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Ahhh... Fall... Marching Band is in the Air
publication date: Dec 12, 2008
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author/source: Jeff Young
Can you smell it in the air? The fall is here and that means ______________ (insert your favorite team here) football... er, I mean Competitive Marching Band season. Practices in September, for most groups, involves finishing the show and the last of the “New Drill!” We are starting to put body into the show and detail sections of the show that need something extra besides the written music and drill. It is exciting because no one is quite sure what the finished product will look like, sound like, and feel like. One thing is certain... the things we do now will make or break the show. In this blog, I would like to address some of the common errors from directors and staff this time of year. Error #1 “We have too much to do, so we will put off fundamentals until the show is learned”. Huge mistake! You’ve got to stick with the plan. Practice fundamentals of playing and marching everyday. To save time, warm up on the move. Take your favorite long-tone and articulation exercises and do them in “traffic”(see blog from Aug 16). You can’t suddenly refine & fix a marching or playing style in October. It must continue to be defined now. I judged a show this weekend in which only one of the 21 groups showed a defined marching style for all situations and no one was refined yet. Error #2 “This section needs body, so lets just throw something in.” Choreography & body movement is not just “filler”, but rather is another way to express the music through the visual design. Any body choreography needs to both fit the style and theme of a show AND be musical. The best teachers and designers of body and dance are also good musicians and understand how to elevate the music, not just kill time. Error #3 “Integration means the color guard is inside the band form”. Not so! Integration of color guard and band in the drill involves drill forms in which the color guard is an integral and necessary part of the band form or staging. Too many times drill writers place the guard inside a form, but miss out on opportunities to make the guard drill actually a part of the band drill. Watch the Cavaliers Drum & Bugle Corp. They are masters of integration and cohesion.
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