If they are amazed by high school and college marching band DCI (drum corps international) would blow them away. It’s basically professional marching band for adults it’s very cool.
I was in it...I hit my face/head a lot, sprain my wrist, smacked my legs, accidentally hit fellow colorguards (sometimes other band members... friendly fire), was hit by then too, heatstroke...IT WAS THE BEST TIME! ❤️ lol.
“I think the entire school came out.” Who’s going to tell them that some schools in the US have over 500 people attending. 😭😭 (I actually think my graduating class was around 470...)
I go to an HBCU (Historically Black College/University) best marching band experience ever. The dancers, the flag girls, the drum majors, etc. Everyone is usually nervous before a big game. You get a lot of energy from the crowd though.
To be fair, this was extremely mild and mostly focused on the drumleaders and dancers. Now the band at HUHS knew what was up. Especially the 2008-2009 crowd
As someone who was in marching band, this makes me happy that they reacted to this. Marching band is not a club. You have to go to “band camp” over a month before school starts, you have to attend Zero Period (an hour and a half before normal lessons begin) while going to class on learning to play the music, AND there are some days in which you have to stay a few hours after school to work on marching and the field show. There’s also two seasons: Marching & Parade, and Concert. Marching & Parade season occur in the fall at the same time as football, since we showcase our field shows a home games, and Concert season in the second half of the high school year. I would love if they were to react to Drum Core, specifically two videos: The Blue Devils 2019 Ghostlight Final Run, and The Blue Devils 2019 Victory Run (the victory run has various members wearing GoPros, so you get a video with their perspectives on the field.
Exactly. I was in Band for 7 years in school. It was the most amazing experience. I still remain friends with most all of the “band kids” from way back in the 80s.
Exactly and what sucks is that some kids make fun of people just for being in band or choir. Especially being in Marching Band, a lot of the kids at my school make fun of it but it really does take a lot of work and effort.
The fact that Koreans appreciate the hard work those preformers put in makes me genuinely happy. Someone show these guys DCI! Marching band members work super hard to make these performances (being part of one myself) and it's kind of rare to get this much appreciation from even their own high schools
To answer their question at the beginning, American high schools are pretty easy to get into and graduate from. There are many different classes with easier levels and much more difficult classes, and different fun classes you can take. Even if you fail a class, there are a lot of makeup options to pass that class. I would say the classes that are harder to graduate from are private schools, since they typically have rigorous standards for their students.
It also depends on other factors such as how well the school is funded, class size, school district, etc. I went to high school in LA and to get into the good schools in your area, it was competitive to get into and there weren't many opportunities to make up your grades other than summer school or adult school
For my school marching band isn’t a club and is actually a level of band class that the teacher assigns you to be in. They take an “audition” to see what level they would be in the next year. Same goes for orchestra and choir.
They should react to step teams, especially HBCU step teams. My high school had really good male and female step teams, their performances were always the best part of the talent shows tbh.
Along with the history of why stepping began. (Stepping gained its distinctive percussive style after the 1739 Stono Rebellion in South Carolina.[1] There, 20 slaves organized a rebellion near the banks of Stono River, banging on drums as they marched down the streets. The noise attracted a larger crowd of slaves who joined the revolution, and also of white colonists who killed most of the rebels.[2] In the aftermath, lawmakers outlawed drumming as well as the right to own one, in order to eliminate it as a source of communication between slaves. Following the ban, the percussive dance form (known today as stepping) began to emerge as slaves replaced the drums with their bodies.)
@@Anoldaccount988 South Korea wouldn’t even exist if everyone was a draft dodger like your hero Muhammad Ali. So I doubt they need your African American sob story.
I was taught that during a parade if someone gets in your way, dont lose form, just run into them. I have elbow checked a few people thinking it would be funny to try and mess me up.
If you try and run through a marching band you will be blocked. People use to try and cut through us like people try and cut across the street. Even if another band member falls or gets in our way we were told to just step over them.
I was also taught to keep marching through anyone in the way. This usually comes into play during competitions. There are judges walking around the field, and they have a copy of the drill, but it can get hard to keep track of, especially if there's a sudden tempo change and before they know it there's a line of people jazz running at them. That being said, if you're in a parade and the people ahead of you stop or slow down, everyone just takes smaller steps or starts marching in place, no big deal.
