That Dan Band Show: Recent Episodes
CaptainU
“That Dan Band Show” is a podcast that covers all areas of the marching arts, or what many refer to simply as “band.” Dan sits down with designers, teachers, judges, and members to give you a behind-the-scenes look at the band world.
In this episode of That Dan Band Show, Dan breaks down the scores from the 2023 DCI Southeastern Championship and makes predictions for Allentown & Finals Episode Time Stamps: 00:00 - 02:04 - Intro 02:05 - 03:47 - 13th place; Music City 03:48 - 04:55 - 12th place; Madison Scouts 04:56 - 05:59 - 11th place; Spirit of Atlanta 06:00 - 06:56- 10th place; Pacific Crest 06:57 - 08:22 - 9th place; Blue Knights 08:23 - 10:15 - 8th place; Troopers 10:16 - 12:16 - 7th place; The Cavaliers 12:17 - 14:04 - 6th place; The Cadets 14:05 - 15:09 - 5th place; Phantom Regiment 15:10 - 17:41 - 4th place; Bluecoats 17:42 - 19:00 - 3rd place; Boston Crusaders 19:01 - 21:42 - 2nd place; Carolina Crown 21:43 - 23:19 - 1st place; Blue Devils 23:20 - 25:41 - Putting the scoring and caption races in perspective 25:42 - 27:32 - This is judging done right and it is exciting 27:33 - 29:23 - Who are you loving this year? Sound off in the comments + outtro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode of That Dan Band Show, Dan breaks down the DCI/DCA partnership and what it will mean for all-age drum corps. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dan sits down with Vic Lee, one of the 2022 Bluecoats drum majors, to discuss best practices for preparing and auditioning for drum corps. Episode Timestamps 00:05-2:00- Episode intro 2:15-3:13- Vic introduces themselves 3:30-3:46- Was Vic ever cut from a drum corps? 4:21-5:29- What was the process of arriving at wanting to audition for DCI? 7:35-How did Vic land at Cadets? 10:10-What did Vic learn marching at the Open Class level? 12:18- How did Vic know they wanted to ultimately end up at Bluecoats? 14:08- What were the auditions like when you got cut? 15:41-How should a new auditionee approach auditioning mentally so that they are prepared? 16:30-What does “preparation” mean? 20:10-How does someone prepare mentally for a high-stakes audition? 22:58-What qualities are world class instructors looking for in an auditionee? 29:30-What is the environment like at Bluecoats? 38:51-What was the experience like being drum major at Bluecoats? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dan sits down with one of his best friends Andrew "Monty" Monteiro, the Front Ensemble Arranger & Sound Designer for George Mason University Indoor Drumline, Reading Buccaneers, and as of 2023, The Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps. They discuss their storied history designing together, how Andrew learned and honed his craft, and where he sees himself heading as we enter into a new year of design. SHOW TIMESTAMPS 00:24-4:07 - Intro 4:07-4:27 - How did you get into designing/writing? 4:27-6:05 - Andrew’s response + what prompted him to write, in spite of his degree in something non-music related 6:05-7:22 - How Dan and Monty came to work together at Cadets Winter Percussion 7:22-9:00 - The beginning of Monty’s design journey at Cadets Winter Percussion 9:00-12:10 - How did Monty learn how to teach himself difficult platforms like Logic and Mainstage? 12:10-16:11 - Monty’s response to how one learns new technical skills 16:11-23:20 - How has your perspective changed 10 years into designing? 23:20-28:30 - What is your favorite thing about WGI? 28:30-32:00 - Working on different teams and remaining flexible and open 32:00-34:25 - What Andrew wants for the Cadets in 2023 34:30-41:45 - The future of the activity and what do we need? 41:45-43:25 - The entertainment aspect of what we do 43:25-56:16 - From member to instructor 56:16-59:05 - What is the current outlook for GMU’s pit going into 2023? 59:05-1:05:30 - Cadets then and now and the "East Coast Teams" 1:05:3-1:10:57 - Outtro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Scott Johnson, Percussion Director and Designer for the Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps, sits down with Dan to discuss the ingredients to BD's success across multiple decades. Episode Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 06:00 - Are you driving this innovation when you’re creating, how does it work from the level of conception? 