i just joined marching band this year and now the season's over -- it was the most fun i've had in a long time. i've played violin for six years so the only experience i had with school music was orchestra, which was fun, but oh my god marching band was amazing. i made new friends and strengthened old friendships and it was the best!!

i'm in the 'pit', or front ensemble, so i play mallet percussion -- for this season, glockenspiel specifically. (if you don't know what that is, google it... it's exhausting to have to explain the different between mallet percussion instruments every time someone asks... sorry.) also, in pit, we don't march, we just stand with our instruments while the band marches the show behind us. (that doesn't mean we're not important!)

there's an open class drum corps near me that's starting up again after a few years of hiatus, and they're looking for new members, and they're actually a teaching corps so i'm joining even though i'm new to mallet percussion... i'm a little nervous about it but mostly really excited! auditions are in january. the idea of being in a drum corps really excites me!!!

haha i love marching band too much

so any band geeks or corps members out there? please, i want to meet you!

I was in marching band all throughout middle and high school. In middle school, I was the auxiliary team captain, and was one of the flags. I played snare drum occasionally during this time as well, but it was maybe only like twice. In middle school I definitely just focused on tall flag. In high school, I played bass drum in marching band and pep band, but in concert band I played... many things. haha

I actually think I enjoyed playing the xylophone and glockenspiel the most though. Not while marching though. They're so annoying to play while marching. ;_; To be honest, I sort of hated marching with the bass drum too because I could never really see where I was going. It took me a while, but I managed to perfect this weird technique of judging where I was going by looking down through the small space between the harness and the drum. lol

PIT IS GREAT OH MY GOD I'M SO HAPPY. I was in pit all five years of my high school marching band (ours was a summer band and it included incoming freshmen and graduating seniors). And I totally feel your pain about explaining it to people :P. marching band was honestly the best thing that could have ever happened to me in high school. And dude! Do it!! Even if you don't get a call back, the auditions are such good experiences. They have really talented people helping you out. A couple of my friends from high school are in corps now - a guy I had a crush on for a million years is marching his second year on tenors for the Pioneers, another guy who was a huge asshole marched snare for the same corp last year (dunno what he's doing now and I don't care yuck), and my best friend just got offered a spot on pit for the Blue Stars. there's also a few people who marched in the Madison Scouts, but I think they've probably aged out now.

Oh my gosh I'm so excited you haaaveeee to do it!! It's been my biggest regret not keeping up with it after I started college.

Well, I'm a colorguard girl, but I could march as a French horn/trumpet if I wanted to! I love guard/dance too much for that, but contrary to the stereotype, I'm not a bad player. I absolutely love marching band - and the looks I get when I tell people that I'm going to go toss a metal pole for 4 hours are amazing. It's so much fun, the band at my school is just like a huge extended family and if I'm going to spend almost all of three/four months with one group of people, I'm really glad it's them. That's fantastic that you're going to try out for a drum corps! They're such great organizations. One of the choreographers at a colorguard camp I go to every year is in a DCI group and she absolutely loves it, says it's the most amazing thing in the world - and judging from the shows they've put on, I agree! Since it is a teaching corps, you'll definitely make it - according to the aforementioned choreographer, a lot of what teaching corps look for isn't so much how good you are already, but how good you have the potential to be, and if you're willing to learn and put in the time/effort to do a good job, you're golden. Good luck! (:

I am a colorguard instructor for a local high school here :D

Ah, that's awesome! (: Excited for winterguard season? ^^

OMGAWWDD YESSSSSSS KJLNLNLKHALHDLNLASD.

-Sorry i just blargled all over my keyboard. The show I wrote this year is awesome aweosome awesomekalsdf cause they are doing so well bkjlakjsdlfkjljasdf!! I told them today that i was so super proud of them. (I am building the program from the ground up it is kinda a long story, but that is why i keep blarging all over the place. I am so proud of them Q_Q)

i wasnt in anything like that but i always wanted to be but my school didnt really do that for some reason but now i really enjoy playing the keyboard or piano

That's so cool! (: That's an amazing thing to do, and definitely pretty great - building a program isn't an easy job by any stretch of the imagination. Winterguard stuff is definitely more fun than colorguard (not that I don't love it too), and it sounds like your kids are really lucky to have someone so enthusiastic! (: I'm really excited for this year as well - our show is really different from what our instructor usually choreographs. It's dark and creepy instead of the typical pretty, graceful sort of thing, and the music is entirely instrumental. It's gonna be awesome, though, and I'm excited for it. ^^

I always wanted to do marching band, but I moved too much in high school and I am shy. =[

I did both concert and jazz band for four years with the clarinet and bass clarinet. I miss it.

I miss preforming so much. We had a great instructor when i was in school, we always had the coolest shows.

@ cryforjudas

I used to be in marching band when i was in HS, i played the clarinet^^

i jumped into marching band as a sophomore and, having been and still was in choir, id never played an instrument before so it was frustrating but oh my god it was so exhilarating and fun and my band was just an absolute blast. i went from a no-skilled newb that everyone doubted to first chair alto saxophone as a senior while balancing being section leader of the sopranos in choir haha

but my highschool couldnt fund a pit, we only had a drumline with like. a quint player and three snares at most lmao we could only have a "pit" for concert season ):

At least you're still involved in it though, right? (: There might actually be some sort of WGI group you could get into, too, they're all over the place. Have you ever looked? Yeah, some winterguard shows can get pretty fantastic. ^^ What was your favorite show like?

I wish i Had time to preform still :/

I loved all of my winterguard shows. our instructor was crazy (and kindof a douchebag) so we always ended up having shows that were super cool. The thing was though was that he wouldn't invest in good uniforms for us so we ended up looking like hobos for most of our preformances.

Ah, yeah, time is a pain. Can we just add about four (or five or six or seven...) more hours on to the day? xD

Aha, that's kinda how my instructor is - really cool, but really irritating sometimes. The uniform thing also sounds like her on non-state years - last year's uniform was gorgeous, this year's could have been a rainbow if there was any purple in it. It was tacky as heck. That's so cool, though, that you had an instructor that could choreograph everything to where there wasn't anything to dislike. Choreography speaks louder than uniforms! xD