It’s that time of year! The school year is wrapping up, spring concerts are in the books and the only thing standing between band directors and a much needed summer break is picking the show music for the upcoming fall marching band season. We work with lots of schools every year in many capacities. Something that is unique to us is that we have a “schedule a call” option on our website, where anyone can schedule a free consultation with our creative team to talk through show design options. This means that this year alone, we’ve literally talked with hundreds of band directors about music options for their marching band shows.
To help you find the best music for your program, we thought we’d share these common mistakes that we see directors make when deciding on their music for their upcoming season:
1.) Selecting music that is too expensive to license
We’ve seen it a million times in our consultations. A school comes to us with a fantastic show concept and a really cool list of source music. As they are telling us all about it, one of us is simultaneously checking Tresona and ClickNClear to see how much it costs to license the music. They finish presenting their idea and then comes the dreaded bomb that we as a team have to drop; their show is going to cost over $4,000 to license. We’ll do another post about music licensing soon, but here’s what you need to know. Licensing music for the marching arts has gotten REALLY expensive. If you’re lucky, your source music might pop up on Tresona for $180. The most common price range is around $420. And now, we’re seeing more music cost upwards of $700-$800 (especially for concert works like John Mackey and Samuel Hazo). Here is a hard truth we want to tell you: spending $800 on a license to play a concert work, is generally not the best use of your program’s money. Now don’t get us wrong, we’ll write that music for you. At the end of the day, you are the director and it’s your program. But we do encourage to think this through. How many instruments can $800 repair? How many method books does that get you? Could that $800 be used to scholarship some students for private lessons? The point is, there are other cheaper options for your source music.
Here is the big takeaway. When you are programming for your fall marching band season, by all means have that blue sky meeting where there are no bad ideas and everything is an option. When that meeting concludes, before you get attached to a certain piece of source music, pull up Tresona or ClickNClear and find out how much it’s going to cost to license that source music. It might break your heart a little, but it’s much better to find this out earlier in the design process than later on when you’ve already built the show around that piece of music. And for those of you who are wondering what the other options are that were mentioned above, let's talk about those for a moment. First and foremost, have a conversation with your arranger and/or program coordinator. It is completely appropriate to say the following sentence to your arranger and/or your program coordinator; “We really like *insert piece name here*, but the licensing costs are too expensive. Do you have any other suggestions?” First and foremost it should be said that if your arranger/program coordinator’s response is “No”, then it’s time to find a new arranger and/or program coordinator! Your arranger/program coordinator should be able to help you understand why you like that particular piece of music so much. Is it a certain mood? Is it a style? The harmonic choices? Is the piece based on a certain scale that you like the sound of? If you dig long enough you’ll be able to analyze and figure out why you like that piece of music so much and then, you will be able to start looking for other options. It is important to do this analysis on a macro level though. You have to zoom out, and think big picture. For example, maybe you come to the conclusion; “I like this piece because it uses minimalism”. Now you can go to google and start researching other minimalist pieces. Try looking for other options that are similar to this piece first. You might find something that serves the exact same function, at a fraction of the price.
Now before I make this last point, I want to note that plagiarism is NEVER okay. It is not appropriate to ask your arranger to steal another composer’s work and slap their name on it. What is appropriate (both ethically and legally) is for you to send your arranger a piece of music that you like, and ask if they can compose an original movement of music in that same style. In the film industry, these are called temp tracks (see link for more information). Please understand that not all arrangers will be comfortable with or capable of this type of work. But for those who are, it is a great way to achieve similar results, at a fraction of the cost.
2.) Selecting music that is too difficult for your ensemble (over-programming)
We get it. Your wind ensemble can play grade 5-6 literature. Your concert program is renowned and those kids can play their socks off at festivals in the winter. We love seeing well-rounded programs like this! Here’s the problem; that success in the concert realm, doesn’t translate to the football field the way you think it does. Remember, your marching band is a combination of 3-4 grades of students. It’s not just your wind ensemble out there, it’s also your beginning band and at some schools, there are even 8th graders on the field.
With that in mind, our advice to directors is to program music at the level of your best sophomore student (assuming your high school is a 4 year school). This puts the demand of the music right in that average level for the collective ability range of your students. It will allow your more advanced to hit the music out of the park and it will provide a nice challenge for your younger students who are still developing. But when choosing the difficulty level of your music when in doubt, undershoot!
If scoring well at competitions is a priority, it’s very rare that bands win by playing harder music than everyone else. Yes, this happens at the DCI level and in some cases BOA and UIL. But for most competitive scenes, success is accomplished by achieving the provided content well (regardless of difficulty level) and providing a clear and effective presentation to the audiences and judges. This whole idea leads perfectly into the next point…
3.) Forgetting about the visual side of the activity
Continuing from the previous topic, you have to remember that marching band is not just music. It’s literally in the name of our activity; “MARCHING band”. We are asking our kids to not only play music but also move around the field in the form of drill and choreography. The visual side of our activity has gotten even more rigorous in just the last 5-10 years! In our experience, we have seen so many directors select music that is a great match for their kids when they stand still and play. But when they add put the kids out on the field in a different listening environment and add drill and choreography, suddenly, it all falls apart and quality goes out the door. With regards to your music difficulty level, as said in the previous section; when in doubt, undershoot.
