"And the Band Played On..."

Friday was a very interesting day. I arrived at school with the intent of preparing for one of the busiest days of the year for us - the Friday of Homecoming Week. So many little details to attend to with parade preparations, pepfest and game preps as well. All of this must be accomplished on an "early out" schedule which means that my rehearsal time is extremely short.

Upon arrival, I discovered that some of the students had decided to "decorate" the front of the school and went a little "overboard." Those involved will know what I am talking about - I will spare the rest of our readers the details. To make a long story short - this was the second time during the week that the students had decorated...and after the first time they were given a stern warning that if anything else happened, events would come to a halt. Well, they did. The activity for the day, the popular talent show, the parade and the pepfest was canceled. To make matters worse (at least from a student perspective) we went back to a full school day.

So we basically had a day of raw emotion on behalf of the students. We had upset students, grouchy adults, and a band director who knew that we still had a performance to prepare for! I will honestly say, that I was concerned that the rehearsal might not happen, given the amount of rumors flying around about mass student protests, or walk outs. I had to come up with a strategy.

I had a full list of every song we needed to play for the game on the board when the students came in. I told them that I knew they were upset and frustrated, and I wanted them to channel that frustration and put that energy through their horns. Wow! They played and played and played....by song nine I could tell they were either calming down or were just getting tired, as the volume started to return to normal. At the end of the rehearsal I told them that there were two types of people - those who make a bad situation worse, and those who work to make a positive change - and I was proud to be standing in front of a group of the latter! I was thrilled that we were able to have a functional rehearsal. They continued by showing up (more rumors of a mass football game boycott!) and give great performances for pre-game and half-time of the football game. The Madelia Concert Band is made up of terrific young adults! The secret word to reply with is "pride."