Marching season is a whirlwind of events. It can also be a little confusing, even for veteran band parents. So, as a public service announcement, here’s a breakdown of 2018 events, classes, etc.

Let’s start with classes.

Greenwood competes on the ISSMA Open Class circuit. This is the competitive circuit for seasoned Indiana bands. Open Class bands are divided into four groups, A, B, C and D. These classes are not a judgement of quality or a measure of the band’s size. The Open Class designations are based on school enrollment for grades 9-12. Class D schools have up to 561 students. Class C schools have 562 – 924. Class B schools have 925 – 1,659. Class A schools have 1,660 and over. These population splits are adjusted annually by ISSMA to keep a balance within the classes and take school population changes into account.

ISSMA also has Festival and Scholastic classes. Festival Class is for bands looking for an assessment of their program without the competitive component. The Scholastic Class is a relatively new class for developing programs. You may see a Scholastic competition prior to Open class at an Invitational. The Greenwood Invitational generally features a Scholastic competition. The ISSMA sanctioned Scholastic Finals are a separate event. The Scholastic champions are invited to perform in exhibition at the Open Class State Finals at Lucas Oil Stadium.

The Greenwood band season begins with a series of invitationals. Invitationals are not official ISSMA events. They are, however, important competitions because they give bands opportunities to perform their show in front of an audience and in front of a panel of judges who provide valuable feedback. The goal is to constantly improve and build confidence in the students as well as expand and clean the performance.

Competitions have their traditions as well. If you are only interested in seeing Greenwood perform instead of the entire competition, arrive early enough to get a good seat. Look at the contest schedule in advance. It’s a good idea to arrive before class B competition starts. Greenwood parents like to sit together. It builds “team spirit” and the students love to be able to locate their loud and proud cheering section. Before Greenwood performs, green and gold flags are passed out to all Greenwood spectators. As the band takes the field, we will be led in the cheer. “HEY GREENWOOD FANS!    GIVE ME A ‘G’,    GIVE ME AN ‘R’,  etc. Loudness is encouraged. Calling out to individual students, however, is strongly discouraged. We want to call attention to the band as a whole. Everyone is an equally important member of the team. Also, please don’t keep the flags, they will be used again.

Invitational participants are given an overall score rating. Captions for distinction are also awarded. Captions vary from competition to competition, but usually are awarded for best music, visual, general effect and guard/auxiliary. Some invitationals also present captions for best drum major and pit crew. Scores are given by each judge in their categories. Not all invitationals have the same number of judges or the same category breakdowns, but at the Greenwood Invitational, we have eight judges. Each judge watches the performance for specifics relating to their category. Judge categories are Music Ensemble, Music Individual, Music General Effect, Visual General Effect, Visual Ensemble and Visual Individual. These are the judges that make up the final score rating. Greenwood also has judges for Percussion and Color Guard, but their scores are for educational purposes and caption awards only. Some invitationals only have the six core judges. The maximum score for any band is 100. Early season scores are generally very low, which is to be expected. As the season progresses, shows expand and improve and scores go up.

The Greenwood field show is under 10 minutes, but it is incredibly complex. At the first performances of the season, we generally see just a fraction of the entire show. Each week the students learn more and the show continues to change and grow. Props are continually developed and refined as well.

The show is fairly complete in time for Regionals. This is the first official ISSMA competition. Any band wishing to compete for State Finals must compete at one of the four ISSMA Regional competitions. Greenwood’s Regional competition alternates between Center Grove and Evansville. So, every other year we have a road trip down south. Each Open Class has two Regional sites each season. The top-10 bands at each Regional site (20 bands in each of the four classes) then move to the Semi-State round.

At Semi-State, each class of band competes at a separate location. All 20 Class B bands compete at Pike High School. The bands will be judged as either a Semi-finalist or a State Finalist. The top 10 from each of the four Semi-State competitions will move on to Finals.

Finals week is a great time. Greenwood has been very fortunate to participate in ISSMA Finals competition 39 times in the last 44 years. That’s incredibly rare and should never be taken for granted. Finals week begins with Serenade. The band gathers very early on the Sunday after Semi-State at the high school. They then carpool to the homes of the directors. The band assembles in the street and performs their show at full volume. Neighbors are generally warned ahead of time and it’s usually not a problem. It’s a fun tradition that began with a single band student back in the 80’s and grew to include the entire band.

Thursday during finals week is the pre-state party. It is held at the school with a pitch-in dinner and shout-outs to the staff and parents who make the program run. The highlight of the pre-state party is the band “singing” their show. No instruments are involved and it’s always entertaining.

Then, it’s off to Lucas Oil Stadium for Finals competition. The top 10 bands in each class compete for the state title. The order of classes alternates every year. Greenwood has won the Finals competition 13 times since it began in the early 80’s. Then, the season is over in either late October or early November.

But, to help with marching band withdrawal, Greenwood offers Winter Percussion and Winter Guard which compete on WGI, IPA and IHSCGA circuits January, February and March.

Here is Greenwood’s marching competition season for 2018:

August 17 – football game halftime show
August 24 – football game halftime show
August 31 – football game halftime show
September 8 – Invitational at Lafayette Jefferson
September 14 – football game halftime show
September 15 – Invitational at Northwestern
September 22 – the 39th Annual Greenwood Invitational
September 29 – Invitational at Ben Davis
October 5 – football game halftime show
October 6 – Invitational at Center Grove
October 13 – ISSMA Regionals at Center Grove
October 19 – BOA Super Regional Prelims at Lucas Oil Stadium
October 20 – BOA Super Regional Finals at Lucas Oil Stadium… OR
October 20 – Invitational at Whiteland (if we do not qualify for BOA Finals)
October 27 – ISSMA Semi-State at Pike
November 3 – ISSMA Finals at Lucas Oil Stadium
November 5 – Stand-still performance at the GHS concert in the gym. The Irish Guard do not perform at this concert. This is the final marching band performance for seniors. There will be tears.

So, as a general rule, meet other band parents, check out the social media platforms, subscribe to the band calendar via the website, get involved, volunteer and enjoy the ride.