Marching Band- Middle School & High School

Middle School
My first marching band experience was preparing for the city's Memorial Day parade in 7th grade. The middle school band director took us outside a few times during class to practice marching in step, playing and marching at the same time, and making a turn without completing messing up the formation (epic fail). I remember Memorial Day itself being cold, rainy, and very long. But overall I liked marching. I'm not sure why considering the fact that I realized very quickly that memorizing music was a pain, marching in step with others was really hard (especially for middle schoolers who have no clue what they're doing), trying to make a turn while in formation was confusing as heck, and holding up a flute for the entire parade route was really tiring on the arms. My second marching experience - marching at Cedar Point with the middle school band - was considerably more pleasant, likely because the weather was nicer and the route was shorter. If anything, at that early stage I began to recognize that as difficult as marching band was it certainly opened doors for some exciting opportunities - and a trip to Cedar Point was only the beginning.

Every fall the 8th grade band at my middle school has the opportunity to march with the high school band in the pregame show at a home football game. When it came time for me to do that performance I was really excited. I always loved performing music for an audience and the idea of getting to be out on the field for something as important as a football game pregame show was thrilling to me. I remember the high school flute players being really nice, helping us out to make sure we stood in the right place and carried our instruments correctly. With their crisp white uniforms, sharp horn movements, and ram-rod straight posture they seemed so much more powerful and professional than us little middle schoolers. It was hard to believe that some of them were only a year older than us. I remember thinking that this was something I definitely wanted to do in high school. It wasn't an overwhelming feeling and it wasn't something I really shared with my friends unless they asked about it, but it was more of a personal understanding that this was the next step, this was a route I would naturally follow.

High School
A little less than a year later I sat down for my first high school marching band rehearsal. In June of my 8th grade year everyone who was going to be in the high school band for the following school year had a rehearsal one evening to start rehearsing the music for the show. I remember feeling completely overwhelmed by the difficulty of the music I was given. I couldn't believe how I could possibly be able to play it, let alone memorize it. But I worked on it, practicing through the summer on my own, attending flute sectional rehearsals, and going to full band music rehearsals every few weeks. As the time for band camp in August came closer the music gradually started to make a little more sense.

And then there was the task of learning to march... The brief stints of marching in middle school band were nothing compared to this. The freshmen had specific rehearsals where we learned the technique of proper marching inside and out, a grueling process. This started with learning how to stand still at attention, how to hit that position immediately when called to attention, how correctly snap the instrument from attention to playing position and back, and how to properly dress a line (which means check to make sure it's straight and adjust). Then came proper foot placement while marching, correct step sizes, and learning to keep a line straight while moving and playing. My back and legs hurt from standing at attention so long.

Then came band camp week - 6 days in August when the whole band came to the school each day from 9am-8:30pm and worked on learning the drill (marching routine) for the competitive show and putting it all together with the music. The first couple days were focused on practicing marching basics with the whole band, sectional and full band music rehearsals, and learning the drill for the opener (the first song in the show). Learning marching band drill is a highly tedious process and extremely confusing for first timers. Basically, marching bands use a coordinate grid system for band members to know where to stand on the field in each position of the show. The yard lines are used to mark the x-axis and the side lines and hash marks for the y-axis. For further precision, band members are directed to stand a specific number of steps to the right or left of a yard line, and in front of or behind a hash mark or side line. However, logical terms like "left," "right," "in front of," or "behind" aren't used. Instead they use "inside" and "outside" to refer to how close you are to the center of the field. For example, if you are to stand 2 steps inside the 40 yard line, that means you are 2 steps away from the 40 toward the 50 yard line. If you are 5 steps outside the front hash, that means you are 5 steps in front of the front hash, away from the center of the field. Confusing, huh? An entire marching band show is made up of several of these coordinate positions (called sets). Each band member receives their own coordinates for each set of the show. We learn our positions on the field along with the number of counts/steps to go from one position to the next. This creates the movement of the show.

