The Best Jr. High Marching Band - Japan National Champs 

i know they practice about 3-4 hours during weekdays (after school) and anywhere from 4 - 8 hours at weekends. Anyone from the school can join the school activities so pretty much whoever wants to join the band, they can. They are all from 7-9th grades. Most of the kids go to Nishihara High School.

A few years later, watch Nishihara 2002-3-4-5. These kids, almost all, went to high school there. The results, with that instructor, were stunning.

We were just learning to play the instruments in junior high. Unbelievable how advanced these Japanese youngters are. They sound better than most american college level bands I've heard. I've scared to hear what their high school or college level bands sound like. :)

I wish we had marching band in middle school. We would have been huge. We had like 40 people in each grade, but when you get to high school its really small cause everyone quits after 8th grade. Mainly because of the band director.

Discipline ? Something that my school doesnt have and it seems like this group has... just listening to this makes me imagine one of those bands our high school listens to during competitions and we say " why cant we be as good as them "

i really like the show. its epic.

some schools here do emphasize music quite a bit, just not all, check out the performances from the top 12 at BOA and you'll see some absolutely amazing bands. I just wish it was prevalent everywhere

These bands would blow just about any american high school band off the feild ... I am glad to see that high of perfection and musianship... pure awesome!!!!

Jeez-o-man! First cars, now drum corps/marching bands ... in Jr. High School! Dude, this simply crushes most, if not all, HIGH SCHOOL performances I have seen and judged, here in the States. We need to go back to the drawing board. Very nice. Very, very nice! :)

Thanks for answering. However the practice time was more like 4-6 on weekdays and 8 to 12 on weekends/holidays (especially during the summer and season up to the nationals). They pretty much practiced as much as Nishihara. There wasn't much time for Juku (Juku is night school for those people that can't speak Japanese).

this makes me wish i had grown up in japan. i am so jealous. my high school cant even march half as well as these middle schoolers. im in guard and in my 3 years we have never had even a moment that was as clean as that whole show. great job. ^_^

A truly excellent performance from both a musical and visual standpoint. Absolutely Awesome job. Thank you for sharing.

Beautiful. The band sounds amazing.

Wow! what a great Performance. When I was in Junior High School my band could hardly play "Hang on Snoopy" sitting down, and with the sheet music in front of us. The band is "Excellent Plus".

Japan is amazing. If anyone wants to be awesome at MB we should move there!!!

Marching band is a LOT OF WORK!! We practice from when our school gets out to 7:30 and i still love doing it!!

ncba[northern california band association] does.... we offer jr high/middle school marching in both field and street.... and in winter activities too.. [percussion,guard,drum major]

I am from texas, and I don't see how marching band and football go hand and hand.... sure we play at teh games, sure we march at half time. But for my band the games are just for fun and for practice (our show during halftime). For most of the bands I know, competition is the highlight of the season and the overall purpose.

god, i love marching band. it truly is an art.

Man I wish at my school we could fit in a gymm, and as a senior in high school and in band they actualy sound like a high school band. Their straight lines that they do when they are just standing are just amazing.

Oh--My--FREAKING--GOD!!!! that was amazing!! awesome flute solo. i love jazz running and backward marching, fast style. you guys made it look sweet and beautiful. i wish my middle school would have had a marching band.

are you kidding me? They are so clean in the drill and the sound is great, Drum Corps quality. I definitely think it is close to the activity.

It's so awesome that they have woodwinds. It really adds a lot.

Yea they do. At least at my school we do. Our middle school band only plays at the home middle school football games though

the music was fabulous .. excellent

The music if from Sax/flute player Paul Winter from the the group Paul Winter Consort. Crossmen and Spirit have played some of his music.

OMJ!!!!!!!!!! i go to saks and i hear all the time how wonderful we are but this is just amazing without reason OMJ this is so great i can't even believe this is a jr.high band......kudos... i wish ppl in alabama weren't so close-minded and wanting to be like everybody else and actually wanted to be as good as this!!!! kudos once more =-)

HOLY DAMN! Thats good marching right there. My school's is starting the year like crap right now. We're NOWHERE near you guys. God, i wish we were that good..

The high school i'm at has a multimillion dollar feildhouse, but can't afford to actually pay the band enough to cover needed repairs. So we have 3 bass clarinets (all donated) that can't be used because we can't afford the repairs.

i wish i could like this more than once

Holy cow!!!! they play louder than some of the 4A bands I've seen!!!! excellent work!!!

I love the skeaking of the shoes with the floor haha!

i know right?! they are like freaking CLEAN XD

That drumline is sick. Amazing.

this is amazing... i love it...

You know what...just one word...PERFECTION .

:0 You guys are so amazing. and only in 8th grade? man, compare to my marching band, we are so far away from your guys' perfection.

this was way too neat and organized...its a freaking A+++

they are doing stuff in middle school, that DRUM CORPS do here...and you have to audtion to get into those things...AMAZING.

Marching Bands don't normally march on a gym floor. Therefore they never thought of picking up their feet.

this was AMAZING!!! loved it

Their playing is so clean that it puts my high school trumpet section to shame...

amazing.... superb. Rivals any DCI corps.

I LOVE BLASTISIMO TRUMPETS!!!

omg... theyre in middle school! o.o THATS SO FREAKING AMAZING! the music is amazing, the marching is amazing, they are amazing!

@456cres yes, the common joke where I live about bands when it comes to jobs and quality is, "if you don't like it here, move to texas". The fine arts in general are very highly supported there.

so clean for middle schoolers, A+

....I'M MOVING TO JAPAN! seeing this makes me want to try even harder for our state performance this weekend :D

omg they're amazing

Those guys can kick our high school's little behinds! And to think they're just about the same age! Only little detail I noticed was that they leaned into their forward march in some places. But it kicked ass overall.

so much fun exciting knock your socks off love it . . . our America teams can match this bring it on . . .

