Making the Time for Relationships

Hi, Rebecca here! I like to think that most directors know it is important to build a relationship with each member of their ensemble. I have noticed, however, that sometimes the other relationships within the program get left out. 

A marching band community is typically comprised of four key groups: staff, ensemble leadership, performers, and supporters. Each one of these groups plays a key part in your season’s success. It is important to build relationships with and within each of these groups to build a long-lasting and successful program. 

The Math

When we talk about building relationships, we tend to focus on the relationships we have the most control over – the ones where we are one of the two people making up the relationship. If we have a staff of four people (other than ourselves) that means there are four relationships we need to focus on in our staff, right? 

Wrong! Not only does each member of our staff have a relationship with us, but they also have a relationship with each other staff member. We can use a simple counting formula to determine the number of relationships in this group of people. A group of N people will have (N * (N-1)) / 2 relationships. So, our group of five people has (5 * (5-1)) / 2 = 10 relationships. In this example, more than half of the relationships among our staff do not include us! However, it is still our responsibility to make time to build these relationships if we want to have a successful season. 

Staff Relationships

Even a relatively small staff, like we saw in the example above, will have more relationships without the head director than with. As the head director, you will want to make sure that you are allowing your staff time to build these relationships so that you can work more effectively as a team. Everyone needs to be on the same page about the show’s concept and theme so the show comes across clearly to the audience. 

We have previously discussed, How Staff Influences Your Season, What to Look For When Hiring Band Staff, Protecting Your Staff Through Good Business Practices, and the all-important to-do item of Pay Your Band Staff. Now, let’s add staff bonding and team building to the list! If you have new staff members, make time to introduce them to the rest of the staff before your first rehearsal. Even if your staff has all worked together before, a pre-band camp meeting can still be a great way to bring everyone together and start building momentum for your season. 

Ensemble Leadership Relationships

The staff can’t do it all and the next group of people we find ourselves welcoming back each year is our ensemble or student leadership. Typically, we already have a relationship with these performers. They are experienced members of our ensemble who have proven themselves to be good leaders. We believe they will do great things.  We must remember that while we have relationships with each of these members, they do not all have relationships with each other. Our ensemble leaders need to work together as a team, so we need to help them become one. 

Many programs have the leadership start band camp a few days before the rest of their group to do just that. One goal of your leadership camp should be to teach these members how to be a leadership team. You can discuss concepts such as leadership, teamwork, techniques to build rapport, and teaching with these leaders to build a foundation for their new roles. Adding in some team-building games is a good way to break up the day and get the members interacting with each other. Not sure where to start? Check out our leadership curriculum. 

Performer Relationships

After leadership camp, the rest of the performers arrive at band camp. Now your ensemble is together for the first time this season! As tempting as it is to jump into the music, this is the only time you get to make a first impression on your new members. Use it wisely. The first day of band camp establishes the tone for your season. If you want the ensemble to work together as a team, take the steps to make teamwork happen on day one.

Encourage all of your performers to meet and learn the names of every other person in the program. How often do we see special groups like the front ensemble or the color guard left out of group activities? Do not let this become a habit on day one. Have every single performer participate in some group bonding time. Encourage performers to learn each other’s names, find commonalities, and work together from the very beginning, especially performers that rarely spend time together during a rehearsal. Setting time aside for bonding activities from day one will make it clear to your ensemble that their relationships with each other are important to you. 

Supporter Relationships

The last group of people that you should invest in building relationships with is your supporters. There can be many different people depending on the ensemble that you direct: parents, floor crew, fans, volunteers, or service organizations like sororities and fraternities. These are the people that help you get stuff done, make sure competition days go smoothly, tailor uniforms, chaperone busses, and so many other things. 

While you may not want or need to spend a lot of time with each of them early on in your seasons, making them feel welcome and included early on is important. It keeps your veteran supporters coming back, and encourages them to pull in more people to support your program. Consider ways to show your appreciation to these folks as early in your season as possible, even if it’s just a super early first showing of what the performers learned during band camp.

Make the Time

Make time from day one to strengthen all of the relationships within your program. Set the example by building and maintaining a relationship with each of your staff and performers, and let them know you expect the same effort from each of them. These connections will help your program grow exponentially through the season and from year to year. 

What relationships do you focus on building in your program? What are some ways you have achieved those goals?