09:45 - What has it been like working with the level of talent? Are the students better now than ever? 12:20 - Instead of competing, just do shows 15:40 - A lot of differences with indoors what has helped outdoor 16:00 - The placement of judges... If you backed the judge away how would it change the sound? 22:00 - Was part of the DCI task force to introduce percussion judge two? 22:55 - Expenses for more judges add up 23:55 - Fan vote? Some other form of democratic vote that gets counted? 27:00 - How did you develop the Blue Devils engineering? 32:15 - Better on the field than in the lot 34:00 - Listening environment is also not taken into consideration 35:45 - How else do you approach working with players of that caliber? 38:20 - Ideas or concepts that didn’t work? 41:00 - Bringing in drumset players, a non-traditional clinician to teach the group 45:30 - Day 1, what are you telling someone who wants to be a snare drummer? 49:50 - Who’s inspiring you? 51:15 - Indoor season - how has indoor changed and where do you see it going? 55:35 - You could have the best book in the world, but players still have to play it 58:00 - You should be able to hand the tape to the members 1:02:00 - Mid 2000s groups 1:04:40 - What is going on behind the scenes that really matters? 1:06:00 What about you has allowed you to continue doing what you're doing? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dan sits down with Scott Chandler, legendary Program Coordinator & Choreographer for the Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps. They discuss how Scott has cultivated a design identity, how he has stayed on top in an ever-changing activity, and the secrets behind the Blue Devils' success. Show Timestamps 0:10 - Open 1:27 - Guest Introduction begins 2:19 - Scott Chandler Joins Questions 2:57 - Boston terriers? 3:15 - Guster the BT 5:36 What is your design/programming process? 5:55 - Strong directional storyboard to begin 6:15 - Full MP3 of the show going into the summer 6:40 - Stopped using charts a while ago 9:00 - How did you get to this point on unconventional design? 11:35 - How do you develop your eye for effect? 14:40 - Judges change every year, judges have biases, but there’s no writing for judges 16:40 - Do you intentionally set out to keep cultivating your taste? Keeping up with what’s cool? 19:08 - Where do you personally go to feed your inspiration to keep up? 21:30 - Blue Devils consistently great, consistent staff. How did y’all work through it? How did the organization develop that culture? 22:35 - “You have to have permission to fail….creatively and improving process” 23:00 - Looking for the next generation as well 23:22 - Allowing performers to fail as well “This is the place where you get to try it and see if it works or now” - Scott 24:15 - Musical cheers in drum corps 27:10 - What about your personality has allowed you to remain successful, how have you dealt with getting to this point of your career? 30:25 - If you’re ready it’ll happen. Put up or shut up 30:40 - Can you think of a time when you had that setback or moment of professional doubt and how did you work through that? 33:20 - Shows are timely and related to current events 33:50 - Caught up on what judges are going to say, but there are way more members in the audience. What about the 20,000, not the 8 judges? 35:00 - Aware of the audience, but there's also the team mentality. Like sports, people have the teams they will root for. Find a way to make those people happy even when they aren’t jumping up and down. 36:30 - When you think about the Blue Devils, what are the things that you think can be taken away? Is there something you’re injecting into it year to year? 41:30 - Why not have a more dynamic approach, a completely different mindset? 42:45 - Blue Devils best marching over the last 20 years, don't @ me. How has that happened? 44:45 - When you look back on your career and on your life, really making a name for yourself and changing the landscape of the medium, what do you tell someone who says they want to be the next Scott Chandler.” 47:00 - Receiving honest feedback Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dan gives you his top 10 takeaways from the 2022 DCI Finals, including judging, how COVID may have affected the corps, overall quality of the products put on the field, and more.
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On today's episode, Dan discusses the scores from the past 3 major DCI events as the corps make their final push into 2022 World Championships. Show Timestamps 0:00 - Beginning 0:15 - show start 1:12 - “This last weekend was a doozy” (weekend overview) 2:35 - Covid is very much still a thing 4:00 - Quick look ahead to Eastern Classic at Allentown 5:00 - Introductions - Murfreesboro 6:09 - Music City in 8th across the board 6:13 - Blue Knights in 7th across the board 6:30 - Blue Stars 7:25 - Cavaliers breakdown 8:15 - 4-point jump from 5th to Crown at 4th 8:42 - “Could see the Cavaliers jump the Blue Stars at the end” 9:30 - Crown in 4th 9:58 - Crown recap 10:58 - Scoring islands 12:00 - Bluecoats advantage over Crown and into a recap 12:55 - Bluecoats first in drums?! 14:30 - Boston over Bluecoats 15:16 - Boston’s guard has not lost a show 16:16 - Blue Devils 17:40 - Blue Devil’s guard doesn’t hang with the rest of the corps 19:30 - DCI Southeastern Championship 20:00 - Southeastern top 5 scoring 21:18 - Vanguard Recap 22:10 - GE is like the umbrella of a show 22:25 - Vanguard Visual 23:13 - Vanguard Music 24:10 - How subcaptions should be used 24:40 - Bluecoats - “Substantial Jump” into the recap 25:40 - Bluecoats Visual 26:20 - Achieving higher than the book 27:30 - Crown in 3rd, flip from Murfeesboro 28:00 - Breaking down the Crown subcations 29:05 - Crown Visual proficiency 30:03 - Crown Music breakdown 31:54 - Boston Crusaders score and spread 32:00 - Into sub captions 32:50 - Story across the board with GE judges - variety across the board 33:43 - Boston Visuals - First place 34:07 - Boston Music 35:30 - two tenths within the content box. Tough Job, great job 36:00 - Best percussion judge in DCI 36:50 - Blue Devils introduction and breakdown 38:40 - BD Music 40:18 - Boston is consistently in second but hasn't beaten Blue Devils... yet 42:00 - A lot of this is subjective 43:00 - NightBEAT introduction and scores 44:30ish - Cavaliers 45:35 - The Cadets 45:45 - Santa Clara Vanguard 47:00 - Bluecoats 47:47 - Boston Crusaders 49:40 - Night to night changing scores 49:52 - Judges trying to keep up with these complex shows 50:10 - “The top design individuals should be more advanced than the judges. The design folks should be explaining to the judges” 52:10 - Upcoming week of shows 54:40 - “Crazy right now, I don't know who's going to win. This is good for DCI” 56:40 - Wrap-up Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dan reviews the recap from the 2022 DCI Southwestern Championship and provides his insights into where the competition is headed as the corps make their final push toward Indy.
Show Timestamps: 00:40 - Start 03:28 - Intro to scores from the Southwestern Championship 03:41 - Colts at 12th 05:43 - Blue Knights at 11th 07:05 - Phantom Regiment at 10th 08:30 - Cavaliers at 9th 11:21 - Scoring 13:25 - Mandarins in 8th 14:30 - Difference in scores between the Cavaliers and Blue Stars 14:46 - Blue Stars in 7th 15:50 - Cadets in 6th 17:33 - Vanguard in 5th 18:00 - Big Spread between 5 and 6 19:58 - Bluecoats in 4th 21:25 - Scoring variations 21:43 - Carolina Crown in 3rd 23:58 - Crusaders in 2nd 26:30 - Blue Devils in 1st 28:38 - “When was the last time Devs got fourth?” 30:48 - Dynamic factor of scoring 35:00 - “Welcome the shakeups” 36:25 - Looking ahead to the next few shows 36:40 - DCI Mesquite groups 37:40 - Next show - DCI Southern Miss. 39:00 - Master of Southern Music Games - Murfreesboro 40:30 - Indy coming down the pipe in less than two weeks 45:00 - Let's chat, subscribe! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On today's episode, Dan chats about the DCI competitive narrative up to this point, hits on the show announcements that didn't make it into last week's episode, and discusses Crown's 2022 season with Rick Subel, Artistic Director of Carolina Crown. Show Timestamps 00:11 Intro 4:28- Competition Overview (7/9-7/10) 18:12 Design Overview 35:20 Upcoming Performances 39:25 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today, we are doing something a little bit different - Dan's flying SOLO for this episode! In the spirit of DCI coming back to life after a long dormancy, Dan spends this episode taking a look at some early season content around the internet (within the confines of what the music rights laws will allow me), discussing the first shows, and providing his reactions and early season projections. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
With the WGI Advisory Board meetings approaching, Dan sits down with WGI Vice President, Steering Committee Member, and Director and Visual Designer of Rhythm X, Tim Fairbanks. They discuss the state of indoor percussion. how we can continue to grow the activity, and ways to continue to educate our judges and educators together.
Dan sits down with Graphic Designer Ivan Fees to catch up on the first WGI Percussion finals in 3 years, how the competition shook out, and where the activity appears to be headed.
Josh Brickey, Battery Coordinator of Rhythm X and Percussion Caption Head of the Cavaliers, joins Dan to catch up on how the 2022 WGI season is going, what current trends are going on in the marching percussion world, and Josh's secret to consistently driving high level talent into the groups he works with.
Dan is joined by Jessica Williams, Instructor of Percussion at Alabama State University. They discuss her evolution from a young pianist to a professional percussionist, how she found a passion for the steelpan, and how she's successfully maneuvered through the percussion industry.
Freelance percussion educator and performer Drew Tucker finally demystifies the age-old question: is a vibraphone a xylophone? Just kidding...it's not. But he does talk about his growth from marching arts member to professional musician, his opinions on soundscape, and how he approaches educating the next generation of performing artists.
Eric Lake is the Senior Customer Success Manager at CaptainU. He and Dan discuss the mechanics of college recruiting and uncover what the performing arts can learn from athletic recruiting.
Omar Carmenates is a highly regarded judge, teacher, and designer in the marching percussion world. He currently serves as the Associate Professor of Percussion at Furman University. Dan and Omar sit down to discuss contemporary perspectives on judging WGI percussion, how to stay fresh as a teacher and judge, and Omar's history writing some of the most memorable battery books of the 2000s.
Dan and marching arts sound designer Bryson Teel sit down to discuss the primacy of sound design, how marching arts design can reach a broader audience, and where the marching arts are headed as we enter into the new year.
Dan is joined by Russel Wharton and Jack Holway, bass and quad section leaders of the Cavaliers 2011 drumline. The guys discuss their time marching the corps, what it takes to push a section to the highest caliber, and their perspective on where the activity is headed.
Tom Aungst is a member of the Cadets, Drum Corps International, World Drum Corps, and Winter Guard International Hall of Fame. His work is best known from the Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps and Dartmouth High School, where he has amassed countless gold medals and drum trophies. Tom shares his journey from member, to instructor, to designer, and how he has stayed relevant in the drumline medium for the last 40 years.
Dan sits down with Mark Perrett, Co-Founder of Gridbook Percussion, a percussion education and content production company. They discuss growing through setbacks, how Mark learned new skills on the job, and why Gridbook Percussion is a necessary platform for all percussion students.
Alana Wiesing, principal timpanist of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, sits down with Dan to discuss her methods for preparing for high stakes auditions, how she broke through a majority male industry, and her work as the President for the Network for Diversity in Concert Percussion.
Dan hangs out with Vincent Thomas, dance professor at Towson University and choreographer in the marching arts. They discuss the impact of dance on everyday life and Vincent's work in masculinity and movement.
Matt Penland, percussionist for the US Air Force Band and instructor/arranger for many world class percussion ensembles, joins Dan to discuss his process developing himself as a player, how he learned to adapt to new concepts, and his experiences in various marching idioms.
That Dan Band Show Producer and CaptainU Sales Director Pete Davidson joins Dan to talk about their experiences choosing the right college, what kind of resources are out there for high school students, and some of the ways CaptainU Recruiting is bringing college band recruiting into the present.
Freelance percussionist Kaylie Brooke joins Dan to discuss her journey through percussion education, how she turned her passion for performance into a job, and the ways different percussion idioms can learn from one another.
Dan is joined by media wizzes Travis Wade and Michelle Morales to talk about the importance of content creation, marketing and branding within the marching space, and how small organizations can build a solid media team within their means.
Matt Verburg, founder of Lot Riot apparel, joins Dan to discuss the culture of the marching arts, building a small business within a niche activity, and the current state of creativity within the band world.
Samia Mooney, Movement Supervisor of the Bluecoats and Dance Director of Avon High School, joins Dan to discuss the relationship between fitness and movement and how top groups create a cohesive visual approach across all performers.
Dan hangs out with Cameron Halls, former Blue Devils & Carolina Crown snare drummer turned Battery Instructor for the Madison Scouts and Percussion Director for Bellbrook High School. Cam and & Dan discuss the contrasting approaches between various drumlines and how to get the most out of your students.
Dan sits down with Mike Jackson, designer/composer for Broken City Percussion and WGI Hall of Famer. They discuss whether marching percussion is art or competition (it's both!), the culture Mike creates at Broken City, and where Mike draws his creativity and inspiration from.
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