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Post by blastissimo on Nov 21, 2019 21:07:40 GMT -6
This is a thread for thoughts going into and for thoughts during the 2020 season of winter/indoor winds. The indoor winds activity is one that is slowly growing and gaining more traction within the band and performing arts community, especially since becoming one of the three divisions of WGI. I would like to know people’s thoughts about this activity too and where it could possibly go in the future. Any predictions, thoughts, or opinions will be accepted within this thread. I can’t wait for this season!
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Post by thewho on Nov 21, 2019 21:18:50 GMT -6
I hope that Winds can gain a bit of a traction within the pageantry arts soon. It doesn't seem like anyone has quite figured out the formula or what the venue can offer just yet (except maybe Aimachi).
Hope I can catch some Winds action this spring!
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Post by paddy on Jan 2, 2020 13:28:13 GMT -6
I hope that Winds can gain a bit of a traction within the pageantry arts soon. It doesn't seem like anyone has quite figured out the formula or what the venue can offer just yet (except maybe Aimachi). Hope I can catch some Winds action this spring! I think some of the issue in the Winds space is they don't have consensus among the judges and the governing board/directors on what they want it to be or what they are looking for. I think the scoring rubric is a bit off as it seemingly puts too much emphasis on visuals. They need to weight the Music and Music GE heavier (for me). Too many of the judges are converted guard judges so they really over score visual production. As someone pointed out on INBands, Mililani ends up 3rd with only 3 minutes of ensemble playing out of a 6.5 minute show. However, the judges all creamed themselves over the extended 1.5 minute dance sequence to end the show. |
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Post by madisonbandman1 on Jan 2, 2020 17:22:44 GMT -6
Man I can’t wait to see what rhythm x has for us this season. I adored last season with rolling thunder and what not.
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Post by jeremiah on Jan 3, 2020 10:02:14 GMT -6
I hope that Winds can gain a bit of a traction within the pageantry arts soon. It doesn't seem like anyone has quite figured out the formula or what the venue can offer just yet (except maybe Aimachi). Hope I can catch some Winds action this spring! I think some of the issue in the Winds space is they don't have consensus among the judges and the governing board/directors on what they want it to be or what they are looking for. I think the scoring rubric is a bit off as it seemingly puts too much emphasis on visuals. They need to weight the Music and Music GE heavier (for me). Too many of the judges are converted guard judges so they really over score visual production. As someone pointed out on INBands, Mililani ends up 3rd with only 3 minutes of ensemble playing out of a 6.5 minute show. However, the judges all creamed themselves over the extended 1.5 minute dance sequence to end the show. Well there are only three captions: music, visual, and effect. I'd imagine if the activity grows, they'd expand to a fourth judge and split effect into one music and one visual judge much like percussion, but with the activity so small they're trying to keep costs as low as possible, which means for now we stick with just three judges (doubled to six for finals). |
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Post by thewho on Jan 3, 2020 10:16:31 GMT -6
I hope that Winds can gain a bit of a traction within the pageantry arts soon. It doesn't seem like anyone has quite figured out the formula or what the venue can offer just yet (except maybe Aimachi). Hope I can catch some Winds action this spring! I think some of the issue in the Winds space is they don't have consensus among the judges and the governing board/directors on what they want it to be or what they are looking for. I think the scoring rubric is a bit off as it seemingly puts too much emphasis on visuals. They need to weight the Music and Music GE heavier (for me). Too many of the judges are converted guard judges so they really over score visual production. As someone pointed out on INBands, Mililani ends up 3rd with only 3 minutes of ensemble playing out of a 6.5 minute show. However, the judges all creamed themselves over the extended 1.5 minute dance sequence to end the show. I'll add that interest in fall marching to me seems to be at an all-time high right now. Programs are pumping money into the fall bands more than ever and its supplemental programs* (WGI color guard and percussion). It's tough to support WGI Winds when it's a very similar format to the fall competition, rubric aside. Color guard and percussion at least has distinguishing elements from fall bands whereas Winds really don't have anything different right now- I could totally see explaining this to someone and them confusing Winds with marching band. Again, I think WGI Winds is much better suited to the international community right now without football fields. There's outreach going on in UK, China, Japan and Costa Rica right now. I think WGI could jump into the WAMSB pool pretty easily and get some of those Southeast Asian programs too. *I know some programs largely prefer WGI over fall competitions, but the statement holds true for a significant amount of programs right now. |
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Post by paddy on Jan 3, 2020 13:27:14 GMT -6
I don't necessarily disagree with anything the who and Jeremiah said, but that doesn't mean that there isn't an issue in the current construction.
I would say that I disagree that there isn't a difference between fall marching on a football field and WGI Winds. The absence of field markings, the intimacy of the performance space, and the decreased logistical challenges allow for more daring design decisions (both visually and musically) in many ways. It also doesn't penalize a group who is good at what they do, just because they are smaller than other groups. Cleveland HS with only ~1700 students and 120 kids in marching band (~75 winds) beat Avon and Azle which are both much larger schools and bands.
Now, I will admit that these are very nuanced and may be lost on someone who isn't in the know, but the differences are there.
