#marching au

First things first! What is marching band?

Marching band is a group of people who decided it would be cool to walk in a certain way so they could play their instruments and make shapes on the field, lol. If you've ever been to a football game, they're the musicians who go on the field during half time.

It has its roots in military bands, thus the uniforms looking the way they do and marching in time and always starting marching with your left foot. Bands have played for football teams for ages and the early 1900s was about the time they started to make shapes while they played.

Many high school marching bands compete against each other. Yes, there are even state and national level competitions! Other high schools just do "show bands" aka they don't compete, might go to some festivals, and are mainly there to help the crowd have fun. They also tend to be at least a smidge more relaxed than competition bands can be.

All bands involve a variety of wind instruments and a drumline. Many bands also have a colorguard and/or drill team that performs with them. More on them later.

DCI

DCI stands for Drum Corps International. A drum corps is a marching band with just brass instruments and percussion. DCI also has color guard members. Sorry, woodwinds. Specifically, DCI is an organization that has a variety of bands all across the USA. Throughout the summer, they put together marching shows and compete against each other. The season ends with nationals to see who did the best that year. It's an intense program, involving "touring" around to various competitions and quite literally eating, breathing, sleeping marching band. They actually have an age cap at 21 but if people, say, 22 or older wanted to keep marching there's the DCA which is similar but not the same.

(They've got a website and there's plenty of YouTube videos out there if you're interested in learning even more!)

Who's Who?

Band Director

The person in charge. They're the one that decides what the band will be doing and when. They teach music and marching and everything else in between. They delegate a lot of things to the band leadership (aka the people below).

Drum Majors

The people out there waving their arms. They're conducting the music to help keep the band together as well as marching at the right speed. They also help teach things and check that things look good. They don't march on the field itself, usually, though stuff they do can be involved in the show. The thing they stand on is called a podium.

Section Leaders

Each type of instrument is called a section. Section leaders guide the other people playing the same instrument as them. They will hand out papers, help demonstrate what the band director and drum majors are saying, run sectionals (aka moments where the band divides up into instruments to practice) and so on. They do a lot to help boost morale. Also, they're usually in charge of attendance, lol.

Squad Leaders

If there's a lot of people like in my college's band, sections might be split further into squads. In the case of my school, squad leaders help make sure everyone feels included. They also help pass out papers the section leader hands to them, run parts of sectionals, and help demonstrate. One of them will step up if the section leader is out of commission temporarily.

Marchers

A marcher is just another term for someone in the band who's out there performing. Since they're not, ya know, conducting with the drum majors or anything. Section and squad leaders are marchers with additional duties, basically.

How To March

Roll-stepping

Remember how I said marching bands step a certain way? That's called roll-stepping. Basically, it involves pointing your toes high so your heel hits the ground first. Then you "roll" your foot until your toes come off the ground. Repeat with the next foot. This is how bands can play without the music sounding like everyone's walking around.

Rollsteps come in a variety of sizes, the most common being an 8 to 5. That just means it takes 8 steps to get 5 yards, since 8 counts are common in music and there's 5 yard lines all over the football field. Roll-stepping also involves your feet hitting the ground at the correct time and on the right foot. Don't worry, it soon becomes second nature and you don't even have to think about it as you learn a new show.

There's also a fancy thing called a jazz run. I never learned how to do it in HS but I know it exists. It's a way to run while marching. Trust me. It's basically running on your toes and making sure the top half of your body doesn't bounce too much.

Where To Go

You might be thinking, "Okay, cool, I now kinda know how they march. But how do they know where to go?" Great question! Band directors have sheets of paper that are designed to look like the football field. On it, it has where everyone is supposed to be, how long in the music it'll take to get there, and so on. This is called a drill chart/sheet. These are given to the drum majors and section leaders as well, so they can help people find where they need to go.

