Marching with great style takes focus and patience By: Briana Brogan



Quakertown marching band field show "I Am. . . "

   At first, marching can seem difficult and impossible.  When I was a freshman, I did not know if I could ever march and play music at the same time.  Once you know the correct posture and can play music while marching, it seems easier.  Marching includes many different concepts.  While marching, you must keep a lot in mind. 

            If you memorize the music before you move and play at the same time, marching will come easier to you.  When you start adding music as you march, it can become confusing if you don’t memorize all of the music.  In addition to memorizing music, you must keep marching with great style in mind.  Our band uses the “roll-step” style to march.  In order to roll-step, you push out on your left foot while keeping your left platform up (the top half of your foot).  Your right heel should remain off the ground.  It might seem hard to balance, so you can roll forward and back to find your center.  This makes it easier to balance.  Also, your legs should remain straight.  When taking multiple steps forward, you want to keep your legs in a “ski-line path”.  You should always move in a straight path.  Some bands do the high step marching instead of roll stepping.  Wikipedia says, “The high step is used by many colleges and universities.  In one high step, the band member rolls his or her foot out to the toe, bending the knee.  The knee then locks, and the leg is lifted out in front of the marcher before it is put down in the new position.  This is known specifically as a chair step.” 

            Marching backwards includes a different form than forward marching.  You still push out onto your left foot, except you step backwards and this time your left and right heels will remain off the ground.  Only your platforms will stay down.  At first moving backwards seems hard.  To move backwards, you move from your hips and still keep the “ski-line” path.  Your legs still stay straight.  Keeping them straight actually makes it easier to take steps backwards.

            While marching, your upper body should never move.  When you march, you want it to seem like you glide across the field.  You definitely do not want to look like you are bouncing or moving your upper body up and down.  Also, your shoulders must always stay flat to the sideline no matter which direction you march in.  When marching left or right it seems difficult to keep shoulders square to the sideline.  Even though your feet move in a different direction, your upper body can not move.  I play the flute and it still hurts sometimes to keep my shoulders back while marching to the side. 

            Another thing to think about while marching includes horn angles.  For example, flutes must stay parallel to the ground.  Each instrument uses a different posture.  In order to look good when marching, you want to look big and tall.  You won’t look big if your instrument stays pointed toward the ground.

            Everyone must look uniform when marching.  For instance, everyone’s feet must stay in time.  In order to do this, you must look at the drum major while marching and listen down to the percussion.  If a few people’s feet stay out of time, the band will not look uniform.  In addition, everyone must stay in the form.  In order for a form to look right, everyone must use their peripheral vision to guide to the people around them.  This will help every single person to stay in the form.  Even if only one person stays out of the form it will not look right.  You do not want to be the red light bulb that stands out from everyone else. 

            It takes patience to learn how to march, but it will eventually come to you.  When I was a freshman, it all felt overwhelming to me, but I improved each year.  Do not give up and keep working hard. 

 

The feeling of performing at competitions

Some people do not know that marching band competes in competitions.  Marching band competitions involve bands from different groups.  The group number depends on the size of the band.  For example, our band competes as a group five, because the Quakertown Marching Band contains more people than most high schools.  Because of the size of our group, we don’t get to compete with a lot of other bands our size.  If no other group five band performs, we automatically win in our group, but we will still perform and can try to do better than other groups.

             Many judges attend marching band competitions.  Sometimes they walk on the field in the middle of a field show talking into their recorder, while other times they stand off to the front sideline.  Judges also sit in the box at the top of the stadium in order to judge overall effect.  According to wikipedia, “Bands are usually judged on criteria such as musicality, uniformity, visual impact, artistic interpretation, and difficulty of music and drill.”  Many judges watch the show and each of them focus on a certain aspect in order to come up with a score.  Finally, the scores of each judge average together to form one final score.

            Performing makes all of the crazy amount of hours we practice worth it.  At competitions, we show how hard we worked by staying focused and having a great show.  Competition days last a while.  The first half of the day, we practice.  During this time, we fine-tune any problems and do run-throughs of the show, so we become prepared for the performance.  After practice, we eat and then sit for a long bus ride.  When we arrive at the school of the competition, we flip the switch and stay focused and determined.  Once again, we warm up and practice basics.  We also have section psych up time to feel pumped up and ready for our show.  Then, we all walk over to the stadium as a group and think about our performance. 

Quakertown Marching Band competes in the USSBA (United States Scholastic Band Association) competition circuit.  Wikipedia says, “USSBA was formed in 1988.  Over 700 high school bands compete during the fall season with bands of similar size and talent.  Each competition provides approximately 40 professional judges.  At the seasons end, the top 50 bands are invited to compete in the USSBA championship, which is hosted at a college or professional stadium.”  Our band competes in the national championship competition at the naval stadium in Annapolis, Maryland.  For me, I like this performance the best.  It’s the last competition of our season and always the best stadium we perform in.  We, the Quakertown Panther Marching Band, stand and wait anxiously , on November 6th, 2010 until the previous band finishes. The excitement takes over my nerves, as I know we will do great. Then we walk down through the tunnel and into the naval stadium, already in performance mode. Ready to throw down and give it our all, we know it's the last time we will perform this show with this group of people.  The bleachers contain the words "Go Navy" on them with hundreds of people watching.  Two TV screens show us as we walk across the turf about to perform. After scrambling to place props on the field, we wait for the first downbeat.  We march hard and play our hearts out, as we realize we will no longer perform this show again.  Pushing to the end and taking the last step, I feel sad that the show ended , but great about our performance. People may wonder why we practice so much and why we do this to ourselves.  We do it for ourselves and the feeling of performing and hearing people cheer for us.  In the end, knowing that we improved and did our best performance matters more than the score. 

