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00:00:01
The One Back to School After Winter Break
98 Plays4 days ago
Jackie, Woody, Jack, and Bobbey are joined by TIktok Band Director Rick Schwartz (@nj_banddirector on Tiktok)
Here all the news, tips, and things you should be doing this time of year. Plus Water we doing and Gush and Go's!
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Preview
00:00:01
Speaker
Hey everyone, and welcome to On A Water Break, the podcast where we talk about everything you and your friends are talking about at rehearsal, On A Water Break. This week we are going back to school after the winter break with guest clinician band director Rick Schwartz. We'll also find out what made Bobby say... Tired and feathered right on the spot. And why Jack said...
00:00:23
Speaker
and it is not justified, you are getting pulled off the site but at like after after scores are inputted in. That's like the reason to get fired, so. All this and more on this week's episode of On A Water Break.
00:00:37
Speaker
Eight off the Met and
Back-to-School Discussions
00:00:39
Speaker
go. Welcome to On A
00:00:51
Speaker
for water drink Hey everyone, we are back for another exciting episode this week and we are so excited for our guest clinician this week as we talk all about coming back to school after that nice long winter break, which isn't always long enough if you ask me.
00:01:08
Speaker
You know, there are a lot of moving parts that start really kicking into gear, whether it's multiple winter programs, spring trip, getting ready for fall marching band.
Listener Engagement and Participation
00:01:18
Speaker
There's a lot going on in this time of year. So before we see who's on the sidelines this week, pause this, go subscribe, turn on notifications on your favorite listening apps, write us a review, and make sure you share this with a friend, because we can always use some sharing around.
00:01:36
Speaker
i Do you have a question or a good topic to talk about? You can email email us at onawaterbreakpodcast.com or you can find us on social media and shoot us a little DM. if You want to slide on in there. We even have a form now you can fill out if you would like to be a guest on our show. So make sure you check that out. We love, love, love having people on the podcast.
00:01:59
Speaker
So check that out. Our link in bio on our social media has all that information as well. ah You could also just take out your phone and record yourself with a little video. Send it to us and maybe you'll see yourself on our podcast.
Insights from Jack and Bobby
00:02:16
Speaker
All right, let's see who's on the sidelines this week. Jack, I haven't seen you in forever, but I have been seeing you all over social media with lots of drum major camps going on. How have those been?
00:02:28
Speaker
Oh my gosh, Jackie, it's so great to see you. You know, it's nice to get away from school and then go back home to do just a little bit of downtime. But my downtime is running around Northern California and teaching a bunch of drum major camps. So I had the privilege of doing a ah Valley regional camp.
00:02:46
Speaker
um In the Central Valley of California for our drum majors who are preparing for L pattern ah It's their individual solo competition season then I went out to the Bay Area just just outside the barrier actually in Santa Cruz to go teach there as well to to do a pop-up camp there so had a lot of students bring a lot of energy and we're really excited for the winter drum major season here on the west coast and the The circuits are getting ramped up. We just had judges training for the Southern California drum major L pattern circuit. So we're ready to go and things are full steam ahead. Nice. Well, Bobby, hear another face I haven't seen it in a while. Are you deep into winter guard orders over at show day designs?
00:03:31
Speaker
Hi, Jackie. ah Things are pretty wild and crazy where I am. ah ah But things are things are good. Lots of orders are going out every day. So keep ah keep an eye on your emails, friends. You'll have your tracking numbers soon. Woo-hoo! Getting them tracking numbers out there. And if you order through Guard Closet, you get your tracking numbers from me. So, huzzah!
Rick Schwartz's Journey and TikTok Fame
00:04:00
Speaker
Woody, how was that NFL drumline episode for you? I heard it was amazing. oh ah Things are going well. I got my my three ensembles up. They're going. yeah you know Matter of fact, this weekend can just finished my wind program show. So we're cruising right along. Two more shows to finish. Back to school. Boom, boom.
00:04:28
Speaker
It is that time. And that's why we brought on our incredible guest clinician for this week. So, I honestly, I think you are the perfect person for this. I know Rick and I, we have not met or talked before this, but I have read all about you and I've seen your TikTok. So, i you guys also- Hold on for a moment, Jackie. I'm sorry. Hey, Rick, why don't you pull that shirt off a little bit?
00:04:55
Speaker
Yeah, there you go. Move it on, move it on, move it on. We got to make sure we cover all the important things, yes. So any of our listeners out there, if you guys are on TikTok and you have followed NJ Band Director, I assume that stands for New Jersey Band Director. Yes. You do every trend, you do every game filter. Oh my gosh, welcome to the podcast, Rick Schwartz. oh Thank you so much for having me.
00:05:23
Speaker
Now I'm really excited to be here, so but thank you for having me. Well, we have to start off with a little tradition. We've got to put you on the spot as quick as we can because that's how we work in the marching band world. So I i was informed that you were briefed on how the 32 count life story works.
00:05:44
Speaker
Yes. All right. We're going to go ahead and just jump right into it and give you eight off the mat. And then you're just going to tell us about everything in your life from birth to now. I'll do my best.
00:06:00
Speaker
So I grew up in the Philadelphia area, Go Birds. I went to Westchester University where I marched with the incomparable Golden Rams. I spent some time at Temple as the grad assistant with their marching band. And then for the last 20 years or so, I've been a high school band director in North Jersey and South Jersey, but not at the same time. um And I've got a wife and two daughters. I think I did it in under 32 counts. That's impressive. Yeah.
00:06:30
Speaker
I relate to the two kids thing because I just had recently had my second kid, which is why I haven't hardly seen anybody lately. Been busy. how Congratulations. Thanks. How did you go about starting your TikTok? What went into that? What were you thinking?
