On Monday we took the Grove City College Marching Wolverine Band to one of the many festivals that we attend each year. This was not a festival that we have attended in the past. Typically, the band heads south from GCC and attends many of the bigger Pittsburgh area festivals and marching shows. On Monday, we headed east to the Allegheny-Clarion Valley school district.
It was great to arrive at Allegheny-Clarion High school and see the rural school setting. It’s nestled in a valley between and among the many hills of the area. The football field laid un-surrounded by fences, open and directly in front of the school. As a matter of fact there weren’t any bleachers. But, there were hundreds of people who brought their lawn chairs and sprawled out over every inch of the low rise hill on the home side of the field.
There were a number of high school bands at the festival that ranged in size from just over twenty to a little less than a hundred. They were smaller sized bands most likely due to the location and population of their school districts. They played their hearts out and did a fine job that night.
When our band played, “we brought the house down”. It was great to be appreciated that night by all that were involved and attending the show but, the thing that impressed me most was afterward, when we began to receive emails about our performance. These came not only from the host of the show but also from the people in attendance…the emails arrived that very night.
It was extremely encouraging to receive such an onslaught of emails. I’m not sure who or what caused this to happen, but we’ve never had such a “day after response” of feedback. This made me think a little bit more about how much great events like this are “taken for granted” and can be quickly forgotten and under-appreciated the moment they are finished…
When you stop to think about the magnitude of what must be accomplished to have a band festival -the logistics are staggering. By the time the host gets the facility scheduled and staffed on the day of the event, has the ticket and concession stand stocked and operating, deploys the traffic control measures, sets up the sound system, procures the seating assignments, prepares the award ceremonies, readies the restrooms and discovers the “nack” of being a meteorologist, they might have al little time to prepare their own band! This list doesn’t even account for the amount of prepartions that the attending directors and band members must make in order to even be at the event (think about the time it takes to simply coordinate and acquire the 20+ buses that will be converging at the event).
All of these things considered, the one item that must be taken into consideration regarding the success of the show and may be the one thing that can make or break it is…PUBLIC RELATIONS. This area may be the most overlooked and least understood particular of the entire process. All the many subtleties that come under the term “public relations” must be mastered by the host band director and at many different levels:
- the host director and their band
- the host director and their boosters/band parents
- the host director and their administration
- the host director and the guest bands
- the host director and the public
Each one of these areas must have attention in order for the festival (or any performance for that matter) to be a total success. Most band directors have a good grasp of the first three items on the list, many, the fourth, but the last item seems to evade a lot of the directors. If you want your program to be well attended and understood by your community, you have to spend time telling them why it’s important to attend and why your program is important to the community.
I know that seems simple, but it’s not. The last few posts at www.mustech.net have been about music advocacy and for good reason: If you are not the foremost advocate of your program and what your students are doing in your program then you can expect the exact same attitude toward your program from the public…stop…period…end of story. If you are not excited about your program (no matter how large or how small), your group will not be excited about their program and consequently no one will be excited about the program at all. It’s Reageanomics for performing ensembles…it “trickles down from the top”… I call it Pisanomics (not really!).
So the real question is: How do we get the community excited about the great things that are happening with our programs? I have some suggestions:
- BE YOUR BEST ADVOCATE: You must become excited about and believe in your program(s)…
- YOUR STUDENTS MUST BECOME THEIR BEST ADVOCATES: The students must become excited and believe in their program(s)
- ACQUIRE MORE ADVOCATES: You and your students must spread that excitement to everyone you/they personally know by telling them about your/their program and performances
- PERFORM A PRESS BLITZ: Invite the local media to everything. You must do more than a simple press release for the local paper…try to get a “write up”. Invite a reporter into your band room or have them do a special about some of your students. Invite the local cable company to broadcast your event on the local cable channel. Start a blog about your program and classes. Make sure there is a section in the school paper about the music dept. and invite the other teachers/coaches to your event(s).
Most band directors I know “hate” the idea of having to “jump through the hoops” regarding public relations. The problem is that just because they don’t like to “jump” -doesn’t mean they shouldn’t. It get’s easy after the first few go-arounds. - ADVOCATE MUSIC CONTINUALLY: Never stop talking about music, at home, with your friends, with your colleagues. Write a blurb about why music is important on the back of each program at every event and talk about it in conversation with your fellow teachers. Don’t lecture people though, nobody wants to come to a performance and be lectured…they want to experience music and have fun. Have fun at every one of your performances and in your classes.
- GET OUT OF THE BOX: Take the time to visit your colleagues in neighboring school districts and their performances; invite them to yours. Visit and discuss music with the other music teachers in your district, see how the deal with “block scheduling” and other potential problems that face many of us. Make the time to see what others are doing in the “bigger picture”. Going to music conferences can provide a great deal of encouragement and ideas. Don’t miss any opportunity because you are content with your program or too tired (everyone is, it’s not unique); strive to improve always.
- STOP THE NEGATIVE ATTITUDE: Nothing spreads as fast as negativity, except perhaps, positivity. Every time you go into a class or rehearsal with a negative attitude it will be transferred to your students and multiplied by the number of them.
