Klarinet Archive - Posting 000098.txt from 1998/03

From: Josh-Boy <joshcole@-----.Edu>
Subj: Re: Marching Band
Date: Mon, 2 Mar 1998 20:30:57 -0500

My two cents, which will probably get me flamed.... j/k :)

I found marching band to be kind of a balance between what some have
said as "the greatest thing known to a wind player" and a "waste of time."
Although it never worked out my senior year in high school, during my
first three years, our band director managed to get 180 (give or take)
confused musicians to do the same thing (or close to the same thing...) to
perform a marching band show. And the music was tough -- Phantom of the
Opera, Stravinski's Firebird Suite (Finale), Dvorak's New World Symphony
(that was before my freshman year, but it sounded great!), etc. The music
was not at all easy, but he, his assistant directors, and the student
leaders managed to teach the rest of us how to play and march those shows.
And we won 5 state trophies during my high school career -- the reason we
won, though, is because we were taught to think not as 180+ marchers, but
instead as one large uniy, i.e. and ensemble. One of the first things I
learned in beginning band was that a band was a group of musicians
playing, not a gathering of individuals trying to sound good together.
Through marching band, I learned a lot on how to play in an ensemble;
true, I could have learned this just as well in concert band. The point
is, marching band does have educational benefits when done correctly, but
is not completely necessary for a successful music program.

Joshua M. Coleman
http://web.nmsu.edu/~joshcole
(Under construction always because I have NO TIME to do anything with it!)

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to
see it, do the other trees make fun of it?

If an elephant falls, which suffers more: the elephant or the ground?