Respect the Game Respect is a beautiful thing, isn't it? Having the admiration of your peers, friends, and family is something that the great majority of us hold in high esteem. It's always good to know that the person beside you will see you're accomplishments and respect them, whether they like you or not. The same is true in our little piece of the world we call Marching Band. As a bandsmen or an adjudicator, there's no higher praise than earning respect from friend and foe alike through one's work. When you come off the field after putting together a fundamentally sound and flawless performance and the crowd shows it's love, that's respect talking. When you can whip out that piece of music in the stands or in a 5th and leave people talking about it for weeks, months, or even years, that's respect. When you get kudos from a heated rival for putting together the consummate performance, that's respect. All of us bandsmen can appreciate that feeling because that's what makes our little piece of the "Black College Experience" worthwhile. It also makes it an issue when folks dismiss what you do as not being up to snuff... The separation between PWC and HBCU programs has been an extremely visible one for quite some time. I've been refreshed to that glaring fact in looking at some of the threads that have been initiated here on the 5th in the last couple of months, as well as other college band pages and forums across the World Wide Web. There are a substantial number of minds out there that see our brand of halftime entertainment as "inferior", sub-standard, or non-musical. Then there are those sources that are extremely supportive and enthusiastic about many of the concepts that HBCU programs use to enhance halftime. The well-knowing band enthusiast would love to see a Florida A&M and a Michigan meet on the same field, or a Southern University and a Southern California go piece for piece in the stands. It's really a shame that there are minds out there that are still really closed to the fact that what we do collectively is an art form, regardless if it's done by a HBCU or a PWC. It shouldn't matter if the band plays top 40 or is Corps through and through. What should matter is that the product on the field and in the stands is up to standards. After all, that's what all of us are supposed to be there for, isn't it??? Both sides of this coin has folks that can stand improvement. There are a lot of programs out there on both sides of the fence that are just going through the motions. When I hear students from a particular program about how this school sucks because they don't follow the book they do, It makes me wonder about the adjudicator that's charged with teaching these young folk in the first place. Nobody will really ever agree on what concept is the best concept to teach, just like you're mom couldn't pass off liver as something that tasted good to you as a kid. What we can agree on is that it takes a tremendous amount of dedication and talent to become a part of a top-flight band program, HBCU or otherwise. Also, it takes that type of effort and innovation for the instructors to make that leap to an elite program. Most of all, it takes an open mind for all parties involved to see that halftime isn't about pretty formations. It isn't about who dances the most or who plays top 40 material as opposed to Concerto in C Minor. It's not about which band dances too much. It's about giving the fans what they deserve, a good show. People shouldn't throw rocks if they live in a glass house. Marching bands and their members shouldn't be using the "inferior" moniker if they can't satisfy their own fans. It's a novel idea, isn't it? I'm Crazylegs, and I've said my piece. |
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Good grief... This is more than a marching band problem. You can remove "marching band" and replace it with anything else like school, jobs, clothing, cars, church, theater, various genres of music etc. You will get the same discussion. Why entertain the idea that something is "inferior" just because it came from a hater or a white mouth?
There's a common element that remains and WE tend to dance around it. I see black bands out doing corps - FOR WHAT? What exactly are you proving? The white bands aren't doing what you're doing. But you're buying into the very idea that you are inferior by trying to prove what a white band can do - that's silly. And you damn sure aren't closing any racial divides.
Step out and be yourself.