. So it's kind of built into their culture. They kind of helped us out a little bit in our planning for that trip. The band also had performances at Kilkenny Castle in front of like all the primary school students there. So about 700 primary school students watched us give a standstill performance. We played anything from a land of a thousand dances to
00:31:37
Speaker
Kendrick Lamar's N95 to Miley Cyrus's Flowers. So along with our WCU fight song, and it was just a really great experience. The students had a really great time. 90% of the students who attended this trip had never been on the airplane before.
00:31:54
Speaker
Wow. So it was it was adorably hilarious watching them experience like getting on a tram for the first time and getting on the plane and you know watching them like go through like the smallest bit of turbulence and seeing like their reaction and
00:32:10
Speaker
It was just a really great, really great experience for all the students and just for the university. And we got some really good footage. If you're able to go to WCU, prideofthemountains.com and check out, we did like kind of days in the life of like different students each one of the days and kind of took you through like the different experiences. It was just a really great time. And, you know, I got a couple more gray hairs, but
00:32:38
Speaker
Getting all, yeah, like five or six different flights that we were traveling on. But man, the students were just great. And they had a great performances. We got really great feedback. We had about 60 or 70 parents, volunteer supporters who went with us as well, friends and family. So they were really, really supportive to you in session. Our president, our provost, our chancellor, Dr. Kelly Brown, she went with us with her amazing husband.
00:33:05
Speaker
It was just a great experience, and it was definitely life changing. So, yeah. Love it, love, love, love it. Oh my gosh. I bet Whitney's proud of us being an alumni, an alumnus of WCU. I sent Whitney all the pictures, like, look at what we're doing right now.
00:33:31
Speaker
But, you know, it's it's trips like those that like really make a world of a difference for individuals, you know, like just educationally as well as just like like the like people make best friends on those type of trips. And I think the international exchange is obviously like such an awesome draw. So, I mean, you're doing you're doing miracle work. You really are. You're changing lives. Thank you. Thank you. It's a pleasure.
00:33:55
Speaker
I love, love, love that. I love that you guys got to go when Mizzou went too. Like I just missed being on the Mizzou trip when I was in school and going to Ireland and like they've been doing that for a really long time. It's so cool. So I don't know. Maybe we need to put together our own alumni band and like Whitney can go and I can go. We'll just have an on a water break band and we'll all go to Ireland. You'll be awesome. Good idea.
00:34:25
Speaker
All right, everybody, it is that time in the week where we are just gonna go off against something that is bugging us in the marching arts world, and we call it what are we
Overlapping Seasons Pressure
00:34:35
Speaker
doing? And I know, Trish, you are chilling at the bit.
00:34:46
Speaker
What are we doing? Trish, I know you're just ready. You look like you're on the edge of your seat. Jump in there, girl. Yeah, I am. What are we doing rushing the seasons? Okay. So to, you know, we're all trying to wrap up our winter season, but at the same time, you know, everything else is coming right around the bend. It's drum core season. We have to start playing for marching band before the end of the school year.
00:35:14
Speaker
But it's like, it's so much. It's so crazy. How do we all keep it together? So at my school, the band director did a lunchtime, announced the show for marching band season today, which is great. But now I know when I see the kids next Tuesday, because we're off this week for Good Friday and Easter weekend or whatever.
00:35:36
Speaker
When I see the kids again next Tuesday, they're going to be like, oh my God, Trish, we know the Marching Band show. And what are we going to do? What are we spitting rifle and saber? And what do the flags look like? What do the costumes look like? Oh my God. The breaks. Seriously.
00:35:51
Speaker
New State first. We got to finish this season first. We got to focus on this first. And me, myself, personally, part of me wanted to text the band director and be like, hey, can you send me the music? I want to hear the music. I know what the show theme is. We talked about that already. And then the other part of me was like, dude, I ain't even trying to hear it until after this winter guard season. Let me get through the next couple of weeks. So how do we all do it? How do we all stay focused on what we're doing? It's so crazy.
