How to March with the All American Brass Marching Band (Even If You've Never Marched Before)
The All American Brass isn’t exactly a precision marching power machine, but we do aim to look respectable whether we're in a hotel conference room or parading on the street (that is, when we’re not goofing around with someone in the crowd!). Why?
We can have fun on the street (that’s our calling card!) and still look professional. Here’s what we’re aiming for:
March in Rhythm
The word "marching" may be overkill. We like to say that we walk in rhythm. Either way, it means that one of your feet should hit the ground on each beat of the music or drum cadence – not during some random interval between beats, but RIGHT ON each beat. The result will be that we look a lot more like a marching band and a lot less like a centipede. Getting this right is one of the biggest things we can do to improve our look.
As a side bonus, marching in rhythm makes it much easier to keep the music from “tearing” since everyone has the same tempo and the same idea of where each beat lands – just watch the feet all around you! Even if you’re not explicitly watching the feet you’ll see them in your peripheral vision, making it much easier to know where the beat is.
TAKEAWAY: ONE OF YOUR FEET SHOULD HIT THE GROUND ON EVERY BEAT.
March in Step
Wait – didn’t we just cover this in the previous section? Well, no. Suppose you’re marching (or walking) along in rhythm, with a foot coming down on each beat … but your RIGHT foot comes down when everybody else’s LEFT foot comes down. Hey – you’re out of step!
In the All American Brass we step off with the LEFT foot, and your left foot should strike the ground on beat 1 of each measure. For music in 4/4 time (our most common case), that means your LEFT foot strikes the ground on beats 1 and 3, and your RIGHT foot strikes the ground on beats 2 and 4. For music in 2/4 or 2/2 (cut) time, your LEFT foot hits on beat 1 and your RIGHT foot hits on beat 2.
Drummers: The 4 clicks to start a cadence (and the cadence itself) should always start on the LEFT foot. If a tune finishes up on the first beat of a measure, let beats 2, 3, and 4 be silent (which will work fine because we’re all marching in rhythm), then click to restart the cadence on the next beat 1. Marching in step will help us look more like a coherent marching unit, although frankly it’s less important than having us all march in rhythm. If we’re out of rhythm, we look (and are) just sloppy. If a couple of people are out of step, we still look like we know what we’re doing (and in fact it’s easy to get back in step by “skipping” a step).
TAKEAWAY: YOUR LEFT FOOT HITS THE GROUND ON BEAT ONE OF EACH MEASURE.
Aligning Ranks
When marching in a straight line (i.e., not in a turn), the All American Brass uses a “guide right” technique for keeping ranks straight: you keep your shoulder even with the shoulder of the person to your RIGHT. If everyone does that – voilà, it’s a straight rank! Generally, you can do this using your peripheral vision so that you don’t have to turn and look (although it’s fine if you do).
But wait – how do you stay in line with the person to your left? Answer: That’s not your job, it’s his/her job (whew!). Remember, your left-hand neighbor is responsible for staying aligned with the person to his/her right and that person is … you!
If we’re doing this correctly, the only people in your rank that you should be able to see are to your immediate left and immediate right. If you can see other people in your rank, either you or they are too far forward or too far back (i.e., out of line).
So far, so good. But what about the person at the far righthand end of the rank? Who does THAT person stay in line with? Answer: Nobody. But THAT person’s job is to correctly set the distance between his rank and the rank in front of him. That distance should be about 2 to 2½ yards, or roughly 3 to 4 marching steps.
So in summary: The right end of the rank sets the distance to the rank immediately ahead, and everyone else guides right to keep the rank aligned. This means we should ensure that an EXPERIENCED MARCHER WHO WILL PAY ATTENTION THROUGHOUT THE PARADE is at the right end of each rank.
The All American Brass is not a military band or drum and bugle corps, so it’s unlikely that our rank alignment will be perfect. But we can pay enough attention so that we at least look MOSTLY aligned – and that’ll really improve our appearance.
TAKEAWAYS: GUIDE RIGHT – ALIGN YOUR SHOULDER WITH THE SHOULDER OF THE PERSON TO YOUR RIGHT. THE RIGHT HAND GUIDE SHOULD STAY 2 TO 2½ YARDS (3-4 STEPS) BEHIND THE RANK IMMEDIATELY IN FRONT OF HIM.
Aligning Columns
When marching in a straight line (i.e., not in a turn), it’s straightforward to keep the columns aligned: just stay directly behind the person in front of you. Ta-da!
Turning Corners
The All American Brass uses gate turn corners, probably the simplest technique available: when we get to a corner, the entire rank swings around it like a big garden gate as shown in the diagram at right. Simple, right?
