By Paris Baptiste
I sat down with campers Colten, Michaila, and Scarlett to learn about their experiences participating in the 2023 Drum Major Institute. These returning campers shared their experiences and shed light on why they chose to come back for a second year.
Each of the over 300 drum majors that attend camp will leave on Saturday with a variety of skills and techniques that can be used to improve their own band program. Colten enthusiastically mentioned that drum majors get a lesson in sound and how it moves on a marching field. Scarlett enjoyed the small group conducting lessons with instructors, during which students got one-on-one feedback and improved their technique.
Not only did these three campers come back for a second Summer Symposium, but this year they added Leadership Weekend to their experience. Michaila said that she “love[s] being a leader, and this is an amazing place to learn how to be a leader.” Scarlett mentioned that their experience at leadership weekend helped them connect with other divisions and really focus on learning how to be a leader.
Colten wrapped up our conversation by reflecting on why he came back, stating that he returned to learn more skills that could help his band back home. “All of the instructors teach really well, and I can learn and better myself both technically, and on a level to where I can help my band.”
It’s clear that the commitment from the campers at Summer Symposium extends beyond personal growth. These students genuinely care about their band programs, and Summer Symposium gives them the tools to refine their abilities and deepen their understanding of leadership to inspire their peers back home to reach new heights.
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By Paris Baptiste
The 2023 Summer Symposium opening session ignited the atmosphere at Ball State University with amazing displays of talent, excitement, and inspiration. Camp faculty and Music for All staff made opening remarks to campers, setting the stage for a transformative week. Students met them with applause and admiration, excited to kick off the week.
Jeff Young, Music for All’s Director of Camps, reminded students, “It’s really about the life lessons, the experiences… It’s about us going through this together during this upcoming week!”
The auditorium was bursting with excitement as the Quantico Marine Corps Brass Band launched into popular tunes that had the campers singing and clapping along. The brass band will also participate in instruction throughout the week and give a full-length performance on Tuesday, which will be open to the public.
Percussion division faculty also showcased their talents for the campers. Students clapped and cheered as drumsticks danced effortlessly over snares and tenors. Over time, the applause synchronized with the rhythms from the percussion to form one sound full of excitement.
Campers also heard from Dr. Seth Beckman, Dean of the College of Fine Arts at Ball State University. Dr. Beckman shared the same enthusiasm that was expressed throughout the entirety of the session. In his own words, “We are thrilled that you will be spending this week with us. We’re committed to all of you working hard, having a great time working hard, and building relationships that extend through your entire careers.”
The opening session concluded with a leadership demonstration from Fran Kick, which left students inspired and ready to begin a week of positively life-changing experiences. As campers left the auditorium, they were armed with the motivation to learn, the technical skills to do so safely, and the knowledge that they’re in a community of students, staff, volunteers, and directors that want nothing more than to support their passion for music.
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Written by Patrick Mainieri
The 2023 Music for All Summer Symposium is off to an incredible start! Camp has launched with the two-day Leadership Weekend, focused on better leadership and smarter followership. Throughout each moment of the weekend, campers are challenged to “be better” and “do better” – stepping outside of their comfort zones and learning from each other.
As the Director of Participant Experience, I have a unique opportunity to connect with our campers in both large and small group settings. It’s great to see returning campers back on campus this year – something we haven’t experienced much since 2019. Something extra special about this year is that we have returning campers! With the return of the Summer Symposium last summer, we spent time reestablishing camper traditions. This year, those traditions are fully vested and returning campers are helping new campers enjoy their camp experience. The camaraderie between campers is electric!
Year after year, the SWAG Team serves our campers. This group is the heartbeat of camp. Many of the SWAGs are past campers. With over 100 years of combined Summer Symposium experience, these servant-minded volunteers go above and beyond to ensure every aspect of our campers’ experience is exceptional. From regularly checking in with campers to helping find a misplaced item, the SWAG Team never misses an opportunity to make a camper’s day better.
On the last day of camp each year, I begin my countdown to next year’s Summer Symposium. What keeps me coming back every year is seeing youth and directors in a space of comfort, growth, and celebration. Students that might feel out of place at their school often leave camp with many new close friends. We know this because they come back next year asking to room with a friend they met at camp. I love hearing stories of how campers stayed in touch throughout the school year.
At Music for All, it is our mission to create, provide, and expand positively life-changing experiences through music. Watching our campers find a community and place of acceptance, with hundreds of other campers from all over the country, is positively life-changing!
