Top of the show! We’re nearing the end of the WGI season. And whether you’re into drum corps, marching band, color guard, or drumline, a full run of the show at the end of rehearsal is the capstone of the day. It’s where the members and staff get to see the work they put in, reflected back in a complete run of the program.
Is there something you can do at home, to keep things fresh in-between rehearsals? Practicing your parts is mandatory, but a lot of what we do is simply mental. Remembering counts, where you’re going, relationships to others on the field or floor, movements and how they line up with the music.
There’s a different type of homework you can do using your mind. You don’t need to get your horn out of the case or find room to spin. It’s called a mental run-through and it can be useful for days off or even as prep as you’re riding the bus to a contest.
I haven’t found much written about the mental run-throughs, so I’ll give two examples of how I like to do them:
Real-Time Run-Through
This one is easy and only takes 5-10 minutes, depending on how long your show is. Find a recording of your show, hopefully the most recent one. If you’re doing winter guard, use your copy of the soundtrack. If the recording is a video, that’s fine, but don’t watch the video. Instead, close your eyes, listen to the audio, and use your minds eye to put yourself on the field or floor in your spot.
Follow through your entire show in realtime. Imagine yourself moving through your drill, playing the notes, and doing the work. Picture the relationships to others around you as the drill changes.
Bookmark anything that is unclear so you can review it later with your equipment. If there’s anything that felt too-fast, you might want to try a different approach…
Mind-Time Run-Through
Mind-time run-throughs don’t require anything but yourself. You don’t need a recording, just the memory of it. Work through your show from top to bottom. You don’t have to go at show tempo! You can slow things down and work through the count structures and checkpoints.
If you know where your dots are, say them to yourself as you pass those sets in your mind. But also make sure you are imagining those around you and your relationships to them. Know your dot… but also know if you’re covered down, have good intervals, are part of a smooth arc, are in the diagonal, etc.
Using mind-time you can slow or even pause and rewind if needed, but don’t overdo it! The point is to make it all the way through the show in one go. Again, mentally bookmark the things that are unclear so you can check with your dot book, your equipment, your captain, or your instructor at the next opportunity.
Results
The goal of a mental run-through is to keep things fresh in your mind, even if you won’t rehearse again for a week or two. We all need time off for rest and relaxation, but we should keep our current season programs at top-of-mind until the final show. Everyone has put in so much time, taking a step backwards is not an option.
Is there any other mental run-through advice that I didn’t mention? Let everyone know in the comments!
Before we get into Mixer Hell I want to talk about what is currently consuming my life: MBI Winds. It’s a brand new WGI Winds ensemble put on by Minnesota Brass – sort of like an indoor marching band, but just the horn line. Our first contest is in one month and we still have open positions for flute, clarinet, saxophone, baritone & tuba. Here’s more about our 2023 program and how to join: https://mnbrass.org/2022/11/2023-winds-show-announcement/
For this new ensemble we have audio equipment (computer, mixer, powered speakers) that are used for our backing track – non-winds sounds and percussion. Since this is a new ensemble with a limited budget, I took the approach to beg & borrow as much equipment as possible.
I started with a Behringer X-32 console mixer from my old high school care of the Irondale Marching Knights. Put frankly, this mixer is huge. It was going to require a cart, and with only a 5’x9′ trailer I quickly realized that we wouldn’t be able to fit a huge sound cart and the floor tarp and the speakers.
While I like the X-32, it will likely be for sale in the near future…
Mixer 2
I had another cart option, a portable injection-molded SKB rack – free of charge from the Blaine HS Marching Band. This one would definitely be a better fit in the trailer, and MBI Indoor Percussion had an old rack-mount mixer they were trying to sell earlier in the year.
It was a Presonus StudioLive RML32AI and at first glance, it could do everything we needed: rack mount, computer audio interface, network control, and at least 8 channels.
My only complaint to start was I couldn’t install the mixer control app on my 3rd generation iPad with iOS 10. The mixer we used at River Valley Sound was a SoundCraft Ui16 which has a built-in web interface instead of an app. You could control that mixer with literally any device that had a web browser, old or new. On my old iPad it worked like a charm.
We were able to use the Presonus mixer for the month of December at rehearsals. But I had to borrow my wife’s (and sometimes kid’s) iPad which could run the control app.
Problem 1
While using it, we encountered one avoidable, but annoying problem. At one rehearsal it wouldn’t send anything on the main left/right outputs. I could plug a speaker into the mono/center out and it would work. So for one Friday evening we just used one speaker. I went home, searched and came upon this thread: https://forums.presonus.com/viewtopic.php?f=222&t=31779&sid=18e60e7bc8de7f7d56493cd5677e5e3d
TL;DR? There’s a bug where the main out is muted but not indicated anywhere in the app.
This problem happens when you save the scene with the “mute all” button pressed.