They said in the video that they thought the road must be blocked, which of course they are. It's funny that they thought they were just marching down the road in the middle of the day with no warning.
I think that in a marching band, Colorguard is a big part of the performance. It was sad that the videos chosen didn't portray any Colorguard flag performance. Could there be a second video or reaction but to Colorguard(or Winterguard)? But I was definitely happy that they got to see how some marching bands on the field works.
Omg I'm British but I am so obsessed with HBCU marching bands especially the Stingets and Dancing dolls ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8u8089jo4Gk.html
Band is typically a Music Class in school they opt to be in marching band in fall and orchestra etc. after fall sports.. They are more of a team vs. club and they play at sports events to parades and compete against each other in competitions. You can even earn music scholarships to college too.
Yeap very accurate description. I played the clarinet in the band for 5 years (Jr High & High School). It was really fun and kept me in shape with all the marching. Miss those days
Huh. At my high school marching band was a fundamental part of band class. If you played a wind or percussion instrument you were required to match in the fall whether you wanted to or not. I didn't want to, which is why I quit my instrument after my sophomore year.
Marching band was never an option anywhere I went to school. If you played an instrument, took band class, then you were in the marching band. We were even required to go to camp in the summer to learn all the half time programs. None of it was ever an option. It was all required.
"What happens if someone interrupts the march?" Bonus points if you run them over, but you can't break formation. Nothing like watching a dingus eat a trombone because they were standing where they oughtn't
OH MY GOSH!! I recommend that they do this!! I’m so excited!!! *Edit after watching fully* I am kinda surprised that they didn’t show more of the actual band performances and more of the parades. They also showed more of the Dance team than the actual band (I know the Dance team is just as important but they really didn’t show the band). (I also don’t know if they showed more of the band off camera so I’m sorry if I’m wrong) Not really what I had in mind, but I still really enjoyed the video.
That was my thought whilst watching this, "where are the instruments?" Showing the synchronized marching and PLAYING the instruments makes it a marching band.
@@Usagiako Is the color guard the one that waves the flags around? I like them and I like the baton twirlers. I have heard of drill teams, too. I don't think dance belongs with marching bands, the military-like precision is what makes marching bands great.
I want to see them react to Black drill team dancers/black major dancers. Lol especially competitions. The drum line videos are also good, instead of the entire band. A lot of girls like the drumline, although boys like them too. The boys usually love the dancers.
The drumline only like the dancers and guard girls bc they’re gross pervy men who like to stare at our bodies. I know from personal experience being a guard girl myself🤮
Appreciate your appreciation. High school marching band was the highlight of my life. The band directors are the best. It all comes together at some point and practice makes it perfect.
Finally found the right comment to reply to! Was kinda disappointed they didn't react to one from your "rival up north's" marching band, since I'm in it, but also so they could see what a band with flags looked like. Also disappointed that I never got to experience a trip down to Columbus, since that would definitely be an interesting experience. I think it'd be cool if they explained a little about college culture, like half-time shows, cheerleaders/dancers/everything that goes down on gameday, school pride and rivalry, and so on... so much to miss because of the pandemic!
As a member of a HS marching band it makes me so happy to see their appreciation for how hard we work marching band is so much fun and you gain a second family from it, I wish everyone could experience marching band.
What you are doing with these video's is so important. Learning we are not the same and to respect the differences. You are doing it in a brilliant way. These two young men are wonderful.
Unsure If I understood the question at the start. Graduating high school isn't difficult. At least not when I was in high school. of course every school is different and every school has different criteria needed to graduate. But you just need to pass all the classes you need for the needed credits to graduate, this also includes some credits from elective classes but often not all of them. In my state, you do need to pass a mandatory state issues exam that covers Math, English and Science. You take it each year of high school until you pass it. Thankfully this wasn't manditory until 2 years after I graduated because I passed the English and Science the first try but I never was able to pass the math.