00:06:49
Speaker
So I don't think I was thinking anything at the time. Originally, and you could ask some former students of mine, I was dead set against TikTok. it was This is not the thing that I want to do. um And I think we you know we all had a hard 2020, and I was always looking for something new and something that I can bring to the table. and I just started using TikTok as, how can I connect better with students? What other tips and tricks can I get from from the app and from other content creators? and As I was scrolling videos and you know over a couple of weeks, I was like, I think that I could do this. and
00:07:24
Speaker
my My main goal was first can i help another teacher whether that's a starting teacher whether that's a student that's in college wanting to be an educator what can i do to to assist and i started making videos with those and.
00:07:40
Speaker
why i didn't get any traction there was no views there are no follows so we went into some of the trends and we went into some of the funny things and so i started doing some of those types of videos and i did a conducting video that kind of um took off with that really got you know went viral i was able to get some more followers from that and then i'm just been going and going and going and i tried to stay a lot within the the education aspect of tiktok in the music education world but sometimes Sometimes you got to do some fun things to just get your mind off of all of those. So lately there's been a lot of like football and TikToks that I do. And yeah, I do a lot of the games and and all that kind of stuff. It just kind of gets my mind away from what I do on a daily basis. Wait. So Rick, what exactly was that conducting video? Like describe for our audience what it was.
00:08:29
Speaker
oh Yeah, that's it was the DSE array from the University of Auburn and ah Actually a former student of mine said you need to do this trend So I did it and it was like I went gung-ho drum major Conducting and and kind of was like this is how I would do it as opposed to other people and it just started collecting views I actually got somebody screenshotted it and put it with with Auburn's tick-tock page like they use that video as well Yeah like As a drum major judge, I got to get a look at this. I'll make sure to get back to you on that. That's fine. It is pinned if you want to see it. It's one of the first videos right at the top, so you won't miss it. We love that drum major representation. You're going to get some scores back. He's going to send you a little judge's tape about your TikTok. Your TikTok is like 15 seconds, and then the judge's tape is like a minute long.
00:09:27
Speaker
ah I get to do the recap, right? Yeah. but but So what's been the funniest thing that has happened to you since you started the TikTok?
00:09:39
Speaker
So I don't know really what my students think about me being on TikTok. Lately they've been asking, you know, what what are you thinking about with the band possibly happening? But ah there was one moment, we were sitting at at a jazz festival in the cafeteria listening to judges tapes after our performance and some random mom came, walked up to me and goes, are you NJ band director on TikTok?
00:10:03
Speaker
All of my students fell on the floor. They had no idea how to handle this situation. yeah They were just ready to be like, you know what? We're never living this down ever again. So I think being noticed by you know a random mom at ah at a festival really was, for me, one of the funnier moments. That's cool because I've experienced that with a friend of mine, ah actually a former student. And now he's pretty big on on the YouTube. they are ecm eric car Yeah, and you know we're sitting watching the show together and some kid runs up to him He's like, oh my god. Oh my god. Can I get you autograph? I turn a look and look at Eric. I'm like, oh my gosh What is going on here? The world's going crazy. You're just Eric And we've had him on the podcast now too and
00:11:02
Speaker
Rick, has anything sort of strange ever happened either while filming or the aftermath of a filming or a video being out there? I don't know if anything really strange has ever happened. I mean, there there have been times where like students have walked into the band room while I was filming videos, which tends to be like a little awkward. I do think one of the yeah but one of the stranger things I think that might have happened, though, is I you know i took the family to Disney World, and we I also do some other content, you know some family. Being a girl dad, I really like to... you know also showcase the things I do with my daughters but we were in Disney a couple years ago and we met Peter Pan and I just started filming and I thought it was the most like heartfelt moment first character you're meeting in Disney World on your first Disney World trip thought it was absolutely amazing and I was like you know what let me just post this and you know whatever happens happens it currently has over nine million views and I now yeah I
00:12:04
Speaker
i'm I'm still shocked that it's like every now and then like I get some more likes and more follows from it, but I just thought of it as like a heartfelt moment. And I'm like, people are really like going kind of crazy over this video on both sides of the spectrum. Like there were some not so great comments, but most of it is like, Oh my God, she's so adorable. And wanted what an amazing moment that that she was able to have. Yeah. So what's the controls come out and you're just like, Oh my God, they're so bad.
00:12:33
Speaker
Yeah, so this platform is for haters. Yeah. So what is that that been like, like, balancing like millions of people being able to, to engage with your content? is Was that kind of a shock at first for you?
00:12:47
Speaker
I think so. i i don't really i don't know I don't really look at it as like all these people are looking at like our lives. It's just i I put my life out there and if people want to watch it, then great. And if they don't, we'll just swipe to the next video. But I i do appreciate when I get comments from you know high school students asking about you know I want to go into music education. and you know, what what can I do? What kind of tips can you give me? Or I just had somebody email me not that long ago about what tips do I have for auditions? So, you know, I just try to kind of talk them off the ledge a little bit and and help them prepare for, you know, for what's to come. Yeah, that's awesome. i I need to ask you one of my favorite, favorite questions to ask before we get to talking about all the back to school stuff. What part of the marching arts are you?
00:13:40
Speaker
Well, I mean, if you haven't told been able to see, I've got a big personality. That's the part. I'm the trumpet section. I'm the trumpet soloist. I'm loud. I'm energetic. it's it's I put it out there for you to see everything. I love that. but The entire trumpet section and the trumpet soloist. Yeah. All right. We are going to get talking back to school in just a moment. But first, let's do the news.
DCI Updates and Marching Band Safety
00:14:26
Speaker
Woody, what you got for us? Oh, Jackie. We got a little bit of shake-off in the DCI world. ah The judge's administrator has changed hands. John Phillips, who has held the role since 2000, and he was the longest serving judge administrator, is stepping down. And to fill that role this year will be Julie Daven, and she will be our new judging administrator.
00:15:02
Speaker
25 years is a long time to have one job. Just saying. and It's the wrong time to have this job. A lot to do, huh? No, it's a long time to have the job. Oh. He was there for 25 years. Well, you know I can't hear, Jackie.