00:36:19
Speaker
You know, all the costume designers are posting this week, start getting your fall stuff in. And it's crazy. Like, you know, it's gonna take a lot for us to stay focused. We gotta pull together and pull it. We're all in this together, guys. We all just gotta pull together and make it happen.
00:36:34
Speaker
For real, that's why I don't even hand out music until after Stan is done for both my winter groups. Yeah. We always had a rule at Spintronics where, granted, being an independent of a school or anything else helps with that a little bit, but I had students who liked to talk about next winter guard season during our current winter guard season, so I would say no. You can talk about that on the ride home from championships. That's when you can talk about what you want to do.
00:37:02
Speaker
Yeah, I guess it's my, I guess it's my turn. What are we doing? What are we doing? What are we doing athletic departments of college and universities? What are we doing? It is March Madness. Pet bands have been putting in the time all season to support their men's and women's basketball team, right?
00:37:21
Speaker
And you're reading these stories where these athletic departments don't have the money to send pep bands to the tournament. It's been the last few years. Yeah, boo. Yeah, insert boo here. And now they're writing like, they're not doing it, but they're writing like all these lovely fluff pieces about how Ed's College Band or University Band sits in
00:37:44
Speaker
for said university band because the university didn't want to front the money to send a pet man a hard group and workers hard set of students who've been there tooth and nail to support their teams and then when it's time to go on the road and travel and pay for buses and hotels or flights.
00:38:02
Speaker
you know, they don't want to take those extra 30 kids with them. But what are we doing at the led departments across the nation? We gotta do better. We gotta do better. Those band kids, those spirit squads put in a lot of time and they should be rewarded. They worked hard too, to cheer on that team. Sometimes when people don't even go to the games, they're the only people that are there. We can't forget about them. We can't believe their efforts. And so that's why I'm asking, what are we doing there?
00:38:29
Speaker
I love it. That was one of our news stories from earlier in the episode to talking about talking about what happened with Gail and yeah it's it's crazy like like just get them there even if it's just a smaller group from the from the full-size band.
00:38:45
Speaker
And what they're doing is they're paying, the athletic departments are opting to pay local high school bands less money than they would have taken to bring the other group over and just save money and then say that their band wasn't available. What do you mean that they weren't available?
00:39:01
Speaker
They had the tournament on their syllabus. What do you mean they weren't available? You just don't want to pay the money. We know what the game is. Just stop it. Treat the band and spirit squads like they should be treated with respect and dignity and let them go on these important trips to celebrate the success of the team. That's all I'm asking. All right, Whitney, what are we doing?
Senioritis and Its Impact
00:39:22
Speaker
Oh, man, I have so many thoughts. I think
00:39:27
Speaker
I think my, what are we doing today is what are we doing about kids quitting at the end of the season? Yes!
00:39:37
Speaker
I just, it is crazy. Like I literally had a senior quit today. We had rehearsal today. I can't even believe that. A senior too. Is it senioritis or something? Yes, yes, 100%. It is 100% senioritis. It's so laid back. And if we think about these seniors, the senior class, which I've lost so many kids from the senior class, I should have like 14 in the senior class, but I now have three.
00:40:04
Speaker
It is the most, most kids I've ever lost ever in any one class. Like this is, it's outrageous. But I think because their freshman year was the virtual year and it just like, it was just such a wash overall, you know? And like we actually did still get to do Winter Guard. Like we did in person and virtual. But like, I think because their freshman year was such poo poo and their eighth grade year got cut short,
00:40:33
Speaker
They just they just can't care about literally any commitment and I like I'm scared for them once they graduate this year because I am I think they're just gonna be Quitters. I really do like I think this and and this is like an issue for a lot of people It's just like this senior class just like ain't it and if you have good seniors, I'm really happy for you
00:40:57
Speaker
I'm glad I still have three and they're good ones, but like, man, I've lost some kids from this class. It is insane. Wendy, when is state? Next Saturday. We couldn't wait just that long. Right. And we had rehearsal tonight and next Tuesday and that's it.