Each marcher is assigned a designation based on their instrument. For example, I am T11 this year. This means that I am the 11th trumpet player. (For reference, we go to T39 this year.) The person to my right when we make a square might be T13, since they try to keep instruments in the relatively same spot.

That's not always the case, though! During our pregame show (aka when we play the fight song and the Banner and all that since this is a college marching band), I'm between H4 (H as in French horn) and R8 (R for trombone since the trumpets took T). So on and so forth with the rest of the instruments.

There's a sheet of paper for each shape made on the field until the entire show is clear. Marchers get a condensed version of this called a "dot/coordinate sheet" (since each spot you have on the field is a "dot" since that's what you look like from far away). Dot sheets only have your dots on them, though they do have how long each move is. You practice with help from the dot sheets until you memorize where you need to go and don't need to reference it as much anymore.

Different Directions

I'm gonna keep this one as simple as possible. There are ways to stand so you can still face front while moving sideways. You can also move backwards in a variety of ways. Some of these involve rollstepping while going backwards. Others involve being on the platforms of your feet. Either works, but it depends on the band director's opinion for which one a band will use. The main goal is to always face front, unless...

Direction of Travel Marching

Sometimes a move will be "d.o.t." (not to be confused with a dot). This just means that, instead of facing front, you face the directon you're going. At the end of this move, the marcher faces front again and continues on as normal.

If a d.o.t. move is particularly long, a single drum major will usually be on the back sideline to help everyone stay on beat. The other drum major(s) will stay in the front for when everyone moves back.

Music

Marching bands can play all kinds of music. I've done classical, jazz, rap, pop, rock, salsa, 80s hits, and more. Usually, you don't see a marching band have music on them as they perform on the field. At certain points while practicing, they will! Almost all music performed is memorized, but while learning dots, a marcher will have something called a lyre. This is a little folder that holds the music and attaches to the instrument. This allows them to write notes to help them remember where to go and when.

Basic Field Things

The side you're playing towards is called the front sideline. The other one is called the back sideline or back field. If you're gonna face the endzones, most band directors just say "face the endzones." There are also marks where they set the footballs to begin play. These are called hash marks. They're used to figure out where you stand, but otherwise aren't really relevant.

Instruments

Instruments used in marching band aren’t the same as the ones used for concert band. As I said, Drum Corps are made of brass, percussion, and color guard. Marching bands, on the other hand, also include woodwinds. The Marching AU is a sort of mix between both a drum corp and marching band organization, so it’s based on my experiences in marching band but set up with as much of my knowledge of drum corps as it can be.

In other words, it’s mainly based on what I’ve experienced but it’s only brass, percussion, and guard, no woodwinds. Sorry to everyone who wanted to see their fave play a woodwind in this AU. It's unfortunately not happening.

Brass Instruments

High Brass

High brass is called as such because they have higher ranges of notes they can play in the overall scheme of things. This is similar to violins, sopranos and tenors, and flutes, just specifically within the brass section.

Trumpet

Alright, we’re starting off with the instrument I play for marching band (no this isn’t biased, what are you talking about).

Here's a cropped version of me holding mine during a game day section group pic. Don't mind the scribbled out school logo:

Trumpets often are given the melody of the song, though they are sometimes given accompanying parts (like if you're playing a song that's on the radio that uses trumpets for small fanfares, you bet you're gonna be playing the fanfare instead of the melody for that song). Trumpets are easy to hear amongst the band since they are bright and high. I love it but some people are a lil biased against us because certain people really love playing high every chance they get.

Marching French Horn/Mellophone

Fun fact! I also play the French horn for concert band. However, for marching band, things are a little bit different. French horns, normally, have the horn face the back. But when you're on a football field, you need it to face to front. As a result, they made a type of French horn that faces the front to march with! A mellophone can also be used. For the sake of simplicity, they are pretty much the same, you just use different types of mouthpieces, amongst a few other small differences.

Bands who don't have marching French horns have mellophones and they sound very similar. They are good blending instruments aka they can play at the same time as a variety of instruments. French horns are grouped with high brass because they can play high, though they also could fit in with the low brass, depending on the song.