- THANK EVERYBODY, PROVIDE FEEDBACK: If someone helped you out, no matter how small, let them know about it. Feedback is analagous to “comeback”. If you want people to continue to help and be a part of your program, you need to let them know that they impacted it, are appreciated or helped in someway… A concert performance without an audience is nothing more than a rehearsal. A band with only one member is a soloist.
Wow, this was a lot longer than the 3 paragraph blurb I was going to write! Please let us know what you do to promote your band, ensembles or classes, what works well with your public relations strategies. Join our “global conversation” by leaving a comment below! :)
Joe,
Enjoyed the article tremendously. After hosting my 12th band show earlier this month and already on the hook for PMEA District 5 in January of 2008, using the word “staggering” isn’t a possibility- it is pretty accurate. I am blessed to have an outstanding assistant director in Michelle Morris that helps me think through a lot of the stuff that goes into our festival. Although we have now worked together 4 years, we still took time to hash out every detail. Planning and preparation ahead of the game is a necessity.
I specifically started hosting a festival at Mercer for several reasons – to get my students to see and hear other groups, to rasie the expectations for our own program, and to announce to the community the importance of music. It has been strenous at times, but it has been an upward spiral. The students now are part of a tradition. They look forward to a night of performing and learning (as they watch other groups). For one night, the audience attention is far away from athletics – the performing arts are on display for our community. That in itself is a powerful message of the importance of music.
Getting good press for your events is tricky at times. Frequently one of the papers in my area tells me they do not wish to do a write up because it might slight the other bands in the area. I asked their editor one year if they would not report a student who had a weapon in school so the other local schools would not “feel slighted”. Needless to say, we have had someone present every year since then taking pictures for the paper. Be persistent in getting the message out! I even went so far as to request an on the air interview one year. If it is important to you professionally, share that importance with your community and begin to cultivate that understanding in the district you teach.
I try and meet every guest band and their director when they arrive at our show. I want them to feel welcome. I want them to enjoy this performance venue. Does it take time from you being with your group? Yes. But explaining the reasons why you may not be available helps to ease this burden. Your band staff grows as they are given new responsibilities (for one night) and it can improve the level of trust between them and the band.
I ask my high school principal to give the welcome each year. It is great night for the district as the host, and it gives him the opportunity to tell the community how wonderful our school district is and how proud he is of what we have accomplished (it is a morale boost).
Hosting a festival is a great experience socially, economically, musically, and logistically. It is an event that really forces you to look at the big picture, and raise the quality of your program. It is exciting to hear about your experience in Clarion with the college band. As I told the audience in my closing comments at my own show – and it sounds like this spirit came out of Clarion on Monday – “If you didn’t like something at this festival, please tell me. If you heard something right – TELL THE WORLD!” Great article Joe! Keep up the good work!
Travis,
Thanks for your comments..as always. I’m glad your joing the blogging world. I’m annoucing your site today on mustech.net!
Best wishes,
J. Pisano
Mr. Pisano,
First of all, you are so right about the Clarion Festival that we went to this year. We played great and having an audience like that to receive us made it even better. That night was a truly great and energizing experience for me. I agree with you about how important it is to get your band out there and how underappreciated festivals like this can be. My high school marching band didn’t do festivals but we always did two for Symphonic Band and I loved them. It was really good to get to hear other bands and see how they did things. I think it was also really good for all the different directors to get to do a little work together. After being in my fourth year of Grove City Marching Band, I especially appreciate the high school festivals we’ve gone too. As someone who would like to have their own marching band someday, they’re extremely informative, since most of the marching bands in my area were all very similar. These festivals are also just a lot of fun for the bands involved and the audience alike. This was a great article and I hope a lot of people feel the same way about getting their bands out there!
Mr. Pisano,
This article was excellent! I agree completely with the fact that band festivals, like Clarion, tend to be overlooked or dismissed too quickly with a sigh of relief that it is finally over.
However, to some students these festivals are the highlight of every year. For a small rural area, an annual band festival might be the only time an audience is there to cheer on the band. I remember going to similar county band festivals and TOB competitions and it was always exciting to hear nothing but the band when you performed.
Such performance opportunities are truly key in advocating your program. My own high school band has been growing and growing in numbers and sound since I graduated. Each year they get to perform at the county band festival and each year they get to showcase a bigger and better sounding group! Since my dad is the band director, I get to hear about his “slew” of emails and feedback. My high school band has successfully entered the public eye and it has only made the program and support of the program better than ever!
[…] time and in the end the “importance of getting out” and doing things was noted by all (see this article by me). It was all very “magical” and the kids are now “re-energized” with […]
Dr. Pisano,
I agree that it is very important to give the public relations aspect of music events some heavy consideration. After all, you can prepare all you want by means of rehearsing until you’re “blue in the face” so to speak, but if the public is unaware of what is coming, then all of that practicing is almost for nothing because you will probably be performing to a scene of cold metal bleachers!
I like how you pointed out the fact that if you’re not excited about it, then you can stop right there because no one else is going to be excited about it either. I think one of the biggest factors can be attitude. If you are having a good time and are telling people about your musical events with a smile and positive attitude, then they will be more likely to spread the word and help promote a better turn out.
I’m not going to lie, I still do think that rehearsing obviously bears more weight and should take some precendence, but if PR is completely left out of the picture, then there is going to be a big problem!