Ah, the Sound of Mediocrity

             Slow day at the band field as it not a week in which there is a game to play at so the band is in a lazy mood and Mrs. Director is back so this mood is not going to fly. Talk of their free weekend is going throughout the band in words of excitement. This excitement does not seem to be translating into the way that they are rehearsing either and Mrs. Director notices this right away.

 “Where are you guys today! This is not the same band I saw at the beginning of the year! Yes I know that the season is nearly over and we don’t really have any huge performances left but that doesn’t mean that you can just give up! I feel like we’re taking a step back, guys, I don’t want to move backwards. I want to keep moving forwards! Now I’m not mad at you, I just feel like we should keep moving forward and bring this program to where I know it can be.

The rest of rehearsal was a little better but not much. Although Mrs. Director said all of these things she did not seem to act through them in the way that we would have expected. Every time she would tell the band to run it back and rehearse a particular spot she did not seem to be paying any attention as she was on her phone. The band seemed to notice this and the quality of rehearsing only went downhill from there; the chatting was at a high and the sound was not as good as I have heard it in previous rehearsals. Mrs. Director did not seem to understand why she was not getting the results that she wanted and began to speak words of disdain, words that only seemed to bring the band down more than they were already. “This is abysmal! This rehearsal can only be as good as you make it! It is not up to me to make sure that you rehearse well. It is up to you!” Scowls were tossed her way but she did not see them through the cover that sunset has provided them.

                Again we are left with the question of why these people keep coming back and doing what they do. Why they seem to enjoy it overall but at the same time we only hear words of complaint, of strain. It does not make any sense to me. And at the same time, it does not seem like they get very much support from their director either. Is that not where it all starts? Where the passion for what they do is usually born? They are not getting words of encouragement from the person that should be providing them. I am extremely interested in seeing whether this program will be when marching season rolls around next year. This program is a huge reason why people show up to the game’s most days. Does she not see this? Does she not realize that by putting her group of students down and calling them mediocre is creating a wall between the two. I am pretty sure that if she keeps up this negativity, she will lose a good number of these students next season.