Playing a sport and playing an instrument are different, but Dr. Martin Reynolds makes the rare connection between the two when he conducts his band at Southeast Missouri State University sporting events.
"I try to bring a lot of energy to what I do," said Reynolds, the director of bands at Southeast. "I love what I do ... Probably the most visible thing I do is with the athletic bands."
Reynolds conducts the Golden Eagles Marching Band at football games and the Southeast Show Band at basketball games. He is always mentally engaged in the games with a confident professionalism.
His reaction when Southeast's teams make a good play is often as simple as a raised arm.
Despite being a sports fan, that's all he can spare since he still has a job to do. He has to cue the band to play and gauge the crowd's attentiveness to keep it absorbed in the game.
He is playing a game of his own--one that he gets to coach. The musicians in his bands are his players, and they carry out the team's plays in the musical language of tempo, rhythm, melody and harmony.
In basketball and football a limited number of players are allowed to be in the game at any given time, but all of the members of the band are always involved with what the group is trying to accomplish.
"I tell my kids all the time in these big groups that I direct that they're in the ultimate team sport," Reynolds said.
Reynolds studied music all over the country, including stops at the University of Central Arkansas and the University of Maryland, before earning his Doctor of Musical Arts in conducting from the University of Arizona. The 47 year old has 22 years of teaching experience at the high school and collegiate levels and has done several musical productions outside of academia.
Reynolds also understands the sporting world. He played baseball for three years in high school and has coached his three sons in baseball and basketball.
Along with conducting the bands at Southeast's home games, he tries to liven the crowd with enthusiastic gestures that he feels are infectious to the band and the crowd.
"The big thing for me is once we get the crowd up and get things going, we want to try to keep it that way," Reynolds said. "And I feel like the band has a big part in that, in trying to keep the momentum going. And so I try to keep it to where there's not a lot of down time, so we always try to keep some energy up and going."
Reynolds is not used to having a lot of down time. His workload at Southeast includes directing the concert band, teaching students and recruiting new band members to the school. Last spring, he collaborated with the Department of Theatre and Dance to produce Spring Into Dance at the River Campus.
He also spends a lot of time traveling to different towns in the region and interacting with high school bands. He uses the time to talk with other professionals and mentor students.
"I am on the road a lot, but that's something I enjoy doing, too, because I learn something every time I go out because there are good things that are happening in places, and you never know when I might be able to pick up a trick that will help me for when I come back and work with my students," Reynolds said.
Reynolds also recruits high school students for the bands when he is on the road.
"I spend a lot of time in front of students trying to recruit and figure out where they are going to school," Reynolds said. "And typically the pitch I have is there is not one school that every student needs to go to."
Reynolds tells his potential recruits, "We have a really good thing going on at Southeast; come on campus and look at it and see what you think. If this is what you are all about then come join us."
Reynolds had been teaching at the high school level for eight years in Arkansas when he got the urge to teach at the collegiate level again. He became Southeast's director of bands during the fall of 2010.
His previous collegiate teaching positions include the director of bands at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the assistant director of bands at the University of Arkansas and the associate director of bands at New Mexico State University.
Outside of collegiate productions, Reynolds has worked on a wide range of commercial productions. He has done a holiday production at Radio City Music Hall in New York City that involved the famous Rockettes.
He has also worked on a television production for ABC that celebrated the refurbishing of the Statue of Liberty and a production for CBS that celebrated the 200th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution. In both instances, he was a teacher and director of large marching bands that included the best collegiate musicians in the country.
When teaching college students, Reynolds is able to use techniques that he learned from his academic training and his experience as a sports coach.
"As a teacher I want to be fair and equitable to everybody ... So if I can be a mentor and a positive role model for people, I try to live it, not just say it," Reynolds said.
Reynolds has found the best barometer to gauge success is the audience's reaction.
"That is linked back to how the crowd reacts to it," Reynolds said. "If the crowd really reacts strongly to it then it's like 'Oh, wow, that's awesome.' Of course there is a feeling of release from when you first started the project and then you hear somebody react to it and they enjoy it. There's a lot of pride and a lot of positive feeling that comes out of that."
Reynolds said he enjoys being good at what he does and he wants his pupils to be good at what they do.
"My kids don't get the recognition of having a player number on and get their name called in a game, but they do get the recognition of being in the group and the satisfaction of seeing people enjoy what you do," Reynolds said. "That's powerful for them."