It wasn't so bad once I got used to it, but there was a lot of head scratching on that first day. I frequently found myself on the wrong side of a yard line or hash mark from where I was supposed to be, with impatient upper-classmen getting on my case. I had been learning choreographed formations in dance all my life, but this was way bigger and way more precise. It was a challenging task to learn it all but I was up for it. Then came the day when we put music and marching together for the first time, and I was hooked.

It was the second evening of band camp (I think) and we started the gradual process of putting music with the opener drill set by set. The show that year was a collection of music by the composer Dmitri Shostokovich and the opener was his "Ballet Suite #4- Introduction." We got into our starting position, where we would play several measures of music in place before we started moving. The flutes didn't play at all until the second drill move so I had quite a while to just listen to other sections playing before I had to move and play myself. Within the first few measures I had chills running up and down my spine. There was this incredible stillness out on the field as all of us held our positions, poised to move on just the right count, then gradually one section at a time we began to move and add our sound to the group. What's more this music was loud enough and grand enough to fill an entire football field and beyond. The sheer power of this sound and movement coming together filled me up inside and I remember thinking, "This is amazing. What could be more thrilling than this kind of performance?" (Hear Shostokovich's "Ballet Suite #4- Introduction" below. The music itself is majestic enough to give you chills.)

I learned very quickly that marching band was more than a new art form to learn, it also has it's own distinct culture to navigate. It's a culture that's consistent across all marching bands, but each school/band has it's own individual subculture is well. All marching bands, high school and college, are deeply steeped in tradition. All bands have traditions that have existed for years and new ones are always being created. And most of these traditions which include pre-show rituals, band camp antics, marching style and technique, songs, chants, and general attitudes are passed down from member to member. As a new marching band member it's to your benefit to work hard on blending in. Pay attention to anything the director or your section leader tells you, listen carefully, do as your told, know your place, try your best to learn quickly, don't complain, and be nice to everyone. Fortunately I had a personality that was almost perfectly suited to marching band. I followed rules well, I got along with everyone, I had a positive attitude, and I was eager to learn. Through summer sectionals and band camp the flute section very quickly began to feel like a second family. It was a wonderful feeling to know I had this group of friends looking out for me.

Freshmen who play well and learn to march quickly are valued in marching band and those who don't are viewed as liabilities by the upper classmen. Upper classmen members know the effort and commitment required to excel in marching band, they also know that this is a team activity and the band succeeds or fails together. And the only way to succeed is for every member to know his/her individual drill and music and execute it at a high quality. Freshmen who don't catch on quickly enough make upper classmen very nervous and threaten everything they have worked hard for. Trying to get a group this large (my high school band had between 150 and 200 people) to be that synchronized is tough. But when it happens it's absolutely magical and that's what marching band members long for and work so hard for. That's what makes marching band so exciting to watch for an audience.

The first two years of my high school marching band career were fraught with some unexpected ups and downs. When I came into the band my freshmen year a new director had just been hired. I knew him already because he had been my band teacher back in 6th grade at the upper elementary school and I was happy for him, knowing he had wanted the high school job for a while. But the upper classmen resisted the change. The previous band director had led them to an unprecedented 2nd place finish at the State championships the previous year and they somehow had their doubts that this year could be a repeat. On top of that, the previous band director had left no plans for the next fall's show when he left. When the new director took up the position he realized he had merely weeks to get a show designed. The concept was hastily put together, inspired by a show done by the drum corps Phantom Regiment several years earlier. There was no time to commission an experienced drill writer so the teacher who helped out as visual instructor stepped in to do the work in a pinch. As a freshmen with no previous experience to compare, I found the whole process of putting a marching band show together to be exciting and magical. It was only mid-season when our competition results were less than favorable and the director felt we weren't progressing quickly enough that I began to realize that things weren't as great as they seemed. In the end we finished in 6th place in our class, a far cry from the year before, but still fairly respectable under the circumstances.

