Stuff In My Drawers Day: When Band Auditions Go Awry

Mon, 23 Aug 1999 19:02:23 -0400 (EDT)
To: bobbo, dlinden, rpereira, stpeter3, drew-dogg, dshiplet, etaylor, buri, pabrown3
From: "Brian Uri!" <llamaboy@vt.edu>

Hey guys,

I talked some with Dave today about cuts and the heat he's taking based on our decisions. He does support our decision for the most part...he just wants some written reassurance. I know you'll give Dave your honest opinions in the 3 areas he asked about; here's what I wrote back:

---

MUSIC

Larry's audition was slightly better than "middle of the road". He was definitely not good enough to play first part but would probably have been a decent second. His tone was piercing and his upper register did not show evidence of much practice or precision. Had he been in the band, we would have placed him on second part.

MARCHING

I was not present for the majority of the marching session on Thursday morning, so I relied on the observations of the rank captains and the other section leader. Larry was isolated as one of several old-timers who's marching was slack and did not seem interested in improvement. In normal seasons, this would be the norm; however, this season saw a great jump in the number of strong freshman marchers and hard-working old timers. He had the potential to be a good marcher, as evidenced by some of his marching last year, but showed no desire to work hard this year, as if he were expecting an easy return.

ATTITUDE

Larry tended to act in a cocky high-school mentality. He played to be heard, and often spoke of how good he used to be as a trumpet player in high school. He would often tell people that he "deserved" to be a first trumpet and once confided that he would be able to play the first part even if he was assigned third. Away from the marching band field, he is definitely not a "bad" person; he just has a tendency to forget that he is not always the focal point of attention.

I was Larry's next-door neighbor last year and we spoke quite often about band and trumpet playing. It was difficult for me to allow him to be cut, but I understood the reasoning behind it and the rank captains' reasoning. One strong basis for cutting Larry was the attitude he showed the rank captains of last year. I was not in his rank and did not march near him for the most part so I will not presume to know the complete story, but old rank captains stated that he had the habit of doing things his own way, and often played the first trumpet part even though he was assigned third. In a year in which we've lost strong first players and are attempting to rebuild the sound of the section without the poor improvised antics of first players, we didn't feel that Larry would do much to help in this area. He fully expected to be a first trumpet, and I have little doubt that he would have continued to play first even if assigned another part. The rank captains felt that it would be more productive to help a freshman become a member of the band, rather than to spend that same time trying to curb Larry's attitude.

The decision to cut Larry was by no means easy. When the leadership sat down at lunch on Friday, we had narrowed the list down to the following people (from which we had to cut 3):

• Perry
• Gary
• Mary
• Terry
• Larry
• Barry
• Kerry

Once this list was compiled, each rank captain and section leader stated both good and bad points concerning each person. Larry was not cut until the 3rd and most difficult round. In fact, there was almost complete deadlock between Larry and another old timer.

In the end, every rank captain expressed some reservations about cutting Larry. However, the final decision came when all the rank captains realized amongst themselves that no one was willing to have Larry in their rank. They were afraid of the adverse effect his attitude would have on both the rank and the new malleable freshmen.

I will say now that Larry's cut was definitely not a personal vendetta by any single or group of rank captains. The section leaders did not press the issue on any cut; they just supplied the rank captains with information pertaining to auditions and some of the things they saw on the field. Contrary to popular belief, Larry's cut was not endorsed by fraternity rank captains or oldtimer rank captains or people who did not personally like Larry. In fact, one rank captain said at first that they were not certain they would cut Larry, despite their dislike of him, because of his medium audition.

Larry was not removed because he was disliked or because he is a poor player. Larry was cut simply because the section has a limited number of seats, and there were people in the section who worked harder to gain those seats, and who would be a more positive influence on the trumpet section.