posted
Today, I started Marching Band, and I must say... WOW!!! It was harder than I thought, and it was easier than I thought. Here's the story.
For a long time, through my middle school I have known about Marching band. I never had any intention of ever doing it, and when asked by my band teacher, I said "Nope, never doing it. Don't want to. He of course just said, "When the time comes you'll do it.", or something along those lines. Eighth grade ended, and I went through the summer without giving marching band a single thought. Yesterday, I was enjoying my summer, when along came a call to my mother, who said that my soon-to-be highschool was calling. it was Band.
Apparently, they said they had my name on their list to do Marching band. It was already about 3 o'clock, and they wanted me to join in the middle of the day. I had no idea what I would be doing, so I declined and stated that I did not want to go under any circumstances whatsover. Didn't want to it. The band teacher kept talking to mom, telling and telling her that I should do it. Eventually I gave in and agreed to do the nest day. (Today)
I woke up at eight o'clock, and had to be there at nine. I arrived, I knew very few people, I had no idea what to do, and I was very nervous. I brought my French Horn in, only to find out that that will be the instrument I'm playing. Instead, I am given a Melophone, an instrument I have never played. In about 3 days, I must memorize fingerings, learn correct posture, and memorize pages of music. This generally takes weeks. Can I do it? I have no idea. On top of this, I must memorize 10 commands, 56 different walking patterns, 4 movements, and lots of other stuff. I spent 4 hours playing 2 movements, and I think I mastered 5 notes... literally. Why? I was thrown into an extremely difficult song, and am expected to play 32nd notes (Haven't played them before), all the while on a new instrument to me. For four hours we played the same parts. Everytime I got lost in two measures, and could only play whole and half notes.Tomorrow we start memorizing, I can't play a lick of it. I'm nervours.
We spent 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. practicing marching, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. practicing music (I got nothing out of it), and 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. practicing marching, then music. I have to do this for two weeks. Overall, I have to say it is more fun than I thought it would be, but my biggest worry is mastering and memorizing the music, which I do not think I will be able to do. I hope I can, but who knows.
Maybe I will be able to get private lessons, and possibly get better.
Posts: 2121 | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
The switch from French Horn to Melophone isn't all that difficult, not that I've done it personally, but my oldest friend from school plays the French Horn and switched over. And my cousin marches the Melo too actually.
Where are you, and what sort of marching are you doing? Is it corps marching? That's mostly what they do down south. Are you marching competitively, or just for fun? And what's the size of your band? Just curious. I loved marching band, and it' one of the things I miss the most about high school.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
Marching Band is very awesome. You should do it wholeheartedly. You won't regret the experience it gives you.
We marched even in junior high in our area. I liked it better at high school level, and loved it even more at college level. Working as part of a well-orchestrated group is just awesome.
posted
Awesome! I marched for six years - four on baritone saxophone in high school and two on alto saxophone in college (and in college, we did five separate shows each fall).
It's a lot of fun, especially away games and competitions - and if you get a band trip at the end of the year somewhere for a couple days worth of competitions.
And now you can start appreciating DVDs of the Cadets or other DCI marching bands. Posts: 3960 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
Wow you really got your work cut out for you. Don't worry it will all come togather. Private lessons can't be to hard to get right?
Posts: 96 | Registered: Feb 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Grim: Private lessons can't be to hard to get right?
The reason I didn't get to be in Orchestra in elementary school (and therefore not in Jr. High or HS either) was because you were expected to have a certain number of outside hours of instruction per week, and we couldn't afford it.
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posted
Yeah marching band! I was in the University of Utah marching band for 3 years. It was a blast. I will never do it again.
Posts: 1209 | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
Thanks everyone! It's hell, and I've devoted 12 hours a day to it, but... I can't think of anything.
Posts: 2121 | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
Marching Band is one of the most fun things (in my experience) in high school and college.
I have played trumpet and mellophone in a marching ensemble. Luckily for me I learned on trumpet so the switch to mellophone was easier than for a french horn player.