00:41:15
Speaker
Right. So they should be so excited about that. It wasn't like I was like, oh, you got to be here all Easter weekend and we're doing nine to nines and whatever. It's like we had two rehearsals and a send off show and one more competition. That was it. And we didn't even think we were going to make state. Like we did not, we didn't go in ranked in a spot for state. So it was like a huge deal that we made it. That's like, what? This is supposed to be the celebration.
00:41:42
Speaker
Right, but you just couldn't handle it. It was just too much. I will say, so in the world of drumming, I'm dealing with that same senior class right now. And I have to admit, one of the things that bugs me about it is it kind of is a ripple down effect too, because the freshmen see the attitude of the seniors and then the freshmen think that's normal. And it's just, oh, I've been fighting against it to the point of I'm actually questioning about making cuts this late in the season. Like, I just don't want to even have it. That's so funny that you guys saw that too. Yeah.
00:42:12
Speaker
Yeah. And when they go from revered leader to, I've got nine weeks left to school until I'm finally out of here. And that whole like, don't meet your idols thing kind of wears off. It's harder for those underclassmen, especially because those seniors have so much to offer. Right? It's the torch. It's passing the torch on, right? Literally. Instead, I feel like they sometimes drop it. Absolutely.
00:42:36
Speaker
That's not allowed if it's the Olympic flame, I'm just saying. That's like, you gotta go all the way back to Greece and get it again. Girl, we barely holding a matchstick. We barely got jokes. Well, Jack, what are we doing?
00:42:54
Speaker
Okay. What are we doing for individuals going into championships, be it drum major or color guard second guessing themselves about the stuff that they already know? Like that's been really bugging me is because like, when we get like our final round of tapes, right? And commentary.
00:43:10
Speaker
people are hyper analytical about it to the point where it's hindering them. And I think there's really sort of that hidden word of like, okay, you can be analytical about it, but you can't kick yourself down. And it's hard sometimes for high schoolers to realize that if they overanalyze something, they may completely rip out their entire routine. And so I've been in a kind of a panic, making sure that the students realize they have the toolkit to win.
00:43:34
Speaker
They just need to go out and execute. And those fine-tuned details aren't super, super obvious, but they should be cleaned up a little bit. Like that's the most we should see is an attempt to clean that up. So I've been really fighting, fighting students' mentalities to completely trash portions of their routine as opposed to making very small minor adjustments to really have as clean of a run possible. So what are we doing in regards to that?
00:43:59
Speaker
Really, it's about protecting their mental capacities, basically. It's just a mind game at a point. At the end of it, absolutely. Absolutely. I feel like it was really like that in Drum Corps and everything. They talk about, oh, you got to get through the first two weeks or whatever, and then you'll be through it. And it's like, well, if you're constantly calling home every night and crying about how you're not there or whatever, if your brain's somewhere else and you're not protecting that,
00:44:28
Speaker
Well, and part of it is like, I also try and say like all the other competitors are doing that. So like strategically, this is totally my competitive side coming out. If everyone's going to start to shoot themselves in the foot, hold back just a little bit and just focus on yourself, right? Cause all your competitors are going to do that. They're all going to want to, if you're, if you're doing it, they're all doing it. So I always say hold back and then just send yourself and it works every time. So yeah.
00:44:53
Speaker
Devin, now that you kind of see our big like mind meld going on here with all of this, I want to ask you, what are we doing?
Need for Band Director Collaboration
00:45:03
Speaker
We're not collaborating. And I got to ask, what are we doing? I joined this conversation as a band director where I'm overseeing concert band and jazz band and solo ensemble. I manage the Winter Guard and indoor percussion. Our Svelosa hosts an independent percussion group. And with all that and
00:45:22
Speaker
And it frustrates me because we were talking about kid issues earlier, like things that kids need to work on. This is something as adults, we got to do better. Like where I'm at right now, our state indoor percussion and winter guard circuits aren't aligned. So there are several weeks when there are shows for both.
