Should Marching Band Be Considered A Sport Essay

“All the worlds a stage …” William Shakespeare once said and to a marching band that football field is their stage, and that green field is the canvas which the members paint upon. But should this type of entertainment be considered a sport or just musical art? There has been a discussion in the past few years questioning if marching band should be considered a sport or left as an art form. Marching band in its essence is simply a concert band placed on a field in which the players move sequentially in time with one another. Wayne Markwork says in his book The Dynamic Marching Band that “Marching band needs to be approached as an athletic activity” (78). Agreeing to this statement I push to outline under what circumstances this musical entertainment

form should be a deemed a sport or just a musical art.
There is a social stigma that plays into one’s mind when you say marching band player. Many think of a large unfit individual squeezed between a sousaphone, mostly attributed with scenes from television cartoons such as Family Guy. Yet, someone on a football team who is just as larger or many times larger is considered an athlete. To counteract this social stigma I challenge anyone to watch a drum corps rehearsal and try and define this art form as not a sport giving what these members put their bodies through every day. By there are three different types of marching bands essential, Drum Corps, High School Marching Band/Parade Band, and Collegiate Marching Band. Each requires a different amount of music preparation, style, difficulty, and physical training.
The Merriam-Webster’s online definition of a sport is “a contest or a game in which people do certain physical activities according to a specific set of rules and compete against each other.” This bluntly states what competitive marching band is.

On the extreme end of the spectrum there is Drum Corps. Each summer the members burn thousands of calories a day. The Drum Corps International webpage states, “On days the corps doesn’t play a show, the group rehearses all day, logging as many as eight or 10 hours on the field (DCI.org).” This activity logs many hours full of rigorous musician ship and physically activity. Much as a football player does at practices. Also as a comparison to the weight room of many sports are the weight of the instruments. Holding up an instrument for a ten minute show at attention requires more strength than one would

perceive.
“Marching band is obviously a very physical activity, and careful stretching and conditioning need to be part of the routine” (Markworth 78). In most athletic marching activities a program will put its performers through rigorous fitness training which includes various regiments from planking, running, and even push up to maintain fitness. This is required because of the core strength needed to perform a show. Core strength is needed to breathe properly and to maintain a proper marching technique. If your core is not strong for either your forward step or back step you will hear your feet through your playing because you are not keeping your upper body still. The lower body takes an equal amount of physical fitness as the upper body because that is the driving force of marching. Another aspect that makes marching band a physical exercise is the ability to play music and march at the same time. Generating proper musicality and standing alone hinders player’s ability, but add marching and sometimes even jazz running the physical exertion rises. Musicians can even break a sweat from just sitting and playing their instruments.
Another part of the definition of sport has to do with a competitive scoring system. As for the competitive nature of marching band this is all but apparent. Each summer and fall drum corps and high school marching programs compete each weekend. The cases that people do not see the activity as a sport comes from its scoring system. To many the scoring system is seen as judgmental. Director Wayne Markworth states,” [Other than] doing our best, we have no control over how the judges evaluate us” (Dynamic marching band 13). But one just needs to look at ice skating, or gymnastic to make that same comparison. The judging system is all judgmental yet the activities listed are consider sports….even Olympic sports. “When people go bowling or play a card game, they soon start keeping score because that is part of “playing a game”. Band competitions should be treated as a game with no more emphasis put on it” (Markworth 13). Scoring is not as pinpointed as one would find in bowling, but in cases of football some points are the call of a referee, so case in point that is a judgmental call.
Another common thought of the opposition on marching band being a sport is that it is not recognized by any sporting organization such as the National Collegiate Athletic Association or the National Olympic Committee, which is another reason why athletic bands do not receive the recognition as a labeled sport. Yet, even with its physical demands “Shooting Sports” are considered an Olympic sport. So through the demands of physical conditioning, time performing drill, and playing difficult music all while being scored against other competitors the marching activity as a whole is in the definition a sport.
Music is an expression of art.

Marching band is an expression of musical art. At the moment marching band is musical entertainment. If a concert band is placed on a football field are they a marching band? No, for the one fact that they are not moving they are simply playing. Yet just adding a synchronized step they become a marching band. “…one director even refers to it as a cross between a Broadway musical and a marching band show” (DCI.org). Performing a concert take many hours of practice inside and outside rehearsal to put on a show, much like a Broadway performance. Depending on what you are playing also deems how physically cautious a musician must be to play a piece. Ballet is another form of musical entertainment that uses more physical activity than many sports. In comparison to ballet, marching band falls under the same category as just an entertaining art form. Both use music to express form in unison, both commit to physical activity, both are used for simply entertainment. Yet, both are physically and mentally taxing. So marching band is literally marching arts in many cases if not labeled under a sport, it’s an expression. The musicianship is the front runner in any marching ensemble. They are a musician first, which then embodies a performer. Just because it has physical demands in it doesn’t deem it a sport, just another music

performance.
To clear up the issue of whether marching band is should be labeled as a sport or musical entertainment you would have to divide the types of marching into two categories competitive marching band and non-competitive. Each both have physical demands but only one version is scored. The competitive type of marching would be placed under the definition of a sport while a non-competitive group would be a musical performance. That would place many High School parade bands and college bands under the category of musical entertainment, while Drum Crops and competitive Marching Bands both in collegiate and high school levels would fall under a sport.
Both a musician and a marcher succumb to grueling physical demands by playing alone. Marching Band is a musical expression of art that takes a concert onto a field and adds movement. The physical demands can be matched to that of a ‘labeled sport’. Marching Band being a sport is situational depending on its competitive nature versus its entertainment quality. But both have a common goal, musicianship.