Full Scorein C
a show in six sets
for wind band, drumline & software agents
Wilmington, North CarolinaRob Parker
You’re on the podium. Conduct – down, up. Sound is top right.
I’m a band director.
Twenty years in North Carolina classrooms. Today I’m Director of Bands at Ashley High School in Wilmington: concert band, wind ensemble, percussion ensemble, and a marching band.
Band isn’t really about concerts or trophies. It’s where kids learn to listen, prepare, lead, fail, recover – and be part of something bigger than themselves.
Sixty-four people. One picture.
Marching band is motion design with teenagers. Every dot is a student, every set is a picture, and getting from one to the next takes a counted number of steps. Hit your spot on count eight and the picture works. Miss it and the whole stadium can tell.
Click a marcher to see their path.
Usually, I’m in the back row.
I’m a percussionist. When I’m not on the podium I’m usually behind it. I was the first president of the Wilmington Symphonic Winds, recently served as its interim conductor, and play percussion there, and I pick up symphony, choir, and pit gigs around town.
Drummers think in sticking. A paradiddle is R L R R L R L L. Write R as 1 and L as 0 and it’s 1011 0100. Drummers have been writing code for a long time.
The grid is live – tap cells. Sound is top right.
My other ensemble never takes a water break.
I build software with AI, mostly at night and on Sundays. A lot of it is for band: the site our families use, practice tools for my students, sign-ups for the groups I’m part of.
I describe what I need. Atlas, the AI assistant that runs my desk, splits up the work; a few AI agents build it, and another one checks it against what I asked for. My job is the same as on the podium: know what it should sound like, and listen.
Click a voice to hear it alone (sound is top right).
Things I love: a band finding the ending together. Clean sticking at a fast tempo. A tool that gives a teacher an hour back. Public schools. The second before the downbeat.
Trophies – what I call “shiny plastic” – are great for about a night. The part that lasts is working hard together toward a common goal.
Hold here. Write to me.
About band, about software, or about getting started with AI.
Fine.
D.C. al Coda parkerarob · Wilmington, NC