From: zaidioa@HYDRA.ROSE-HULMAN.EDU
Newsgroups: rec.arts.marching.misc
Subject: Re: College/HS Marching Band Quickie Survey
Date: 16 Dec 1992 11:25:17 GMT
Organization: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Reply-To: zaidioa@HYDRA.ROSE-HULMAN.EDU
NNTP-Posting-Host: hydra.rose-hulman.edu

In article <1992Dec11.184003.12136@beaver.cs.washington.edu>, dci@cs.washington.edu (Donald Chinn) writes:
>
>I am basically a college and HS band "illiterate" in that I
>do not know what the trends in college and HS bands are these days.
>
>The intent of this post is get a feel for the kinds of shows/music
>college and HS marching bands are performing.  Here's a list of
>questions cover various aspects of the field show.
>
>IMPORTANT: Please give specific organizations when answering.  That is,
>please do not generalize to all bands.
>
>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.
>

My HS marching band was the Westlake High School Chaparral Marching Band from
Austin Texas. We marched a corp style glide step. We also had high mark time
and high step for power passages in the music.

>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)?
>

We used state of the art usually. We hardly ever had straight line forms or
blocks or company fronts unless we had a power passage in the music. During our
shows, we typically played to the home stands regardless of where we were (away
or home). If we were at a far-away play-off game, then we would play to our own
crowd.

>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.
>

usually 16, 24 or 32 counts to get to a form from the previous one.

>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)?
>

We typically played shows with a theme and played music that was related to a
musical, or something with popular appeal. My freshman year, we did a Disney
theme to commemorate the 15th anniversary of Disney World. My sophomore year,
we did music from Jesus Christ Superstar. My junior year, we did Music from
Phantom of the Opera and my senior year, we got a different director and did a
western show. The typical show was 9 1/2 minutes long and had an opener, a
closer and a middle piece with a drum break somewhere in it.

>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?
>

we had 128,115,100,106 members during the four years I was there. We had a well
balanced group usually and the ratio was about 35% woodwond, 35% brass and 20%
percussion with the other 10% being color guard.


>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?
>

We usually have 4-5 snares, 4 bass drums, 2 cymbals and the rest are in the
pit. The most interesting passage we did was the drum break for the Phantom of
the Opera show. It was arranged by the percussion instructor and took 3 weeks
of practicing to nail. 


>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)?
>

in the stands, we played an even mix of fun music and football music. On the
field, we played music that was designed to get the crowd into the action.

>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 guard was there to accentuate sections of the show. For the Phantom of the
opera show, we did the same dissappearing trick with one of our drum majors
dressed as the phantom. It took the crowd by complete surprose and the judges
were impressed at contest too. :-)


>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?
>

The music is uaually arranged by a director and the drills are too. the band
council (elected officers) can suggest forms or themes for a show at the
beginning of the season. 

>10. Rehearsal time.  How many hours a week does the band practice?
>
>

The band usually practices 2 1/2 hours a day (1.5 hours outside marching and 1
hour playing music inside) and then occassionally on weekends as contest time
approaches. We also practice 8-12 noon and 4-6 pm every weekday in august
before school starts.


Newsgroups: rec.arts.marching.misc