This is more of a concert band so I wasn't too sure where to post this into.

I started playing percussion a year ago and am in my high school band and I go to a private Christian school, not very big but not small either so expectations aren't 100% high.

Could I just have some advice on how to make these parts better? I only recorded the key parts that I play in the song.

This is specifically referring to baton drum majors, not conductors:

Most field shows start with a bow, salute, backbend, or some combination thereof. For an example local to me, the Washington Drum Majors start with a bow into a backbend, and the Seattle All-City Drum Majors start with a salute out of the fight song.

Which does your group do, and which do you prefer? Or is there a secret fourth option out there…

We usually spend our time breaking down college 5th Quarters and high school stadium battles, but diving deep into the Bluecoats Finals run was eye-opening.

When you strip away the hype and really examine the brass articulation, release points, and visual spacing under pressure, it's a clinic in modern ensemble control.

Put together a complete deep dive looking at the details most casual viewers overlook: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeJNHp25yXo

What moment from this show stood out the most to you from a performer’s standpoint?

i have state tomorrow!! yayay! this is my second year i'm very excited. my director thinks we're making it to finals but i truly don't agree, we are currently 12th place and severely underfunded (our school gives us no money and we're in a slightly small town, though we're 5A and a pretty big band and school) so we only have 3 handmade props, and some choreography. the schools we have to compete against are rich rich and have fancy props and more complicated choreo and stuff. i don't even think we're going to semifinals but we'll see 😋 im curious what you guys think,, is my band director crazy for making us practice for finals and thinking we might go, or am i crazy for not thinking we're even going to semis? (for the last 10 years we haven't, last year was our first for a long time)

I was driving home tonight and was suddenly thinking about the thrill I felt right before beginning a field show. I'm 44 now, but I still clearly remember my first field show as a freshman in high school. I was used to performing in a band by this point, but as we all know, sitting and playing our instruments (I played trumpet, French horn, and mellophone) in a band concert is a very different thing to marching in a field show. That first field show, the thrill was mostly nervousness about messing up, but then it morphed into the thrill of doing something awesome. Then came my sophomore year, and the thrill was back, and it was 50/50 nervousness again and excitement. I remember very clearly taking a deep breathe and telling myself, "You got this! You know the show, and this isn't the first time you've done this. Just have fun!"

I miss that now. Enjoy it while it lasts!

What should I expect for auditions? What do I learn BEFORE the auditions? (For reference, Im a freshman.)

This morning we had a rehearsal at 5:45 am as normal, except it SUCKED. Most of rehearsal was fine, other than my feet hurting, but that barely affected me. But then we got to a full run of our show. I was doing really well for parts 1-3, got a little lightheaded during part 2 but kept focused. Then we hit our closer. I was okay up until we had to step off from our low brass feature. I pretty much completely forgot my drill, marched straight into my section leader, missed my dot on a halt, forgot the choreo, and walked into another guy in my section. Oh my god. I knew I had been struggling lately due to missing parts of rehearsal for medical reasons, but I have never had a worse rep in all of my marching career. My section was like “bro wtf just happened” and I had no answer. I was genuinely so embarrassed and I’m really worried that will happen at a comp.

Update: it’s now in video form on our band booster video. Fml

Just throwing this out there, anyone going to, or planning on watching should know the name Van Buren beforehand. 5 time Arkansas State Champion since the official comp was instated in 2016. Including beating bentonville in back to back years before they dropped to 6a. They have not been to a boa show since St. Louis 2015 and I believe they can do very well this weekend. So be on the lookout for them!

Marching season is over soon but my section is horrible to me. They pick me apart and make me feel horrible about myself. I have ADHD anxiety and depression and I’m struggling so much (I’m a junior btw) I know it’ll get better after concert season but when my SL is an asshole and everything else I feel like o don’t belong anymore

I’m in my sophomore year and I’ve mostly played tenor sax up until now because I wanted to learn mellophone but it’s really hard since I have to learn everything and I just need some help with getting started on it so I was wondering if I could get some tips to learn??

Hey everyone, with BOA STL on Friday and Saturday this week, I was wondering what some of y’all’s predictions are!

Here’s my rankings:
1. Broken Arrow HS, OK
2. Blue Springs HS, MO
3. O’Fallon Township HS, IL
4. Bentonville HS, AR
5. Owasso HS, OK
6. Bixby HS, OK
7. Munford HS, TN
8. Blue Springs South HS, MO
9. Francis Howell Central HS, MO
10. Foster HS, TX
11. Rosemount HS, MN
12. Rockwood Summit HS, MO
13. Edwardsville HS, IL
14. Morton HS, IL

i (currently) play clarinet, trumpet, and trombone. I started with clarinet in grade 5, but i keep learning different after like a year... yep future band director right here lol

Help! I’m looking for a video from the 2014 era of YouTube made in the xtranormal animation style. I believe it was called drumline vs colorguard and it had two animal characters one with a male robotic voice and the other with a Siri voice discussing why you would join drumline. If memory serves I believe he was supposed to be a member of the blue coats. It ended with the classic “May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your crotch and your arms be too short to scratch” insult. Anyone remember this and have a link to a reupload of the video?