@@kimberlys8422 applies if you are hanging curtains, buying furniture, buying new flooring, remodeling, balancing a banking account and credit cards to make sure you arent getting ripped off. Make sure you are being charged the right amount of interest or getting the right amount of interest back. It applies in cooking.
You couldn't pass the graduation exam? What year. I graduated in 2007 and it was easy in my state. I would say about 10th grade math if you were in advanced classes.
@@yo-nh2jg Actually most private schools actually underperform compared to public schools. They also pay teachers less and often don't require teachers to be certified.
Hi! Former marching band kid here to explain some things for a little more context! There are two main types of marching bands: there are parade-based marching bands that exclusively or mainly perform or compete in parades, and then there are field-based bands [Like the Ohio State Marching Band] who mainly perform or compete on football fields. Shows for field-based bands can range from 5-12 minutes, depending on the school or competition region, and can be very intricate. College Marching Bands don't usually compete with others in a formal setting, but aim to put on an enjoyable halftime show for their audience. They will typically travel with their football team at away games. Almost all high school marching bands will compete for various titles and awards. I was part of a field-based marching band, and we would travel throughout our state and beyond to compete for regional and state champion titles, as well as others. The main groups of a marching band include Woodwind/Brasswind, Front Ensemble [Non-Marching percussion: marimbas, vibraphones, xylophones, electronics, and the like], Battery Percussion [Marching percussion: snares, bass lines, tenors, and cymbals], and finally Color Guard (Also called Flag Corps in some places). The people you see in the front of the bands with the staffs or the whistles are Drum Majors, and they are the student conductors of the band. In field-based bands, Drum Majors will typically stand on huge podiums to conduct their bands and be seen from all over the field. Marching band shows are very intricate and require a lot of precision and focus. You not only have to focus on playing your instrument correctly, but you also have to maintain proper posture, remember multiple pages of intricate sheet music, make sure that you are in time (yes, all of our feet have to be in sync at all times), and remember 5-12 minutes of drill with complete accuracy, lest you run into someone and seriously injure them. Drill charts are what we use to determine where we are relative to other people in the band, and sometimes a 4 beat drill can be run hundreds of times before being deemed good enough to move on. If you would like to look into a more professional league, some of the most impressive marching visuals come from Drum Corps bands. Drum Corps (DCI) is the major league of the marching arts, and to perform with a corps is a dream of many marching band kids. I would love to see them react to DCI bands like Santa Clara, Carolina Crown, or Blue Devils! There is also a winter equivalent to Marching Band which is Indoor Drumline. It is very similar in that they are marching in sync with each other and there is drill to remember, but Indoor Drumlines are all percussion! Many High Schools have indoor percussion lines, but there is a professional equivalent known as WGI! There is so much more that I could go into, but I think this gives a good overview. If there is a current or former parade-based band kid who could talk about their experiences and structure please do, I'm not very familiar with them! If anyone has questions please reply and I or another marching band kid can answer them!
Thank you for including HBCU marching bands! This channel is so awesome how they include Black folks. I've never seen it on any other Asian-Centric channel. Really love your channel!
Enjoyed this, but this was a very mild version of marching bands in America. These bands are the star of the show for most high school and college football games. The most exciting bands are from HBCUs ( historically black colleges and universities). They really put on a show. Check out RU-vid videos for Jackson State University Sonic Boom of the South, Howard University Showtime Band, FAMU Marching 100, Southern University Human Jukebox, North Carolina A&T P-funk, Alcorn State University Sounds of Dynamite and Tennessee State University Aristocratic of Bands. The band majorettes (dancing girls) are also phenomenal. Check out the Prancing J-settles, ASU Golden Girls, SU Dancing Dolls, TSU Sophisticated Ladies, PVAM Black Foxes, ASU Stingettes, NC A&T Golden Delight. There are too many to name, but most HBCU bands are very entertaining. Hope you guys will react to more of them. HBCUs are getting a lot of attention in America right now because of next Vice President Kamala Harris is an HBCU graduate (Howard University).
I do not know if someone has already mentioned this, but the final marching band shown was a university (Ohio State University) marching band from Columbus, Ohio. I grew up in a town not far from this university. One of the big highlights of American College Football season was to see what OSU Marching Band would perform for halftime, but I also enjoyed their entrance/opener they perform prior to the start of a game. It would be awesome if they saw more videos of marching bands, but also drum lines and color guard (mainly Winterguard). Please take care and have a good rest of your week.