John Williams likes to use a lot of horn in his pieces, and not just as off-beats or long tones (what we normally get). Horn players like John Williams :)

Low Brass

Similarly to how high brass plays high, low brass is made up of instruments that play on the lower end of the range. In orchestras, instruments with similar ranges are cellos and basses. For voices, this is like altos and (also) basses.

Baritone

In concert band, we have something called a euphonium. It looks like a mini-tuba, in a sense. (Tuba and euphonium players, pls don't @ me.) Baritones are essentially the marching version of a euphonium. Or at least that's how it was explained to me. This is what it looks like:

Much like a marching French horn, the bell is facing front instead of a different direction (up in this case). Also, this picture makes it look small. It is not. It is twice as tall as a trumpet and twice as heavy. Sometimes they get the melody, but when they do, it can be tied to the rest of the low brass. They often play various accompanying parts or long notes.

Trombone

Trombones! The only brass instrument with one giant slide instead of valves (aka the button things) to press. They're pretty cool. Often, when the low brass gets the melody, these guys are loud and ready. They also play a lot of accompanying parts and long notes. They also have the ability to do something fun called a glissando which is kinda like when you brush your hand up and down a piano except it's a wind instrument.

These peeps also get to do something fun called a trombone suicide, on occasion. Don't worry, the goal is that nobody actually dies. It's just a cool trick that involves bending and twisting over each others' heads to wow people. I'm not describing it very well. Here's a link to CSU doing it about a decade ago to help: here.

Contra

The most massive instrument you'll ever see on a football field: a contrabass bugle aka the marching tuba aka a contra. These things are MASSIVE. Imagine a tuba. Now imagine carrying it all on one shoulder while marching. Boom. One of the most impressive things you'll ever witness and they're not even marching yet.

(This is the contra section from 2013 Carolina Crown aka one of the DCI corps.)

Many bands opt for sousaphones instead. They're the tubas that wrap around your body. Both my high school and college use them. But DCI uses contras, so this AU has contras. Go them! Much like the rest of low brass, expect them to be loud and excited when they get the melody. You can only play so many long notes before you go crazy. They deserve it.

Percussion

Percussion is split into two groups: drumline and pit. Some bands don't have a pit (like my high school). Most do, though, and we'll include them in this AU.

Drumline

For some reason, the most popular part of the band. Like, no matter what, if the drumline performs, the crowd goes crazy, even if they slept through the halftime show. Idk, it's odd to me. But drumline members are pretty cool.

There are multiple types of drums in a drumline: bass, snare, tenor/quads. There are also cymbal players. Basses are the only ones that come in different sizes. They also make slightly different pitches.

Drumline's main job is to help keep the band on beat and also to sound really super cool. They also get to do fun tricks with their sticks (or with the cymbals) because their instruments are attached to a harness that lets them use both their arms to play.

Pit

Ah, the pit. Sometimes also known as the front ensemble. The people in the marching band who are playing instrument but not doing any marching. Gotta love them. They play a variety of instruments you usually see in a concert band. Most of them tend to be mallet instruments (aka things like marimbas or xylophones or vibes).

Many DCI shows will have a drumline and a pit feature (whether or not those are separate depends) because they're that cool. Sometimes, they bring in instruments not usually used in pit for added affect like electric guitars or recorders.

Here's the Bluecoats pit performing off-field. It looks pretty much the same thing on field, just with the rest of the band behind them.

Color Guard

Have you ever noticed people waving flags around on the field? That's the color guard! That's pretty simply what they do: dance and march with flags to the music the band plays. They can also use a variety of other things like sabres (aka fake swords), rifles (also fake, lol), ribbons, hula hoops, and whatever else the color guard director desires.

Sometimes instead of a color guard, there's a drill team. This just means a dance team that may or may not use pom poms. Other times, the color guard itself dances to the music. They are given additional roles to unfurl giant flags over the band at times and add a lot to the show.

