Leadership Workshop

So, one of my contributions to the resurrection of the Archbishop Ryan Marching Band has been a Leadership Workshop series that I've led now for the past two years. I firmly believe that for a band to gain success and maintain it over the long term, you must invest in student leadership.

Personally, I can't stand the George Parks Drum Major Academy. I attended it as a student and got very little out of it. Sure, it's fine for the typical band geek drum major who needs to be a cheerleader for their band...but it didn't teach me how to be a good drum major for MY band. If I wanted to learn how to toss a mace or conduct like a robot or win a march off (biggest waste of time ever) or get turned down when I asked girls out...then the DMA would have been perfect. I, however, conducted with a baton. I wanted to learn to be a good and effective leader. I wanted to be treated like the ambitious young man that I was....not a kid on some sort of summer band camp trip.

I absolutely didn't want the kids from Ryan to have to attend this, so I created my own thing. I figure that I've been a drum major for 10 years...1/3rd of my LIFE. I should know something about it.

...and so the Leadership Workshop was born. I truly feel that our investment in time and resources in order to build a stable, enthusiastic, and powerful leadership corps at Ryan has been the single biggest factor in our rise from the cellar to the (near) top of the competitive mountain in our circuit.

We wrapped up our workshop last night, and it was great to see the students' brains melting while trying to conduct. It's fun to watch them in small groups developing team-building exercises and solutions to discipline problems. I especially enjoyed watching them act like dogs and elephants in our little "acting exercise" to help them break out of their shells. Silly? Yep. But how can you be an effective leader without a sense of humor...especially about yourself?

There were video sessions, lectures, group work and discussion, command calling, saluting 101, conducting, etc. We require all students auditioning for any officer position to conduct in their audition. This includes color guard positions. It's fun to watch them start to understand what conducting is all about, and how it can help them on the field. I always wished that someone had explained it to me when I was a freshman.

"Okay, Chris...so there are 4 beats in a measure right? Right. Now, on odd number beats you'll be on your left foot, and on even number beats you'll be on your right foot. Got it? Good. Now, the drum major gives you all of that in his pattern: down, in, out, up. On down and out, you're on your left, on in and up you're on your right. Got it? Good."

Easy as pie. Now I have half the band understanding that concept, including color guard, and they'll help the younger members get it. I also want to make the point that I can get anyone to conduct....and conducting has NOTHING to do with what it takes to be a good drum major. Drum major auditions that require the candidate to stand in front of the band and conduct the Star Spangled Banner or anything like that is completely missing the point. Anyone can work hard enough to develop a readable, good, solid conducting pattern. We want good, moral leaders who possess the developed leadership qualities that not everyone has. We can help them with that, but I can't make them care enough or be selfless enough or learn how to roll with the punches and take the kind of abuse that a drum major takes over the course of the season. I can teach them ABOUT it and give them pointers on how to deal with all of the BS...but it takes a very special kind of person to stand up there and have the entire program rest on their shoulders.

Some schools don't need or want drum majors like that. Many schools put very little responsibility on the shoulders of their leaders. We're a little different, I guess. I expect the world from my leaders. I want them to feel the pressure of knowing that if they don't do their job, the entire band will suffer. Life is full of pressure like that, and that's an important lesson that is lost on many children today. They grow up so sheltered in many ways, and overexposed to things in other ways. Band is a great way to teach them important life lessons, how to deal with it, how to make moral decisions for the betterment of the group...not always for the individual. It's the ultimate team sport.

So...what we've been able to develop at Ryan is a generation of leaders who have taken it upon themselves to change the culture and climate of the organization from negative to positive. They have taken the group from 14th to 2nd in a year through will and action. We, the staff, have facilitated it...but without the action of our trained and motivated leadership taking OWNERSHIP of the band, we may not have a marching band any more.

They understand that, too...and it's becoming quite the honor to hold an officer position. The sense of entitlement that many students have is left at the door when they come to rehearsal. Here you have to earn everything...every point, every great moment in the show. They have exceeded our expectations, and we have rewarded them with an even harder show. The decision to perform Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and Firebird Suite was not made lightly...and would have never been made if we didn't have complete faith that the leaders in our band would take the massive responsibilities that a show like this requires of the performers, and run with it. We know that we will teach the show once...and they will then practice at home so we can rehearse it at school. If that happens, this will be a show for the ages, and something they will truly be proud of.

We could have given them an easy show that we know they would have competitive success with (i.e. last year's Italian Opera show). OR...we could challenge them and actually teach them how to play in multi-meters, strange key signatures, modal passages, rhythmic and violent movements. Yeah...I like the second option.

If you never challenge them, they will never succeed. I think high school students are amazing as far as their energy and ability to thing and process information. Most students are rarely challenged in class or anywhere else in their life. Our band is where they can come to be challenged...to feel a sense of ownership in the organization...to work with a team to accomplish some pretty amazing things. Hopefully they take these lessons with them when they leave.

Now...we're off into officer auditions for the next two weeks. This will be interesting and hard with so many good, qualified, and motivated candidates.