Next: show them University marching bands like Temple University (they play BTS music!!!!), HBCU's (Historically Black Universities) like Alabama A&M, or the HBCU Marching Band Showcase. Also, show them our HBCU step teams! :D
@@stormdancer0 WTH are you talking about? It’s very obvious you have no intention of becoming “woke” and understanding others outside your immediate bubble. Whites, Natives, and Asians attend HBCU’s. They are CALLED HBCU’s BECAUSE they were universities that got started so Blacks could attend higher education at a time when Blacks were not allowed to attend ANY university. You are being such an ignorant person. 🤦🏽♀️ You go on and stay ignorant though simple conversation and reading could easily clear things up for you. As a matter fact their bands cultures are VERY different from other universities. It has nothing to do with saying any race is better than the other. However, they DO require you to know shit in order to attend so I guess you’d be out.
@@ThatBlackPiano I live in Xenia, Ohio - very close to Wiberforce, home of two HBCUs. I was in the marching band in high school. At the end of our hometown parades - they generally had the high school band toward the beginning - the entire band would hurry back to the parade route so we could watch Central State University's band. They're small, but mighty, and put on an awesome show!
I’ve been in marching band in highschool and college. Here’s a basic explanation on how everyone knows where to go. You get a “dot” that tells you EXACTLY where on the field you’re supposed to be. This dot changes throughout the songs that your playing but you memorize where all of your dots are in the show. So you’re memorizing your dot and your music at the same time. A lot of the time you play the music so often that it’s muscle memory, so you really don’t have to think about it too much. Same with memorizing your dots. The hard part is the fact that some people might not always be exactly on their spots, so the entire line will have to change with whoever was wrong during the show. If you look closely at the people marching they’re supposed to be equally spaced apart from each other. If they aren’t, they’re technically not where they’re supposed to be. Marching band is basically playing your music from memory, marching your spots, and making sure that you’re in line with everyone else. There’s a bit more that goes into it but this is the basic knowledge level.
If they liked the marching band as a whole they might also like the subgroups of the Marching Bands. Like Color Guard, Drumline, something along with that nature. Both Color Guard and Drumline have winter seasons where it is just them performing without the rest of the Marching Band. I'd like to see them react to both of those groups.
I used to be in colorguard and I would love for them to see videos about us too lol i used to go to competitions called winter guard that we did after band competitions
As a fellow american in a school band weve done stuff like making shapes and words at our school but theres alot of stuff we have to do like memorize where you're going counting steps and also counting the beat, playing correct notes, we practice these things for a long time every day during band camp and overall I think it's worth it because I personally love the adrenaline and performing music for people and it is definitely true that some marching bands go up to 1-2 hours the only hardest thing that will happen is flipping the page to your music while marching and playing
You guys should react to winterguard or colorguard. They usually perform with marching bands, but also have their own competitions for their routines. I think they would be really impressed by the flags and tosses.
Hi, I'm a member of marching band, and I wanted to thank you two, not many people are interested in what we do, as they are like the American football game and players more. You are right in that fact that it can be stressful, even scary at times. For example, my band was playing on another school's field for the annual Mass Band Exhibition (where all the bands in the area get together and perform our shows), and the field has a lot of holes in it and well... Lets just say I was very lucky to have not fallen or hurt myself by tripping. On the other hand, marching band is really fun to be apart of! We are like one great big dysfunctional family. But our relationship is a bit weird, for example, I would give any one of my band mates a kidney without hesitation, but no way are they using my charger. Back to my point, it's nice seeing how people from other countries react to things that they don't really have. I highly recommend going to see an American Football game to see a band in action, or even see a Mass Band Exhibition to see multiple bands!
My late husband was a band teacher for high school. He LOVED to teach the kids how to do field show. Marching band was heaven for him, his happy place. And the kids in his classes were like our own kids.
Still, It's really sad that their knowledge on other cultures (such as black culture) is so limited they think every darker toned beautiful woman looks like beyonce.