- Band pride. We like to look like we know what we’re doing!
- Getting invited to exciting new places. Looking good entices people to invite us to their events.
- Most important: We ask parade organizers to pay us for our performance. They are our customers, and we owe them a band that looks good, sounds good, and brings something special to their event.
We can have fun on the street (that’s our calling card!) and still look professional. Here’s what we’re aiming for:
March in Rhythm
The word "marching" may be overkill. We like to say that we walk in rhythm. Either way, it means that one of your feet should hit the ground on each beat of the music or drum cadence – not during some random interval between beats, but RIGHT ON each beat. The result will be that we look a lot more like a marching band and a lot less like a centipede. Getting this right is one of the biggest things we can do to improve our look.
As a side bonus, marching in rhythm makes it much easier to keep the music from “tearing” since everyone has the same tempo and the same idea of where each beat lands – just watch the feet all around you! Even if you’re not explicitly watching the feet you’ll see them in your peripheral vision, making it much easier to know where the beat is.
TAKEAWAY: ONE OF YOUR FEET SHOULD HIT THE GROUND ON EVERY BEAT.
March in Step
Wait – didn’t we just cover this in the previous section? Well, no. Suppose you’re marching (or walking) along in rhythm, with a foot coming down on each beat … but your RIGHT foot comes down when everybody else’s LEFT foot comes down. Hey – you’re out of step!
In the All American Brass we step off with the LEFT foot, and your left foot should strike the ground on beat 1 of each measure. For music in 4/4 time (our most common case), that means your LEFT foot strikes the ground on beats 1 and 3, and your RIGHT foot strikes the ground on beats 2 and 4. For music in 2/4 or 2/2 (cut) time, your LEFT foot hits on beat 1 and your RIGHT foot hits on beat 2.
Drummers: The 4 clicks to start a cadence (and the cadence itself) should always start on the LEFT foot. If a tune finishes up on the first beat of a measure, let beats 2, 3, and 4 be silent (which will work fine because we’re all marching in rhythm), then click to restart the cadence on the next beat 1. Marching in step will help us look more like a coherent marching unit, although frankly it’s less important than having us all march in rhythm. If we’re out of rhythm, we look (and are) just sloppy. If a couple of people are out of step, we still look like we know what we’re doing (and in fact it’s easy to get back in step by “skipping” a step).
TAKEAWAY: YOUR LEFT FOOT HITS THE GROUND ON BEAT ONE OF EACH MEASURE.
Aligning Ranks
When marching in a straight line (i.e., not in a turn), the All American Brass uses a “guide right” technique for keeping ranks straight: you keep your shoulder even with the shoulder of the person to your RIGHT. If everyone does that – voilà, it’s a straight rank! Generally, you can do this using your peripheral vision so that you don’t have to turn and look (although it’s fine if you do).
But wait – how do you stay in line with the person to your left? Answer: That’s not your job, it’s his/her job (whew!). Remember, your left-hand neighbor is responsible for staying aligned with the person to his/her right and that person is … you!
If we’re doing this correctly, the only people in your rank that you should be able to see are to your immediate left and immediate right. If you can see other people in your rank, either you or they are too far forward or too far back (i.e., out of line).
So far, so good. But what about the person at the far righthand end of the rank? Who does THAT person stay in line with? Answer: Nobody. But THAT person’s job is to correctly set the distance between his rank and the rank in front of him. That distance should be about 2 to 2½ yards, or roughly 3 to 4 marching steps.
So in summary: The right end of the rank sets the distance to the rank immediately ahead, and everyone else guides right to keep the rank aligned. This means we should ensure that an EXPERIENCED MARCHER WHO WILL PAY ATTENTION THROUGHOUT THE PARADE is at the right end of each rank.
The All American Brass is not a military band or drum and bugle corps, so it’s unlikely that our rank alignment will be perfect. But we can pay enough attention so that we at least look MOSTLY aligned – and that’ll really improve our appearance.
TAKEAWAYS: GUIDE RIGHT – ALIGN YOUR SHOULDER WITH THE SHOULDER OF THE PERSON TO YOUR RIGHT. THE RIGHT HAND GUIDE SHOULD STAY 2 TO 2½ YARDS (3-4 STEPS) BEHIND THE RANK IMMEDIATELY IN FRONT OF HIM.
Aligning Columns
When marching in a straight line (i.e., not in a turn), it’s straightforward to keep the columns aligned: just stay directly behind the person in front of you. Ta-da!
Turning Corners
The All American Brass uses gate turn corners, probably the simplest technique available: when we get to a corner, the entire rank swings around it like a big garden gate as shown in the diagram at right. Simple, right?