00:45:39
Speaker
opposite ends of the state. So if I want to be a good band director and support both groups, I've either got a pick or I have to hope that the draws are different enough where I can catch this one at 10 o'clock and this one at 2.30. I more hope that one's doing prelims finals and I can catch the second performance or something like that.
00:45:56
Speaker
on top of that just looking at the concert band schedules whether it be university festivals music for all region competitions things like that um because it wears me out and then i also have to remember my students are going through the exact same thing like just this week we had a rehearsal we had a region festival and then there's more events coming up finals are coming up for both of the groups and looking out for the physical
00:46:19
Speaker
and mental well being of our kids, I don't want to over or understate this, but there's stress that goes with that. And if we don't manage it well, it's going to start to weigh more than it ought to.
00:46:30
Speaker
on our kids. It's already hard enough. We don't need to make it extra hard. Likewise for our parents and our administrators, I'm really blessed where our parents travel well. We're a small program, but they'll show up, but it's hard to show up at one spot at 10 in the morning and then buy a whole separate ticket, drive 40 miles to the other end of the state, buy another ticket, you know, and they want to show up, hey, we have the money and the will and the support. Can we give you our money?
00:46:57
Speaker
And by the adults, it's not talking together. We're not doing that very well. And they have to pick one activity or the other. And I think it reduces enrollments in the groups. It reduces support from communities. Yeah. I mean, what are we doing? We got to collaborate better. Devin, to your point, I've noticed that in this kind of post-COVID world, whether we're talking about band programs or guard programs or events or functions or projects that people are working on, it seems to me as
00:47:26
Speaker
a band director myself, that people are more protective of their thing, whether that be like a performing circuit or the ensemble that they coach or the band program that they run, and they just want to build it back up. They want it to kind of be its own thing. And we've become less likely to share the stage. We've been less likely to share our time and our thoughts with other directors.
00:47:52
Speaker
in similar positions. That's just kind of like my take on it. I don't think that we're purposely doing it. I think we're just trying to invest more in the thing that we saw become very fragile and we almost lost it. And so we were scared and that kind of scared us a little bit. And so we've kind of retreated to like our own foxhole a little bit.
00:48:12
Speaker
And I think to your point, it's time to get out of it. It's time to work together. It's time to try to lift everyone up. And I think that's a really good message that you're singing at, that you're kind of praising right now and putting out into the universe. And one of my own little self-owning my mistakes, I looked at the calendar and realized between me and my colleague, we ended up booking
00:48:35
Speaker
two or three different events that, hey, you're not going to have rehearsal tonight because we're doing this concert band thing or this jazz band thing. And then I'm sitting here wondering, well, why are they behind schedule? I didn't work with them. So so just making sure that we're easily as a team.
00:48:52
Speaker
The number of directors that I talk to on a regular basis, mostly in Missouri, but in a few other states that I'm working with right now, that just simply will not have programs for their students who want the programs because of this, because there's so much overlap and because there's adults at like these circuit levels and at these like state education levels that just can't seem to get it together and like
00:49:20
Speaker
put together like a schedule even you know because there there will be like winter guard competitions on the same day of like state solo and ensemble performances and stuff like that so it's like and and they just simply are like well that's fine then we're just not going to have a winter guard at our school or there's a huge number of schools here in particular that have simply flat out said they're not going to do wins
00:49:47
Speaker
WINS is amazing. It is such a great program. It's so good for students, but there's so much overlap that they just said, you know, it's too much. I can't do it. We can't make it happen. And I think if they were to see, you know, the communication happening between these different organizations and the different people running things that maybe there could be some organization to it. Maybe there could be, you know, some way to have these different programs on a level that
00:50:16
Speaker
would be acceptable.
00:50:24
Speaker
Well, I guess it's time for Gush and Goes. This is my favorite part of the show, because you get to gush and go on about whatever you like for about a minute or so. Trish, do you want to start us off? Sure. So going back to the show that I talked about earlier, the Elizabeth show, the nostalgia trip, not only was that a blast, but I also got to run into our very own Cynthia Bernard there. She was there trialing. She was there trialing.