Here’s a bold statement that you probably wouldn’t expect from a music arranger; I’ve seen bad music design with good visual design win first place. I’ve never seen good music design with bad visual design win first place. Now again, that sentence is more relevant if you care about the competitive side of this activity. But the point is; stop blowing off the visual side of our activity! 99/100 times, if a director comes to us and says, “I can either afford custom music OR custom visual design but I can’t afford both”, I will tell them to spend their money on visual design. Here’s the thing; band directors are musicians first. Every now and then, we come across a band director who is more visually-minded, but the norm is for directors to be much more comfortable teaching and managing the music side of things. Accordingly, it’s so important to invest in a team of designers and instructors on the visual side, that you can trust to equip your kids for success.
When you design your entire show around the music and THEN start thinking about visual, you’ve already made a potentially catastrophic mistake. Visual designers and instructors need to be involved in every step of the design process. Gone are the days where you can go out on the field and do a show called “The Music of *insert artist/ composer* here”. Well, you can do it. But it won’t be very successful in the competitive realm. Shows have to be more cohesive, and that means you have to prioritize the visual side of things.
4.) Selecting music based on its title, not its actual sound
Let’s say you are doing a show about rain and it is time to pick source music. You find a piece of music called “Rain in the Forest” (note; this is a made up piece for the sake of this example). But the piece doesn’t really sound like rain in the forest, it mostly just sounds like generic concert band literature. On the contrary, you find another piece of music called “Forgotten Moments for Wind Band” (again, this is just a made up title) and the whole piece has rain and storm sounds. Which piece do you pick for your show? 100 out of 100 times, you pick the piece called “Forgotten Moments for Wind Band”. Why? The answer is simple; the majority of your audience will not know the titles of your source music. And even if they do, once the show starts, they’re not going to be thinking about those titles, they’re going to be thinking about what they are seeing and hearing in the moment. And if you are trying to do a show about rain, and your music sounds like generic concert band music, that’s not going to be effective, even if the title of the piece you are playing is “Rain in the Forest”. But if your show about rain kicks off and suddenly your audience is hearing your ensemble play music that sounds stormy and has rain sounds coming off the field, that will be effective, even if the title of the source music has nothing to do with rain!
The point is this: program music based on what it sounds like, not what it’s called. Your visual designers will also thank you profusely!
5.) Relying too much on the lyrics of your source music
Similar to the previous point, perhaps you are going to do a show about dreaming and you find a pop song whose lyrics talk about dreaming. This can work really well, especially if the pop song is well known by the masses! But if it is a more obscure and less-known song, please proceed with caution! If the lyrics are all about dreaming, that’s great! But unless you are utilizing sampled vocals in your show’s electronics package to present those lyrics to your audience, that’s not going to help you very much. It is so important to ask the question, “what does this song sound like when you take away the words and only play the melodies?” If the song still sounds dreamy without the lyrics, then great! Perhaps you’ve found a great option for source music. But if you take away the lyrics and now the song just sounds like a generic pop song that no one knows, why are you using it? Remember, titles and lyrics can be helpful to your concept.
6.) Programming music because it sounds “marching bandy”
Every year, directors bring us source music ideas that they heard at a festival that winter. They say things like, “Listen to measures 100-200! Doesn’t that sound like marching band music?” And that’s cool! Thanks for sharing. But if that is the only reason you want to program that music in your show, you’ve just made a classic mistake. Please understand this: it is your arranger’s job, to take whatever source music is selected, and make it sound “marching bandy”. If they aren’t doing that, then it’s time to find a new arranger! For example, a few years ago, we took “Kid A” by Radiohead and turned it into a marching band ballad per the request of the commissioning school. When you listen to the original “Kid A” song, in no way/shape/ form does it sound like marching band music! And that’s okay! Because in this case, the mood and the meaning behind the song were a perfect fit for the show concept which is why the music was selected. It was then our job, to make it fit the marching band medium. This is the type of thought process that should go into selecting music.
Don’t waste your time finding music that sounds “marching bandy”. It’s your arranger's job to do that part. Heck, if you’re working with us, I’d say you don’t even need to worry about whether you think the source music will translate to the football field or not. We will let you know if we have concerns in that department but honestly, with our unique arranging process, we’ve been able to make just about everything under the sun work.
Pick music that fits your concept; your design team will make it work on the field!
Thank you for reading!
- Jeff Chambers