I don’t remember saving a scene, but I for sure used the “mute all” button frequently during equipment setup and teardown.
I found a solution for this, doing this:
Mute the Mono Out, then, in the mute groups screen, save this mute scene in any of the spaces. Press the Mute group button that you just saved the mute scene to. It will toggle the Mute for the Mono Out and the Main Out together.
Please Presonus, fix this bug !!!!
This was for-sure my problem because I tried the fix Saturday morning and was back in business.
Problem 2
The second problem was unavoidable in our circumstance. The computer audio interface on the Presonus StudioLive RML32AI uses firewire. That’s fine, I’m familiar with FireWire. It’s a little old school, but should work. Our sound system computer is an “Apple Silicone” (M1) Macintosh. At first I thought all I needed was a USB-C to Thunderbolt-2 adapter and a Thunderbolt-2 to FireWire adapter. $100 in adapters later, I still couldn’t get the mixer to be recognized as an audio interface on the computer. The Presonus FireWire drivers were consistently listed under Disabled Software in the mac’s System Report.
Presonus support confirmed that they have no plans to support FireWire drivers on M1 and newer Macintosh computers. Maybe performance was lacking? Because it’s certainly still possible to connect other firewire devices to Apple Silicon macs:
The only way to use Presonus hardware with a firewire audio interface is with an Intel-based Mac, or a Windows computer 😖
Mixer 3
It was clear we needed another option. There was something about the X-32 that I really liked: cross-platform support. They have mixer control programs for just about everything: Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android. The fact that I could use my Ubuntu system to potentially run the mixer makes my heart sing! 😍
So we landed on a Behringer X-32 Rack. All of the features of the console mixer, but in a rack-mount package. Double-bonus that some of our staff have previously used Behringer equipment and are familiar with the mixing software.
…and marching band, WGI, etc. Props for any sort of marching arts are only as good as the best “band dad” in your group. Some band dads are great engineers, but staying in budget is always the trick. Aside: that term was not (properly) defined in Urban Dictionary, so I added a definition 😎
When it comes to props, the name of the game is cheap since they’re only used for a season. But they need to last a whole season, and work consistently. Sometimes you need to solve a problem which doesn’t have an off-the-shelf solution. When structural strength is not a concern, 3D printing can help.
Our trumpet soloist also has a 3D printer, so I dropped the spool off at his house and he was able to print all of them up. The cork was cut from a large sheet. It had sticky backing, but he made sure it would stay permanently with cyanoacrylate (CA) glue a.k.a. super glue.
At first I thought he paused the printer and switched from orange to white filaments to get the stripe look. Nope, it’s just white electrical tape – you’d never know from 10 yards away.
If you want to print straight mutes that are show themed, you can find the STL files here. I tried getting the cork from a local music shop without luck, so we bought some from Amazon.
Flag Clips
Another prop we had was a Route 66 street sign made from 1.5″ inside diameter (ID) PVC. The goal was to be able to clip a flag to the sign post so they can be moved around together without issue. Here’s the first version to give you an idea:
Version 1 barely survived one show, but that’s OK. The trial and error revealed where additional material need to be added for strength.
From feedback from the guard I learned the flag clip part could be a little bigger to accommodate the flag silk. Version 2 had a double-detent design to help prevent the flag from falling out on it’s own.
The clips slip over the PVC and it has enough room for pole tape (we used chrome Duck Tape). To hold them in place we just added a strip of duct tape on the opposite side of the clip. Here you can see the sign in the background. There are two small bulges on the bottom half of the post where the clips are fastened.
Both Shannon, our trumpet soloist, and myself have Creality Ender-based 3D printers. They’re not expensive, and you may already have someone in your group with access to one. They’re less than $500 and band nerds like to nerd out in other ways too. Ask around and use this new technology to your advantage, it wasn’t mainstream before but now it is. 📈
This is for those of you involved with any competitive pageantry out there, whether it’s for WGI, DCI, BOA, or your summer parade marching band. It’s mostly for the members, specifically high school kids because I think most instructors out there know the gig.
The need to write about this is because of something I observed… Because we frequently share judges recordings that we like with the membership.
A different perspective
It’s good to get feedback from a 3rd party. It can also be frustrating as an instructor when you’ve been saying these things all along. But I get it – it goes along with the adage that kids don’t like to listen to their parents.
I imagine this is why clinicians are popular. They can come in and say the exact same thing as your day-to-day instructors. But they’re able squeeze just a little more juice from the ensemble because they’re an outsider.
Getting that outside perspective is good. They may be able to put it into words or terms that make it easier for members to relate to. They may also identify ideas or issues the staff or members weren’t fully aware of.
The Tapes
Tapes are a misnomer – judges haven’t used cassette tapes in years. They’re digital recordings that are much easier to share. But I’m old school and may refer to them as tapes.
