Why has marching band gotten so boring?

Topics and polls that cover the overall marching band activity

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Schimmy
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Re: Why has marching band gotten so boring?

Post by Schimmy » Thu Jun 25, 2015 9:08 am

Bring back the days when bands played the theme from Budweiser and formed a beer can! No, we should go back further and replace the modern guard with the American party and make all of our pit march with their mallet instruments. Maybe we should go back to the time when everyone was playing swing versions of the classics or playing Chuck Mangione tunes.

My point is you are remembering the best parts of old school marching band and not the bad or even average. Every performance genre has developed over the years. Even parade has changed.

What has happened in marching band is that the shows are being designed for a more idiomatic approach. Music is no longer being arranged but now it is written specifically to match the ability level and integrate well with the visual element.

Marching band will continue to evolve and like everything else it will be cyclical. Some group will amaze everyone with a show that is retro in style and then everyone will try and recreate aspects of that show.

Meanwhile, I would suggest relaxing a bit and enjoying some amazing performances by a couple of the best bands in the state that you help create.
"The audience is always listening"

JLGORMAN
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Re: Why has marching band gotten so boring?

Post by JLGORMAN » Thu Jun 25, 2015 10:03 am

Actually the answer is to go to College Football Games and watch Bands that do more than one show a year. At the 2014 UIL State Marching Championships, the Guest Band was the 375 member Showband of the Southwest from the University of Texas. At the start of each of their performances, the announcer was very pointed in his announcing that the show that would be performed was the 6th different show of the marching season, or on the next night the seventh different show of the Marching season. Last fall the University of Texas Band did 7 completely different shows. The Longhorn Band announced that newcomers to the Band could expect to do at least 7 different shows during the marching season, beginning on the 23 of Aug through the last Football Game. I heard many parents say, "I can't wait until our kid goes to College. "I AM TIRED OF HEARING THE SAME THING FOR THREE MONTHS"

The Competitive Band circuits have made repeated performances of the same 10 minute show the only format available. I guess something is wrong with me in that I do not want to watch the same show for ten weeks in a row. Heck, I do not even watch movies I like ten weeks in a row, yet I and many other folks are expected to keep quiet and listen to shows that are boring and often have no spunk to them.

I now spend most of my time watching the Bands from UT, Texas A&M, Baylor, TCU and SMU and I can watch different shows each week doing precision drill, picture shows, moving formations and Corps style drills without having to watch them again and again. There is a choice in the music you want to hear. Go to a College Game.
Deep in the Heart of Texas. Home of the III Mobile Armored Corps and the 1st Cavalry Division, serving America in Iraq

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seanrj
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Re: Why has marching band gotten so boring?

Post by seanrj » Sat Jun 27, 2015 12:50 pm

instrumental director wrote:
seanrj wrote:Whatever it is now, if the people that are doing it are happy to do it, fine. Go ahead and call it "evolution of the art form" or progress.

Just do not call it "Marching Band", because it no longer is.
i think you're in the wrong district then, because look at where you're sending your students Sean...
There is one particular school in the district that is the perfect example of what I speak. The "marching band" show is written for the purpose of the drumline to be able to work on the indoor show year round.

If this is the direction the art form is moving, it should be reclassified as "outdoor drumline".

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Re: Why has marching band gotten so boring?

Post by seanrj » Sat Jun 27, 2015 2:39 pm

What is taught musically in my JHS program is determined by what developing musicians at their level need to make as much progress as student musicians as they can in the time we have them. What style of show the HS does will not affect that.
Sean Jenkins, M.M.Ed.
Director of Music
Magnolia JHS
Chino, CA

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