Not many celebs have a global market, so its perfectly understandable. its like in the past how the US was introduced to Asian culture thu Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.
@@IN-tm8mw the proble. With that though is there are more world renown black stars more than ever before. South korea is an advanced country, however they are particularly homogenous. Unlike the u.s who was introduced to those asian stars because they were allowed to be there (because of the mass culture mix the u.s has in their society) I very rarely hear of black stars going to south korea, or almost any stars for that matter. I can tell you japan has a severely different view because many stars have run through tours there. And even though b.t.s is the biggest korean boy band, Americans and other cultures make an effort to educate and indoctrinate themselves on the lesser known groups and culture aspects of korea. It's both lack of effort, lack of exposure and a closed off society. Hence your reason is part of the truth but not the full truth. They are breaking out though, their youth is becoming far more accepting now a days. It's not ling before their society begins to open up to outer cultures
@@IN-tm8mw and besides back then there were plenty of world renown black stars who toured all over the world, it's just south korea wasn't one of those places
@@nunyabusinessbro8527 not really. It may seem that way because we live in the US and we think everyone consumes our media. And that's only true for people interested in American culture, people who speak English or are interested in learning it. Just like in all regions people only know the megastar. So Beyonce, Rihanna and maybe Nikki Minaj will get brought up often. Other than that, most people outside of the US probably don't know Kelly Rowland, Fantasia, Keri Hilson, Chrisette Michele, Jill Scott, etc. Flip the coin in the other direction: if you showed some American a video of Korean dancer. They might compare them to BTS because they are the hottest pop group in the world right now from Korea and everyone knows of them in the states if they listen to pop music thus summer. Another comparison: everyone knows Jackie Chan, but fewer people know Donnie Yen. So everyone always brings up Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee when talking about famous martial artists actors.
I knew they were going to show my school. I had to come and represent it lol. The Ohio State University has a legendary band! They don't call us "The best damn band in the land" for nothing!! 😊
Oh man, the nostalgia from my high school marching band days! I was in the percussion pit and my sisters were both in color guard. I'm glad you enjoyed watching it. It takes a lot of practice to get that right.
In the Woodlands Texas, my daughter started in 5th grade stage band. In 7th and 8th grade they are introduced to marching band. My daughter played Euphium which is smaller then a tuba with the mixed rich sounds of French horn and Trabone. In 5th grade her Euphium was 2 thirds her height. But this Euphium was used for stage concerts. Once she reached her 9th grade she received her marching Euphium. Each band member works together for one class period during the day. Then they practice after school learning their marching routines for 3 hours. The marching band practice starts at the 3rd week of July thru the first week of November. Where the band then changes to stage practice. From November to the following May the band performs in different competitions one of those being a solo. Mind you each band member has to learn music for concerts and their individual solos. Add that with their homework for their academic classes and you have one tired student. But my daughter loved it. By the time she reached her 12th grade "senior" in high school she had been playing for 8 years. This is a ture commitment on every band member. For us parents it's so rewarding to watch them march on the football field every year. When my daughter was in 6th grade she was in choir, played hand bells and stage band. For anyone musical knows each is different calif note to perform. But she loved it even though she didn't get much sleep.
For the question in the beginning, usually if you’re in a private school, it’s harder. If you’re in public school, it’s easier to graduate and usually if you have a problem graduating, you have the opportunity to get a GED or go to Adult School to finish. Besides the fact that there’s summer school to make up the class if you fail during the normal school year, usually for both private and public schools.
This is in no way a criticism. Rather, it is an observation that aside from the on-field performance there wasn't much that was terribly informative about marching bands. There was a great deal about the Majors and majorettes but the actually bands marching while playing in parades there was pretty much nothing. How about the video where the UW Badgers marching band augmented a performance by Fleetwood Mac on Tusk.
I love that they get so excited over marching band because for Americans it's not that big of a deal and if someone messes up it's fine because you won't be able to notice you just get up and keep going.
