Band vs. Football.... On TV! (Dr. Phil episode)

[jguy1288]

Today my mom taped part of Dr. Phil for me. The part of the show focused on a girl whose godfather was always arguing with her that band was for "wusses" and "geeks". So she challenged him to participate in one marching band rehearsal, and he eventually found out the hard way that marching band actually is hard. He couldn't even hold her instrument correctly (baritone horn). He said that he now has a new respect for the people in the band.

Now if only I could do this to some people I know.

[Duel of the Flutes]

exactly. there are people at our school that think of our marching band just as a U of M fan would think of their marching band, and there are some that say band is easy, and that anyone could be in band. I guess it's kind of balanced, but it gets on my nerves when people talk like that about something they know nothing about. it especially irritates me when theres those parents out there that try to put it in their kids' heads that a certain activity is bad, when it's good. but yet again, these are probably the parents that were never in band, or whatever the activity may be.

[Tales From Band Camp]

Hah, that's great! I didn't see the show, but here's the synopsis if anyone is interested:

www.drphil.com/shows/show/630

It's the last one titled "Music to Her Ears" and then click on "Did Dan change his tune?" for the synopsis.

[Flutist Kes]

That is so awesome.

I personally don't hear a lot of, "Band is easy." Or maybe I tune it out... I mean, I hear it, but it's usually from someone in the band, and then, like, the next week band is hard. Again. It repeats. Kind of annoying, really...

[musicscifigirl]

Ha! That is so awesome! The people that go to our school need to see that episode!!

[Greenepony]

I was laughing and nodding the entire time... reminds me so much of an argument I had with one of my non-band friends... grr she thinks it is unfair that band is a class and club because it "doesn't take that much time", wanna bet?
Who'da thought Dr Phil a jock? I certainly didn't- then again my own da was.
That one thing Dr Phil said about the band encouraging the team is so true, from what we're told. Like we constantly play our warm up (The Raven's warm up) at the kicky thing (yeah still don't know what's going on in the game) to encourage them.

[brassqueen1988]

That's too great! I would love to see that episode!

I do get some people who think band is easy. But then (and I regret saying this) they see drumline.........

[clarinet361]

Just today we had the 8th graders from the feeder schools come in for a day of learning about what my high school is, its expectations... in general learning about life there (and what is nice is that it counts as a day of school though only student volunteers come). And so I volunteered to help talk about band (students do most of the talking), and for the most part, very few were thinking of doing any performing arts (or at least very few openly admitted it) and many thought along those same lines when it came to band and choir in general (that it is a bad thing for your social status, a thing to be avoided). It was really quite frustrating because after a while, as I was listening to choir students and two other band students talk, I got to thinking about better ways to make a case for involvement in the performing arts and what should be emphasized and what shouldn't be (for example, the choir kept pushing the fact that guys really do sing and that it is ok that they sing, and how they went about it wasn't exactly effective; overall, how things were put could have been better, for both the band programs and choir/drama programs). It doesn't help that we are just now getting some recognition from the school administration (the Dean is also the football coach, and for the first time anyone can remember, he has really paid attention to us this year, so it is a really cool thing that he is). The rest of the school largely ignores us (though I guess some teachers are really starting to take interest in what we're doing). Overall it feels like we live in our own world, revolving in our own galaxy, mostly separated from the rest of the school. But things are slowly improving since our bd came 4 years ago, and we just got a really good choir/ drama director this year (his wife works with the show choir and theater, doing choreography and all things theater), so that program has come very far in a very short time.