As a classically trained violinist, I've mostly dabbled (what a funny word) in the random works of whoever Suzuki puts in their books, Mozart, Saint Saens, and Schubert, just to name a few. The fiddle part of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was interesting enough, and quite a stretch for someone who's never seriously played something like that. In band, we usually attempt to play (not very well) middle school level pieces like Pirates of the Carribean, Portrait of a Clown, Winterwinds, etc., while concert band is much better, playing tons of Ticheli, like Vesuvius and Fortress, and even Wagner's Die Meistersinger. Still, I have never, ever marched in the marching band before. I have never ever marched in anything other than the marching band. That's why I was pretty nervous when I came to normal middle school band today, prepared with the three pieces we had been instructed to memorize, and took note of just how many of the high school band members had been excused from class to come and march with us. In short, all of them.
Apparently my band teacher had thought it was a good idea to put me in the front row when he was drawing out the diagram and put me there, right in the second file, and I hadn't gotten much from it when I got my copy a few weeks ago. Okay, I would be next to the best flute player in the entire band system, almost directly behind the drum major. That wasn't so bad. When I got to band today, though, I suddenly realized just how big the band was now. Usually, the high school pep band is roughly thirty people. Add fifteen willing seventh and eighth graders, you get forty five, plus the rest of our band, who marched along in the back just to practice. With the proper amount of space between us, we stretched from one end of the school to the other, from out on the street.
A marching band is divided up into ranks, which are the horizontal lines, and files, which are the vertical ones with a lot more people in them. Since I was in the first rank, second from the inside, I was leading the entire second file. What. For the first thirty minutes or so, all we did was mark time and practice fan turns, which have a really simple principle but are still hard to do with sixty scatterbrained kids. The entire time, thoughts were running endlessly through my head. What if get out of line? What foot do I put forward again? What's he doing now? *Trying to look out of the corner of my eye* What if I drop my flute? How many steps until the turn? Wait, is she out of line, or is everyone else behind her?
The other, and probably most important part of marching band is the actually music part. What non-bandies or those, like me, who have never tried it, it is actually really hard to play and walk at the same time. When you try it at home by yourself, it seems simple enough, but it's so much more than that. Not only do you have to keep your instrument steady, but you have to stay on the right foot, keep perfect time, have the music completely memorized, and be perfectly aware of what everyone else is doing, while trying not to trip on your giant shoes and faint from the heat in your suit. (Not that I've marched in the uniform yet, but so I've heard). And this is just walking down the street. During football games, the entire pep band goes out onto the field and spells out words like Win, Fight, and the mascot. Just like when I had to conduct band, I have so much more respect for these musical teenagers.
So what ended up happening in this thoroughly new and strange experience? Well, I didn't make a complete idiot of myself, at least. Yes, the freshman on my other side told me I was out of line once, and I had some trouble with the fan turn (until I realized that I had to take much slower steps), but other than that, it was fine. Just like in concert band, it was magically revealed to me that the members of the high school band aren't all prodigies (actually I think that only one of them really is, and it's obvious), and that their intimidating manners that scared me for two years were pretty much just the fact that they're tall and have big drums. The beat was off occasionally, and they kept on talking during stops, but the drum major even commented to the senior next to me that it was the first time in a while that the entire band was actually on the same foot. So I guess that overall it was a great addition to my musical repertoire (ha!). And I can't wait to do it again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nhcTllJgIY
Because I mentioned it once and now it's stuck in my head.
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