Five years of marching band (8th-12th grades) was the finest times of my school life. The physical and spatial precision (precise steps), the mental skill (memory/awareness), and playing the instruments created considerable pride in me as an adult. I am proud of what I did lo those many years ago (1993-1998). It shaped my personal convictions and self worth, something I would never trade. Those complex formations are created on a computer using the number of people you have on-field and setting them into the appropriate lines. You then create another one slightly different at the next reference point in the music, and tell the marchers to be there at "x" point in the music. And so on until you have a full song's worth of motions. These create the images you see moving on-field. It's animation in sequence, times with points in the music, and involving a lot of people in motion. I look back and marvel a bit as to how I did such things and hit my marks while playing, but back then it was just something you learned and worked hard at.
Honestly, from being a part of marching band since high school, it was so cool and enjoyable to watch people from another country that has never witness marching band react like this 🥰
Marching band uses a system of coordinates, which is why it’s so popular for American Football fields. Every major line is essentially 4.5 meters apart, which is 5 yards for us, and are numbered going away from the 50 yard line in the center of the field. From there you can set a specific amount of steps per every 5 yards and when you get something like “4 outside the 45, 5 behind the front side line” you know to go in between the 45 and 40 yard lines and 5 steps in from the front side of the field. It takes a lot of practice because your entire show can be made up of these “dots” which you go to in their specific order to compose the show.
Marching band is a sport not a club and it’s very hard work. It takes weeks of prep and learning. You have band camp a month and a half before school starts and the director would give us our show music for the next year over the summer so we had all summer to memorize our show for the following year. Then you would have a competition almost every weekend once school started plus all the football games my band played at. I miss those days. Marching band was my life in high school, good friends and good times. Seeing these two enjoy this this much made my heart happy.
You are so lovely! In response to your question about graduating, depending on your personal circumstances, it’s probably not particularly hard to graduate; what’s hard is to get accepted to a competitive college. In order to do that you have to take challenging classes, get excellent grades, play a sport or make art, be in clubs, run for student government, etc. Activities are very important to your college application. Thank you for this sweet video!
Marching Band is a competitive sport. You have to have a Sports physical to even be able to march. In some schools, it is separate from classes, but in most, it is a part of the curriculum of being in Band. Marching Band starts in mid-july and lasts until the end of October. We call it Marching Season (others call it Football Season). I did marching band from 2006-2010, my oldest daughter is now a Freshman in high school and is also in Marching Band. Winning those Trophies is so satisfying.
I loved being in Marching Band! In high school I played trombone, in college I played baritone (like a big trumpet). Before the school year starts, we spend a 2-week intensive called band camp. During that period, we spend 6-8 hour days learning the moves and practicing the music. (Yes, we break for meals.) In college, each of us got a set of drill charts that showed where each of us would stand at each stopping point in the formations. The charts look like football fields, and each page represented a stopping point. That way we knew what the whole picture looked like and where we were. Then we would go out onto the real football field and practice marching. We use a very specific length of step which works out to 22½ inches. This is the distance a step takes when you march 8 steps for 5 yards. So each of us is like a pixel on a grid. How do we stay together? The drum major directs us by marching with us and raising his white-gloved hands to direct. Or leads us by marching in front. Three drummers take their rhythm from the drum major, and we take our beat from the drummers. Drummers are often in the back. The reason the music sounds together though we are far away is because we hear the beast behind us, and when we hear it, we are playing to that beat when we hear it, and then those further front hear what we play and it all ends up together because the sound has all been traveling together. We practice the music indoors in the music room which is set up like an orchestra. Or we practice while standing on the field. When we put it all together, the performance starts out pretty raw, but we put in the practice, and by the end of band camp, we've got the routine and the music well done. Then through the year we keep practicing it at every class. In high school we have to share the field with the football team, but in college, we have a marching field of our own. Then we march at half-time at all the home games. In college we were able to travel to a different city to play at half time when our university football team played an away game at another university against their team. That was very fun! And marching band people get really goofy when we're together not marching! (not goofy on the field, though! We had too much pride for that!)
The ladies dancing are the Colorguard and its normal for them to have flags and sometimes swords which they call sabers. Also the bands are able to move around and form shapes like that because they are given positions or "dots" to stand at the beginning of the season to memerize. The time the schools take to have that club are done a similiar way to how they have theirs. It starts around the beginning of the school year to November (atleast where I live) and they have tornaments inbetween. I was apart of my school's colorguard and it did get overwhelming sometimes but when you know you did a good job, it becomes a relief when you finish the show.
