Marching Band Community

1537 Words4 Pages

What is this Community A community is a group of people who share something in common whether it be location, interest or a common goal. Communities are what bring people together and that is exactly what happens in marching band. Marching band is a way for people to find their place and make friends. It is very important not only for growth in music, but also for growth in character and friendship. There is only one requirement for marching band and that is to be able to play an instrument and be willing to practice hard. The people who join marching band do not need to have similar like and dislikes, majors, or even anything remotely in common.
Marching band is not like many other communities where people come together because they are …show more content…

There is something that generally is very noticeable in every band: the gender imbalance. The gender imbalance is can be described by looking at a band and noticing the people in each section. Some have all males or at least a great majority of them, like percussion (which is drums) or low brass (tubas, baritones or trombones). While others such as high woodwinds (flutes or clarinets) have a majority female population. There are a few sections you may be able to look at and see this, such as trumpets or saxophones, but even this depends on the marching band. This is a huge problem in the marching band world and it needs to be fixed so that more people will join or continue on in their music. The reason this is a huge problem is because when someone breaks that gender imbalance, for example a guy plays the flute, then people start to target that person. He could be teased or bullied which could make him quit band. Not a lot of girls try out for low brass or percussion because they guys in the group will most likely see them as inferior and give them all kinds of crap every day. Marching band is supposed to be a community that is like a family and people should feel comfortable with whatever that choose to play. With the current gender problem, that is not happening and therefore the community as a whole is …show more content…

The first step to solving a problem is to identify it. Therefore, I believe handing out surveys to people involved in the Trine University Marching Band and getting statistics on different bands they have been involved in would be a great first step. Next I would possibly interview a few different band directors around Trine University and get their input on the gender imbalance and ask how the bands they have directed looked gender wise. After all this data collection and some heavy research, I should have a base ground of information to start forming a plan to solve this issue. Some possibilities may be to have directors try to control the gender imbalance by getting more males to play wood winds and females to play low brass and percussion. This problem is not something easily fixed though, because people have to also change their mindset and that is not something people do very often. This project could be very great and help out the band community even if no solution comes out of it, they still have this information that could help one

Open Document