Adjusting Plans Because of the COVID-19 Pandemic Part 2 (Planning for the Fall Season)
There is just a lot of uncertainty right now. Schools are closed. There is a lot of talk/speculation about when students will again roam the halls of learning and just how that will look. Will schools be able to make adjustments to accommodate social distancing? Will there be sports in the fall if schools are open? If there is no football, will there be marching band? Even with all of these questions, one thing that is certain is things will look very different from the normal and at the very least, marching bands will get a late start in preparation.
Flexibility seems to be the most important attribute for any marching band director in 2020.
Flexibility just to make it through everyday operation. The landscape has been such a moving target of late. Although things seem to have settled down to the point that we aren’t getting brand new CDC guidelines every time we turn on the TV or radio, we’re still reeling a little from how we go about day to day tasks given current conditions.
Flexibility when dealing with distance learning. Our students are reeling too. We have to keep that in mind. We all will deal with this situation differently. There will be sense of loss for some as they will “mourn” not having closure to the school year and being separated from friends and yes, even teachers. Some students will likely suffer from not being in a physical school and having to be self-guided in their studies/practice. Other students will flourish in this “new normal”. As directors, we will have to be attuned and flexible.
Flexibility in regards to recruiting. Contact time will likely be diminished. The use of virtual classrooms and other internet based platforms will be paramount. The ensemble’s personnel will likely be much different from years past. It may be smaller and the experience level/proficiency may not be what we’re used to. It may also be more of a challenge to identify which students will be involved in the marching band so getting those numbers set for visual design will be fun….
Flexibility in planning for the fall season. Really the only thing we can count on right now is that this WILL NOT be a typical season. Planning for different scenarios will be very important. Will there be any marching band sessions during the summer leading up to band camp? Will there be a band camp? Will band be scheduled during the school day the way it usually is? What impact will COVID-19 have on fundraising? Where will our students be in regards to conditioning physically? Musically?
Having been part of a recent zoom meeting with a high school marching band faculty/staff, I can attest to all these questions being a large part of the discussion. I was also an observer of an excellent webinar where the same questions were raised. Here are some thoughts/advice.
When planning your show for next fall, I would suggest saving your best idea for another year. If you have a show you’ve been considering and it is expensive to realize, intricate, or otherwise challenging, I’d pass. A late start to the school year or some other loss of instruction time could really hamper preparation. Maybe use music you already have in the library or something you can order. This will save money on permission to arrange and any arranger’s fees. Plus, you can have the music earlier and make it available to your students who can begin practicing on their own (as long as they have access to an instrument). The more familiar the members are with the music when you do get to see them, the more efficient your rehearsal time will be.
Keep the difficulty level of all material more manageable than usual. Something easier can still be effective and fun. This goes for visual (including color guard) as well as music. How many times have any of us seen bands who just try to do too much with the time/experience level they have available? This will be even more magnified this fall. Keep a close eye on the length of the music in the show and simultaneously keep the set count down. If your band typically plays grade 4 music, this year would be a good time to go the grade 3 route. This is NOT going to be anywhere close to business as usual. Keeping time maintenance on the field easier will also save time. Maybe think 2 or 3 times about how your battery is staged. Keeping them centrally located with the winds will be even more important this season. Also keep an eye on how many times location of strong pulse or responsibility for pulse is moved around the field (front to back, side to side) these are areas that take extra time to master that may not be available in 2020.
Look for more opportunities to highlight your strongest performers. Whether the strength is musical or visual performance, consider how much you are asking of the entire group and then look for ways to “kick things up a notch” for your strongest performers at key moments to heighten effect. This is something that should happen every year……But even more so in 2020.
Utilize instructional videos and music tracks. If you haven’t already been tapping into this type of instruction, it’s time to begin. Share the tracks with your students and then have assignments where they respond with their best take of a musical excerpt or body movement. Marching/Color Guard Fundamentals can also be done this way. They will get lots of reps when preparing their submissions. These can be reviewed by you and your staff before providing feedback to the students. The BIG challenge musically will be in the area of drumline since most groups probably didn’t set their lines before the COVID-19 Shutdown began. My personal philosophy is that the drumline has to be ahead of the winds in their preparation of music. This will likely be backwards for many schools without doing some online auditions/assignments. Don’t forget to utilize your student leadership. They can help generate some of the materials you need. Who’s the best marcher you have? Use them as a model. Apply this same model concept to other areas (wind playing, percussion playing, color guard). There are also lots of good resources on YouTube. Put together a playlist for sections.
In #2 above I mentioned keeping the set count down. If things are programmed and organized enough on the front end, you can have lots of counts taught before ever having the ensemble together in rehearsal. Keep the set count down and utilize body choreography more. Have specific movements taught (they can be short 4-8 count sequences) through video instruction sharing where they belong in the music book. When the ensemble is together learning the drill on the field, you can refer to the movements and place them into the context of the visual design. The instruction is finished and now you’re moving into the defining/refining phase for those sets of counts. It’s really easy to put together 16-32 counts of choreo while only learning 4-8 count of actual movement. Use the movement by repeating around the ensemble in a sequence rather than everyone doing the movement at the same time. 8X4=32.
Choices about props and color guard equipment may have to be different this season. How many sets of flags do you already have in the guard closet? Do we REALLY need a flag we only use for 60 seconds of our 6 minute show? Is there a way we can stage this concept without large props? Fundraising and in some cases funding will be affected.
I’m certainly not claiming to have all of the answers, but I hope that I was at least able to get some thoughts going. At this point, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we will get to have some type of marching season in the fall. I’m not very hopeful that it will look like it usually does. Best of luck to all! Love to hear your thoughts. Please share a comment/question below. —DB