r/marchingband

Hi! I am currently a section leader (freshman) at my hs ban—I play trombone in the band but I also do play euphonium! Lately I have been thinking about auditions for next marching season in May. The reason for this is, my band director said there are 3 really good 7th graders and soon to be eighth graders and one is really good, like stealing my chair good. I am a-little stressed about it because I do want to stay a section leader and I like being first chair! Audition wise I to have trouble at sight reading from but I’m decent at scales. I really want to stay first chair and stay a section leader, so is there anything I can do to get a lot better? I do have trouble with 16 notes from time to time, depending on the tempo and I do not know how to double tongue I can only single tongue. Also I have never heard these kids play, this is just what my band director said. Anyway thanks for your time! Any reassurance and advice on getting a lot better is appreciated! 🪊✨

Like does it look like im going up to your trumpet and playing on it without your permission EMILY? No. SO WHY ARE YOU TOUCHING MY STUFF🤬🤬😠😠😡🤬🤬😸😠😠🤬

(On a more serious note, please don't touch the percussions unless given (rare) permission from the percussionist currently playing the int, it is annoying, you guys don't wanna see our bad side👿👿👿 /j)

For context, I’ve been in pit percussion in highschool marching for two years. Recently, I’ve overheard my director speaking about how I will be marching "side snare" next year.

Ive never heard of that term before, and apparently nobody else around me has either.
Im assuming he may be talking about a flub drum? but I’m not entirely sure.. maybe it could be a joke, maybe it’s a flub, or an actual placement on the snareline? I’m clueless

Also, I forgot to add, we haven’t marched any Flubs in a year, and I’m have zero idea if they’re ever gonna make a comeback

Straight superiors, second place overall. The whole thing was a mess - flooding rain, stand up performance in the gym, not enough food available so my kid was HANGRY and anxious.

Got home with three teenagers and I didn't even get to use my schmancy new stadium seat. My spouse had the audacity to ask "so now that it's October, things calm down, right?"

I thought he was joking!

Hello! I’m In 8th grade and I currently play the trumpet. Now I really love the trumpet and have been having a good time with it but I have been thinking of doing marching band in high school, and I’m not sure if I wanna stick with trumpet for high school. I have realized that I love to play trumpet for concert band but not for marching. For marching specifically I think I wanna do snare drum. I watched the movie drumming and have been looking at videos of HBCUs and what not and drum line just looked really fun

So I was wondering if it’s too late to switch? Like should I have been doing percussion for the past four years? (My schools band program starts at grade four I live in Canada. And I switched between percussion and brass for those four years) ai feel like I have wasted these very important musical years when I may not even play the trumpet for marching band or I may be forced to because I don’t know the snare drum. Any advice? I know this post probably sounds stupid but it is a genuine worry of mine. Thank you for any advice!

Literally every day I have headaches from this, whenever I’m walking with a friend of family, I have to walk in step. Literally, every single day I have to do this. I must.

Also, whenever a song is on I have to walk in step or tap my leg or something (I’m bass drum tho so this makes a little bit more sense since I’m pretty much the beat of the song) but it doesn’t matter wherever I like the song or not, I have to.

2 last ones, I always stand with my feet at a 45 degree angle, and whenever I’m walking in line I just don’t start moving Although that’s a little bit more voluntary

Do these fade or am I gonna have it forever cause it’s driving me insane, especially now that I’ve just started getting these

I'm interested in auditioning for drum major in my college marching band in future years, but something that makes me feel hesitant is that my personality type doesn't really align with what I imagine when I think "drum major." At least in my experience throughout HS/college band, my drum majors have often been outgoing and somewhat eccentric people, i.e. people whose voices could speak for the entire band. However, I'm someone who is quiet, reserved, and probably on the spectrum. I pride myself on my work ethic and believe I have what it takes skill-wise to be a DM, but I worry that my personality will get in the way of being a strong leader.

Are there any introverted people with DM experience? Any tips on overcoming hurdles caused by my personality?

This is a bit of a vent btw. So I play cymbals, and I have been told by all of the band managers, one of the drum captains, the danceline captain, the center snare, and a few random people that I'm good at it but I really worried that they're lying. So the song our school plays when the team scores or when we win isn't super difficult, but cymbals crash every beat for the entire song. And I play it right since it's musically easy, but during our parade yesterday(hoco) we played it like 5 times and genuinely felt like my arms were going to fall off. And the cymbal aren't super heavy compared to snare or bass or quads and I'm worried that I just suck. Plus two of the cymbals really struggle to count in time and our entire line gets shit for it since you can't tell super easy if we aren't all together. Plus our school doesn't do cymbal tricks and I feel like I'm just doing the easiest thing possible (even though I can do tricks and for the songs that the cymbals don't play I kinda adapted the danceline/silk line apart so I have something to do, our drum majors and directors love it) I kind of want to switch to snare or bass next year but I really enjoy cymbals. What do I do?

Curious to know if anyone has 3d printed their own lyre specifically for holding a phone. The EFlips I’ve had in the past fall off any lyre I put them on.