The MTMB Philosophy

A multi-perspective look at individual excellence, teamwork, goal-setting, competition, tradition, success and what is ultimately most important about the competitive marching band activity as practiced by the Manheim Township Marching Band Organization.

I wasn't expecting a life lesson, standing on the front sidelines at Cavalcade Championships on that typically chilly evening in November 1986. I was just looking forward to what I thought would be a solid show from a nice group of kids. (And being an aged 23 years old at the time, I would have said "kids" even back then.) The previous season, we had graduated enough senior musical talent almost to form a band on its own. This season's group could have felt sorry for themselves and had a letdown of a year, but what the 1985 band had in musical talent, the 1986 band turned out to match in spirit and leadership. I thought they'd perform well tonight.  I shouldn't have sold them so short.

The show was solid from the very first step-off. By the end of the opener, something was clearly going on. You could sense the electricity on the field. I remembered the feeling from my own marching days: a sudden feeling of supreme confidence in both yourself and in everyone around you, a sense that nothing can go wrong. You stop thinking about making mistakes and suddenly you're free to PERFORM.

What was particularly amazing this one evening was the way this feeling seemed to build as the show went on: the performance got better, and as the performance got better this invincible sense of confidence rose, and as the confidence rose...Well, by the time the tag hit, it was just magic.

The peak came right at the end. The rifle section of the guard was front and center for a difficult series of precision spins, all executed while marching as a group in a rotating triangle. The whole maneuver ended with a sequence of ever-higher tosses, with the captain throwing a towering "six" to top it off. Each rifle, perfectly in time, settled crisply into the waiting hands of its owner, as though it couldn't possibly have gone any other way. Most of the band couldn't necessarily SEE this perfection, but I'm quite sure that in some way they all FELT it.

After the final pounding chords brought this joyful marching symphony to its close, we in the staff all ran around to the end zone, to help guide the band off the field. I'll never ever forget the faces: 120 or so unique variations on the mixed themes of pride, joy, astonishment, exhaustion, and tears. I have a vague memory of someone yelling excitedly, "WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?"

Yes, where? Part of the emotion of the moment was familiar. The last show of the season always carries with it a bittersweet sense of saying goodbye to an old friend. For seniors, that goodbye comes with an additional sting as they find themselves - perhaps for the first time in their lives - face-to-face with the strange certainty that they have done something they love for the last time.

But this was something else. It took us a little while to realize how rare a thing it was: A group of ten dozen different individual souls coming together not just to do its collective best but to EXCEED that best, beyond what it imagined possible. In this respect, there have been few performances I've seen anywhere to match it; none have ever surpassed it.

The life lesson was completed at the announcement of the competition results. We came in third. Granted, we were all disappointed in that result, after such a uniquely great show. But this band really took it in stride. As we walked back to the buses, one senior sought me out and shook my hand. "But we really did our best, didn't we?" was all she needed to say.

After the show, one of the other band directors came up and, with sincere amazement in his voice, asked, "what did you DO to those kids to make them have a show like that?" Even today, we could still answer that question truthfully by saying: nothing other than what this program has always done, and continues to do these many years later.

From the very start of its competitive history, roughly a quarter century ago, the MTHS marching band program has been built on two pretty fundamental values involving the word "work": hard work and teamwork. We may have been more fixated on scores and placement in the early years, but it didn't take very long for us to realize that the competition was a means to an end, not an end in itself.

Competition is the way we make constantly visible the challenge we set up for ourselves. It's the fuel that feeds the motivational engine, driving us to grow and to do what we do better, as we work toward a common goal. Hard work is pretty self-explanatory. There aren't any shortcuts to where we want to be each season. Those extra twenty minutes of concentration on a Friday afternoon in the August heat relate directly to the quality of our last performance in November. The more we realize it, the closer we come to our goal of BEING THE BEST WE CAN BE.

Teamwork is pretty straightforward too. It's a cliche that everyone's a "starter" in marching band, that no one sits on the bench. Because this is one of those cliches that also happens to be true, teamwork is a big key to success, in whatever way it's defined.

But teamwork is visible in so many different forms. You can see it when a group of student leaders gets vocal to keep their fellow members focused for a Friday night football game performance. You can see it when a single upperclassmen comes in early for a practice in September to help a freshman in her section who is struggling with part of the show music. You can see it when a couple of gung-ho sophomore section leaders lighten up at the end of a grueling rehearsal, realizing that their colleagues have given all they have to give on this day. And you can see it, too, at midnight on a cold and wet October night when the buses pull in from a long trip to find dozens of applauding parents waiting in the parking lot.

As for the musical and visual elements that make up each year's show, we've avoided gimmicks (well, for the most part anyway - we can’t say with a straight face that we've NEVER given in to the temptation) and focused on "rep" of solid values. The idea is that the difficulty of each season's "book" is just enough to challenge the abilities and experience level of that year's membership without overwhelming them.

Maybe the most remarkable thing of all is these ideals have held consistently true for so many years. We've been incredibly fortunate to have the big picture of our approach handed down as a legacy from one year to the next. This has only been possible through the devoted efforts of a team (there's that word again) of directors, students, parents, staff, and school administration who have seen what a great thing we have going here and have wanted to make sure it keeps going.

One of the highlight demonstrations of the legacy was a very special weekend in the fall of 1997 when more than one hundred and eighty MTHS band alumni returned to honor Ken Husler specifically and the program generally. I love the video that was made of the event. In recording the Saturday night performance, the camera pans back and forth across the band with the focus close enough to see expressions on individual faces but wide enough to see the individuals as part of a group.

In the final number, the alumni are joined on the field by the members of the then-current high school band. Right there, playing side-by-side, are guys who were seniors when I was a freshman back in 1977 and freshmen who wouldn't be seniors until the twenty-first century. My favorite scene shown on the video happens as the 1997 band comes onto the field. A young trumpet player lines up beside a man who last marched on this field a dozen years earlier. They look at each other and both break into a mutually conspiratorial grin. It's a small but wonderful moment of understanding that comes from an unbroken tradition that's now already well into its third decade.

We still believe that the people who walk off the field at the end of each season, with their heads held high, are better for the experience, many in big ways, some just in little ways. Those graduating seniors may in fact never touch their horn or piece of equipment again (at least not until some future reappearance of the alumni band), but that's not the most important measure.

The show is fun. We love the show. But the show isn't the product. Growing people are the product.

Ed Harsh (July 2003)

Dr. Ed Harsh, a former MT band and staff member, wrote this article at the request of band director Mr. Ed Vaughen in an effort to recognize and define the core values responsible for the success of the Manheim Township Marching Band experience.

This article will be placed in a prominent location on our web page in the hopes that these acknowledged core values will benefit former, current and future band members, staff members and parents of the organization. The Manheim Township Marching Band is proud to be one of the founding members of the Pennsylvania Marching Band Coalition!