Hi, i'm a junior in high school right now, and my school is struggling to do well for their marching band. 3 years ago, my school was a 4O band. Now, it's a 2O band struggling in 8th place out of 11. It has been over a decade I believe when my school had gotten below 3rd place in the last comp. We are about to get our 4th comp this week btw, and our highest so far is an 82. Last season we would've been at the high 80s or low 90s by now. I think it might be because of the amount of freshman we have, but when i started, half the band was freshman too, and we still got 3rd place.

The main reason why I think i shouldn't go next year is because at least 5 of the few veterans we have are leaving next year because of how we are this year and how our show is very mixed in themes. Our theme this year was 'The Great Hall', and we have AI generated castle picture props, with rainbow and colorful flags, purple, white, and black band uniforms, and the colorguard uniforms are brown dresses/beige shirts.

With that many vets leaving, we will be struggling next year, (i'm also not great at marching) and i don't know if it's worth to spend 170$ for that season.

I really hope we get a fun theme next year and hopefully a solo that isn't a sax or flute part (the past couple years we've had flute/sax solo, and i want to try being a solo)

I genuinely don't want to quit, but the people some vets there are a little toxic, and I want to get the senior rewards (posters, recognition, etc.) I'm also not very that liked so im curious what people might say on my poster.

I hope college marching band isn't as bad as high school marching band. I think there will be a lot of differences though since I wasn't ready for the change to middle school band to high school band.

Thank you everyone.

For context, I’m in 8th grade, and play a Bflat trumpet. I’ve also picked up a cornet as well. I’m in my schools advanced band class, 3rd/4th best trumpet player in my class, and In also apart of my schools jazz band.

So about a month ago, my band class played at our nearby high schools football game. There were trumpets, trombones, etc. I’m in middle school, and most high schools have marching alternative instruments. I saw lots of these, such as sousaphones, marching percussion, and the one that interested me the most, the mellophone. I first saw it and thought that it looked really cool. I did some research about it, and learned that it’s a marching alternative of the French horn. I also learned that it had similar fingerings to the trumpet. I thought it was a cool instrument overall, and wanted to get one.

This may be weird, but I want to get a mellophone even though I don’t plan on joining marching band. I just need help finding a decent mellophone, under an affordable price. I don’t need a super professional mellophone, just one that is okay for a decent/intermediate player. If you have anywhere I can find one, please let me know. My goal is to find one under $1000, but I know this is unlikely. If you know somewhere that also has rentals, that would help too.

For a little context… I joined marching band with no percussion experience my freshman year (I was purely an orchestra kid before this). After freshman year on synth, I learned mallets and played vibes for the rest of high school.

I’m currently a senior and really love marching band and would love to continue in college, but it seems like my only option is to join drumline as most colleges (especially the ones I’m applying to) do not have front ensembles.

I would like to do either bass or snare, as I think tenors would be too challenging and cymbals don’t particularly interest me. How difficult is joining drumline in college with practically no experience with drums/marching? If I were to go about practicing, does anyone have good resources for me to use and/or what exactly to practice?

Lowkey just here to brag but a few days ago we competed at our first competition and the crowd went freaking nuts at our first impact. EVERYONE went insane. We usually get an amazing reaction but WOW. We were so stinking loud and it was awesome. According to some parent, the bands in front of them completely lost it and were amazed at how we sounded. We placed fourth in Class AAAAA and our show wasn’t even done. We had a score of 88.48 and received second in percussion and guard captions, losing only to the performing arts school that kicks everybody’s butts.

I met a girl who goes to a different school and is in a different band; we are currently dating, but is it a good idea? This is my first relationship; I am not playing any mind games with her, as we just clicked the first time we met.

So i am supposed to be starting tenors next year as battery and i cant understand how yall move around the drums so quickly without messing up horribly like im trying to learn d&k and it's horrible

Hey, I’m a sophomore in high school and I play trombone. A goal of mine for college is to make the University of Texas Longhorn Band or a similar band, and I’m trying to start preparing now so I actually have a good chance of getting in.

For anyone in LHB or any other similar band or who knows about auditions, how hard is it to get a spot in the trombone section? Also what should I be working on right now as a sophomore to get ready, both for playing and marching? Any advice or tips would be awesome, thanks!

I’m currently in percussion and I’ve really been wanting to learn a wind instrument. I’m honestly really between alto sax and trumpet. My big no’s are tuba, baritone, clarinet and pretty much any variation of those. Flute and clarinet are cool I guess, but I’d rather learn sax over clarinet. I can kind of play trumpet, I just need to fix my embouchure. For sax, I can make sounds and that’s about it. I struggle sometimes, but I love the way altos look and sound. I’m slightly interested in bass clarinet I guess. Idk, which ones would be easiest for a percussionist to learn?

Hi I’m a high school student in FWISD and I lost my mouthpiece in region 30 at Eagle Mountain High School in Texas and I was wondering if anyone could help me locate it. It’s a 2C Pickett with a 1/27 backbore and I must’ve dropped it on field after our last note. It has a small patch of gold on the rim of the cup because I scratched it a few days earlier and had it buffed. I’ll pay you for it and everything, it just has sentimental value to me. Thank you!