Excellent!

@detaono um, my school actually showed our band what the Japanese can do to show us our learning styles. and plus, they arent posting these videos to gloat! they are proud of what they have done and people actually WANT to watch this stuff and see how people in other countries can play!

i grew up in the central valley, calif. it's too bad we didn't start field marching in middle school like northern does.

Its funny. You cant get some high school student to march on step to save you life, but these kids seem to do it so well. And they are practically jazz running at some points.

You are right that there are High (in BOA) schools that emphasize band (music). But, this is a Junior High School, and there really isn't many Junior Highs in the states that treat music like it is treated here.

i know they are! i wanna be japanese!!!! they are so cool. i love them.

There is no way in hell I would be able to march that fast. I would be telling the person behind me to slow the hell down. You can hear their shoes squeak in the beginning.

You are guessing, cause in Okinawa, Japan it hasn't snowed in 300 years. Although last year in February it did hit 38 degrees one night. That's was probably a century record. Usually the low for a year is low 50's

omgsh that opener

dang i know some high schools that couldnt do this...This is what its about! Look at your drill..dang u guys are movin! I would love to be there guard instructor:) Awesome music to write too!!!

@456cres I played tenors on the drumline but I never got into it so much that I knew who was good and who was not.

Watching videos like this and reading the comments kinda make me realize how spoiled we are in Texas. Yes, these Japanese kids must work their butts off to get a show like this working, but that doesn't mean that music programs in our country is total crap, either. Look at the bands that go to BOA every year.

superb.I just watched the usarmy in japan band in a vid and it's not as good as these students and imagine how great these guys are now that it's 6 years later!

wow, ive never seen a jr high band jazz step

you have got to be freakin kidding me! Junior High? They sound like they belong in high school or college. They are freakin AMAZING!!

Well that was really epicly good for middle school kids, considering that most of our band couldn't stay in time in a concert setting at that age. The first trumpets kinda stuck out with their blaringness but I wouldn't expect them to have really good high chops yet. Then again they probably had like a 12 hour hell-practice earlier that day so they probably had swollen bleeding lips at this point.

yeah

WOW!!!!!! A MIDDLE SCHOOL?!?!?! NO WAAAAY!!! High schools arent even close to this level!! this is like history lmao! AMAZING!

It's not every day you get to see the Japanese being this LOUD.

maybe, these kids are only in Jr. High though, most people in DCI are around 17- 21. Give these kids another 4-5 years and I'm sure they can put up some fine work :D

2nd mvmnt. Q.Q so beautiful! man, if these are middle school bands in japan. Imagine A Japanese Drum corps....... goodbye blue devils.

same here

Awesome pit!

Look at the back left hand side - there are four of them being carried. Only the jumbo is in the pit.

This is just increadible! Ok, without cross lines and *only* the two lines, how in the heck do they know their dots?????

and their drum line. they'd clean up at any american highschool competition1

DAMN JR fucking HIGH

Holy friggn guano!! you see the sets and the jazz runs they have in the beginning jesus christ there fast 0:28-0:35

thats sadly true. the standards for music is falling because less and less people want to play. people need to start reading actual here than improvising everything.

@r8escjohn Well actually, meme is half right. I'm in my high schools marching band. We do contest much like these guys. When first learning how to do the show we are given coordinates on the football field (or in this case) the gym floor. The coordinates tell us how many steps off the front/back sideline or field hashes and what yard line we are on. Once it's all memorized and you have a general idea of where ur supposed to be, it takes watching people around you to make the picture.

Look up the "Suzuki" method of music education for insight into how these groups learn/achieve on the level that they do. It is true that they generally start earlier, however, it's not in an abrasive, forceful environment like some may suggest. The purpose is to get them curious at a young age about exploring music, providing encouragement and ample resources.

Perfect Perfect Perfect

A junior high!?! CrAzY!

i want to cry... to perfect! now for my marching band >.> get ready to run!! >:D

hmmm..... yeah i think you got them all. I'd probably say West port is probably #1 b/c really, they're the only band that can make it to state and despite choosing very difficult and rigorous music and marching, they are very good overall. maybe something like Vanguard or Lake Weir in second and third, b/c well Vanguard doesn't put out all of sound, but Lake Weir's more of a parade band and they don't do march alot . TC, North Marion, forest, belleview, then dunnellon but hey (12-13 players)

why are asians so good at everything?

Must Japan be great at EVERYTHING?!

The U.S has songs that are fun to play

omg. amazing! jr high band, really? wow!

I agree. However they are a better marching band than 90 to 95% (80% for sure, I was in 4 different high school bands that sucked). They sure blew me away when I saw them. My daughter was very lucky that we moved to this area so that she could play in this band.

no, the wooden floors would help bounce the sound.... carpet absorbs sound.

@detaono i here you. it's all about the money. "music is a waste! making money is more important!"

O.O winton middle school has just been OWNED

I didn't say that West Port was the best "central florida band" I simply said, they're the best in the county, and probably the only ones who can comment on us. And yeah, so we got Excellent and that middle school is better, but really, to say that we suck, is a lie. We did good this year, especially with all the people that dropped out....... we had to fill up a lot of missing people.

holy crap

They're good.. and they also RUN

they cant beat our DCI. i have full confidence in that

One thing i really hate about them showing these videos, is that it's a completely different education set up over there. Kids in the US are lucky to have recorders in their elementary music schools. If they spent any thought into the music in the US it might equal this in middle school. But, of course, noone seems to care about culture in America except where their own preferences are.

First of all , iam freshman and 47 seconds into the video and i want to be just like that in 3 years