Posted by PJ on January 29, 2002 at 20:43:58:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: orchestra players in marching band posted by From Parts Unknown on January 29, 2002 at 20:28:02:
Marching Band does have its reasons for existance and a lot of young kids do enjoy it. However, I think it is retarded to force people to do marching band like that. The only reason I can think that they would make orchestra players do marching band is to improve the size. But rather than get the band larger, all it does is shrink the orchestra making it very difficult to find good repatoir that the orchestra could handle.
At my school, Music Education majors are required to do it (with the exception of vocalists and string players), for two years. There has been talk of increasing it to 4 years, or making all music degrees have to march. Personally, I think two years for Music Ed Majors is ALL they need to do. I can understand why they do it. Reguardless of what people in the band think, it IS a good experience to get in when seeing a degree in music education. Cause you may be directing a college marching band some day. It'd be best to get the preparation in for what will come.
Well, I don't have much of a closing statement, but just to say that I believe its ridiculous to force musicians to march, especially in highschool, and all it does is shrink the amount of potential musicians.