The Main Materials

When it comes to marching band there are many styles like military, corps style, carnival style, scramble style, and many more. Among high school bands the most common style is the show band style, since they focus on providing entertainment to people at football games and competitions. Most high schools and universities have show bands that do more than play for the crowd at games, but also compete against other bands that are on their same level. Most bands will learn one show consisting of multiple different pieces of music that are fused together to create one cohesive journey. They usually learn this shows at a band camp in the summer, where they are also taught the different marching and stances that they will need to know if they do not already. Bands spend all season continuously trying to perfect their show, always having early morning practices and night practices multiple times a week.

The main materials used in high school Show Marching Bands are the instruments and the different flags, rifles, and batons used by the Color Guard members. The Intellectual tools used by all members is the ability to understand the jargon of marching and reading/playing music. Knowing the different terms that describe the way in which you are needed to march and the stances that are appropriate to use at different points in a performance are crucial to the efficiency of both learning and correcting the drill, or routine.

There is always passion behind the reason that the members are in Marching Band. Whether itr's because they love to play their instrument, enjoy the physical aspect of marching, or they relish in the ability to entertain the audience while taking them on an emotional adventure, there is always something there that makes all the commitment worth it.

Winning a competition isn't bad either. There are very few times that bands will win prize money at competitions, but there are always great rewards like scholarships, new equipment, or even an opportunity to have a renowned clinician come in to work with the band that will help them build their skills and come back even stronger for the next season. The ending goal for most bands is to be able to see that all their hard work has paid off through winning competitions or getting recognized throughout the community for their good work. Marching Band is more about the pleasure and accomplishments the members get out of the experience than any prizes that can be won.

The community of high school marching bands, consists of not only the different schools that are local and all in the same conference, but also universities that are state wide competitions and different music foundations that can be local, nationwide, or anywhere in between. These different groups that organize the competitions all have the goal of bringing people in the Marching Band community together and making it accessible to see what bands are working on outside of your own.

Whoever is putting on the competition usually contributes by either preforming in exhibition their selves, or bringing in a renowned band to play for those who have competed and who are there to watch.

While there are some discourse communities that are all about pushing the boundaries and breaking rules, Marching Band is not one of them. Points are taken off if there is too much space between people in a set, if someone moves when they should be at attention, or not rolling your feel while you march.

Everything in Marching Band is about uniform so with each wrong move, points get deducted from the total score. Presentation is also a big part of this uniformed look, so wearing the right type of gloves, making sure all hair is tucked in your hat, and your pants being the correct length are requirements that are drilled into you from the start of your very first competition. Crossing the field lines is never an option, and neither is talking during a performance. The number one rule of Marching band though, is to never swerve for anyone. If there is a judge in your way on the field, you run them over. And always stretch before you do anything in Marching Band. Ever.

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