Re: Re: does marching band messup your sound?


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Posted by Sean Chisham on November 04, 2002 at 02:45:16:

In Reply to: Re: does marching band messup your sound? posted by Brendan on November 04, 2002 at 02:14:14:

Pick any tune you want, preferably one with a bit of a melodic line. Maybe even one with some demanding technique. Now setup some recording equipment and play one on a Sousaphone while marching around the room in time with the tune. Now record in that same room, those same tunes with a concert tuba in the traditional sit down position. Listen to the playback.

We are all creatures of habit. Several hours per week behind a Sousaphone while bouncing around a grassy field attempting to develop ensemble skills with the ensemble spread over 300 feet outdoors typically playing badly written music with bells pointed in various directions and changing angles every second does not create an environment condusive to good musical fundementals. Couple this with the distractions of having to memorize the music and the choreography along with trying to look good and stay in step. Over time, this will creep into one's playing. This is especially true if it is not balanced well with sit down time on tuba in an ensemble that can spend more energy on the fundementals of music making and listening in an acoustic environment which gives everyone much better odds of having a clue as to what is going on.

Perhaps things have progressed since I graduated high school, but typically most of the fall and winter and parts fo late summer are spent just on marching shows. None, or very very very little time is spent on the process of music. This means that the typical band student spends 1 semester per year in a sit down situation. When sitting you can bring the horn to you, place it in a relaxed and comfortable position and focus. Marching is a constant battle between a moving target (namely the mouthpiece), the weather (rain, snow, heat), acoustic environment (outdoors), usually very poor instruments (3 valve typically fiberglass BBb Sousaphones in various states of repair), memorization hurdles, and then music making if you can get to it.

I never had been a favor of any of the high school marching bands I was a member of or the political reasons why many if not most of them exist.

On the other hand, if musical excellence isn't your primary goal, and there is nothing wrong with that, then there can be many plusses to marching. A number of them have already been mentioned. If it is your cup of tea, than the social interaction, free football games, occasional travel, war stories, etc can be fun.

The question was can marching band hurt your sound. I am sure it can and does in most cases.

sean



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