From: sandy@hamus.sw.stratus.com (Sandy Flor)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.marching.misc
Subject: Re: College/HS Marching Band Quickie Survey
Date: 11 Dec 92 22:25:38 GMT
Organization: Stratus Computer, Software Engineering
NNTP-Posting-Host: hamus.sw.stratus.com

Hi!
Before I answer the questions here is a little background:

I marched in the New Bedford High School Whaler Marching Band from New Bedford,
MA.  I graduated in 88 but I still go to show and practices because I still
have 2 sisters going through the band also.  I was in colorguard all 4 years,
but my sisters play the flute and trombone.  The band has won the most
championship titles out of anyone in the history of the New England Scholastic
Band Association (8 total..I believe), and also have the record for the
highest score ever in a NESBA show.

Now the questions and answers:

In article <1992Dec11.184003.12136@beaver.cs.washington.edu> dci@cs.washington.edu (Donald Chinn) writes:
>
>This post is not intended to start a "My band is better than your
>band" flame war.  Please answer objectively.  Thanks.
>
>1. Marching style.  What style does the organization march?  The
>main styles are traditional (high step, Big Ten-like), corps style
>(glide step), and "other" (no particular style, scatter).  And, of
>course, you could have a mix of these styles.

- Glide step 

>
>2. Drill style.  This is to be distinguished from marching style.
>What kinds of forms and movements does the organization perform?
>Block forms are popular, but "state-of-art" tends to consist of
>freeform, rotating forms, curvilinear forms.  Traditional movement
>consists of straight-line movement.  Contemporary drills tend to
>have forms that require guiding.  Also, during the halftime show,
>does the band play to a concert side of the field, or does it try
>to play to everyone in the stadium (or, one part of the stadium
>for one song and another for another song)?

- The band is lucky to have some excellent drill writers.  They
  may put a block form or 2 in the show, but it is mostly curvilinear forms,
  rotating forms..."state-of-the-art" essentially.

>
>3. Perceived motion.  How fast do the drill forms evolve?  This
>is not a question of how fast the performers are moving.  Rather,
>this asks how fast does the drill go viewed from a spectator's
>point of view.  This one is a hard one to describe, since there
>is no quantitative way of measuring perceived motion, but give it
>a go.

- Over the years the motion has become faster and faster.  I'd say
  on a scale of 1 - 10 (slow - fast) they would rank around an 8.
>
>4. Music.  What kinds of music does the organization tend to play?
>Broadway musicals?  Top-40?  Sousa?  Symphonic?  Jazz?  New Age?
>Fusion?  Is the atmosphere generated by the repertoire more of a pep
>rally or of a concert (or both)?

- Music styles has also changed over the years.  When I was involved
  it was jazz, but the past few years have been broadway shows or movies:
  Chorus Line, Les Miserables, Miss Siagon, and JFK.

>
>5. Instrumentation.  About how many brass, woodwind, and percussion
>players are there in the band?  What is the typical formation in the
>drill (are the brass in the front, percussion in center, and woodwinds
>in the back [which is typical]) ?  During the drill (i.e. in motion),
>what is the typical placement of these elements?

- This is a tough question for me to answer.  I don't really know the
  break up, but I do know that there is about 70 instrument players.
  I'm also not sure if there is any particular placement for each 
  instrument.

>
>6. Percussion.  What is the percussion arrangement?  (e.g. 5 snares,
>2 multitenors, 4 bass drums [tuned], 2 cymbals)  What is the most
>interesting lick/passage the percussion section has ever done?

- I'm not a drum person so this is definitely not a good question for me.
  Let's see...I remember at least 4 bass drums and 2 snares..I know there
  are 2 or 3 other drums.  Also, a pit.

>
>7. Repertoire balance.  How much of what is played by the band (either
>at halftime or in the stands) is "football music" (fight song, other
>football-related songs designed to get the fans excited about the game)
>and how much of it is purely musical in nature (theme songs, fun songs,
>etc. would fall into this category)?
>

- When in the stands at football games, the band will play "football
  music" throughout the game -- maybe 1 or 2 "musical-nature" songs.
  Any other event, including half-time, they perform/play their show
  songs.

>8. Color guard.  Does a color guard exist in the band?  If so, what
>kinds of things do they do?  Do they do anything interesting with
>their flags?  Do they dance?  How many different pieces of equipment
>does a typical show use?  We might as well throw in baton twirlers
>and drill teams in this category (for the purposes of this question).

- The band DEFINITELY has a colorguard.  Dance has become more and
  more a part of the show.  They have used rifles, dowels (hand flags 
  that are about 6 ft. in length), panels, balls, skirts, fans, scarves,
  small hand-held flags, and probably more that I can't remember now.
  Each year is something new.  Majorettes and cheerleaders were cut out
  of the shows about 9 years ago.

>
>9. Organization.  Who writes the drills, selects the music, and
>runs the rehearsals.  I know there are a lot of student-run organizations
>(Stanford, Cal, etc.).  What is annual budget of the band?

- A team of individuals (the Staff) from the Boston area write and teach 
  the show. The band director selects the music with input from the staff.
  Being the high school band some they get some money from the city, but most
  of the money is raised by the students and taken care of the the Band 
  Boosters Parent Group.
>
>10. Rehearsal time.  How many hours a week does the band practice?
>

- Band camp is in August and that is every night for 2 weeks 6-10 PM, and
  one weekend: Sat. 10-6 and Sun. 12:30-6:30.  When school starts the 
  schedule changes to: Tuesday and Thursday evenings 5:30 - 9:30, and
  Sat. 10-6 and Sun. 12:30-6:30.  This continues until the end of the
  season in the first week of November, and then restarts at the end of
  March to prepare for the Spring trip.

>
>Thanks again!
>-- Donald

Your welcome.  I think this survey is a good idea.  Can't wait to read
about other bands.  I don't want to start a flame war either so please
don't be offended by anything I write.

-- Sandy :)
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