Memorizing music can be difficult, especially in the beginning. I would just suggest you sit down and work on memorizing musical phrases at a time and then piece them together. For instance, memorize bars 1-8, then 9-15. Then add them together. (Obvously specifics will vary). Also, while just sitting around home or in the car, you can read through your music and work on difficult parts and memorize parts. I spent my freshman year in college doing this on my bus ride to band, since I lived a good 20 min bus ride away.
I would also suggest you talk to your section leader, drum major or director, whomever you feel most comfortable talking to, and tell them of problems you are having. They can give advice and would even give you help outside of band. It's better to ask now than have problems down the road.
hmm..that ended up being kinda long.
In summary, have fun and best of luck to you and your band!
posted
I actually did talk to the director, and he's a great one, but all he said was, "Don't worry, just do your best. That's all I want." Telling ME not to worry, isn't an option. I worry about everything like this, so it didn't generally make me feel any better. Today, we learned 7 pages of drill of 56 (7 different places to be on the field), memorized half of the first movement (this is our third (my second) day), and by the time we get back tomorrow, have to have the rest of the first movement memmorized, as well as other things. As of yet, I do not have the first half of the first movement memmorized (do have the steps though), I can't even play the part up to half speed, and I don't know if I want to continue this. In order to prepare for tomorrow, I'm going to wake up at 4 or 5 a.m. so I have 5-4 hours of solid practice. Is it smart? No, but I need to catch up. Even those who have done this before say we're moving way to fast.
Go ahead, tell me not worry. I dare you. To you this may not be much, but I'm having extreme difficulty doing so.
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posted
I loved marching band. I loved having a whole social circle before I started my first day of high school. And an automatic group of friends to hang out with every weekend after the games.
It gets easier. You'll get better at understanding where to move, and when; you'll get quicker at it. I worried SO MUCH about my first game. Then I started going to competitions and realized the games were no big deal ... they were just for fun. And I started having fun.
We did it differently though ... the newbies went to Summer School for 6 weeks: the first half of the day was marching practice, the second half was music practice, and the whole day was only about 6 hours long (including lunch). We didn't start actually learning the drill charts until school started. So when we played our first few games, we'd only play a shortened program and didn't actually finish learning the whole program until about a month after the games started.
Hint: the football fans don't care. Only the band parents and the other band cares. And if you don't play but half the notes, as long as you're in the right spot, no one will care. (Hopefully there are some upper classmen who have more experience and can carry the tunes until you get it!) But you DON'T have to be perfect by the first game. Really. Coming from years of experience: It will all work out.
And for me, it was the hardest work I had ever done up until that point ... and it was actually worth it.
Posts: 1522 | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
Reticulum, this is one of those times when you have to tell yourself that you will get it in time, but that time may not be as fast as you like.
Band Camp is not meant to get you all to learn all the music and drill perfectly the first day (or seven). If it were, there would be no need to rehearse for the rest of the year.
Concentrate on the drill first, as that's the most important - catch up on the music as best you can along the way. If you have to drop out and not play parts of a song, that's okay as long as you're not five feet out of the form. Once the form and marching movement becomes second nature, you can focus your entire mind on the music and get it down by the first game or competition. (Maybe not perfect by the first game, depending on how soon that is.)
You're a Melo, which means you have the rest of the Melo section plus the Alto Saxes playing roughly the same musical part. That's a lot of backup (most of whom have had more time to learn the music, and have been marching longer than you have) to fill in while you come up to speed on the music.
You're not expected to be perfect the first day (at least not by anyone other than yourself), especially given your situation. Give it some time.
As an anecdote, I talked my best friend into marching band at the end of 8th grade. By the third day of band camp he was frustrated (because he's a perfectionist) and wanted to quit. We talked, and he talked to the band director, and he ended up section leader his senior year and easily the strongest and most dedicated icon in the band.
I won't tell you not to worry, because you'll do that anyway. Just give it some time. You seem dedicated to improving, which is exactly what the director wants. It's his job to make sure everyone's improved to the point he wants them by the first performance. (And expectations for the first performance will be lower than for the final one, obviously).
Marching band is a continuous learning curve. Ideally, by the final competition of the year everything has fallen exactly into place - but even in your final performance, there is often some small thing you wish you could have done better or some form you wish you could have worked on more.
Just do your best. Have pride in yourself and your band and have dedication to constant improvement. That's what marching band's all about.
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