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What Are the Different Types of Marching Band Shows?

Brandon May
Brandon May

It is common for most schools to have a marching band to exhibit school spirit and provide an outlet for students wishing to pursue music as an extracurricular activity. The different types of marching band shows include parades, marching competitions and half-time shows during football games at universities and high schools. Different types of marching bands, from military to show bands, vary in their marching band performances. While most marching bands allow members some freedom of movement during performances, there are others that have strict rules for marching and music playing.

Marching band shows do not necessarily consist of high school or college members, as there are many shows that allow organizations of community members who can play an instrument and have a desire to march. With a show band, each member must memorize a certain number of musical pieces to play during a marching show. Through practice and rehearsal, the band performers will be able to memorize their movements on the field or show arena to accomplish a certain degree of alignment with other band members. Band members often make different shapes on the field through their movements and alignment, which are seen clearly when viewed from the stands above.

Universities often employ marching bands during halftime of football games.
Universities often employ marching bands during halftime of football games.

Military marching bands, and the shows they perform in, have stricter rules than show bands, requiring their members to have a more rigid stride and behavior when marching. All military marching band shows require members to march in a straight line at all times, compared to show bands which allow more flexibility in the shapes they form on the field. These types of marching bands are featured in military parades for their ability to march straight forward and carry a steady tune. Although not as popular, military style marching band shows continue in a small number of schools and organizations.

High schools and colleges often offer marching band shows.
High schools and colleges often offer marching band shows.

Most marching bands perform in annual parades and half-time shows during football games, as well as in marching tournaments where the bands compete for ratings based on musical performance and marching abilities and skills. With parades, practices are kept to a minimum, as most bands keep in a straight line across a path without a large variety of movement. With competitions, marching bands often rehearse for hours every day to memorize set marks each member has to hit, and to help integrate the memorized music with the marching. Marching competitions often result in more freedom of musical and movement choice, making them less mundane than parades.

Discussion Comments

titans62

I have never gotten to see a military marching band, but it is something that I would like to see. What exactly qualifies as a military marching band? Does it have to be from an armed force, or can a band from a military academy be considered part of a military band too? Do any of them actually compete in marching band competitions or are they all just parade bands?

Also, has anyone here ever seen a drum and bugle corps perform? I think they may be some of the best marching bands that you can see. They don't have any woodwinds, but make up for it with some pretty amazing playing and marching. There are about a dozen of them scattered around the US that compete every summer. Most of them are in the east, though. They usually perform at colleges and sometimes NFL fields. If you haven't seen one, it is definitely worth going to see.

Emilski

When I was in college, I was able to be a part of the marching band. I went to a pretty large school that was known for having a good music program, so everyone took it pretty seriously. It was a lot different experience than high school was.

In high school, most people would take it seriously, but not everyone had the ability to be a good marcher and/or player. Once I got to college, though, everyone had to audition, and no one was there that didn't want to be there, so everyone worked pretty hard to make a good show.

A lot of TV shows and movies sort of poke fun at marching bands, but in reality, I think most people respect what they do. Like someone else said, there is a lot of rehearsal and practice that goes into being in a band, and I know a lot of people who look forward to seeing the band at halftime.

If nothing else, being in the band gives you a chance to travel around with the team and see new places. We even got to go to the Rose Bowl one year!

kentuckycat

@TreeMan - I know what you mean. It is too bad you didn't get a chance to go to more of the competitions. They were always a good time. I was from a relatively small school that was usually one of the first bands to go during the day. Even though we had to wake up a little earlier, we still got the chance to stick around for the whole competition and watch what some of the other bands were doing. Even when you didn't win, it was fun, but winning always made it feel a little bit more worthwhile.

I think you're right though that people underestimate the amount of work that goes into a show. At least at my school, we spent just as much time during a week practicing our routine as the football team did practicing, so it is definitely a big time commitment to be good. The music can be pretty challenging at times, too, so it takes a lot of extra practice on your own time to learn the music and then to memorize it well enough to play and march.

TreeMan

When I was in high school, I love playing in the marching band. It was always a lot of fun, and I think most people really enjoyed it. It isn't nearly as easy as it looks, though. I have found a lot of people that think it would be fairly simple to march in a straight line and play an instrument, but there are a lot of things they don't consider.

For one, a big part of the show is keeping your instrument pointed toward the crowd at all times. To still be able to make the shapes on the field, you have to rely a lot of your peripheral vision as well as knowing where you are on the field and where you are heading next. Not to mention playing an instrument at the same time can be difficult.

Unfortunately, the band I was in was pretty small, so we really only performed at the football games and one competition every year. Some of the larger schools in the area got to go to a lot more competition and perform at bigger shows.

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