waxahachie daily light sunday 11-3-13 "the road to state"

Photo courtesy of Bloomfield Photography/www.bloomfieldphotography.comThe 2013-2014 Spirit of Waxahachie Indian Marching Band.

The Road to StateBy AAron SchwAdererDaily light Managing EDitoR

The road to state for the Spirit of Waxahachie Indian Band really began more than four years ago when Director of Bands Rich Armstrong realized that the program needed to undergo a meta-morphosis to be competitive at the state level.

“We knew we wanted to be competi-tive, so we looked at those top 4A and 5A champions who consistently placed in the top for the past several years,” Arm-strong said. “What we found was that the judges were rewarding great orchestral music, so we started there.”

Armstrong and his staff turned away from the latin and jazz music they had been performing and focused on teaching the students the best composed orches-tral music.

“I knew we couldn’t really be competi-tive without changing what we did,” he said. “We shifted gears away from latin and jazz to orchestral music and trans-formed ourselves to doing almost strictly orchestral.”

The change was demanding for Arm-strong, his staff and the band students, but the reward has been great. The Spirit of Waxahachie Indian Band has made it to the state level marching contest three years in a row, and in 2011 ranked sixth

in the state.“We knew probably about four years

ago we had to keep moving in this direc-tion, because that’s what the judges re-warded – for good reason,” he said. “The music is beautiful when the students achieve the sound we’re looking for.”

Then in 2012, with the end of the road in mind, the staff began planning for this year’s state marching contest in Novem-ber.

“We started a year ago while we were just finishing up our marching season, look at what we wanted to do for our next

competition year,” Armstrong said.From December through February, the

band staff made their proposals, dis-cussed and made their final decisions at the end of March for the music the band would perform.

Six pieces for five episodes in an epic tale – Gustav Mahler’s Symphonies No. 1 and No. 7, “Ballet Suite No. 1: VI. Gallop” by Demetri Shostakovich, “Dance of the Knights” from Sergei Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet,” “Intermezzo” from Pietro Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana,” and Prokofiev’s “Symphony No. 1.”

After four intense months of consider-ation, Armstrong said the program was ahead of schedule – as they planned it.

“One of our goals this year was to give the kids all of the music they would be performing,” he said. “They would have the entire show’s music in hand all sum-mer long to learn and practice.”

Once the staff had chosen the musical pieces for the show, then came the hours and hours of discussion to nail down the entire marching routine.

“Once we had the music then we as a staff started bouncing around ideas,” Armstrong said. “How to tie everything together with a central theme. Then we sat down around a table one evening and decided we would not move from the table until we had the entire show

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Photo by Scott Dorsett/The Daily LightWISD Director of Bands Rich armstrong addressing the nationally-acclaimed, award-winning Spirit of Waxahachie Indian Marching Band.

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planned out. When you get that many creative people around a table together, the ideas just start to flow.”

By the end of the night, the whole show was in its first draft. Armstrong said since then they have made some small changes to refine the experience, but the final draft is very close to that night’s product.

They kept one question in mind to focus their ef-forts – “What do we want the audience to get from this experience?” And if you have seen the band perform at this year’s foot-ball games, you know it is quite an experience. The band will perform its full state show in full uniform at 7:15 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 2 at Lumpkins Stadium.

As the band is just a few days away from perform-ing at state, Armstrong said their entire focus is on themselves – not their competition, not the judg-es, because these things are out of their control.

“We’re focusing on what we can control – our-selves,” he said. “We’re fo-cusing on what we do and how we do it. Our product is unique when you look at our competitors. They all have similar products, which are all very great, but ours is different.”

The word in these final days is “consistency.” The band has consistently

improved throughout the year and Armstrong said their goal is to reach perfection – for the band to be consistent down to each individual performer.

“Perfection is obtain-able,” he said. “There are some who would disagree, but you can achieve every step and footfall in the right place, every note right on pitch and the mu-sic clear and sharp. Perfec-tion is the standard.”

That kind of passion and motivation is what has driven each band student to reach their own person-al achievements toward perfection this year, and it is what ultimately will push the entire band to reach its goal of taking first at state.

Show the Spirit of Waxahachie Indian Band the support it deserves at the community send off Monday, Nov. 4 at the WHS Fine Arts Center where buses will leave at 9 a.m. to carry the band to San Antonio for the state competition.

The band will take the field at 9:45 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 5 and by 6:45 p.m. will know the results of their performance. Pick up the Wednesday issue of the Waxahachie Daily Light to learn the results and read all the details about their performance and the competition. A photo slideshow and video of the contest along with the ar-ticle will be posted on the Daily Light’s website www.waxahachietx.com.

Mystic HollowBy AArOn SCHWAdErErDAily liGht MAnAGinG EDitor

The Spirit of Waxa-hachie Indian Band’s show for 4A State Marching Contest this year is epic – literally. It is an epic, a fairytale story of “Mystic Hollow.” Divided into five episodes, the show weaves a tale of a mysterious

and magical forest filled with pixies and nymphs, attacked by an ogre, the calm after the storm and a celebration.

The building of this year’s state show began last year, immediately after the conclusion of marching season and com-petition. The search began in December with final

decisions on six musical pieces at the end of March.

“We went and found some of the greatest composers and started the show with the music in mind,” Director of Bands Rich Armstrong said.