00:50:55
Speaker
She sat with Eric Kitcheman, so I mean, you know, best of the best right there. So she got, I'm sure she got a lot of really good feedback. It was cool sitting with her at critique with Eric. You know, I wish she would have been able to interject, you know, into the conversation, which she thought, but I guess, you know, on a trial basis, she just had to listen and take it all in. But we got to snap a little selfie, posted it up. So I was really great seeing her.
00:51:23
Speaker
many of you know this, but she and I marched together many years ago. So it was really nice to reconnect with her and I wish I would have known what her commentary sounded like, but you know, all good. It was nice running into her. Well, we're going to have her on the show in Dayton. I'm so excited. Me too. Trevor, what would you like to gush and go on about?
00:51:44
Speaker
I guess two short mini things. First of all, you know, we're coming up on an Easter break. So band directors, directors, if you can, color guard directors, see if you can grab a day of sleep and rest and rejuvenation. I just want to gush and go about taking care of self. That's right.
00:52:04
Speaker
So yeah, I just had, I just went, I just got back from celebrating a birthday, a really close colleague at my university. And it was really nice just to kind of just do that and not worry about work and just for a couple of hours. So take care of yourself. And the second thing is, we're like just less than two months away from
00:52:26
Speaker
you know, move-ins for drum corps. And I'm super excited about it. And, you know, we're going to be out for the races about that. So I know some drum corps are still looking for a few more performers. So if you feel like you want to still participate in the 2024 DCI Summer, reach out to those individual drum corps. It will change your life. That's a really great experience.
00:52:47
Speaker
Whitney? Gush and go. Oh my goodness. I'm just excited about WGI, honestly. My gush and go is prepping for WGI and just, you know, I'm mostly spectating this year for like the first time in a really long time. And I'm just, I'm so excited. So.
00:53:10
Speaker
WGI. I can't wait to see you. Oh, yay! I'm just excited. I haven't seen you since like 2019 or something crazy. Yeah, yeah.
00:53:21
Speaker
Jack, what would you like to gush and go about? Honestly, what I'm going to gush and go about is just I've been falling in love with this opportunity to interview a variety of different people in the regards to the parade band world as well as just the color guard world. I mean, it's been just a blast. Like the conversation with Rob Jett was awesome. Right. And then I go and turn around the next week and then for
00:53:42
Speaker
Our current just recorded video, we just did a state champion drum major, the California state champion drum major L pattern, where I brought back some of my friends, the past four state champions, and we sat down at a round table. So go and go and listen to it once that video comes out, because I just love hearing the different perspectives that individuals bring to an art form and their journey through those leadership positions, I think is super invaluable to
00:54:08
Speaker
to new leadership in the musical world, new drum majors. And I think having those individuals to look up to is really important because that really keeps the art form going. So I've been having a blast talking not only with you guys, but with amazing performing artists from around the West Coast. So it's been a blast. I need to gush about the Macy's band for this year, the Macy's Color Guard for this year in particular, because
00:54:34
Speaker
Normally, a lot of my students don't hear back from them until like June, maybe is when they actually start closing out. However, here we are in March and they have received the most Color Guard editions they've ever received. They had over a hundred people try out for this Color Guard.
00:54:56
Speaker
And I have not been told how many they've accepted, but they have accepted the entire Color Guard along with putting some on-call alternates on a list as well. So this is like huge for them. This has been awesome. I'm sure part of it has been that we've been talking about it on the podcast and I'm just, I'm so excited. I cannot wait to see the talent and everything that's going to be at the Macy's, uh, at the Macy's parade this year for the, for the Macy's band Color Guard because at,
00:55:24
Speaker
I think these kids are pulling out all the stops. I'm very excited. I want to go. I can do a drop spin. Come on, let's go. No, I can't. It's fine.