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Post by notactuallygnar on Feb 11, 2020 1:02:32 GMT -6
I hope that Winds can gain a bit of a traction within the pageantry arts soon. It doesn't seem like anyone has quite figured out the formula or what the venue can offer just yet (except maybe Aimachi). Hope I can catch some Winds action this spring! I think some of the issue in the Winds space is they don't have consensus among the judges and the governing board/directors on what they want it to be or what they are looking for. I think the scoring rubric is a bit off as it seemingly puts too much emphasis on visuals. They need to weight the Music and Music GE heavier (for me). Too many of the judges are converted guard judges so they really over score visual production. As someone pointed out on INBands, Mililani ends up 3rd with only 3 minutes of ensemble playing out of a 6.5 minute show. However, the judges all creamed themselves over the extended 1.5 minute dance sequence to end the show. Mililani guy here, thought I’d talk about why we do that in our show if anyone was interested. Reason one, our director wants us to try and push WGI Winds into a more visually prominent thing because he doesn’t want winds to be seen as an “indoor marching band”. Personally I don’t like the dance too much but I agree with him. Reason two, our school overall is a mess when it comes to music. A good chunk of our instruments don’t work in the first place. Half our group don’t play in a concert group (which aren’t that great) and I can count the number of people that take private lessons on one hand. Theres maybe one or two people each section that are actually good and everyone else is just average or not great. This past field season was actually our first year with having more than just our director to work with us on music, which helped so hopefully we’ll sound better at WGI. Because of this our director relies heavily on dance (far more than I like honestly as I enjoy music much more.) Another side note Dayton was way drier than we thought it would be. We practice / perform in a gym so it’s more echoey, which is probably why we sounded so soft. I was surprised with how we placed in music because I expected dead last. Hopefully that’ll be better by the time we reach finals. |
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Post by paddy on Feb 11, 2020 7:20:26 GMT -6
I think some of the issue in the Winds space is they don't have consensus among the judges and the governing board/directors on what they want it to be or what they are looking for. I think the scoring rubric is a bit off as it seemingly puts too much emphasis on visuals. They need to weight the Music and Music GE heavier (for me). Too many of the judges are converted guard judges so they really over score visual production. As someone pointed out on INBands, Mililani ends up 3rd with only 3 minutes of ensemble playing out of a 6.5 minute show. However, the judges all creamed themselves over the extended 1.5 minute dance sequence to end the show. Mililani guy here, thought I’d talk about why we do that in our show if anyone was interested. Reason one, our director wants us to try and push WGI Winds into a more visually prominent thing because he doesn’t want winds to be seen as an “indoor marching band”. Personally I don’t like the dance too much but I agree with him. Reason two, our school overall is a mess when it comes to music. A good chunk of our instruments don’t work in the first place. Half our group don’t play in a concert group (which aren’t that great) and I can count the number of people that take private lessons on one hand. Theres maybe one or two people each section that are actually good and everyone else is just average or not great. This past field season was actually our first year with having more than just our director to work with us on music, which helped so hopefully we’ll sound better at WGI. Because of this our director relies heavily on dance (far more than I like honestly as I enjoy music much more.) Another side note Dayton was way drier than we thought it would be. We practice / perform in a gym so it’s more echoey, which is probably why we sounded so soft. I was surprised with how we placed in music because I expected dead last. Hopefully that’ll be better by the time we reach finals. Look, I am an adult late in life and retired from the world of schools so I'm not going to nitpick a post from a student. I respect the work you put in, I appreciate the fact you guys traveled from so far away. I'm not going to say much, but this response simply reinforces my point about the Winds activity not having a good focus. Most people I talk to in the activity are fine with upping the visual skill, but don't want it to be guard with instruments as props. |
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Post by notactuallygnar on Feb 11, 2020 14:32:23 GMT -6
Mililani guy here, thought I’d talk about why we do that in our show if anyone was interested. Reason one, our director wants us to try and push WGI Winds into a more visually prominent thing because he doesn’t want winds to be seen as an “indoor marching band”. Personally I don’t like the dance too much but I agree with him. Reason two, our school overall is a mess when it comes to music. A good chunk of our instruments don’t work in the first place. Half our group don’t play in a concert group (which aren’t that great) and I can count the number of people that take private lessons on one hand. Theres maybe one or two people each section that are actually good and everyone else is just average or not great. This past field season was actually our first year with having more than just our director to work with us on music, which helped so hopefully we’ll sound better at WGI. Because of this our director relies heavily on dance (far more than I like honestly as I enjoy music much more.) Another side note Dayton was way drier than we thought it would be. We practice / perform in a gym so it’s more echoey, which is probably why we sounded so soft. I was surprised with how we placed in music because I expected dead last. Hopefully that’ll be better by the time we reach finals. Look, I am an adult late in life and retired from the world of schools so I'm not going to nitpick a post from a student. I respect the work you put in, I appreciate the fact you guys traveled from so far away. I'm not going to say much, but this response simply reinforces my point about the Winds activity not having a good focus. Most people I talk to in the activity are fine with upping the visual skill, but don't want it to be guard with instruments as props. I would think the guard with instruments as props would be mainly a thing with us however. Maybe in the future schools like Avon would include more visual dance while sounding good and keeping first in music, then it wouldn’t really be instruments as props. Unless I’m not getting it. |
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Post by ohioguy2 on Mar 7, 2020 10:44:11 GMT -6
Been quiet here for awhile. Anyone seen anything?
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Post by abtwitch on Mar 7, 2020 13:51:57 GMT -6
Been quiet here for awhile. Anyone seen anything? I’m about to attend WGI finals at Dallas, but only group of note is UTRGV. I’m excited to see what they have for us this year after their unreal first season ever last year |
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