Practice makes perfect in marching band

Most people underestimate marching band. They don’t realize all of the hard work that goes into it.  In fact, marching band isn’t as easy as you think.  Numerous hours of practice go into learning the field show and making it perfect.  Because of the many hours we practice, marching band in my opinion requires more hard work than any other extracurricular activity.

            Marching band practices start in the summer, and the season usually ends in November.  We practice in a range of 90 to 30 degree weather.  In addition, we practice outside when it rains.  We learn to deal with the conditions in order to make our show great.  We also deal with the conditions or our field.  In the past, we marched on our field when it looked like a swamp.  Even if conditions are bad, we still continue marching and keep doing our best.  During halftime at our home football game, it started to snow.  The snow stuck to the field, and yard lines weren’t visible.  The other band still continued to march their show even though a blanket of snow covered the field.  The snow made it hard for them to see where they were going, and probably ruined the tone of their instruments, but they still gave the performance their all.

            Marching band practices last a long time.  In August, we have band camp where we practice for eight hours every day for the first week.  During this week we learn basic marching, and start learning our field show for competitions.  For the whole month of August, we practice almost every day.  Marching band shares the same similarities as a sport.  They both involve a work out.  We stretch and run laps before we start practicing, just like any sport would.  Even though we do receive water breaks, practice causes exhaustion and soreness.  Wisegeek.com says, “Shows are typically about five to ten minutes long and may be performed in any kind of weather.  Depending upon the skill of a band, a show can be an extraordinarily hard work out.”  Marching band combines athleticism and musicianship.

            After summer practices, we practice during the week.  Then, we play in football games where we practice even more.  Finally, on competition days we start practice in the morning and practice almost all day for our performance in the evening.  Marching band takes hard work and dedication from everyone.  In addition, practices can involve many run-throughs of the show from top to bottom.  Marching the whole show over and over causes exhaustion.  I think we practice just as much as sports, maybe even more.  Also, we add musicianship to athleticism; we not only move quickly but also play difficult, memorized music at the same time.  This seems much harder than any extracurricular activity.  We practice together all the time during marching season.  I don’t think any other activity involves this much practice and hard work.  I’ve never worked this hard for perfection in my life, and I don’t think other people in marching band have either.

Different types of marching band field shows

Most people do not understand the concept of a field show.  A field show can resemble a story or theme that band performs.  Many bands use props, backdrops, and sound effects in order to enhance their show.  Field shows can range from different genres.  Some may be fun, which can excite the audience, while others can seem serious, causing the audience to pay close attention while sitting on the edge of their seats.  Both types of shows can grab the audience and judge’s attention.

            Our show last year titled, “Memoirs of a Gangster,” allowed us to experience fun during the performance.  The show took place in the 1920s, the era of jazz, and revolved around a gangster who wanted out of the family business.  We started the show off with each section of the band hiding behind backdrops, while quotes from “The Godfather” movie played.  On the backdrops were pictures of people at a club.  In addition to backdrops and quotes, we used tables where some of the band members got to sit, while people in the color guard waited on them.  We also used around ten seven foot mob cut outs, which helped to show the story better.  Finally, we used sound effects, such as a gunshot when a character would die.  We played mostly jazz music during the show and featured many soloists.  Using many props helped to make “Memoirs of a Gangster” come to life and a fun show to perform.  The audience really liked our show.

            Our show two years ago titled, “I Am. . .” revolved around hope.  Performing this show did not allow much fun because of fewer props and no real story.  We performed it more seriously compared to “Memoirs of a Gangster.”  The only prop we used, besides backdrops, included a large, circular tarp.  The tarp made it hard to march on because people would trip over it and fall.  I started the show near the edge of the tarp and could feel the tarp come up as I marched off of it.  I almost tripped every time.  This prop caused difficult marching, and resulted in people falling.  Using a tarp as a prop can cause a dangerous situation because people might get hurt.

            According to wisegeek.com, “A field show combines many moves that place the marching band in different formations, while the band continues to perform music.”  Sometimes marching bands create formations that relate to their show, while sometimes they just create curves and columns.  Most college marching bands spell out words, such as the name of the college.  Wisegeek.com says, “It’s actually worthwhile to sit higher up in a stadium to get the overall effect of field show formations.”  Standing from the ground or sitting low in a stadium makes it hard to see the formations.  To really see the forms, you should sit higher in a stadium.  Field shows combine music and formations with props to make it enjoyable to watch and perform.