00:15:17
Speaker
oh ah but Yeah, you know, all that loud drumming. It will do it for you. two But 20, you know, that is a long time since 2000, right? Yeah. Not to sound great or anything, but normally by now they'd be dead. I don't know.
00:15:35
Speaker
off Oh, I got a double, a double dingall. So the bulk of her, the bulk of Julie's experience is, is in the marching arts. And it comes with the WGI i stuff that she's been putting in as, and has been a performer and an educator and a judge for over 30 years. She was inducted to the percussion hall of fame for WGI, which is fantastic.
00:16:05
Speaker
the president or the organization's board of directors, 2000, 2023 and 24. Uh, she's a member of the, the faculty for Tennessee State University. And maybe this lady is, uh, she's packing it. If you want to know more, they do a interview. If you want to know more about her, get the meter up, uh, personal, you know, as person,
00:16:33
Speaker
as you can get, personal as you can get. There is a YouTube out of an interview, so you can check that out. I found it to be very interesting. It was very good. Definitely earned that spot. Well, Rick, what have you brought for us for our news section today?
00:16:53
Speaker
So I have that there is some new proposed changes for DCI coming in 2025. Out of seven competitive rules presented, three were passed through the instructors caucus to be voted on by the DCI voting membership. And out of those three, two were passed. One had some modified language and pass rules will go into effect in the for the 2025 season. um But a lot of those rules will be talked about in a future episode coming up. Yeah, I think we have a full episode for that.
00:17:22
Speaker
Yeah. And I also have that there have been some membership DCI membership fills open board of director seats. So there are three new directors. Ronnie Palcis is the at-large director. Jonathan Powell is the elected director. And Vicki McFarlane is also an elected director. No one called me.
00:17:45
Speaker
They didn't call me either, Woody.
00:17:50
Speaker
d Another Another ding? Bobby, how about yours? Well, things are very interesting in New Orleans these days. I actually was just down there last week for my birthday and that's as of we all know, the January 1st is when that horrible incident took on Bourbon Street that killed I think about 15 people. Well, apparently a lady in New Orleans decided to drive right through a marching band practicing on the street.
00:18:18
Speaker
and Even when even when the directors tried to stop her she became violent with social they have this woman under arrest they don't seem to know what the motive is but the motive is irrelevant what was she thinking how i mean and the city is been through enough already like you know it's just.
00:18:37
Speaker
you know having been down there people were saying you know the first couple days after after it was just like sort of a great cloud hung over the city and so you know let's let's either about to celebrate marty graw and get all of that going so let's just send some love to new orleans definitely i hope that they can. Hold things together down there there's gonna be a lot of tourists coming in and and if there isn't a lot of tourists coming in that's probably gonna hurt their economy for the.
00:19:06
Speaker
for the year that they're planning on. How many of you guys have ah ever like blocked cars for your students? So every time you are defenders yeah every time we from the band room to the football stadium,
00:19:25
Speaker
And as all of you know, I mean, the parking lots are always insane. I mean, we've got a like a wall of parents and, and not because I don't think the drivers are trying to be violet or crazy. It's just, it's, it's, it's scary, you know? So all the time we talked, I think Jackie, we did the part where you on the pride episode, maybe not, but there's always in those, parade those parades, you're blocking somebody from cars or spectators or something.
00:19:55
Speaker
Well, you know, as old guys, there's always a story. Our problem is you don't have enough drummers throwing drumsticks at cars that pass through the lots. That's what we used to do.
Drum Major Insights and Competitions
00:20:06
Speaker
but i I don't know if I should say this, but there has been a hood or two in my college days dented by a rifle butt.
00:20:18
Speaker
There you go, team. There you go. Show some fire. I'm guilty of that, too. You just gotta do what you gotta do sometimes, like we were saying earlier. Well, and speaking of gotta do what you gotta do, there is a former Oregon Crusaders drum major, and I really hope I pronounced her name correctly. It's Anna Quinamoan, or Quinamone.
00:20:43
Speaker
ah Anyway, she has been doing what she has to do. She is a wildland firefighter who repels from helicopters. And she actually had an interview with Dan Potter over on the DCI social media about her perspective on the California wildfires.
00:21:01
Speaker
So she's not currently involved, but she does have a lot of experience of that type of firefighting that they're doing right now. And she really did a good job of like letting things in, letting us have that perspective and letting us understand kind of what these people are going through right now, fighting those fires over in the l LA area. It's awful, awful, awful, awful. Oh, I'm not another dang.
00:21:32
Speaker
They're all for you today, Woody. I'm not coming back anymore, Jackie. This is my last episode. No! I don't want it! Jack, about you.
00:21:45
Speaker
Yeah, so I actually wanted to talk a little bit more about the drum major adjudicator training that we just had in Southern California. I called in virtually since I'm out currently in Michigan. I'm in medical school. One of the great things about being in medical school, the one that I chose is all my vacations are every month. So instead of a summer break, we have um ah basically vacations off every five weeks and they all line up with all the competitions down in Southern California and up in Northern California. So still able to make yeah that's perfect, right? ah So I was able to make the drum major adjudicator meeting and that was awesome. We and we brought in people from both Northern California and Southern California to talk about basically
00:22:28
Speaker
What the verbiages on the sheets that we really need to be stressing we really had a great conversation i wish we recorded it actually on the concept in the fallacy of like focusing on spending over like having perfect execution of marching de department underneath so that's been a really a really nice conversation to come back to as an instructor and it was just great to see so many faces from the drum major world on the west coast come together and really.
00:22:53
Speaker
really want to build up the system that we have in place to provide the best quality adjudication possible for drum majors in California. So it's been awesome. I'm just going to send a plug right now. Go check out American Drum Major Competitions. If you're interested in competing, we also have an online division. So if any of those drum majors out there want to want to give it a try and and send in ah a video for either conducting or for L pattern, um feel free to reach out to them. So yeah.
