Band camp US-style

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: ROOT; 15 January 2010; Hits: 3214

Band camp US-style

The following article about band camps run by Texas Southern University (TSU) appeared in the Houston Chronicle on 25 July, 2003.

Going through the drills

by ANDREW GUY JR.

One year, at band camp, Dadriaunna Williams learned how to march. With her instrument. The Johnston Middle School student had been playing clarinet since she was 3, and knew how to blow like one of the best. But play and march?

One year, at band camp, Tawana Allen decided to train to be a drum major. So the Shreveport, La., high school senior came to Houston to learn how. Her first lesson: it's harder than she thought.

One year, at band camp . . . .

Wait.

It's this year at band camp.

And this band camp is more like boot camp.

"We have to be up at 6:30, eat at 7 and classes start at 8," Allen says. "And we can NOT be late for anything."

No marching to a different drummer here. This week is about rules, conformity, following along. It's about absorbing the techniques used by Texas Southern University's world-famous marching band and taking them back to their own middle and high school bands. It's also about learning leadership and life skills.

Discipline. Honor. Morals. Ethics.

This is TSU's Band Leadership Camp.

It's a chance for students to learn the techniques used by the high-stepping, high-energy, high-voltage "Ocean of Soul" marching band. This week's camp has about 70 students, most of whom come from Houston-area schools. A few come from Dallas; a few are from Louisiana.

Tuition is $250 for those who stay on campus in one of the dorms, and $125 for those who commute.

The students are the cream of their high school bands, targeted as leaders who will learn new skills to bring back to guide others.

Some are drum majors.

Others are section leaders.

All are considered talented.

In their schools, anyway.

Once they arrive at TSU, they're all grunts.

"This is LEADERSHIP camp, people! LEADERSHIP!" Richard Lee yells while the students practice their steps Wednesday night.

Looking and sounding like Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men, Lee roams the balcony while the students practice on the gym floor.

"Don't get tired!" he yells.

Kathryn Green, 10 years old and tall as a flea, will be a fifth- grader at Ridgegate Elementary School in Missouri City this fall.

"I'm the shortest person in class, and it's hard for me to catch up," says Green, the drum major at her school. "They said it was OK since I'm kind of small, but I'm trying."

Lee has three rules:

	Be on time.
	Have the proper equipment.
	Know your assignment.

"These kids need to learn about life," Lee says. "These are the three things that everybody needs to know. If you're an adult and you have a job, you have to do these three things. It's an issue of survival in the real world and basic skills."

Camp instructor Gaila Rollins is blunt with students. In a clarinet class early Wednesday, Rollins encouraged the four girls to learn everything they can about the instrument.

"Go beyond what your leader expects of you," Rollins tells them with mama-like sternness. "AL-WAYS be prepared. And there are no excuses. None. The only excuse in life is if you're dead."

Well.

Later, Rollins talks about her approach.

"I'm trying to get them to be leaders," Rollins says. "You may have a kid who is talented, but they may not be disciplined. If you set a foundation and rules, kids will follow. They think they don't like rules, but they do. They need it."

They'll need it even more if their goal is to join TSU's "Ocean of Soul." The band is considered an elite college "show" band, whose halftime shows mix music, dancing and marching. (Traditional marching bands with students marching in straight, military-style fashion are called "core" bands.)

Show bands often are found at predominantly black colleges, and are a major part of halftime entertainment.

Last year's film Drumline elevated the profiles of these bands even higher.

Lee, band director at TSU for 10 years, says he spends a lot of time meeting, interviewing and auditioning potential band candidates.

That's what Tyrelle Cheeves wants. The 17-year-old senior at Houston's Eisenhower High School, says he hopes to attend TSU and join its band after graduation.

"I just love playing," the tuba player says. "Our band is more core style, and doesn't do any fancy moves. This band is a show band. I like mixing the marching and dancing and playing."

Is band camp hard?

He laughs.

"Well, it's not hard if you like what you're doing," he says.

Lee, who uses the camp, in part, for scouting, says the students are sometimes caught off guard by his harsh manner.

"I'm not looking for them to like me," Lee says. "I just want them to learn something. I want them to realize the importance of order. If we're going to be a band, we should act like a band and sound like a band and do everything together like a band."

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The statistics fail to bear this out, although it is possible to find enough examples to make the case in front of those unfamiliar with Western musical history. Like actors, politicians and others obliged to face the public on a regular basis, musicians probably have their fair share of emotional problems. However, such problems do not constitute evidence of neuroticism.

Musicians probably have their fair share of emotional problems.

Beethoven was known for his moodiness, but this was probably closely related to his growing frustration as he began to go deaf. Among the famous composers, only Schumann and MacDowell ended up in mental institutions. Musicians probably have no more suicidal impulses than the rest of the population. But should a prominent musician decide to take his life, it is likely to get a good deal of publicity.

Perhaps the most morbid suicide was planned by the pianist Alexander Kelberine, who arranged his last concert programme to consist only of works dealing with death. He then went home and took an overdose of sleeping pills. Schumann jumped into the Rhine, only to be rescued by a fisherman. Rezso Seress composed Gloomy Sunday, a work that was once banned in Europe because it triggered a wave of suicides by young people on Sundays. Seress himself committed suicide by jumping out of a window. The vast majority of musicians, however, die of causes that reflect the state of medical knowledge in the particular historical period in which they live.

Some musicians certainly had sad lives. Mozart, perhaps the greatest of the composers in the Classical Period of music, died a pauper. The pianist Chopin, a Polish nationalist and tormented lover, was terrified of large audiences. He died of tuberculosis when he was 39. Bizet, a French composer who died when he was 36, was beset by crises of self-confidence and emotional upheaval. Unlike Chopin, his works only achieved widespread recognition after his death.

Wagner had the emotional maturity of a spoilt child.

George Gershwin only had a short life, but it was a good one. He died of a brain tumor when he was 39 after a rags to riches story that made him one of the most well known composers of popular music in the United States.

Others lived long and had much success, despite treating others abominably, including many of their friends. Wagner considered himself a genius as a playwright, poet, stage director, and philosopher as well as a composer, and was not shy about letting others know it! Although not particularly handsome, his personal magnetism was such that he had numerous affairs, usually with married women, despite the fact that he was married himself. His biographers describe him as having the emotional maturity of a spoilt child, complete with tantrums if he could not get his way. He died at the age of 70, widely acclaimed as one of the greatest composers of his time.

The pianist Franz Liszt's dashing good looks enabled him to have numerous affairs with many woman. He died of pneumonia at the age of 75. Contrast this with the fate of Schubert, who was short, fat, bespectacled and naturally shy. He died of syphilis at the age of 31 after his friends encouraged him to visit a brothel. Those who knew him well described him as having a warm and friendly nature. Somehow, it doesn't sound fair.

The life of J.S. Bach must have been very boring.

The majority of musicians now and in the past lead fairly quiet lives. Edward Elgar, a largely self-taught musician, rose from humble origins to become the first English composer in 200 years to gain international acclaim. He had a stable marriage, and was regarded by many as a typical English gentleman. He died at the age of 77. Sergei Rachmaninov, the Russian composer, also had a good life despite being out of step with his country's politics and music. He died at the age of 70.

The life of J.S. Bach must have been the most boring of all. He spent almost his entire life in the same small region of Germany where he was born. And nobody took much notice of him either. It was not until about 80 years after his death that his works attracted the attention they deserved.

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