Tips That Click Phi Beta Mu
Developing an Entertaining and Effective Book of Charts for your Athletic Bands
This month, we are pleased to share an article written by Rho Chapter member Ralph Ford. Mr. Ford is the retired Director of Bands at Troy University and is one of the most prolific and outstanding composers for concert, jazz, and athletic music ensembles. This article appeared earlier in the Ledger Lines newsletter published by Alfred Music.
"Some people don't like scat singing!"
This was a phone‐in remark from a listener to the weekend big band jazz show I hosted on a local radio station many years ago. In my former life as a college band director, I found that, like programming a good radio show on big band music, finding a balance of fun, effective, easy to put together charts for an athletic band "book" could be challenging. It was important for me to face the fact that musical taste varied widely depending on the venue and the sport (not to mention the age ranges of the audiences). It also occurred to me early on that bands have to compete with
pre‐recorded music and advertising over a public address system that can be turned up to eleven (just like Spinal Tap). This planning developed into a system that allowed the band to be flexible with regard to events occurring in real time. It also involved teaching all of the student musicians, especially the student conductors, an understanding of the sport being played, a how to read the "room" (players, crowd, etc.) and adjust the bands performance accordingly. In order to make this work from year to year, I developed a standard book that was adjusted each year. At the beginning
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of each year, our staff and students will meet and discuss to retire some charts (those that didn't get the response we had hoped), give some others a year or two off (great charts, but we all need a break), and audition new charts for the marching band folio and/or basketball/volleyball band book. Frankly, athletic bands enjoy a high public profile and need to be able to provide a variety of music in addition to the marching competition show book. The charts do not have to be difficult to be effective.
Being in a college situation, I was fortunate to have students every year interested in studying arranging (I have also witnessed this in many high school situations, as well). Each student was provided the opportunity to audition charts during the folio/book "reboot" at the beginning of each season, starting with the basketball band book then graduating to the marching band folio if the chart was successful. The chart audition process I used on these students is the same process I use for the published charts that I would buy, which provided the majority of music in each book. It is important to note that I continue to impose these guidelines on myself when writing marching and pep band charts for publication.
• Is the song instantly recognizable? (Most of the time, simple tunes need to
be played simply ‐ that is, folks don't care for extended harmony in your everyday pop tune)
• Are the parts and score clean? (Easy to read, no complex instructions needed,
August/September 2013 no "Dead Sea Scrolls")
• Is it 1:30 in length or less? (Let's face it, attention spans are short. So are time‐outs.)
• Can it be adjusted/edited to fit into :30 second segments or less?
• Does it have additional parts for Phi Beta Mu
Director’s Planning Guide
Rho Chapter has created a free Director’s Planning Guide to help you plan your way to a successful year!
This
publication has many helpful suggestions, and has plenty of room for you to add notes or adapt to your individual situation. This free and valuable booklet is available on the Alabama Bandmasters
Association
website (see the sidebar menu) or can be requested by emailing:
pemin@mac.com
Ralph Ford
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