We just finished a wonderful marching band season here in Kentucky.  I am thankful to be able to adjudicate marching bands within KMEA and work with many ensembles as either a music/brass coordinator or as a music consultant.  As a music educator, I am constantly longing to be affected by the music in marching season but very seldom am. Here is why I think that is:

Louder is not always better

Why do we work so hard on creating a product that is aesthetically pleasing but ruin it with overblown moments of uncharacteristic tones, poor phrasing and unbalanced timbres? Can beauty of balance and sonority affect us deeper than shear volume?

The marching arts is an extraordinary opportunity to take beautiful music and marry it with a visual product to enhance the emotional effect for the listener. We have a chance to create musical nuance to take the listener on a journey AND have the ability to pair it with nuanced visual effect.  What a great opportunity! Of course, volume is important as we reach climax, but it certainly does not control the emotional effect of the listener or performer.  There are so many rewarding opportunities for student musicians to learn and grow as musicians during marching band but only if we pave a musical avenue that is free of anything other than beauty and heartfelt emotion.

I like to ask students to think of adjectives that come to mind when they are performing different parts of the musical selections.  Some might say “longing”, or “hopeful” as feelings they want to portray.  I also find it very useful to have students think of adjectives that describe their feeling of the tones they are producing.  Obviously if one says “harsh” or “loud” we have an issue with the way this music will affect the listener. We want students to be comfortable and proud with the power they have as performers and musicians to guide a listener in and out of the same adjectives they feel as they are making the music. Instead of “loud” lets feel “power”. Instead of “harsh” lets feel “intensity”.  The performer must put musicianship and emotion in every note they perform, or the music feels lifeless and unimportant.

Can we have students be marching musicians instead of a marching band?

Long phrases with dynamic interest on every note. Using the middle dynamic range instead of just “soft” and “loud”. Musical communication between performers allowing them move out of they way to let more important lines be heard. Exploring the different rich timbres of each instrument in relation to what the music asks. Feeling and perfoming the emotion of the music and guiding the listener through the music using forward motion and direction. Creating a beautiful balance and blend that warms the musical soul. WOW! I would take those over “loud” any day!

It all starts with a well structured and fine tuned concert program including placing much personal responsibility on the students to make their own music with minimal “spoon feeding”. This comes with less after school rehearsals for concert band, more focus on chamber ensembles and private lessons, and very efficient rehearsals where music, instead of ratings, is of the utmost importance. Trips to the symphony, masterclasses with professional musicians, and solo and small ensemble concerts in and out of school can guide this kind of learning. Directors and students alike are longing for music making that means something and affects the heart and soul.

Marching Band can be of so much value to the student musicians and to the audience. Our sense of musicianship must be heightened when taking the concert medium to the outdoors.  What story are we trying to tell, and how musically can we present the information that is best for the performer, listener and staff involved?