Klarinet Archive - Posting 000249.txt from 1998/03

From: "Jason Hsien" <jasonavhs@-----.com>
Subj: Re: MARCHING BAND - an explanation for non-Americans
Date: Fri, 6 Mar 1998 14:41:52 -0500

-----Original Message-----
From: Helen Eby <davideby@-----.com>

|A marching band is a uniquely American thing. In high school and
|college the students that are playing a wind or percussion instrument
|join the marching band and play outdoor between the first and second
|half of a football game (not soccer, but close to rugby except that the
|football players change teams when the ball changes teams! They have
|separate offence and defense teams, so when the ball changes sides they
|have to change teams! It takes a long time to watch that game...).
The time in belween is called half-time (go figure that one...<g>) Also,
American Football, quite frankly, is a bunch of guys running around a field,
passing the oval ball to each other to make it to the goal (touchdown!). Not
much "foot" goes into it, for you "European Football/Soccer" fans. But,
you've all seen American Football right?

|
|Anyway, football must be so boring that to keep the people entertained
|they have to have marching band (musicians playing something while they
|march in wool uniforms in summer) and cheerleaders (women in very few
|clothes doing gymnastics and telling the fans what to yell for their
|team).
Football isn't boring. It's just Marching Bands perform between them,
usually for experience, sometimes for money, and just for spirit. If
football is boring, how did NBC (The Dumbest American Television Network)
justify charging US$1.5 million per 30 seconds of advertising during the
SuperBowl? (SuperBowl is the all out king of all pro football competitions
in the USA) Olympic Games don't go for that much. Even the final World
Series Game doens't go for that much, and it's our National Pastime.

P.S. In High Schools around my area, cheerleaders are officially called
"Spirit Squadand there are guys in "Spirit Squad". There are almost always
guys in Spirit Squad.

|
|Marching bands also take part in parades and in marching band
|competitions. They sometimes have a flag team (girls doing things with
|flags) as well.
Flag Team... Ribbon Team... Color Guard... Drum Majorettes Yeah Yeah... but
they can be guys too! (except for the drum majorette thing. That'd be
wrong...)

|It seems to me that if the music program were not so oriented towards
|marching band there would be more emphasis on other instruments
|(strings, for example) in the music program at schools. Maybe they
|would have an orchestra instead of a band. Right now there are very few
|schools that have orchestras.
Strings are in Marching Band. Whoever told you they're not? They're just not
in vast majority and they play with the percussion so they don't march.
Also, from my knowledge, a lot of schools do have full orchestras, my school
included. It is just there is just so little interest in orchestras that
usually the ideas are put off.