The music is only part of the lesson

The trophies are nice and the championships are worth celebrating, but Shawn Silva’s greatest reward from nearly three decades of teaching high school band has little to do with where his students finish in a competition. It's what they learn about themselves along the way.

"When they leave here, I want them to understand that the band teachers at Organ Mountain taught them that life is hard and that life doesn't get easier," Silva said. "It only gets harder. But you can succeed at it, and you can learn how to succeed."

That’s the philosophy shaping the Organ Mountain High School marching band, a program of nearly 200 students that recently reached a milestone Silva had pursued throughout his 28-year teaching career. For the first time, his band captured the grand championship at the Zia Marching Fiesta, one of New Mexico's longest-running marching band competitions.

The Royal Knight Regiment followed that accomplishment with a runner-up finish in Class 5A at the New Mexico Activities Association State Marching Band competition at Rio Rancho High School. The results are hardly the measure of the season.

"The results are the results. The outcomes are the outcomes," Silva said. "We are only in control of what we do. We're not worried about any other band or band program in the sense that that's out of our control."

Months of work all leading to an eight-minute performance that carried Organ Mountain to its Zia championship. Preparing for those eight minutes took nearly a year.

The process begins each November, shortly after the previous marching season ends, when Silva and fellow directors Jonathan Wheatley and Josh Bryant begin working with a design team to develop the following year's production. Music arrangers, drill writers, choreographers and visual designers collaborate on a show that must combine music, movement, color and precision into a seamless performance.

This year's production, "Echoes from the Canyon," draws inspiration from the Grand Canyon and the vast landscapes of the American Southwest. The musical selections were chosen to evoke towering canyon walls, desert colors and the expansive beauty of the region. Among them were "The Great Divide," "Grand Canyon Fanfare," John Mackey's "Kingfishers Catch Fire" and "Hymn to a Blue Hour," and "Wind River."

The band's approximately 35 color guard members add another dimension, using elaborate costumes, flags and choreography to complement the music. By the time students begin rehearsals in late July, much of the production has already been designed, but learning it is another matter.

Rather than mastering the entire show at once, the students build it piece by piece. The final portion wasn't added until early October, leaving the band several weeks to refine the performance before its biggest competitions.

Silva said those final rehearsals focus heavily on the closing portion of the show, where students have had the fewest repetitions.

"It's the last thing everybody remembers," he said.

Judges evaluate far more than the music. They consider marching precision, visual presentation, the integration of color guard and the overall effect of the production. The goal is to make an extraordinarily complicated performance appear effortless.

"It's not easy to get 200 kids to do the exact same thing at the exact same time," Silva said.

Silva knows something about the dedication required to become a musician.

He began playing saxophone in sixth grade and continued through high school, where he developed a love for both music and chemistry.

For a time, chemistry appeared to be his future. He was headed to New Mexico State University intending to pursue that field when he made a decision that changed his life.

"Literally on the drive over, I changed my mind," he recalled. "I think I want to do music education. I want to teach music. I want to keep doing this."

He has been teaching band ever since. Over time, he discovered that his instrument was no longer the saxophone. It was the band itself.

Teaching students to understand music, develop their abilities and work together became his craft. Silva enjoys every part of the program, from marching and concert bands to jazz, percussion, basketball band and color guard.

When marching season ends, the workload doesn't disappear. In fact, it becomes more complicated. During marching season, the nearly 200 students function as one unit. They rehearse together, travel together and work toward a common goal.

When the season concludes, that single group breaks into four concert bands, several jazz bands, color guard groups, percussion ensembles and a basketball band. Suddenly, Silva and his colleagues manage as many as a dozen different groups.

Each provides an opportunity to develop students' musical skills, particularly those of younger musicians who will become the foundation of future marching bands.

"Playing your horn well is playing your horn well," Silva said. "There's no substitute for playing your instrument great."

For Silva, however, musical excellence is only one part of the education.

He wants students to learn perseverance, consistency, leadership and the value of working toward something difficult. He points to a message he heard from Duke women's basketball coach Kara Lawson about learning to "handle hard better." The idea resonated with him.

Too often, he said, people expect life to become easier. His goal is to help students recognize that challenges are inevitable, but that they can develop the skills and determination to overcome them.

"Besides having a great musical experience, I want them to understand that there's no substitute for hard, dedicated work and effort," he said.

That means teaching students to value the process more than the outcome. A championship doesn't suddenly validate their work, just as a disappointing finish doesn't diminish it.

"We can't put our value of what we do inside of our program in the hands of seven people who don't know anything about us," Silva said, referring to competition judges.

The judges are highly qualified, he emphasized, and their evaluations help the band improve. But the students' sense of accomplishment must come from something deeper than a score.

Silva also wants his musicians to appreciate the efforts of their competitors. He regularly reminds them that the students in other bands are working just as hard and deserve the same respect.

"We support everybody," he said. "It's not just our program that we're celebrating."

Silva is quick to redirect attention when the conversation turns to his accomplishments. He credits fellow directors Wheatley and Bryant, the color guard and percussion staff, the school's administration and a band parent organization that provides constant support. But most of all, he credits the students.

They arrive for early-morning rehearsals, work through demanding routines and learn to depend on one another. They also bring different personalities, backgrounds and abilities into a program that must somehow function as a single unit. That isn't always easy.

"We have to coach kids through situations and scenarios, and we don't always get along," Silva said. "There's 200 personalities."

The solution, he believes, is consistency and a commitment to helping every student succeed. He takes particular pride in the student leaders who reinforce the program's standards and help younger musicians develop.

"They really want to emphasize the process and the standard over the outcome," he said.

Sometimes, during the long hours and demanding rehearsals, Silva reminds the students to appreciate something much simpler. During morning practices, as the sun rises over the Organ Mountains, he encourages them to look around.

"Look at what we're doing," he tells them. "We're outside in the fresh air."

The students laugh at him, he said, teasing him about being old because he gets up at 4:30 every morning. But the moment reflects something he hopes they will carry with them long after their marching days are over. It’s the ability to appreciate the experience and not merely the result.

This season, the results included those two late-season results, accomplishments that will become part of the school's history. Silva hopes the more lasting achievements will belong to the students themselves.

"It's really not about us, the teachers," he said. "It's really about them."

For all the preparation, instruction and guidance that go into building a championship band, Silva sees a simple distinction between the teachers and the young people they serve.

"We're just a guide to the process," he said. "They're the ones that are doing the work."