00:23:23
Speaker
can Can I send in my video from TikTok? Absolutely. Perfect. Perfect. Set that up. Let's make those connections. All right, everybody. Let's get out ah all the stuff out of the band closet so we can get it all cleaned out from the fall. We will be right back with everyone as we go back to the school after the holidays.
00:23:57
Speaker
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00:24:17
Speaker
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00:24:44
Speaker
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00:25:21
Speaker
Okay, we are back. I still think the parents need to come in and get all this extra Gatorade to take it out to the basketball concessions.
Marching Arts Season Preparations
00:25:31
Speaker
We are all going back to school and there's definitely a bunch of different things that start happening around this time in the world of the marching arts. Bobby, I want to start with you because I know you are knee deep in Winter Guard orders.
00:25:45
Speaker
I know there are people out there who haven't even placed their winter guard orders. They are emailing constantly. What do you want to say to them? Everyone is doing their best. um yeah yeah Yeah, it's that time of the year. And um you know it's interesting because being a ah coach of my own program and then doing this this work in the industry, it's sort of like,
00:26:16
Speaker
You know, everyone's like, our first show is this weekend. and I'm like, wait, people go out on January 18th. Like the first time I'm ever out, it's like February 10th. But anyway, so, but I get it. And it's, it's funny because it's a longer season than the other seasons, but it seems like the turnaround to get things done seems to be very quick. So, um, but yep, everyone's, you know, we're chucking along.
00:26:42
Speaker
Sequin jumpsuits flying out the door as fast as we can get them. And if you still need something, you can go online. There's some in stock stuff. Still there's some new items, I believe that are on our website. So you can check that out. Uh, if you're looking for something custom, be prepared to get it in March at this point, but that's just sort of where we are, but things are going great. And we'll be back at WGI this year.
00:27:11
Speaker
as a gold level sponsor. ah Still hope I'm sure we're still going to do some kind of partnership like we did this past year with on a water break. And so looking forward to that as well. I love that. Yeah, I was thinking about it. And like normally when we have our competition team, we have our dress rehearsal like the first weekend in January after the first. Like that's normally our dress rehearsal weekend. So it's like,
00:27:41
Speaker
Wow. It's yeah. it just december one hundred so ah ah Yeah. Every, I guess everybody's on a different schedule. I mean, those of us on the East coast or the mid Atlantic are familiar with a circuit whose championships are always the first weekend in may. So I think that we are, yeah, we, and they're held on the Jersey shore. Like, so we, I think,
00:28:06
Speaker
Here in Greater Philadelphia, we're just a little more not as ready to go on January 1st. Yeah, it is. Wow. Well, we generally end the weekend before WGI Championships is our circuit championship. Yeah, those extra couple weeks, they are brutal. Brutal. Another day.
00:28:32
Speaker
What's going on in percussion land this time of year, Woody? are you guys When do you guys start out with your season? Well, it actually depends on ah if you're scholastic or independent. but yeah yeah Most because mostly here in New Jersey, I guess you could say tri-state area, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware,
00:28:58
Speaker
Most of the gyms are not big enough to house WGI independent groups. The floors are too big. so but And it's very expensive to move out and do a local show because there's nobody to compete against in this whole Philadelphia area. So basically, the independent groups go to the regionals, which means on a week, all four weeks, on a week, all four weeks, you know. And you may do three regionals and championships.
00:29:27
Speaker
The scholastic thing is a little bit more in line with Bobby. I know my program, uh, that I just took over, it's going to be early for them, but we're coming out the first week in February and I'm still thinking, Oh my God, all the way to may, you know, because you got other stuff to think about. I'm already past the indoor season. My kids are just getting started.
00:29:57
Speaker
Jack, I'm so glad you're here because I feel like otherwise I would be the only non-Jersey Shore person. a The West Coast, or I kind of represent the Midwest and the West Coast out this week for the podcast. So trying to balance this out on the West Coast side of things.
00:30:19
Speaker
Yeah, gosh, coming back into into the second half of the the school year, I mean, all eyes are going from parade season for here on West Coast for our parade bands, and then we're going into winter solo drum major competition. So I was telling you guys about that.
00:30:35
Speaker
you know one of the things that i did this season that i wish i'd done in other seasons is i went back to the i went back to the score sheet and i i decided to dissect that as an instructor and no longer as a judge like i feel like there i feel like those perspectives are very different right like because you're putting it as an adjudicator right and you basically see it as you see You see it as sort of ticks, right? You see you see each one of those little this little ah words is like, okay, there's a someone could get this wrong. and you know like I tried to look at it this time from my instructional point of view. I was like, okay, where can I optimize? you know like How can I optimize this? so I think you know for any of our instructors, this goes beyond just like drum major training. you know like For any instructor out there,
00:31:23
Speaker
Please go back and read your sheets every year. you know like I feel like that's worth its weight in gold before you start designing. It really helped me out this year, and I feel like that's like one of the things I really talk about a whole lot. it's like They're spelling it out for you in wheat. How are you going to optimize those words? right
00:31:42
Speaker
I remember as a young instructor, the first time I had that realization of like, Oh, Oh, the judge feedback is actually going to help us get better. Keep in mind, I was like 18 or something, but let's like, Oh, the judge feedback, it helps us get better. That's, that's crazy. You know, Jack, you're going to get us all in trouble using that bad word tick. Oh, I know. yeah I know. now very and
00:32:12
Speaker
Another Room for improvement. Rick, what are the band directors of the world doing now that winter concert season's over? Hibernating.
00:32:24
Speaker
a and Yeah, I'm just, for me, I'm trying to rest up as much as I possibly can to get ready for that push in the spring. But a lot of what we're doing now is just getting back into the swing of things, reteaching all of those bad habits that kids kind of jump back into after winter break. But I'm getting ready for festivals coming up in a couple months, jazz band is starting up, and probably going to start some fall planning pretty soon.