During the performance
While listening to a judges recording, re-live that particular performance in real-time with the judge. This is when you can feel the judges reaction as the performance unfolds. Did a moment not come together cleanly? Maybe there was a build-up that didn’t resolve as well as it should. You may already realize that something was or wasn’t great before a judge calls it out.
When judges are doing a running commentary during the show, it can be difficult to comment on all the things observed in real-time. Judges keep notes, either on a notepad or in their head.
After the performance
They’ll put the “meat” of their observations at the end of the program – when the group is clearing the floor or field. It’s almost impossible to give a full real-time commentary during the program, especially if it’s a first read (first time viewing).
Think of it like watching a movie. When it’s over – that’s when you talk to your friends and discuss the content. Maybe there was something you didn’t understand. Like a movie, sometimes judges might not get it if there are design elements or performers missing that day – especially early season.
Whatever the case is, you’re likely to find the great commentary at the end. The judges are reviewing their mental or written notes and looking at the big picture.
Far too often as the performers listen to these tapes, they start talking among themselves as soon as the performance is done because their part is over. Have patience and listen to what the movie reviewer has to say after they’ve been able to soak it all in.
Buzzword Bingo
Just for funzies, you might play buzzword bingo with a judges’ recording.
Sonority (quality of sound, distinctness)
Tessitura (range or register)
Negative space (using the whole field or floor)
Vertical alignment (if not talking about a visual element, likely referring to playing together in time)
While it can be fun to play this game, I always give credit to the judges. They have a hard job. They have to rank and score many ensembles in a consistent way.
Hopefully a newcomer reading this will find it useful to fully consume judges feedback in order to best make use of it. Good luck out there!
March 11th, 2020 to me, felt a lot September 11th. Thousands of people didn’t die in one fell swoop, but it was when Coronavirus shifted from concern to cancellation. What once seemed far away was at our doorstep. A grim reaper coming that would rack up a worldwide death toll two orders of magnitude greater than September 11th.
As trivial as it sounds, WGI was cancelled on March 11th. With units traveling to Ohio from several countries (including Japan) and all over the US, it made sense to cancel it. Should we all be sitting in close quarters in a poorly ventilated arena? Probably not. Sites like is it canceled yet? had been tracking canceled events, and this was just another notch on the bedpost.
Maybe I could still enjoy some local live music? I had tickets for the orchestra that Friday, March 13th. It was to be canceled too, but not entirely. The orchestra would play – without a hall audience, and they would broadcast it on Minnesota Public Radio. The repertoire? Shostakovich’s 7th – The Leningrad Symphony.
Music is one of those things that gives people hope that there will be better days, no matter how bad things get. Shostakovich’s 7th was no stranger to tough times, having been both composed and premiered under dire circumstances.
Connection to Drum Corps
My love of classical music was reinforced through my 4 years marching in the Phantom Regiment Drum & Bugle Corps. I loved playing music that was new (to me), then researching a composer’s other works. I relished finding great recordings, which would further fuel my curiosity.
The obvious connection from Shostakovich’s 7th to my corps, is their 2002 program entitled Heroic Sketches – but long before that program ever took the field, I heard a piece that begged to be performed by a strong hornline. One that wound up being a cornerstone of 2002 show…
Back in the day…
The 1996 Phantom Regiment show Defiant Heart opened with a different piece by Shostakovich called the 4th Ballet Suite. As always, I would find recordings of the music we were playing to hear the original, and to hopefully hear something new.
I bought a recording of the Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Neeme Jarvi on the Chandos Label. It also included Symphony No. 10 – boy was I in for a surprise. I had never heard that Symphony, let alone the second movement Allegro, and it is a thrilling performance.
One of my favorite things about classical compact disc recordings (if they’re included) is the liner notes. Sometimes they have a history of the composer and the piece, and I would often use that as a basis for more research, or just to simply help paint a picture of what the music was about. From this CD the liner notes read:
The second part, the scherzo, is a musical portrait of Stalin
And here is the Phantom Regiment hornline playing an excerpt during their finals warm-up in 2002:
Simply amazing.
Symphony No. 7
That same 2002 program closes out with Shostakovich’s 7th. While researching that piece in 2020 during quarantine, I came across this recording which is stupendous.
I don’t have the CD liner notes to reference, but the comments on the YouTube video are worth reading. This one is my favorite of the bunch. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I choose to believe it is.
The story goes, Leonard Bernstein was in failing health and he knew he was never going to stand in front of the Chicago Symphony ever again. Apparently there has been a long standing tradition of never encouraging the brass section of the CSO; not even looking at them or else they’ll blow you off the stage. During the end of this concert, and being a helpless romantic himself, good ol’ Lenny not only looked at the Chicago Brass, but he asked for everything they had. And the rest is history!