Written by Patrick Mainieri. Patrick is the Director of Participant Experience for the Music for All Summer Symposium and is a former SWAG. Patrick also supports honor ensemble participants at National Festival and supports event operations at many fall Bands of America events.
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]]>By Jeff Young, Director of Camps, Music for All
How your students’ summer camp experience can have a positive impact throughout your band
Do you remember anything about diffusion from your high school biology or chemistry classes? (Shout out to all the great high school science teachers out there!) Diffusion is when something spreads out from an area of high concentration to an area of lower concentration – like what happens when you place a drop of food coloring in a glass of water.
The Music for All Summer Symposium presented by Yamaha is like diffusion in that when a student attends the Symposium there is a very high concentration of other students who value hard work, excellence, positivity, and are fired up to learn. When those students return home, those traits diffuse out into the rest of their own bands, color guards, and friend groups. This fall I had the opportunity to observe and help with some rehearsals of the Indianapolis Public Schools All-City Marching Band. When I walked up to one of their practices it was immediately obvious which students attended the Summer Symposium! They had the best posture, they marched the best, and most-importantly they were clearly being the leaders of their individual sections. Other students were clearly looking to them to determine what the ultimate standard should look and sound like.
At the DMI (Drum Major Institute), students learn so much more than how to conduct a piece of music. They learn how to better communicate with their peers and adults. They learn how to be better teachers, so they can help with sectionals at home. They learn how to lead by example and serve. These skills will permeate out to the students in their own bands, creating a richer experience for everyone.
In the Marching Band Division, students will learn fundamentals of marching and body movement from some of the best teachers in the country and they get to perform with the world-class drum corps, Carolina Crown. But what they learn that is most important is why they are taught various skills and how to sequence that teaching into system that works for any program. They will feel so much more confident helping their fellow students to improve visually. Additionally, marching band students learn instrument-specific fundamentals and music ensemble skills and why each is important. That knowledge of how and why will diffuse into their sections and ensembles at home.
Students who attend the Color Guard Division will noticeably improve individual skills in both body movement/dance and equipment skills, such as flag, rifle, and sabre. When they go back to their home programs they can share the positively life-changing experiences that they’ve had at camp, but they can also show off their new skills and improved fundamentals. This is bound to make the other guard members around them better and the ensemble as a whole. Skills learned at camp not only transfer to the fall color guard, but also to winter guard as well!
The marching percussion division at the Summer Symposium offers students of all ability levels an opportunity to increase their achievement level in playing the snare drum, tenor drum (quads), or bass drum. They learn sticking techniques, dynamics, and body movement/marching. Students prepare a performance piece that is seen and heard by the audience at the DCI show, too, but what is most important are the ensemble skills they learn. This is what can really diffuse from that single percussionist to the rest of his or her section at home.
Another exciting division of the Summer Symposium is the Music Production Bootcamp. This division features a state-of-the-art facility and cutting edge hardware and software. Many students who attend this division are not members of their high school bands, but rather are interested in video game sound design, music production, studio mixing and placement of microphones. Imagine how impactful it could be for that student to leave camp and teach his or her friends at school on the topics learned at camp.
DIRECTOR AND STAFF DIVISIONS
The Director Academy at the Summer Symposium is a great place for adults to get professional development during the summer. It is the only place where high school band directors, middle school band directors, guard instructors, percussion specialists, marching andmovement instructors, and college music majors can get together and learn collaboratively. Under the leadership of Nola Jones, the Director Academy will measurably impact entire school districts of music students through attendance by even a handful of district Music educators! Some school districts send entire staffs, others encourage directors and staff to all attend, but one each year. Either way, this should be something that all school administrators encourage and promote! The ripple effects are truly staggering!
If you are a parent, student, or director/staff member interested in starting a ripple of positivity and excellence in your band program please visit camp.musicforall.org!
Jeff Young is Director of Camps for Music for All.
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]]>June 24-26, 2023 – Leadership Weekend
June 26-July 1, 2023 – Full Week Symposium
Ball State University, Muncie, IN
ONLY at the 2023 Music for All Summer Symposium will you experience the most intensive, non-stop, make-you-better approach to marching band musicianship, marching performance excellence, and student leadership development. It’s THE leading summer camp for high school band students and high school and middle school band directors, brought to you by Music for All.
The Music for All Summer Symposium returns in 2023, focusing on student divisions in Marching Band, Color Guard, Marching Percussion, Drum Majors, and the Music Production Boot Camp.
The Director Academy brings together the best presenters on the most relevant topics for high school, middle school, and future band directors.