00:32:50
Speaker
Love that jazz band season. Yes, I do. It's a lot of fun. Not enough teams participate, right? Not enough, exactly, yeah. You guys do just competitive jazz bands? We do. Last year was, I think our second year back into it since COVID. Had a fairly successful year last year, and we're looking to to go out and do a few more festivals this year. So, New Year, New You. What?
00:33:18
Speaker
What are we improving upon for this coming year? Rick, why don't you kick it off? So I know for me, I'm always looking to try and just get a jump on things. and And the last few years and again, since COVID, you know, things move a little bit slower. I really want to get a jump on next year's fall season. I've been listening to shows and trying to get some ideas, but it's it's putting together that first staff meeting with my team to start designing next year's show and and just really get the ball rolling.
00:33:51
Speaker
And hopefully, you know, I can also use that as a recruitment tool of like, hey, guys, look, this is the music that we're going to do and get them really excited and pumped and ready, you know, ready for the the fall season or even the summer season. The summer season. yeah Ding Ding dong. We before Bandcamp. We're we're we're jumping at the bit right as a school lets out. yeah We start off two nights a week. Yeah. They don't summer season in Missouri.
00:34:19
Speaker
It's complicated here and it's it's definitely, we don't have like a circuit, a marching circuit specifically, so its it's different from school to school too. Well, it's not a circuit for us. It's just a let's just, let's just knock off the rust while we can before we have to do it at band camp kind of a thing.
00:34:46
Speaker
We do training camps and actually the school that I am working for, I have worked for for a really long time. And you guys have probably seen on, if you go on my Spintronic social media, I post about them from time to time, my Ava ava kids, they do like a training camps during summer school. So the the students like get to go in and get their summer school credit and that, you know, it it helps the programs with the school and their,
00:35:17
Speaker
That's cool. And that's in in June also. So they do that. And then in July, end of July, beginning of August, around here is bandcamp time. There are some parade competitions in the summer, from what I understand, but I've never been involved in them. Good for you. so Bobby, when should people be getting their designs in? Like, what's a good timeline for that?
00:35:44
Speaker
Well, we're past the indoor season stuff, so like yeah that should have been in in November at the latest. But if you still need something, you know, see see what your manufacturing friends can do for you. As far as marching band, I mean,
00:36:02
Speaker
If you're you should have a good idea by like may i would say i know that usually you have final numbers. I know this is a bad director myself ah you have your final numbers usually like maybe right. A week or so before school lets out i know that's when we ask for final commitments and so as long as you have everything sort of.
00:36:23
Speaker
Going the ball rolling in, let's say, may early mid-May and then by the time designs are finalized and wrapped up, you're ready to give us numbers in early June, mid-June, then you're good to go for the fall season. and But, anecdotally, I would say, because I know all of us marching arts people are going year-round, I think about my friends that do competitive cheer, that's another thing that goes year round, you know? And so I would say the thing we we should all try to do is enjoy relaxation when we can. And be better at that as well. Find those. but It's okay to take a Sunday afternoon and not think about your marching band or your color guard or your drumline and spend it with family or friends or going for a walk or grabbing a coffee. So anecdotally, I would say that. Probably good advice. I wish I could go back to ah
00:37:18
Speaker
20-year-old Jackie and say, hey, just slow down a little bit. It's okay. Okay. Well, it's only two years ago, right, Jackie? Oh, of course. Of course. Just two years ago.
00:37:36
Speaker
wait Yeah. And my favorite, like as a choreographer, I, you know, I have, I've had programs contact me in like the last week of August, first week of September and saying, Hey, we need choreography. Can you send it to us tomorrow? and That doesn't work. And, uh, you know, we do our best as and before everybody's out doing their best and we we're going to try and help you out as much as we can. But, but really my favorite programs are already like,
00:38:13
Speaker
sending me drill in like June so I can start working on choreography in June and I don't have to do so many rewrites. I think that's something that bugs me the most is like sometimes I go into a program and they expect me to write the choreography without the drill, which is totally possible. But once the drill comes through, you're going to be making adjustments like crazy. So why not?
00:38:40
Speaker
get some drill to me first so I can write choreography that's not going to have to get changed as much later. That would be my my big piece of advice. So New Year, New Jackie is get your drill done earlier. And honestly, I feel like the drill designers are getting paid the big bucks more so than the choreographers. So it's been that way for a long time. Yes. What about New Year, New Jack? What do you think?
00:39:10
Speaker
New year, new Jack for me. The big thing is I've been prepping for music months in advance now. So basically for our, for our students, individual solo routines, their music's already been edited already done and for the master's students. So there's three levels. There's novice majors and then masters. And so that is the, that is like the epitome of like what a,
00:39:38
Speaker
What a solo competition should be like so they're they're doing cinematic music right there doing their full the full gambit for their drumm major team and so. Right now it's selecting music. For state championships cuz one of the one of the little tricks that i always have of my sleeve is i always switch the music for states and no one knows what's.
00:39:58
Speaker
and So no one knows what it's going to be. And so basically right now it's just locking and loading that set of music in and basically getting it repped for the next three or four months. So when they go out to state, they have the best shot possible. So anyway, that's what that's what I've been up to. at you know Music editing is an amazing skill to have in our art form. And you can win you can win and lose competitions on music. That's that's all I'm saying.
00:40:25
Speaker
That's true. If you get somebody who just like sits there and cuts and pastes together and doesn't really know what they're doing. Right. If you can hear it, you can hear it in the audio. New year, new Woody. New year, new Woody. I think I want to work on getting the recruitment thing down earlier, you know. That's a good one. I still have this phobia from I guess when I was 20 year old Woody.
00:40:53
Speaker
yeah uh i hate to be told no so i i almost pushed the recruiting thing off to the very last minute because i can't stand some mr woodward i can't oh you're killing me kid all right but it's something i plan to crack down on it like we said the winter season is so long that that's only going to come like two weeks after so the winter season is over it
00:41:24
Speaker
It really jams up on a kid, you know, like but it's got to be done because New Year and New Woody. Yeah. Get out there and get those kids to band.
00:41:37
Speaker
I'm 20. I'm 20. I feel like all of these are attacking me because I always I wait till the last second to do recruitment and I'm one of those directors that send their designs and what they need for flags and uniforms like end of July, middle of August and I wait forever to do it. I know bad, bad, bad director on my part. But yeah, definitely things I'm trying to fix. It's not your problem, it's the tech's problem.
00:42:04
Speaker
I think I think if you want to open up that conversation, we could open open up that conversation. yeah but but Yeah, that's another episode. Who's who's paying the bill? That's whose problem it is. That's who's. You're right. Me. It's true.
00:42:24
Speaker
It's true. I think it's a bit of a cultural thing, too, because, you know, there was a time when you didn't need to do all this stuff so far in advance because everything you did with your band was all local and right there. And and, you know, you didn't get new uniforms for your color guard every year and you didn't get new flags all the time. And you just had like your one set of school color stuff. And that was what you had. So unfortunately, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
00:42:52
Speaker
And now we got more junk to do and somehow it's not staying the same. So we need a new phrase, new year, new phrase.
00:43:03
Speaker
So what are we not doing this time of year that we should be? Like, and not necessarily just us here, sorry. i don't want to I don't want you guys to feel called out. If you do feel called out, I'm sorry. That's not my intention. But what do you feel like we should be doing that maybe maybe directors and instructors are not thinking about? For me, you know, I already pretty much know the show that I want to do.
00:43:30
Speaker
and finding a way to get the props ready for band camp instead of a month after band camp starts i really should be doing that it's probably not going to happen but uh the dream would be Yeah, I'm the same with Woody. It's it's just making sure that you're you're planning and doing the things that are going to set you up for the most success that you're going to have for the fall. I know for me, this year this past season was a nightmare but with our props and our uniforms taking way too long than they should have.
00:44:01
Speaker
And I think that's just us waiting until the last second to finally decide what our show was going to be and designing everything as opposed to why didn't we take care of this in February and March. when We had a lot more downtime as opposed to we're trying to get through rehearsals and everything else and and teach all the things that we needed to do. So yeah, right. I would tell directors like get on it now, like start that planning, figure it out, you know, before the end of February. So that gives you three or four more months to to really get into it before summer starts.
00:44:31
Speaker
Do you have any TikToks on this topic? You know what? I doubt it. There might be from a couple of years ago. I tend to kind of recycle as much as I can, but I could probably go through my band director tips folder and see what's in there. But it's definitely something I could put out in the next week, if TikTok is still here in the
TikTok's Future and New Podcast Segment
00:44:51
Speaker
next week. True. Yeah, I love that, right? Yeah, I love that. I think it's a reasonable thing. I don't know what to think, but I can't imagine it just completely going away.
00:45:01
Speaker
knee qui while busa talk That's my Mandarin. We're going to have to go make some TikToks at the concession stand because it's time to switch shifts down there. So we'll see you back in a minute.
00:45:30
Speaker
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00:45:50
Speaker
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00:46:04
Speaker
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00:46:18
Speaker
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00:46:43
Speaker
Hey, everybody. We are starting a new segment today. It's called 60-Second Tech Block. Yay! Yeah.
00:46:54
Speaker
One of our hosts or guest clinicians is going to be forced. We are going to force them to give a 60-Second Tech session.
00:47:06
Speaker
with the section that needs it the most after our final run. So um basically our special tech of the week has to choose three topics that they think they can give a 60 second non-stop speech about and maybe it will help some of our listeners out there. And this week we thought the drum majors are the ones who needed a little boost. So Jack You are up and I will say we warned him in advance. So yeah that's, it's not just coming me out of nowhere. But well Jack, yeah you said your three best topics were number one, maintaining a strong marching and deportment while performing. Number two, how to be loud as a drum major when you're a quiet person.
00:47:58
Speaker
Number three, if it can't be executed, don't do it in performance. So what do you guys want to vote? One, two or three? I like number three. Yeah, I guess three sounds good. I do too. You could tell rooset that's the band director in effect right there, right? See, I was going to say two, but y'all. I just need new ways to tell my kids don't do it.
00:48:28
Speaker
So the more ammo I can get, the better. Bob, do you want to be our timer? I've got it. We're ready to go. OK, Jack. This is an honor. Jack, are you ready? Let's kick down the door on this. Let's go. Are you ready? Three, two, one. 60 seconds hit block.
00:48:55
Speaker
60 seconds hit block. Here we go. okay so We're on 60 seconds right now. If you can't execute it, don't do it in competition. The reason why is you need to realize that competition is a game. right you are being You are being given a number based on what you show a judge for roughly two minutes. and That judge will remember the first thing and the last thing you do.
00:49:19
Speaker
and so Basically, you want to show them in that time window as much excellence as possible because they're looking to provide that to provide feedback while also acknowledging what is being done right. and The more you can show that you are doing things right,
00:49:35
Speaker
the better you will be at getting a higher box score. right So just from a competitive standpoint, that's that's what you want to do. And and so there's also a bigger bigger scale picture of like execution over content. right It'll make you feel more confident being able to do something that you know how to do versus gambling on something that you don't know how to do. So really make sure that you can save for yourself and your competitor or yourself and your band When
Weather Challenges and Competition Concerns
00:50:03
Speaker
doing that. Yeah, there you go. One. fool but Okay, Jack, that was pretty fantastic. Yeah, good job. I don't know about that. Hey. and was and It's time for what are we doing? What are we doing? What are we doing?
00:50:32
Speaker
Since Jack just did that lovely 60-second tech block, I'm going to let him have a little break. Bobby, do you want to start us off with what are we doing?
00:50:44
Speaker
well um ah what Well, what are we doing with trying to make rehearsals happen? And what is like so far, at least where we are, some pretty snowy weather. I mean, we've been blessed with some pretty mild winters, at least here, I think on the East Coast and in the Mid-Atlantic. But these last couple of months, we've been hit with a couple of ah dicey situations so you know we can't control the weather we know that but and we all commiserate together over the subject and god bless our friends in southern california and there's some midwest storms that hit that hit through pretty badly but how do we keep our spirits high uh you know when we know we really want to be at that rehearsal but we just can't be you know that's that's the hardest thing i guess during this time of the year
00:51:39
Speaker
We get ice. Like we had a snowstorm this year, this last week, but normally we don't get snow, we get ice. And it's like inches of ice. So yeah. Yeah, that's ugly. It is. And and the number of times we have had performers trying to make it to rehearsal on ice and just, you don't want to take those chances. What are we doing? well Just to make you feel better, we have snow that turns to ice, so don't worry about it. Woody, why don't you take the next one? What are we doing? What are we doing? You know, first off, let me just say, Jackie, this is a really tough segment for me because I'm not a negative guy. You know, she seems negative. I don't know. But I would say for what are we doing? Why are we
00:52:34
Speaker
making these competition seasons last so long. Yeah.
00:52:41
Speaker
Oh my goodness. The fall is like three weeks. The winter is like 10 months. Oh my gosh. Is it like the third quarter? If you have a if you have a quarter ah ah semester school year with quarters, isn't third quarter like the longest quarter also? Yes. Why?
00:53:05
Speaker
uh because someone did it and then we never change it and that's just the way we live now so rick you kind of see how this rolls what are you doing so this one hits a little little too close to home for me but what are we doing ending championship seasons with ties Like there are, yeah, there are circuits. I know there are circuits out there that there are things in place where if there's a tie at the end, like a certain caption will make the win. Why isn't that across the board everywhere? I was going to say we just did judges training this last week that I was in on and like we discussed that like ties are not allowed. Right. like That's what it's supposed to be. No ties allowed. Make it make a decision.
00:53:55
Speaker
Somebody was better than somebody. Well, and even in my in my own division at my own championships my team ah Happily and luckily and wonderfully finished first but there was a tie for second place it was like oh my gosh And there's I guess 15 or 17 bands, but I mean come on and yeah, there should be tiebreaker I think there should be tiebreakers. There's not going to be to miss America's winning the Miss America pageant So what's the tie-breaking rule, you know, there's not gonna be two teams winning the Super Bowl and So you think you could sort of figure it out, I i would think. but Somebody had a member out there who sneezed.
00:54:34
Speaker
So one of the things that I think is really interesting that you guys are bringing up is this was brought up at our judges training as well, too. And so we now have a clause in the drum major adjudicator packet that if someone ties during a review and it is not justified, you are getting pulled off a site that like after after scores are inputted. It's like a reason to get fired. So anyway, we kind of go proactive,
00:55:02
Speaker
tarred and feathered right on the spot.
Support for Bands Affected by Wildfires
00:55:04
Speaker
Can you literally send that to Rick's circuits so that he can please send that to his his competitions? okay We don't joke about ties. Yeah, no. Yeah, it's you cannot do that championship review. Like how can and and how can like I would not feel comfortable as a judge if I if I even came close, like, you know, like sure if if they came close, I came close. But like, like I would never I would never tie.
00:55:31
Speaker
that to the I would never tie those top placements. like why would you Why would you even do that? I think it just worked out that the math for those two groups at be at the bottom of the sheets were the tie. But the the worst part about it is when you come in third place to by point one. So you know yeah, that's the rough part. But yeah, two years in a row, you you can't end in ties. You just got to pick a winner, make it happen. Habitat should be a provision. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
00:55:58
Speaker
Yeah, and you can always fall back on execution like that's like literally the simplest thing go to the go to the execution sub caption that should be weighted more than your content right like and base it off of that and and then go down the list based on like if there's a tie in that sub caption go to the next so I don't know for my myself, I found that when you when you find find that your numbers are not right that way.
00:56:20
Speaker
as soon, especially if you have three or four groups that are about the same caliber and you did what you thought was right, but then at like Rick said at the bottom, there's a tie. So now you go and you mess with one number and then boom, boom, boom, boom, tie, tie, tie, tie, tie, tie, tie. And then someone's in your ear. Come on. We need your numbers. We need your numbers. We need your numbers.
00:56:45
Speaker
it it's it's It's a lot of pressure, and I can see how some people crumble from that. you know I will admit, I've crumbled a couple of times when I was 20. Yeah, like two years ago. ah But that that's what I would say would happen a lot.
00:57:04
Speaker
once you have numbers in that competition suite, sometimes it just blows the whole thing up. I love competition suite actually, because I can go back and change, like make adjustments to change the rankings, like later on throughout that the ah show if I need to. Yeah, the art of not boxing yourself in, right? but yeah There's always that stingy guy or girl who uh doesn't like to bleed into the box five you know i guess you gotta open it up some it's me at the beginning of the season sometimes i know that's the worst time isn't it the beginning of the season oh oh i'm always afraid someone's gonna play my tape to another one i was doing the same mistake hey start on the left foot come on people start on the right foot
00:58:00
Speaker
Jack, what are we doing? So this one hits close to home. What are we doing to support our Southern California bands through the wildfires right now? So I know. Yeah.
00:58:13
Speaker
a lot of instructors have basically been displaced, right? And so we're beginning to run through the season. Like we're beginning, like the process is going, right? Like we have competition in five weeks across California. So that's going to be first competition. And I suspect drum major routines are done in soak outs and some spots. So I really hope that that people who are listening are willing to send that money because there's a lot there are go fund me's for um for high schools who have there are several high schools that have burnt down who are in need of funds and whatnot repair as well as for the families hundreds of families right who've been displaced so if you have if you have the ah the ability to looking into finding ways to how to to give to those communities um that would that would mean the world ah not only to me but to everyone on the west coast so
00:59:07
Speaker
funny I called my buddy out there to make sure he was okay. And they were they were rehearsing. So, uh, yeah, at least you got something to keep your mind off the ah but fire that's coming, huh?
00:59:22
Speaker
Yeah, the smoke is the bad thing though. that's that A lot of my instructor friends who usually have their rehearsals outside, they're like, yeah, I know we've been having to use the basketball gym to like to protect basically from the smoke as well too for the for the schools that can rehearse. So anyway, yeah. I was going to ask you about that. How far down is the smoke going?
00:59:44
Speaker
So I have a friend in San Diego who said it was somewhat smoky. So it was, it was still present in San Diego, but I mean, it's all in LA. It's all sort of just trapped in this like triangle in l LA between the three fires that are going, but they are managing to contain them, but the winds are the problem, right? Like, so it's just blow in blowing from north to south and it's just bringing it right into the city. Well, Rick esh rick and Woody. We had those fires in Canada. Yeah. I was just going to say that. Yeah.
01:00:12
Speaker
Yeah, it was all the way down here from Canada. It reached all the way down. Yeah. So the the wind takes that smoke and it's bad breathing weather and air. So I know. Yeah, it's terrible. Well, God bless those people. Sorry. Let's turn it over to our more positive side. Woody's favorite. The gush and goes. Great job, everyone. Set your equipment down. Gush and go.
01:00:43
Speaker
Woody, do you want to kick us off? Sure, I'll kick it off. I'm almost done writing. Yes. Yes. Gotta be happy about that. And this is probably the earliest I've ever been since I've been writing for programs. It's awesome. Bobby, you want to gush and go?
01:01:04
Speaker
Well, I'll gush about the fact that people may not know that Woody and I taught together for a number of years about the mid 2000s and I'm still at that same program and what he's talked about judging and he's judged my program as recently as this past fall and but if I'm gushing 2024 for me personally with my programs were kind of a banner year we happily won a local indoor color guard championships title and then a couple months later we win a marching band championships title and so what i've been now telling the kids is alright we need to just not get used to that like we need to because all of those wins mean promotions into higher divisions and moving from a class into open class but but it's been a great motivation for the students it's been a great shot in the arm for the program i think for recruiting
01:01:59
Speaker
And, you know, i we all know we don't know, we know competitions are a necessary part of what
Celebrating Successes and Podcast Reflections
01:02:04
Speaker
we do. Some of us love it more than others, but, you know, there's no taking away from the fact that a win certainly helps the program. It helps how the music programs are perceived within the community. So I'll take a win for those reasons. And Jackie, on the side note, Jackie, I have to tell you that Bobby Shell, did I judge that?
01:02:27
Speaker
the hospitality room. I don't know if you have hospitality rooms in Missouri, oh we did but the hospitality room was righteous. It was righteous.
01:02:39
Speaker
jack what you whether i should go on about I want to gush and go about my alumni students who have come back and who are now taking the helm as instructors and who are building the programs that I set up. So I was, I literally was looking at Fickner from Fickner seven years ago when I first started out as a drum major instructor where I had two kids.
01:03:07
Speaker
basically in my private instruction, and they were at two different schools. And those kids have gone on now to build a group of 10 kids at each school. So there's over 20 students involved in the program. survey But to see that that seed that was planted grow into the garden that it is now, I mean, that's like, that's the, it really hit me this season looking back at it.
01:03:33
Speaker
And you know that that that impacts lives. you know like We're teaching kids how to how to be strong leaders and how to to to take each step in life with strength. And it's sending positive rippling impacts and really hit me this season to see them take the helm. So anyway, I'm i'm super, super grateful and blessed to have had such awesome students. Rick, what do you want to gush and go on about today?
01:03:57
Speaker
So I want to gush and go that I've pretty much survived my first podcast experience. Woohoo! Yeah, I'm very excited about that. But ultimately i'm just I'm excited for what this school year, the rest of the school year, has to you know has to bring with all of our festivals and trips and ah you know everything that we're going to do for the rest of the school year. So I'm really excited to see well you know what my students do with tackling the music that we're going to work on and you know Hopefully they all behave when we go take our trip to Boston and you know have a good time up there. So we're just ah you know just riding riding the wave.
01:04:31
Speaker
I need to throw a gush and go in for myself because I need to gush about all of our followers on social media, all of the Spintronics Guard followers on social media because y'all are awesome and you keep things rolling even though I haven't been posting like any original content of my own i since I had the baby and also the on a water break followers because y'all have been really hyping things up on instagram and i love to see it i love to see it so thank you for all the followers and thanks you guys it's called gush and go not gush and stay let's go
01:05:14
Speaker
Thank you guys for a great rehearsal this week. What a way to kick off season three of On A Water Break. We have so many fun things planned this season. I just can't wait to share everything. So thank you to the hosts this week, Bobby, Woody, and Jack. And of course, thank you, Rick. Where can our followers find you on social media?
01:05:34
Speaker
so you can find me on tiktok at and nj underscore band director or you can also find me on instagram at r schwartz 0279 all of the links are in my tiktok bio so you know hopefully you uh you come and follow one more thing don't forget we have our youtube channel has many of our interviews in full video edition so go make sure you subscribe so you don't miss those And then of course the word is that people are reaching out to us to talk about things in the podcast. And we love that so much. So you can email us at onawaterbreakpodcastatgmail.com. You can find us on social media. You can slide right into those DMs. We love having guests on the podcast. Take your phone out, make a video, tell us your gush and go. What are you gushing about this week? Tell us what are we doing? Are you at a contest and you're frustrated about seeing ticks on a george judge sheet?
01:06:25
Speaker
video Ask what are we doing and you might see it in our ah in our podcasts Of course before you close out of your podcast listening app Make sure you subscribe write us a review share this with a friend follow us on our social media at on a water break And we'll see you at the next rehearsal on a water break Now go practice
01:06:52
Speaker
intro and outro music was produced by Josh Lida. To learn more, visit Lidamusic.com. And until next time, thanks for tuning in.