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How being in a marching band is beneficial
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Marching Band Should Be a Sport in All Schools It’s a Friday night. The lights gleam onto the field. A roar can be heard from the crowd sitting in the stands. It’s halftime. Snares roll off cadence and the lines of uniforms fill the field. The band performs, reflecting upon the many long hours of hard work. What makes this setting so divergent from other game nights? Truthfully, it isn’t that different from any other sport. Many students, maybe even yourself, know what it is like to pour your personal time and effort into a group to make it as great as it is. Being a trumpet player for the FCHS band, I too know the hard work and dedication put into performing for an audience. Our band practices for many hours a day to make sure that our performance …show more content…
There, they are judged by professionals, professors, and sometimes even other high school directors. To the students of the band, placement in a competition determines how successful the season was. The winnings may be nothing more than just bragging rights and a couple trophies, but to the band, that’s everything (Stein). Many people base what makes a sport in whether or not a group competes. By definition a sport is “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.” (Sport). So in turn, marching band is a sport in the aspect of competition. It may not be the same as scoring touchdowns or hitting a homerun to win but the feeling is no different. When a group wins at something, it is the product of hard work. This goes along with any sport whether it be football, soccer, baseball, and yes, even marching band. Band competitions are not entirely of sport, but the combination of sport and art. Now that it’s known that marching band is in fact competitive, it is still a popular opinion that band practices aren’t hard and don’t last as long as other sports. As a matter of fact, marching band practices are highly difficult and sometimes don’t end until it’s dark
Sweat dripping down my face and butterflies fluttering around my stomach as if it was the Garden of Eden, I took in a deep breathe and asked myself: "Why am I so nervous? After all, it is just the most exciting day of my life." When the judges announced for the Parsippany Hills High School Marching Band to commence its show, my mind blanked out and I was on the verge of losing sanity. Giant's Stadium engulfed me, and as I pointed my instrument up to the judges' stand, I gathered my thoughts and placed my mouth into the ice-cold mouthpiece of the contrabass. "Ready or not," I beamed, "here comes the best show you will ever behold." There is no word to describe the feeling I obtain through music. However, there is no word to describe the pain I suffer through in order to be the best in the band either. When I switched my instrument to tuba from flute in seventh grade, little did I know the difference it would make in the four years of high school I was soon to experience. I joined marching band in ninth grade as my ongoing love for music waxed. When my instructor placed the 30 lb. sousaphone on my shoulder on the first day, I lost my balance and would have fallen had my friends not made the effort to catch me. During practices, I always attempted to ease the discomfort as the sousaphone cut through my collar bone, but eventually my shoulder started to agonize and bleed under the pressure. My endurance and my effort to play the best show without complaining about the weight paid off when I received the award for "Rookie of the Year." For the next three seasons of band practice, the ache and toil continued. Whenever the band had practice, followed by a football game and then a competition, my brain would blur from fatigue and my body would scream in agony. Nevertheless, I pointed my toes high in the air as I marched on, passionate about the activity. As a result, my band instructor saw my drive toward music and I was named Quartermaster for my junior year, being trusted with organizing, distributing, and collecting uniforms for all seventy-five members of the band. The responsibility was tremendous. It took a bulk of my time, but the sentiment of knowing that I was an important part of band made it all worthwhile.
Band is family. When your student walks onto campus, he or she is instantly adopted into the strongest society on campus. They will be spending their school days among the top achievers on campus, with fellow students who look out for one another and steer each other away from trouble instead of towards it. Teachers, staff, parents, and volunteers watch over all the kids as if they were their own.
People only have passion for something they enjoy. Marching band needs to become more enjoyable for students. When you watch other bands perform, you can really tell which bands are enjoying themselves because the majority of the time they are better than the ones that just meander around playing their instrument with no real emotion. Now know that I am not saying we should just goof off more and not really do marching band, but we should make the marching show more interactive instead of just marching from one place to another. We should do more stuff like the poses at the beginning of the Batman show or how in the 80’s Show we did that lung thing during Don’t Stop Believing. Students enjoy
My older sister loved the marching band, so I always got dragged to their performances. I could not tell what was so appealing about it all; it consisted of walking on a field while playing instruments and flags being swung in the air. Participating in a marching band was never what I intended nor wanted to do. The idea bored me, but my mom insisted.
