Clean is effect. I heard that saying early on in my career, but it took years for me to truly grasp the power of those three words.
What does the saying mean?
First off, let’s look at what “clean is effect” means. I’ll be looking at this saying through the lens of a band director.
Bands that are clean have great effect. Audiences respond positively to performing groups that have few, if any errors. When everything looks and sounds like it is being done perfectly, they jump from their seats to praise that group.
So, why do we insist on absurdly difficult programming?
The myth
I’m calling this the “Myth”. This myth states that, “If it is difficult, people will notice the difficulty and lavish us with praise!”.
This is false.
First off, audiences don’t know what is difficult. Many of them haven’t played an instrument. Several phrases of a recognizable melody will beat ridiculously difficult running lines of music that no one understands.
The second part of this myth is that professional judges will give us credit if we perform something extremely difficult. This is partially true. You will get credit from a judges panel if you perform difficult material. But only if it is performed WELL!
You must be able to master the material! The music must work. If it is marching band drill/choreography, it has to be…(Here comes that word again.) CLEAN!
Frustrations
My first experience with this myth occurred in Virginia. There was a band that we competed with from time to time and they did “easy” shows. And, they outscored us. It made me nuts! The hardest thing they did was change a horn angle. And, when they did… everyone clapped!
My next series of experiences occurred in Florida. We watched a lot of bands perform in States finals (FMBC). And, they frequently weren’t doing things that looked very hard.
But they were clean.
And then there was Drum Corps (DCI). I loved Carolina Crown. Their music and drill was CRAZY! But, they didn’t win. How could that be? When I asked other directors how they could possibly come in 2nd or 3rd place, the answer was always the same.
They weren’t clean.
Giving in to ‘clean’
I 2012 I decided to give up trying to do ‘more difficult’ things. I chose a doable music book and didn’t write anything crazy for the band to perform.
I’ll write more about that season in a future blog. But, 2012 was one of our best seasons. We didn’t win a state championships but the following comment from one of our judges sums up our year:
“You guys never did anything really difficult. But the show just worked. Everything made sense and was fun to watch.”
Give up and give in
If you’re a director of a group. Stop trying to kill your kids with difficult routine in order to get effect. Your scores will go higher if you just clean everything up.
If it won’t clean, change it so you can make it clean. There’s no shame in changing something in order to make it more effective.
Clean is effect!