As a retired educator who has taught in both the U.S. ans South Korea, it warms me to see the interest. Also for people outside the U.S., Marching band is not normally a club in high school. It is part of the music curriculum for students who play instruments. The flag team, majorettes and rifle teams (depends where you live if they have all these) sometimes come from non musical student population. In college it can either be required or a club activity. The marching set usually consists of a flashy power opener, a easy short transitional piece used to move the unit into a set formation for a concert piece. Th is also provides the band an chance to cool down and catch their breat h. The concert piece is a mostly stationary break where the music and the dance or flare teams take centerstage. Finally there is another transition to a high energy closer. This all may vary depending on whether it is a football game halftime show or competition. At games the band will also play in the stands and coordinate with step teams, dance teams and of course cheerleaders. It is lots of work and great fun. It is a wonderful way to build teams, family, friendship and confidence for students. Like all groups it has its downsides, but i congratulate anyone who has this experience.
I was a bass drum player in high school. If you were in concert band, you were in marching band. We usually had about 70-100 students. During football season, there would be a game every Friday, and we only had the one class period (band), five days a week to practice. It wasn't easy squeezing everything, including teaching the freshman the basics of marching, into that short amount of time (one year we did not one, but TWO Fall Out Boy songs for halftime, and those are notoriously difficult), but it was worth it. Even if we only had time to learn one formation set to be reused each week, and only played the same three songs every week, so many people came to the games JUST to see the band (not that our football team wasn't very good, of course). But it doesn't even end there. We opened the games with the national anthom and Back in Black (one of our school colors was black), if we won, we ended the games with We Are the Champions, and we played the school song with every touchdown. And if there was a timeout longer than a few minutes, I, and the rest of the percussion, would play various drumline pieces. Not to mention the drumline pieces we played on the way back to the band room, for fun (not to brag, but the drumline segment got the loudest cheers at concerts). That's not even getting into the parades! The wind players, of course, took breaks between songs, but the drumline never stopped, and played our cadence between songs, to keep everyone in step. We did three parades a year, homecoming (the longest, at 2 miles), Christmas (the coldest, being in MI), and Memorial day (the hottest, and we played at the ceremony before the parade, too. We had no shade. I almost passed out freshman year and couldn't finish the event). The Pep Rally was the most fun. The first half of the day was normal school, with shortened hours. Band was always the last period, so at the end of the hour, we would sneak to the main rotunda (where it echoed) and suddenly start playing. Our classmates would fill the hallways and stairways to watch, and after our song, we would turn around and lead everyone to the gym. Since we were no longer playing, and the percussion plays in the back, we would find ourselves leading EVERYONE. We weren't supposed to, for fear of injury, but with some of the heaviest instruments, we didn't want to be too slow for everyone else. So some of us, including myself, would RUN down the hall, and I wouldn't be surprised if most of the wind players sprinted after us as well.
I someone who knows killakev, Im proud to see his vids being reacted to. He is an excellent videographer and he travels the US to band competitions and open bands to a wider audience. You should check him out for US band content especially HBCU battles
There's a *lot* of practicing done (like months' worth) before events start happening to make sure everyone knows what they're doing. Like we start practicing during *summer break*
I’m in middle school marching band but yeah, it takes a lot of work. You have to march correctly, and in step, keep tempo, stay in line, remember dynamics, and play the right notes (for instruments), and in those... very “easy” to wear uniforms. For me it was embarrassing at first, but i got used to it and actually enjoy doing it, even with the uniforms. It’s not like a club at all, you have to go to band camp and stay after school to practice marching, among other things. The parades where I live are only about an hour long, but professionals/older or more popular groups tend to March for 2-3 hours.
I was in a marching band for years and it was HARD work! We did the halftime shows w moving formations and you plot it out step by step... practice, practice, and more practice!
The band depicting the Superman scene was OSU (Ohio State University). They are often referred to as "the best damn band in the land". They have several performances like that, all with different themes. They're awesome to watch!