I was raring to go when marching band season came around the next year. I was a sophomore now, I knew how the system worked, and I was pumped to learn a new show and experience it all over again. I was really excited about the show we were doing that year, based on music from the Stephen Sondheim's Broadway musical, "Into the Woods." I had never heard of "Into the Woods" until the band director announced it to us at the end of the previous school year and showed us a video of the musical, but after watching it I immediately fell in love with it. "Into the Woods" is based on the fairy tales of Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, and Rapunzel, and explores what happens after happily ever after with some surprising twists. I love fairy tales and I love musicals so that made this even more awesome. Watching other schools' band shows at competitions the previous year I came to appreciate how creative marching band show design could be. Music concepts ranged from classical music to Broadway to film scores to popular music and more. Some shows had elaborate props and scenery, while others had little. The possibilities were endless and it fascinated me of the different ways that music, drill, and theme could be combined to produce a full show.

All seemed off to a great start that season until the last 3 days of band camp. Thursday of band camp was August 14, 2003, the day of the big blackout in several of the northeast states. Power went out at the school during dinner and once it was determined that this was a widespread problem and power wasn't coming back anytime soon we were all sent home for the evening. Our evening rehearsal had to be canceled and when power didn't return the next morning, so did all of our Friday rehearsals as well. Power came back Friday afternoon but the lack of power for such a long period of time meant that many of the school utilities were not functioning well enough for us to be there all day. We were only allowed to practice for 3 hours on Saturday morning. Overall we lost 18 hours of rehearsal time that we had no way of making up. The director extended our rehearsal time the following week but it was no where near enough. You wouldn't think that something like a blackout could effect a marching band season so much, but it definitely did for us. The lost rehearsal time dampened everyone's spirits and put us behind in the show learning process. At the same time, the "Into the Woods" show turned out to be not as great as I hoped. The music arrangements were fine but the drill wasn't nearly as exciting as I hoped. Not to mention the color guard only had 9 members that year, not nearly enough to have visual impact for a band of 180 members. We finished 6th again that year.

A lot of people quit the band after that year. But everyone who was left was 100% committed and determined to make the band great. My position in the marching band had changed dramatically too. I had chosen to leave the flute section and join the color guard, at the urging of the band director that the color guard needed more members (and committed, hard-working, talented members at that). It couldn't have been a better change. But I'll tell that story in more detail in my color guard post. The show for this season was music from Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera's ballet "Estancia," which depicts a day on an Argentine ranch from sunrise to sunset. Argentinian ranch life wasn't a part of our marching band show, but images of sunrise and sunset played a large role in the visual aspects of the show (ex: drill formations and flag colors). Spinning a flag and dancing to the band's music was a very different experience from playing the music but it was just as powerful. I loved the way the flag movements seemed to fit perfectly with the music, rising and falling with the highs and lows.

I can't quite explain how it happened, but things began to fall into place for everyone with the band that year. Gratitude over a full band camp, a higher level of focus and positivity, and a color guard that was a little bigger and much better definitely seemed to lift everyone's spirits. In the end we only got 5th place, but the competition had been steeper that year and our scores were higher overall so everyone was happy.

My senior year in marching band couldn't have been better. My graduating class had made it through the struggles of the first two years and overcame it to finish junior year on a high note. (No pun intended...) There was no where to go but up now. I was one of the color guard captains this year and I wanted nothing more than to help all the younger members succeed and love marching band and color guard as much as I did. We had a great show that year called "Prisms," based on a visual concept of the color that appears when light shines through a prism. We had four large pyramid shaped "prisms" out on the field that rotated to show different colors. The band members were divided into four color groups - red, yellow, blue, and purple - wearing a sash in their color over their uniform baldrick. At the end of the show the band members pulled off these sashes and threw them in the air to reveal the silver baldrick underneath. The four colors were also represented in the flags at different parts of the show as each group was featured. The colors and the drill all fit together so well and it looked amazing. The music came from the Cirque du Soleil show "La Nouba," which was extra cool since I loved Cirque du Soleil's unique music style.

I remember feeling nothing but pure joy and excitement all season long whenever we practiced or performed that show. I can't really describe it much more than that. Performing that show was one of those times in life when it feels like everything falls into place. I was doing an activity I loved surrounded by people who meant so much to me. I had spent four years honing my marching band skills and I got to say farewell to my high school marching band career with great memories in that last season. Once I learned the guard work I just let the music carry me through every performance, smiling the whole time. Here's a video of the beginning of the show so you can get an idea of it: