November 2, 2021
By: Bill Conger
The DeKalb County High School Fighting Tiger Band won second place in its class at the Midsouth Marching Competition in Clarksville, Tennessee. During Saturday’s event at Austin Peay State University, the band also placed first in guard, and 1st in visual in Class A.
“I was very pleased,” Band Director Don Whitt said. “The last several weeks everything has improved tremendously. The students’ marching has improved, and their playing has greatly improved since the first competition. The guard’s routine was as clean as it ever has been. I think what really made them improve was that it’s a fun show and we told them to cut loose. I basically said, ‘Have fun or else’ and I chuckled. They did just that. They had been so frozen like they were scared stiff. I said it’s just like your practices. Don’t be scared! I think that is due to because they are a very young band.”
Director Whitt said judges have two primary tasks when evaluating a group.
“The first is to rank and rate each sub-caption on their judge’s sheet for each competing group. The second is to provide commentary designed to coach, critique, and educate all stakeholders, which includes the designers, instructors, and performers. Judges have a very small window of time to write down their numbers, and those decisions are based on multiple factors.”
“When your band takes the field, the impression you create even before the official adjudication has begun already begins to affect the judge’s evaluation,” Whitt explained. “Most modern judging sheets have a rubric of five boxes with a point range within each box. Judges are first trying to assess which box on the judging sheet your group belongs in. As the band’s performance continues, the judge is making commentary that relates to the quality and design being demonstrated and continues to evaluate where within that rubric box the band’s score will be. As the judge makes commentary on the show, they are simultaneously ranking your band with the other performing groups, along with assigning a point spread that communicates the comparative differences between them.”
“When the competition is tight, and bands are achieving similarly in terms of content and performance quality, the job of a judge becomes much more challenging. This is where the impression the group gives the judge is just as important as the content and quality of performance.
Even the most technical and focused judging category, such as Field Visual Performance, is subject to the overall “feel” of the energy and intent of the performance. It generally deals with marching and the dance or movements that the band does. However, The combination of the depth of design and the uniformity of execution often gives an impression energetically, emotionally, or intellectually that is difficult to quantify, but does directly affect the outcome.
“Judges are most impressed by bands that successfully combine all of the elements of design and performance together into an engaging show that stimulates them emotionally, intellectually, or artistically. It takes a lot to impress a judge who has seen twelve other bands that day, or has watched literally hundreds of performances over the course of a career.”
Whitt was joined on staff by Assistant Director Erica Birmingham, Shannon Johns, Maxwell Patterson and Emily Wallace. The band will be performing as the Tigers advance in the Regional football play-offs and will be one of the featured bands at the Tennessee Tech Homecoming Parade and game on November 13.