What Makes a Successful Marching Band Essay Example

Every year there are thousands of high school bands around the U.S. with other bands in their area to be the number one spot in their competition.  But how do they get to be one of those top bands? With ample time, effort, execution, and an engaging storyline, a marching band can create an environment that positively focuses on learning, as well as creating a show that will both your audience and the judges.  

Marching band is an activity of precision. It is carefully planned, and never an impulsive routine as some sports or other activities can be. It requires a lot of practice, spent through band camp and other late-night practices throughout the school year. These practices can be grueling and repetitive, with the drive of the marchers lowering with every repetition that is done. Depending on location, these practices will be hot, humid, and overall miserable. Along with that, many times marchers will be sitting on the sidelines due to heat exhaustion during practice. Band practices need to be engaging and have appealing aspects such as games and activities so that members can stay focused and give full effort to the current practice. Bands also need to make sure that there is ample time for breaks within a practice session so that band members are staying in full health.  

Within those first few practices of the marching season, practices focus heavily on the fundamentals of marching. Working on fundamentals can be boring and long, but it is necessary to make a visually appealing band. The techniques of marking time, transition steps, posture, as well are many other fundamentals are taught during these blocks. This time is spent listening and retaining focus on the drum major, who is usually leading the band in these blocks. Without fundamentals blocks, and adequate understanding of said fundamentals, the band will ultimately lose points in its visual aspect in their show.  

Along with the visual aspect of the show, something will be needed that is going to be able to catch the audience’s eye. To do that a band needs an array of engaging visuals. These visuals are a type of move that the band does that goes along with their music. For example, a band can kneel when there is a certain section that is being featured, or the band might do other types of dance moves to catch the audience’s attention. It is not as visually appealing to an audience when the band is simply standing in the same sport for the climax of a song.  

The color guard is also one of the more important aspects of your performance. They are the group that will really hold the audience captive with their eye-catching flags and challenging rifle work. They are the group that is moving the story along with how they portray the music. The color guard is a big part of a show, and they help create a deeper understanding for what the band is trying to portray.  

To be able to portray a story, the band needs to have exemplary music. It is imperative that you do not give a high school marching band middle school level music and expect it to do well within a competition. The band director needs to choose music that his/her band can play, while also being a learning experience throughout the season. The music needs to have varying points of tempo as well as the dynamics of the piece. It cannot be expected to have an audience to listen to music that sounds completely monotonous throughout. The audience and the judges will quickly become unengaged with what you are playing. 

This question throughout a marching season should be asked: What story are we trying to explain to the audience? This question should be discussed frequently, as a marching band cannot effectively explain a story if they themselves do not understand what the story is. The storyline of a show is important, and should be stressed as such. Time should be spent together thinking about what portrayal the individual marcher wants to show.  

Within the band there will be leaders, you will have your section leaders, as well as your drum major or majors. The leadership sets the tone that the band is going to have for the year. They are the people that the incoming marchers, as well as the rest of the band, look up to. The leadership team should be a leading example for what they want their band to look like. If there is a section leader who is slacking off, does not have their music memorized, and is extremely negative about band in general, the rest of the band will follow their example. The leader should be well-prepared, knows their drill and music, maintains positivity, and most importantly, not a dictator. The section leaders and drum majors should lead by example, and show that they are there to help, not to dictate.  

That leads to the next aspect of a successful band, positivity. Positivity is by far the most important aspect of a band. A negative band is not going to be a ‘good’ band. Negativity leads to arguments and grudges held against people within the group. Negativity is one of the biggest things that will bring a band down quickly. The best way to handle this is to take matters to a member of leadership immediately. Once leadership is told of the issue, they should tell the band directory so that they can handle the problem themselves. The biggest issue is normally that marchers do not report problems to anyone and try to take care of it themselves, which results in lots of negative emotions and sides being taken over a cause that could have easily been resolved. It needs to be stressed among a band that the director and leadership should be notified in the case of an argument. If not, these can get way out of hand.  

In the end to create a successful marching there are plenty of aspects that most people do not think of when it comes to building the foundations of a marching band, but without these aspects, marching band might become something that people dread rather than enjoy. Marching band is about learning and creating music, but it is also about making memories and having fun. There is and should be a balance so that band can be enjoyable for everyone.