I think you can mix entertainment and musical education, but in general shows that are made for entertainment are simply for entertainment.  I don't like them very much because they are usually simple shows with simple drill and made just to get the crowd's attention.  There are some bands in out chapter like this and they have bad technique.  If it is a challenge to the musicians and they learn something and entertains the crowd then I consider these the best shows.

Mr. Mac I've already said that I've never been a big fan of those type of shows.  Just...Shows to entertain...I'd be a lot happier with a corp style show than a show made just to entertain.  Plus if we do a challenging show and do it well, that will entertain the audience anyway.

It all depends on who you're trying to please.

I'm not sure I understand between a "good" show, and a show made to entertain. Isn't a show designed to entertain? And if we're not entertaining the audience, are we really doing our jobs as performers?

Remember, not everyone watching a halftime show wants to see the same things in a show as you do. In fact, most of the people watching a halftime show aren't actually watching the halftime show. Why? Students at football games could care less about us hitting the runs of movement III of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade or the interesting harmonic lines in something else classical.

Cameron, have you noticed the crowd that comes to football games? If we invited the Blue Devils to perform our show instead of us, I don't think too many people would take notice. And if they did, it wouldn't be because of their skill, it would be because of the size and "in your face"-ness.

I notice that my non-musical friends and family members always enjoy bands where they know the songs, where the (general) audience can get into it. Yeah, usually these bands have shoddy technique and simple drill, but I don't think that's because of the choice of song. That's just because of the band.

When Towson University performed two years ago at our ToB and did Thriller, that was solely for entertainment. Everyone loved it. And it was awesome. And I don't think anyone is accusing them of being a band with simple drill and technique.

I know a lot of parents from other schools commented on our show this year. My parents were listening to (evesdropping on) Huntingtown parents who said GB did a great job this year. And if they knew the songs we were playing, I'm sure they would of thought we were ten times better.

Playing a show for a general audience isn't a bad thing, if it's done correctly. If we want to be noticed at the football games as more than a filler between halves, we need to play stuff they know. We don't have the size or sound to get their attention otherwise.

Basically, it comes down to who we're performing for. Are we performing for the family members, friends and regular people who come to support us? Or are we performing for a the handful of people who are musically-savvy in the audience? Or are we doing it for the biased judges that no matter how well we play won't break from their preconceived notions of Glen Burnie and give us what we deserve?

I think if we're doing it solely for the latter two, we're doing something wrong.

Cory, I do see your point but from what I've seen so far, every show that has done music that are popular songs, they have lame parts.  Until I can be certain that the parts I would get in a show would be just as hard if not harder than the type of music I would get in a piece such as Scheherazade for example, I will not be for it.  I am not just saying I don't want a show with a popular tune just because it'd be lame, as you saw I thoroughly enjoyed Carolina Crown's performance this past season and they had "Somewhere over the Rainbow" as part of their show.  Or I also really enjoy the Cavaliers 2004 show which is all music made popular from the James Bond films.  But, these two groups had challenging parts to go into them.  At a high school level I have not seen drum corps or close level parts in a show where we would be performing the music of Jimmy Hendrix for example.

Mr. Mac, if you can guarantee good and challenging parts, then I will more than likely be for whatever choice you make.  But if the hardest thing I get is a small little party that is only hard because of weird sticking, I'm sorry, I will not be for your choice.  Now if you really want a Jimmy Hendrix or Frank Zappa or Zepplin or whomever show, then I will want some crazy hard parts.  I want to grow as a musician, and not have parts similar to what Chelsea said some of the parts were like her freshman year.

I'm not trying to be a pain in the butt, but I do want for myself and for the whole band to grow with harder and more challenging parts than the year before.  I improved a great deal from last year to this year, and I just want that same level of growth once again.  I hope that isn't too hard to understand.

Cory, I do see your point but from what I've seen so far, every show that has done music that are popular songs, they have lame parts.  Until I can be certain that the parts I would get in a show would be just as hard if not harder than the type of music I would get in a piece such as Scheherazade for example, I will not be for it.  I am not just saying I don't want a show with a popular tune just because it'd be lame, as you saw I thoroughly enjoyed Carolina Crown's performance this past season and they had "Somewhere over the Rainbow" as part of their show.  Or I also really enjoy the Cavaliers 2004 show which is all music made popular from the James Bond films.  But, these two groups had challenging parts to go into them.  At a high school level I have not seen drum corps or close level parts in a show where we would be performing the music of Jimmy Hendrix for example.

Mr. Mac, if you can guarantee good and challenging parts, then I will more than likely be for whatever choice you make.  But if the hardest thing I get is a small little party that is only hard because of weird sticking, I'm sorry, I will not be for your choice.  Now if you really want a Jimmy Hendrix or Frank Zappa or Zepplin or whomever show, then I will want some crazy hard parts.  I want to grow as a musician, and not have parts similar to what Chelsea said some of the parts were like her freshman year.

I'm not trying to be a pain in the butt, but I do want for myself and for the whole band to grow with harder and more challenging parts than the year before.  I improved a great deal from last year to this year, and I just want that same level of growth once again.  I hope that isn't too hard to understand.

Cameron, although I agree with you that Carolina Crown's show and the 2004 Cavaliers 007 show were both examples of shows that had challenging parts and popular music, what it really comes down to is execution. It seems to me that Annapolis Area and Huntington's show from this year were in many respects musically simpler than our show. I believe that the main reason that these schools always do so well is because they pick shows that they know they can execute well. The same goes for Drum Corps that choose popular music. They know that they have the talent to execute these shows, and while it isn't always about winning or losing, noting impresses the judges and the crowd more than a perfectly executed show.

Also, having challenging parts can sometimes lead to our downfall as it did many times during our show this year. Good examples of this would be, the drum feature in mvt. 3, the flute/clarinet solo in mvt. 1  the part immediately following that, and the solos that opened the whole show. All of these parts were challenging for one reason or another and while most of the time they sounded good, the judges and our instructors were always able to find something that could be improved on. The result of this was that the parts never sounded the same twice. If these parts were slightly simpler, they would've sounded more consistent, and more polished, causing our scores to go up.

I'm not saying we should never have challenging parts, nor am I saying that we should always take the easy route. In my opinion we need to have a show that has some challenging parts and, has a popular tune that the audience and judges can follow along to. If we do that then our execution will become better, our scores will go up, and hopefully both the crowd and the press box will happy.   

hey, since no one has posted anything in a while, why doesn't somebody bring up something else they want to talk about. I don't really have anything but whatever anyone wants to talk about is fine with me.

Mr. Mac, do you have an idea for next year's show?

Well, I have been looking at some themes and I found a few decent show ideas.

Here are my three favorite:

Western Theme:

The Wild Wild West

William Tell Overture

Silverado

Motown/R and B:

Let's Groove

Hit The Road Jack

Jungle Boogie

Isn't She Lovely

Respect

Nautical Show:

Pirates of the Caribbean

The Love Boat

Spongebob Squarepants

Rubber Duckie

How about them apples?