Registration is now open online – read more about camp in these web pages and click Register in the top menu to register online today.
We hope to see you at the 2023 Music for All Summer Symposium, presented by Yamaha!
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]]>By Jonathan Cao – July 1, 2022
As I sit here writing this, hundreds of student leaders are on the floor of Worthen Arena preparing their showcase for the end of camp tomorrow. It’s difficult to encapsulate all that they have learned this week in a way that meaningfully displays their new skills and mindsets. Much like their role as Drum Major, the visible portion of their responsibility is excellent and polished, but in reality, 99% of their role is behind-the-scenes, internal, and difficult. This week, in addition to learning to conduct and salute, they have been stretched mentally and emotionally to see outside of themselves and think more globally about their home organizations and how they can better serve their peers and facilitate the success of their colleagues. From daily logistics to creating cultures of mutual excellence among their leadership team, these young men and women have been tasked with taking home a new outlook and vision for their season. They will look back at this moment in three to four months and not recognize the version of themselves who is leaving Muncie tomorrow because they will have grown in so many ways that they cannot even yet imagine right now.
I know this because this was my experience 16 years ago when I first attended this camp as a 16-year-old. Coming from a small program in Tennessee, I had never experienced any place where so many people my age wanted to be excellent. We all had aspirations for our programs to be incredible! If only everyone could experience this, maybe our corners of the world would be a slightly better place. I will always be grateful to my school for giving me a scholarship to attend camp as a sophomore because it permanently changed the course of my life, as it will for hundreds of young leaders this week.
From my Symposium cohort, four of us went on to conduct at world class drum corps, countless more led our college marching bands, and even more became music educators. I’m honored to be teaching alongside three camp alumni this week. Music For All’s ‘positively life-changing’ outlook had ripple effects far beyond those five days, as we all now use our experiences to pass on the gift of music to our thousands of students across the world.
Jonathan teaching with Koji Mori during a DMI session earlier this week.
As I look across this arena full of students, I’m overwhelmed at their maturity, their sensitivity, and their relentless pursuit of excellence. Out of this group, how many will carry on this legacy of excellence to share their gift with the next generation? The Drum Major Institute at Summer Symposium doesn’t just give its students a few patterns for conducting and some motivational speeches – it gives these young leaders tools to become lifelong learners of humility and service, no matter where their life paths may lead them.
Jonathan Cao is on the Marching Band faculty at the 2022 Music for All Summer Symposium.
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]]>By Susie Harloff – Thursday, June 30, 2022
The color guard track at the 2022 Music For All Summer Symposium has been going strong all week. The students have been learning a lot, physically and mentally working hard, and growing as leaders and performers daily.
But have you ever wondered what a day for our color guard students is like?
Each day starts with movement. Physically warming up and building stamina are important to make sure their bodies stay strong and healthy during the week. Once they wake up their hearts and minds, they are ready for dance class.
Dance class takes the students through dance basics, across the floors, and choreography phrases. Faculty are able to give much care and attention to each student during small group rehearsal time.
Before lunch, students spend time working on equipment technique in their ‘main team.’ These small groups are based on the students’ ability levels and experience. Students are able to choose between focusing on flag or weapon throughout the week.
After lunch, it’s leadership time. Each day, our campers work with the leadership team to develop skills they need to motivate themselves and those around them when they get back to their own programs at home.
Electives are up next, which is a favorite with the students. They are able to choose their own camp adventure by selecting between a variety of classes. From discussions about being an effective captain, to lyrical dance combinations, to crazy flag tosses, there is an elective for everyone.
Students then return to their main teams for an afternoon of learning choreography that will be used in their performance at the end of camp. Staging, dancing, spinning, and performing are all refined during this time.
Before the day is done, the whole camp grabs their flag for one, big, fabulous ensemble flag block. Flag technique and show choreography are worked on during this time.
As you can imagine, after this very full day, our campers are excited to eat dinner, put up their color guard equipment, slip on some sandals, and enjoy an evening concert before heading to bed.
Susie Harloff is the Division Head for Color Guard at the Music for All Summer Symposium.
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]]>By Jeff Young
Do you ever have FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)?
We all have lots of options when it comes to how we spend our valuable time. We might have to choose between two things that happen at the same time and wonder if we made the correct choice. I often hear about something or see pictures and videos online and think, “I should be THERE!”
When it comes to professional development and teacher training, there are plenty of options, but many of them fall short in some important ways. The Music for All Summer Symposium has it all and then some! There are plenty of conventions and meetings where directors can listen to sessions and concerts, but what makes the Summer Symposium different is the opportunity for individualized attention and discussion with the top teachers of the teachers in the country.
