A Call to Winds

2020. What a year. Do you remember what it was like, when the dominoes began to fall? 

For the marching arts, it started with a whiplash of  winter cancellations. Anxious members and staff held their breath, waiting to learn if circuits would cancel shows. Some held out, but ultimately WGI took initiative to cancel their season and the remaining circuits followed suit. It was heartbreak so few expected, yet it happened so fast.

Since then, we’ve experienced a bimonthly cadence of cancellations. We should be grateful that organizations are making tremendously hard decisions for the well-being of their communities (with major financial consequences for themselves). Still, it doesn’t make the process any easier. It’s been a brutal year. 

I personally feel worst for wind players. I am not saying “they have it the worst”. That case can be made for every kind of performer. It’s been so hard in different ways for everyone. But many winds players have not been part of any marching ensemble since last fall, with DCI and marching band gone. With seven months of disappointment and so much uncertainty on when “normal” will return, it is time for our community to embrace the new:

In 2015, WGI added Indoor Winds to their competitive circuit. In this year, with so much hardship on these young performers, it is time that all of us embrace this new activity. WGI Winds is a new frontier, with exciting boundaries to explore, skills to develop, and an intimate environment in which wind players can finally cultivate a renewed sense of expression. And just like the other pageantry activities, it is something that could change your student’s lives forever. 

New boundaries:

Have you ever wanted to add vocoder on a euphonium (this is my dream)? What about a hip hop movement featuring a sax quintet, or even modern movement on top of classic literature? Maybe you want to take classic marching band concepts and put them in a more concentrated environment- a challenge for your best and brightest students. Indoor is an environment to experiment with the new.

Since its inaugural year, groups have rapidly experimented with crafting their own identities. WGI Winds is a platform to explore what excites you & your team.

Yearly training and Staff 2.0:

One of the beautiful aspects of Winds is the ability to give developing training to passionate students year round. Of course, wind ensemble and all forms of concert band develop musicianship in a way that marching music doesn’t. But for your students who are passionate about the marching arts, Winds offers them further year round development of their marching and simultaneous responsibilities like percussion and guard members often receive. 

An often overlooked benefit of starting a Winds group is the value added with the marching staff. If you have a support staff for your winds in the fall,  Indoor Winds can be a further supplement to them as well. This is a net benefit for the whole program: your students receive year-round training from your staff, your staff earns more throughout the year, and you can all work together on a year-round marching arts curriculum. This strengthens the bond between students and within the staff, and is a great way to track year round development of your staff as well.
The gym transforms performers

Over the decades, color guard has been transformed thanks to increased participation in indoor programs. The same can now be said of percussion. While these programs are not essential to building great performers, they dictate the direction of the respective activities. This can be true for winds as well. What possibilities are out there if we develop year-round training for winds players who want it? 

Start Now

Things are tough this year, and starting in a less chaotic year may seem like the right way to go. But if you can, you ought to consider trying to found a group this year for several reasons:

First, it’s a prime year to get infrastructure in to place. Putting together a show, learning the  details of floor maintenance and learning a show on a new surface can all be challenging new tasks. With the lowered stakes this year, there has never been a better time to just jump in and give it a try. Perhaps there are aspects harder than you expected, but once regular shows resume (next year, please!), you will one year further ahead. 

Most importantly of all though, is for the performers. If you are a scholastic group, you have a senior class that lost most of their last 8 months of playing music together. While this indoor season won’t look like most, how proud do you think they would feel to be pioneers for the first Indoor Winds program in their school? They have had so much taken from them, giving them a brand new experience in a safe environment could help them the chance to play music in a pageantry setting with their teammates one last time. Most importantly of all, it can give them a chance to heal. 

So What Now?

If you are interested, talk to your students. Listen to what they are interested in, and if it is an opportunity that inspires or excites students after such a tough year. Start with a safe, distanced show this year and set the foundation for a whole new opportunity for years to come. If you need help, reach out to us! We are so excited about what is possible with winds programs. Guard and Percussion have shown us what is possible. WGI Winds will follow suit.

This year has been chaos, and the end is not yet clearly in sight. But Indoor Winds offers an opportunity for us to do something special. It is a chance to pursue the new and exciting and provide greater opportunities for pageantry lovers in your program. Where there has been instability, we can now find opportunity. And performers who lost their home may not be able to find