Since the early twentieth century, the role of music contests and festivals has been integral to the growth and development of school band programs, and parallel to this role has been the discussion of the function of competition in these events. In a study of the first national band tournament Holz (1960) asserted that “[The contest] provided the occasion and the reason for the merging of musical, educational, and commercial efforts in a common cause – the simultaneous democratization and artistic improvement of instrumental music in schools”. Joseph E. Maddy, the first full time Supervisor of Music in Rochester, New York, spoke favorably of the early band contests; “The radical changes in instrument manufacturing, band publications, and improved performance standards which occurred would have taken one hundred years had it not been for the contest movement” (Fonder, 1983). Despite the positive responses from Holz and Maddy, Birge (1966) reported, “ Early in the contest movement educators felt that the intensely competitive factor lessened the educational value of the events”. Music educators of this period were also critical of the (1) contest format, (2) eligibility requirements, (3) adjudication procedures, and (4) the emphasis on “winning” (Payne, 1997). The positive and negative traits of these early band contests have been reported by many (Burdett, 1985; Moore. 1972; Hansen, 2004; Holz, 1960; Humphreys, 1981; Whitehill, 1969; Yarberry, 1979), but the role of competition and contests continues to divide the music profession philosophically and serve as a catalyst for debate when discussing their place in music education.
It is general consensus that marching band is one of the furthest things from a sport; in fact, most people believe that band is nothing more than a group of nerds that were too unathletic to play sports. Contrary to this popular belief, marching band is much more physically taxing and demanding that many people are aware of. Based on the amount of physical exertion it entails and the similarities with other sports that are present, marching band should most definitely be considered a sport.
During practices in the summer you’re out there for as short as three hours and as long as eleven hours running and marching around in scorching heat. Not only are we doing that, but we are holding or wearing heavy instruments. In the summer, we have what is called band camp and this camp usually last for two full weeks and about eleven hours a day depending on the school. I’m not here to discriminate against other sports, but if golf and bowling should be considered sports than so should marching band. Personally going into my first season of marching band I weighed over two hundred pounds and by the end of my second season I weighed only a hundred and twenty-five pounds. Meaning I lost over seventy-five pounds just by being in marching band. This clearly demonstrates how physically intense marching band can
While the definition of a sport may vary by the person, the dictionary definition for a sport can be best described as, “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment” (Oxford Dictionary). Cheerleading has been a topic of an ongoing controversial debate as to whether or not it should be recognized as a sport. Players that engage in sports, such as, football, basketball, and baseball all display a genuine liking for their sport, which generally emphasizes why they take part in the activity. Similarly, cheerleaders have this same mindset, but society tends to overlook their passion through the generation of the argument that cheerleading does not require
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
Society should consider competitive cheerleading a sport because it fits the definition,
A sport is an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which athletes use this to compete against other teams. According to American Association of Cheerleading Coaches
Competitive cheerleading is most definitely a sport due to the athletic ability that is needed, the way that there can be a winner and a loser, and the teamwork that is essential. There are more ways that this sport can be classified as a sport than ways that it cannot be classified. Cheerleading has come a long way from where is started. The difficulty that has now been developed in this sport has made more and more people realize that it truly is a sport. The next step for this new and upcoming sport is to have more and more people able to get scholarships for all the hard work they put into training. Who knows one day cheerleading could be put into the Olympics as a true
Because some cheerleading squads don’t compete, society thinks of it merely as a physical activity. Even though cheerleaders’ main purpose is to support other athletic activities, cheer squads whom compete, follow all physical criteria to be considered a sport. Cheerleaders put forth an incredible amount of determination. They practice tirelessly to show off their skills, with little or no recognition for their efforts. Cheerleading is a sport because it requires physical fitness, skill, dedication, and stamina. Cheerleading should be considered a sport globally.
It gave me memories, opportunities, my best friends, and the best group of seventy or more people I could have ever hoped for. Without band I would not have gone on to any of the leadership positions I acquired, would not have met my best friends from my hometown or at college, and I would not have accomplished nearly as much as I have. It gave me confidence, respect, and discipline, qualities I am very grateful to have. Above all else, it gave me music. The ability to play an instrument is something I will never lose, and a talent which allows me to express my emotions and thoughts in a less forthright manner. I firmly believe that the marching band is the soundtrack to every student’s high school career, whether they are in band or not. Because with every football game, pep rally, and national anthem they hear, a family of band nerds sat in a room for hours each week perfecting it. No high school experience is complete without the band marching on at half time, or crowds of people cheering along to the fight song or alma mater. Marching band is the kind of activity that changes you in ways you do not realize until much later when you look back on the experience. Even if you were not involved in the band- it still affects you somehow. Because it is more than music and awkward
Marching band is a very broad field to participate in. High school and college band both have specific criteria they have to meet during marching season. But what are the differences and likenesses between high school and college band? In high school band, there is one show to perform and there are many long, grueling hours spent perfecting and fine tuning it. The show is not only for halftime spectating at football games, but also band festival and regional contests. High school band has a more stern outlook because the entire season is spent working for placement, whether it be superior or not. Some bands have a more difficult time working considering obstacles such as size. Bands can range anywhere from only thirty to two hundred. With upperclassmen