The entire faculty of the Summer Symposium – some of the finest marching band, color guard, drum major, marching percussion, and music production teachers from all over the country – make themselves available to spend time with directors and staff members that come to camp at our nightly concerts and director socials.
On Monday Maj. Ryan Nowlin, Executive Officer and Senior Assistant Director of “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band, gave the keynote address titled “What’s Your Motivation” and later guest conducted the Summer Symposium Director Band, under the direction of Richard Saucedo.
The Director Academy is led by Nola Jones, who has assembled a who’s who team of Director Academy faculty. These faculty are experts at teaching the teachers and are known nationwide for teaching or designing for top high school and middle school programs. Nola also led a session for Director Academy called “If I’d Only Known ‘X’ When I Started Teaching,” which featured a panel of many members of the all-star faculty.
Only at the Summer Symposium can you schedule one-on-one time in the “Director Lounge” with legendary directors including Greg Bimm. Directors get to talk through their marching band music and drill and get ideas and suggestions from the masters. Other directors meet with the masters about literature selection or program-wide topics.
What kind of sessions can you expect at the Director Academy? In 2022…
Jeff Young and Bobby Lambert took directors through a curriculum to work towards “Total Program Success.” Alfred Watkins led a session encouraging diversity, equity, and inclusion in our band programs. Richard Saucedo taught us about “Creating Clarity and Resonance in your Marching Band Wind Section.” Shirley Dorritie gave a great session on “Leadership at the Intersection of Stress and Success”. Susan Smith gave a great session on “’Talking to Crazy’ – Every problem is a communication problem!” Derek Smith and Susie Harloff ensured that our color guard instructors learned all about how to teach flag, rifle, and choreography. Tony Lymon, Jon Weber, and Matt Black worked with our Percussion Specialist Academy, focusing on pedagogy, orchestration, movement, and electronics. Beth Fabrizio taught us about “Developing a Thriving Ensemble- The Three R’s: Navigating Recruitment, Retention, Repertoire.” John Phillips guided us though judging philosophy as well as a live session with the Carolina Crown Drum and Bugle Corps.
The Music for All Director Academy and Summer Symposium continues through Saturday, July 2 with more learning, networking, and motivation!
Jeff Young is the Director of Camps at Music for All and the Division Head for Marching Band at the 2022 Music for All Summer Symposium.
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]]>By Patrick Mainieri
The 2022 Music for All Summer Symposium, presented by Yamaha, kicked off with 261 campers arriving for leadership weekend. With camp on hiatus for the past two summers to ensure the safest environment, 99% of our campers are attending camp for the first time.
As campers were welcomed at registration, there was a noticeable, and understandable, amount of uncertainty. It was evident that campers were wondering, “Is this the right place for me?” “Where do I go?” “What do I do?” This uncertainty laid the foundation for transformation.
Through the service of our SWAG team, a volunteer group of transformative leaders from across the country, many of whom are past campers themselves, smiles and laughter ensued. Uncertainty began to relax. Campers found a resource that they could immediately trust and seek support from at any time during their camp experience.
At noon on Saturday, we kicked off Opening Session. Within 10 minutes, campers were meeting new friends and learning from one another.
Transformation continued throughout the afternoon and into the evening. Campers from over 30 states began realizing the experiences at their home program mirror what band and color guard students from across the country experience. Through activities and sessions, campers were challenged to be both introspective and seize their unique abilities with faculty prompting:
Justin McLean, Leadership Weekend Faculty, presents to campers about the impact of attitude.
At the end of Day 1, it was apparent that with uncertainty, through transformation, new relationships had been forged. Let’s just say the dance party at the end of Day 1 was hoppin’!
Leadership Weekend students dance at a surprise party at the end of their first day of camp.
Our leadership weekend campers are nothing but impressive. They are kind, curious, and authentic, continuing to refine what defines them and how they can use their talents to support others. They are empowered to approach faculty and ask questions to grow themselves. But, most importantly, they are forging relationships with one another that they can lean on and learn from long after camp has concluded.
At Music for All, it is our mission to create, provide, and expand positively life-changing experiences through music for all. We are glad to be back and excited about the future of our world, which lies in the thoughts and choices of our motivated young leaders!
Written by Patrick Mainieri. Patrick is a the Director of Participant Experience for the 2022 Summer Symposium, member of Music for All Event Staff, and a former SWAG.
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