Spotlight on the Flash of Crimson Band
URL: www.flashofcrimson.com
“Flashy” would be one way to describe the Forsyth Central High School band’s Web site. But, because the band is known as The Flash of Crimson Band, this tactic works well. Arguably, the flashiest part of the site is the introduction, with its intermittent spots of crimson, mounting trance music, and sweeping text building up to the official welcome to the site. The introduction culminates with the URL, www.FlashofCrimson.com, flashing onto the screen in a flicker of white. (Note: On slower computers, the effect is basically lost.)
As the introduction stills, the word “PROCEED” appears at the bottom of the screen. (To the left, the words “Play Again?” offer visitors another chance to view the introduction.) At the right computer speed, the introduction does pass by in a flash, and it takes little effort – beyond clicking on “Play Again?” – to sit through the introduction a second time.
Upon clicking the “PROCEED” button, the flashiness continues with swirls and flashes of crimson and a vertigo-like animation sequence that leads to the Web site’s main page. Once there, the title of the page, “The Flash of Crimson Web,” zips across the top in red script. The entire site follows a black and red color scheme.
Amazing what an imaginative, ambitious student can create. Webmaster David Myers is the second in what may become a long line of music students who design and maintain the band’s Web site. In 1999, student Derek Britt started the site as a technology class project. When Britt graduated, he “bequeathed” the role of Webmaster to Myers as part of his senior “Last Will and Testament” at the annual band banquet.
“David updates the site two times a week, depending on the activities of the band,” explained John Mashburn, director of bands at Forsyth Central High School.
The site includes features like band updates and latest news, band forms, a calendar of events, a guest book and a photo gallery as well as information about fundraising, the boosters club and the band manual. In the entertainment section, users can listen to field show music, view band movies, sign up for a band e-mail address, peruse band jokes and join the chat room. The site also contains directories of students, alumni, staff and booster members. And if there’s something a visitor can’t seem to find, the site also has a directed search mechanism that can locate information on the site by keyword.
“The site has helped tremendously to get information out to our band families as well as visitors. We are hosting a Maynard Ferguson concert on May 16, and we were able to take ticket orders right over the Internet,” Mashburn noted. “Our band parents are able to download all of the information that we hand out to the students but never seems to make it home!”
As the site passes from one student Webmaster to the next, Mashburn hopes to see the site continue as a valuable “instrument” for disseminating information to parents and students.
“I would like to see lessons developed to help students with current performance materials and summer practice.”
Last month, in a special edition of Internet Sitings, SBO featured three exemplary Web sites. The first, www.jptband.org, is the info-loaded site of the J.P. Taravella High School band and orchestra (Coral Springs, Fla.). The different categories and features on this comprehensive site make it easy to find all the information anyone could possibly need about the band and orchestra.
The second site we highlighted was www.pleasval.k12.ia.us/HighSchool/
band/index.htm, the online home of the Pleasant Valley High School Band department (Bettendorf, Iowa). This site demonstrated how a Web site could be user-friendly without being too forceful – offering different options and making navigation easy for the Web-savvy and non-Web-savvy alike.
The third Web site featured last month was www.bransonbands.com, belonging to the Branson High School Band (Branson, Mo.). This Web site combines multiple elements – including a pull-down menu with 36 destinations – without cluttering the page.
School Band and Orchestra would like to take this opportunity to thank the many directors and Webmasters who have e-mailed their Web site URLs to us. You can read about other school music programs’ Web sites at our Web site: www.sboplus.net.
If you would like to submit your school music Web site for consideration
in School Band and Orchestra’s Web spotlight feature, please contact Editor Christian Wissmuller by e-mail at cwissmuller@ sboplus.net.
Web Spotlight ( a.k.a. Internet Sitings) appeared on pages 16 – 17 in the May issue of School Band and Orchestra.