(For one of my favorite guard performances, check out Drum Corpse Bride by The Academy. Here's a bad action shot of it:)

and now, onto...

Uniforms

Most band uniforms are pretty forward, even if they have silly names. You always have a base layer. This is usually something everyone has access to, such as a band shirt (that may or may not showcase that year's show) and some sort of shorts or pants.

Then comes the pants. Fun fact! They're actually overall-like things, and they're called bibbers. They usually zip in the front and have adjustable leg lengths.

Then comes the jacket. Pretty straight forward. Zippers are often hidden and depending on how complicated the zippers and various clasps to keep it closed and tidy are on it depends on how likely you are to need someone to help you zip up.

Many bands put pieces of fabric on the arms of the uniform over the jacket. These are called gauntlets. Yes, like the armor piece. Vague military history and all that. All bands will use gloves as well.

Next comes the hat. It's called a shako and the feathers that stick out of it are called a plume. The plume is detachable, so you can wear the shako without it. All hair must be tucked into the shako at all times it is worn. Don't worry, there's an adjustable string inside to help it stay on your head properly and find the room for hair. There's also an adjustable chin strap.

Marching shoes do indeed exist. They have a rounded heel to help you (supposedly) roll step better. They're very durable since they have to go through a lot, lol. When practicing, marchers just use tennis shoes, though.

Some uniforms have capes that'll attach. Others will have shakos that look more like helmets than hats. It all depends! That's the fun part. Drum major uniforms will also look different than the bands' uniforms. Often, this is with the color of the bibbers, but not always.

Color Guard uniforms are a lot like dance costumes, in a sense, with leggings. They can also use a type of marching shoe or jazz shoes. Their uniform will either match the show's theme or look similar to the band's uniform.

This is the Sand Torrents' uniform. It's pretty standard for a marching uniform. If you'd like to check out the shako and/or the rest of the uniforms in this AU, check under the marching au tag!

Miscellaneous Band and Music Terms

Call Time: The time you're expected to be there. For rehearsals, this usually means ready to begin warmups on the field. For performances, this usually means in full uniform

Drill: When used as "the drill" this just means the show and the specifics within it. Could also be used to refer to the drill chart. It depends on context

Visuals: Any fancy stuff added to the drill. This could be lunges, dancing, horn flashes (aka moving your instrument to a different angle) and so on

Horn angle: Instruments must be held at 10 degrees above parallel to help the sound travel better

Block: To be in block means to spread out on the yard lines to go over basics

Basics: Quite literally the basic skills of marching. These can be used as warm ups once they've been mastered. They're used to help make sure step sizes are right, that everyone remembers how to do different moves correctly and so on

Slides: How you stay facing front while marching sideways

Cleaning the drill: Making sure everyone's marching is looking good and making the shapes its supposed to

Parade Rest: Much like military parade rest, not quite attention but not at ease.

Attention: Ready to play at a moment's notice. This involves the top of wind instruments being perpendicular to the ground and hands in position to play

->->->->Without instruments, attention is having your right hand over your left with your arms at a 90 degree angle. This is how you march when you're learning the show without your instrument yet.

Horns Up: Bringing the instruments up into playing position

Horns Down: Bringing the instruments down from playing position and back into attention

Relax/At Ease: No longer being obligated to stand at parade rest or attention. Do whatever you want (within reason... please pay attention).

Competitions: Much like competitions for other events, bands are judged and given feedback. Awards are usually given for best overall, best sound, best marching, best drumline, and best color guard

Rehearsal: Practice time :)

Set: A lowkey way to call the band to attention ("You should be set"). OR the movement from one place on the field to another. Basically, a subset of the music

And that's everything! Thank you for reading this gigantic article of a post. Hopefully that'll be enough to get you through the Marching AU with some knowledge! And don't worry, it's not a quiz -- you can always refer back to this as you read.