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From the Archives: Finishing Touches

This week it’s all about the finishing touches.  The kids are spinning… it’s relatively together…they’re starting to express and use their showmanship skills… Now it’s all about details. These two articles from the archives have some ideas that might help. A Movement Moment #8: Put on Your Audience Eyes by Cheryl Myers (2/17/2010) Everyone’s favorite [...]

From the Archives: Showmanship!

This week it’s all about showmanship!  How do you get your performers past the technical and really expressing the “meaning” of the show up and out there to the audience.  How do you get them to a point where they are able to draw the audience in and engage? Here are two of our past [...]

What Does That Mean? Understanding Terminology from an Equipment Judge’s Dialog

During Field Season, the Auxiliary judge looks at everything that goes into your show, namely vocabulary (both body and equipment), costumes, equipment, props, staging of performers, color choices, etc..  If it is on the field and not playing an instrument, the Auxiliary judge will most likely talk about it. When we move into Winter Guard, [...]

From the Archives: Writer’s Block and other challenges…

As we hit the mid-point of our seasons sometimes challenges set in… if you’re facing some stressful challenges this week here are two articles that might provide some insight. When Teaching Guard Gets Hard by Darcie Gudger (11/03/2009) When You Hit the Proverbial Block by Chris Casteel (9/25/2009) If you’ve hit a rough patch we [...]

From the Archives: Collaboration, Transitions and Fabric Sails

We hope your winter seasons are off to a fabulous start.  Whether you’ve just completed your first competitions or are looking forward to them this weekend, we hope that the growing community here on the CGE FB page or the archived articles here on CGE will help make your season just a little less stressful. [...]

Candy Cane Flag

This has got to be the simplest Fun Friday craft project yet!  It’ll only take you minutes (beyond gathering the supplies) but you’re sure to put smiles on the faces of your performers! ‘Flag’ Candy Canes Materials needed: Craft Felt Glue gun Sheet of paper Candy cane Instructions: Using the sheet of paper, cut a [...]

Color Guard Storytime

Remember in kindergarten everyone would gather around the teacher for story time? Everyone loves listening to stories, even high school kids!  In our guard, we have ‘story time’ and it is connected to the development of our team core values. One of our values is to ‘Be good people’ and treat each other with respect. [...]

DIY: Drawstring Bags

Materials needed: 20” x 50” fabric 2 x 80” pieces of cording Puffy paints, buttons, ribbon, bows, etc for decorating Cut 20” x 50” piece of fabric (you can alter the size to meet your needs). Fold in ½, right sides together. From top edge, mark 2” down. (Fig. 1) Using ½” seams, sew below [...]

Spirit Bags!

This is a fun activity the entire band participates in!  During marching season students create spirit bags for their own sections, for every performance. Spirit bags contain a few treats and some fun baubles from the dollar store (a glow stick, mardi gras beads, lip gloss, etc).  Coaches and directors sometimes add a little note [...]

Warm Fuzzies

September is typically a tough month for kids since they have so many responsibilities, homework, the social scene of high school, and it can take some time to figure out the balance between life and marching band. It’s always the toughest time for my kids, even when they know the expectations of the guard. Once [...]

Candy Cane Flag

This has got to be the simplest Fun Friday craft project yet!  It’ll only take you minutes (beyond gathering the supplies) but you’re sure to put smiles on the faces of your performers! ‘Flag’ Candy Canes Materials needed: Craft Felt Glue gun Sheet of paper Candy cane Instructions: Using the sheet of paper, cut a [...]

ON THE WEB: Band Saves Lives and Fundraises at the Same Time

We thought this was an interesting/unique approach to both service and fundraising – check out this New Jersey marching band that saves lives while also earning some money for their program.  Win/Win!

ON THE WEB: Podcast about starting a brand new WG program

Episode 47 of the Marching Roundtable podcast series (posted December 12, 2011) is an interview with Tim LeBlanc – a guard instructor from TX who has also been a participant in the CGE community on Facebook – about his experience starting a brand new winter guard at a new school.  Check it out!  Episode 47: [...]

Color Guard Storytime

Remember in kindergarten everyone would gather around the teacher for story time? Everyone loves listening to stories, even high school kids!  In our guard, we have ‘story time’ and it is connected to the development of our team core values. One of our values is to ‘Be good people’ and treat each other with respect. [...]

Budget-Conscious Costume Transformation

Being involved in the color guard world, we all know what it is like to be on a budget. Some of you are probably thinking, “What budget? I wish I had money to budget!” This year I needed to allocate more money for flag fabric since we purchased 2 shaded-silk swing flags for each member [...]