It should definitly not be required. Who wants a band where half the kids dont wanna be there? It's better to have a small band where everybody loves playing and loves marching instead of a huge band filled with people who hate it and probably won't even practice. _________________ "A good composer does not imitate; he steals." -Igor Stravinsky
I think that membership in marching band should be optional, but what happens to the band director when he/she doesn't have enough members to field a band for football games?
Let's be honest, as far as the general public is concerned the 2 functional purposes of a band are to march in parades and to play at football games. The band director is often told that he will have a marching band, they will play at every football game, and that the band will pay all of the expenses involved withplaying at the games, even the away games.
Did you know that to take a band to an away game costs several thousand dollars. 4 Charter buses will run you acouple thousand dollars, and the wear and cleaning on the uniforms and guard equipment is another few hundred. The repairs after the average game is a couple hundred dollars so when you add it up, 5 away games cost the band $10,000 to $15,000.
Then they wonder why the band directors are praying that the football team doesn't make the playoffs???
I better stop before I say too much. I loved being in the marching band, but I understood my friends who hated it. I also loved playing in the orchestra and understood my friends who hated that as well. _________________ "To be a teacher you need to be as good a performer as you can be: you'll have more to impart to your students musically." - John Haynie
I usually stay out of this discussion but today I have to reply.
The reason that marching band is usually required in that there are usually insufficient players elsewise. School music programs are usually judged by the number of students enrolled first and then on the quality of the music they perform.
For many of us, marching band was a great time. I enjoyed learning a new show every week or two and being to memorize the music for each show. It taught me discipline and kept me in great shape. In my school (both high school and college) the marching band was required. Once the football season was over, we shifted to concert band. There was no jazz band when and where I lived. In college there was he concert band and the symphonic winds. The music majors were usually in the symphonic winds.
For those of you who are required to take marching band just consider it part of the dues you have to pay in order to do those thing you really like. Life is like that. You frequently have to do things that you don't necessarily like in order to do what you really want. _________________ Harry Marks
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