Each time I begin to work with a new client, one of the questions I always ask is "Are we creating this show to be crowd-friendly or to win contests?" The answer is always "both." Everyone wants their marching band show to be loved by their home football crowd, but also win contests. [...]
Tim Hinton Drum Corps Review 2010 A lament on the state of drum corps in 2010. I am sad that we live in such a “short attention span†society. No one has time to listen to an hour long symphony and hear it develop and grow over time. Who has time to read an 800 [...]
If you're a fan of HGTV and its home decorating shows, then you know that all episodes end with "The Big Reveal."Â The new space is unveiled in all its new glory, and often tears and multiple cries of "Oh My GOD" fill the air. In the world of marching band, we have our own [...]
If you do nothing else in your business dealings, you MUST communicate with those you are working with. I recently suffered through an episode where a client simply stopped being in touch....no email replies, no phone call answers, nothing. I still, to this day, have no idea why this happened, but it caused more headaches [...]
There have been a number of times in my life when I have made a judgment about something and then later found that I completely changed my mind. This is not an unprecedented occurrence, of course, but it has made a real impression when the judgment was about something musical and important to me. I [...]
It's always easy to tell if the performers on the field like their show. It seems to be in every cell of their bodies, in their very breath, and certainly in their energy level. If a group of kids hates their show, we are all sure to hate it too. But conversely, I have loved [...]
George Zingali was one of the true geniuses of the visual design world. He many times over revolutionized the look of marching band, drum corps, and winter guard. I have had the privilege of "encountering" George three times in my life. This is the story of the second time. George wrote the drill for the [...]
The Olympic Games are full of drama and great stories. It’s thrilling to watch a well trained athlete perform at his best and achieve amazing success. But we also watch as others succumb to the pressure or lose battles with their nerves. Performing on a world stage with one opportunity to display the results of [...]
Sometimes when we are deciding on show music, an idea is presented that we have all seen or heard before. This can give one pause, as you could possibly end up competing with the original version that is the judges' or viewers' heads.  If a director wants to play music from "West Side Story," we've [...]
I can still vividly remember the day that my high school band director changed my life. I can remember where I was standing in the band room. I remember which friends were near me. All David Coles did was pull out a dusty LP and put it on the old stereo in the band room. [...]