00:55:37
Speaker
I can play one of those, one instrument. One instrument, just pick one. Next time they do the band director's marching band in the Macy's Parade, we need to jump on board with that one. I feel like the whole on a water break cast should. Yeah, if y'all have color guard. Sure. Devin, what would you like to gush and go on about?
00:55:55
Speaker
I've got a gush about my design team. I'm really lucky to work with Peter Bates and Bradley Sampson. I feel like so much of our activity revolves around spending more and more and more and more money. And don't get it wrong, I pay both these folks well with their organizations, but when they're building our show, they focus so much on what do we know, what are we going to learn.
00:56:19
Speaker
For me, that makes it so much more pedagogical for me as far as making considerations of what equipment we need to buy for instruments that need to be played, equipment for the guard performers considering uniforms, all that stuff. It just makes the job much more wholesome and rewarding rather than just, can we throw more dollars at this?
00:56:40
Speaker
A big shout out to Peter Bates, Bradley Sampson, with their design teams. Devin, I've taught Bradley Sampson. He played mellophone for me, well, years ago. Yeah, out of the troopers. Out of the troopers, yeah. Bradley was a great human being. He's always been kindhearted. It's not surprising that he's willing to work with everyone to make sure that they have what they need at a reasonable price. So shout out to Bradley. Miss you, dude. Hey, it's called Gush and Go, not Gush and the Stay. Let's go.
00:57:09
Speaker
All right, guys, if you are going to be at WGI, I just got to tell you, we are going to be in the show day designs booth, the on a water break cast.
Live Shows Announcement at WGI
00:57:20
Speaker
Come down. We're going to be doing live shows. We're going to be doing live recordings. We're going to be interviewing performers, instructors, designers. We're going to have so many different guests from, from these WGI groups that are going to be on there. We're going to be watching shows. We're going to just be like.
00:57:37
Speaker
doing all kinds of crazy stuff. If you're not subscribed to the podcast, make sure you go ahead and do that. We're gonna have several different people from our cast on there. Whitney's gonna be there. Ricardo's gonna be there. Trisha's gonna be there. Ashley's gonna be there. We're just gonna be, we're just gonna be hyping it up. We're just gonna be partying. So, show day designs, move. Make sure you come find us. Maybe we should even, oh, I'm gonna be there. I should probably throw that in there. I kinda, I guess I thought that was a given already.
00:58:05
Speaker
I'm gonna be there and yeah, come on down and meet everybody. And I don't know, maybe we should throw some fans on there too. Like if you guys are listeners and you wanna come be on the show, we could do a little bit of like shout outs for you guys. Amp is booked, so we're gonna be talking to them. Not that anybody likes Amp, right? Oh my gosh. What color card?
00:58:29
Speaker
I've never heard of them. If any of our listeners really haven't heard of AMP, go look them up on social media. AMP, Winter Guard, they're amazing. Thank you guys for a great rehearsal this week. Thank you so much to our hosts, Trish, Trevor, Whitney, and Jack. Thank you, Devin. If our listeners want to come and find some of your
00:58:56
Speaker
musings on social media, where can they follow you? So, most of my stuff is on Facebook, but if you want to find me on Instagram, I have an account for the band, it's provo underscore high, underscore bands. I post lots of announcements about our group there, but also just some things that happen here and there, so that'd be the best spot to catch me.
00:59:15
Speaker
All right, check it out. I'm gonna go follow you right now. One more thing. Don't forget, we have our YouTube channel now. It has many of our interviews and there are full video editions coming out all the time. So go and subscribe, make sure you don't miss those over on YouTube. And before you close out this podcast listening app, make sure you go subscribe to our show, write us a review, share this with a friend. I can't wait to read all of your reviews, honestly.
00:59:42
Speaker
Make sure you share this with a friend so they can listen to you. Follow us on our social media at On A Water Break, and we'll see you at the next rehearsal on A Water Break. Go practice. The On A Water Break podcast was produced by Jeremy Williams and Christine Ream. The intro and outro music was produced by Josh Lyda. To learn more, visit LydaMusic.com. And until next time, thanks for tuning in.