The six pieces are “Sym-phony No. 1” and “Sym-phony No. 7” by Gustav

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2013 marching show an ‘epic’ production

The Final SaluteBy MELISSA CAdEMirror MAnAGinG EDitor

The Spirit of Waxa-hachie Indian Band will be competing in the state marching competition Tuesday, Nov. 5 at the Ala-mo Dome in San Antonio. It has taken a lot of sweat, hard work and dedication to get to this point, but senior drum majors Caleb Neal and Corey Simmel said they are looking for-ward to making that final salute, and bringing home a state title.

“We’ve worked really hard all year long,” Neal said. “I feel our band is more of a team than in years past, and we believe in ourselves and Mr. Arm-strong.”

Simmel said after pull-ing off some major feats this year, they believe they have a great chance at winning state.

“We’ve accomplished some really great things this year,” Simmel said.

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WHS Drum Majors Caleb Neal and Corey Simmel

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“For instance, we won the contest in DeSoto, which had never been done before.”

He said several alumni sent him messages via Facebook and text mes-sages congratulating them on winning that particular competition. Accomplish-ing that goal ignited a fire in the band, that Simmel and Neal said is still burn-ing in them today.

“We’ve worked too hard to stop now,” Simmel said. “No one goes to state with the idea they will bring home second or third. Ev-eryone goes with a mind-set to win it all, and that is definitely our mindset.”

The two agree that if it wasn’t for the committed fans that show up to every game and competition, and the hand of God on their lives, they wouldn’t be the great band they are today.

“Looking up and seeing so many familiar faces at every competition is really great,” Simmel said. “We usually have the loud-est and most supportive crowd, and it really drives us to perform at our best.”

Neal added, “and with-out prayer, there is no way we could perform at such a high level day in and day out.”

“A small group of us meet every morning before practice to pray,” he said. “We want to do everything we can do to bring glory to God and be the best performers we can be. I honestly feel that is a huge reason for our success this year. God has blessed us a lot this season.”

Neal said it has been his desire to be a drum major since he was in middle school. And it has always been his dream to salute the judges from the field at the state competition. His dream is about to become a reality.

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Mahler, “Ballet Suite No. 1: VI. Gallop” by Demetri Shostakovich, “Dance of the Knights” from Sergei Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet,” “Intermezzo” from Pietro Mascagni’s “Ca-valleria Rusticana” and Prokofiev’s “Symphony

No. 1.”Armstrong said this

year’s show builds off of last year’s in that the music follows a common theme: a fairytale, and it communicates this story through each episode: Mist, Nymphs, The Ogre, Serenity and Woodland Jubilation.

“Once we had the music, then we as a staff started

to bounce ideas around about how to tie it all together with a central theme,” Armstrong said. “Sometimes the music lends itself to a theme, but with amazing music like this we were unlimited in what the theme could be. It could have been anything, but we decided to build off last year’s show, which told a story.

We knew we wanted to do that again, but not exactly the same.”

Once the the staff had decided to weave these pieces into an epic story-line, they began to come up with the story.

“We started asking questions about what does each selection represent?” Armstrong said. “The first

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Photos by Scott Dorsett/The Daily Light

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part is dark and moody, so we decided that would set the scene of the mysteri-ous and magical forest (Mist). The second is light and playful like the pixies and fairies that live there (Nymphs). The third is really dark and heavy like a big, evil presence (The

Ogre). The next movement is extremely beautiful and peaceful (Serenity), and the big party in the hollow after the ogre is defeated is the final piece (Wood-land Jubilation).”

The music and the story were set, then came the largest undertaking – cho-reographing the marching routine. Deciding each step, position, the lines and formations, how to

equip the color guard and which props to have on the field – the staff came together for an evening brainstorming session and ended the night with a first draft.

“We sat down around a table and decided that we would not move from the table until we had the whole show planned out,” Armstrong said. “What

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the show is now is very close to what was designed at that table. When you get that many creative people at a table, the ideas start to flow.”

The brass and color guard with brown flags,

tree props, flowers and a duet, low brass “stomping” across the field – snatches of ideas and visions came together and to form “Mystic Hollow.” Through-out the whole process the staff focused on the ques-tion “what is it we want the audience to get from the experience?” And it is quite the experience.

Each movement has been choreographed and planned out to take full advantage of each in-strumental section of the band, the color guard and props to communicate the story of “Mystic Hollow.”

“The students love the show and enjoy playing it,” Armstrong said. “You

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don’t play well if you don’t love what your doing and enjoy the music – I know they do. Each new day they work to become bet-ter, and the music is chal-lenging, which motivates them to achieve it. They have been great from the

first moment, never once did I hear ‘I don’t like this.’ They’ve always said, ‘Tell us what we need to do.’”

That kind of dedication is the foremost reason why the band has made it to state this year and is sure to reach their goal.

What cannot be fully communicated through words – the show’s beauty

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and magnificence – can be viewed at 7:15 p.m. Satur-day, Nov. 2 at the band’s exhibition show at Lump-kins Stadium. The band will perform its entire state show in full uniform for the public.

Even if you cannot at-

tend the exhibition, show the Spirit of Waxahachie Indian Band the support it deserves at the community send off Monday, Nov. 4 at the WHS Fine Arts Center where buses will leave at 9 a.m. to carry the band to San Antonio for the state competition.

The band will take to the Alamo Dome field at 9:45 a.m. Tuesday, Nov.

5 and by 6:45 p.m. will know the results. Pick up the Wednesday issue of the Waxahachie Daily Light to learn the results and read all the details about their performance and the competition. Photo slideshows and videos of the contest will be posted on the Waxahachie Daily Light’s website at www.waxahachietx.com.

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waxahachie daily light sunday 11-3-13 "the road to state"

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band staff

jazz music

great orchestral music

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years state marching

entire shows music

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entire marching routine