Band 101

#39: Marching Band

MARCHING BAND IS A SPORT GUYS!!!!!

Sport: an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment. (Google definition)

Physical exertion

Okay, let's see you carry around a heavy piece of metal in a stiff, awkward position with your arms at a 90 degree angle in a hot, heavy wool uniform in either freezing cold or extremely hot weather trying to keep in step to the beat of the music while keep tracking or your fingers/positions to play the right notes, play the music loud, try to keep breathing AND stay conscious all at the SAME TIME. Then we can talk about "physical exertion."

Skill

If you don't think it requires skill to play a heavy chunk of metal loud enough for a distant audience to hear you and so you still sound good, then you're wrong.

Competitions

You guys might not know this, but a parade is not just the band marching and playing music for the entertainment of others. The parades are competitions. There is a certain area of the parade where the judges judge the bands based on how professional the performance goes, such as if everyone is on step or not, all horn angles are nice, posture is good, music is smooth, etc. They dock off points for every time a person is off step, the music is messed up, or if someone is out of line. Whoever has the most points out of 100 wins, just like any other game you might think of.

Entertainment

Please tell me that you don't really think that watching people beat up other players just to get a ball is more entertaining than listening to great music and watching great visuals that set the mood of what the music is suggesting. Even so, please tell me that music at least somewhat amuses you.

Still not convinced?

Yes, yes, some people argue that the teams need to physically compete against each other and that marching band is more of a preforming art than a sport, but then what about golf? What about bowling? You do even less than the marching band there, and yet you still consider those sports.

Think about it.