Posted by Kenneth Sloan on January 31, 2002 at 02:35:33:
In Reply to: orchestra players in marching band posted by Tom on January 29, 2002 at 14:53:54:
This should really be a separate thread - but this is as good a place as any.
From personal experience, I can think of one major advantage of the pressure to field as large a marching band as possible - it pulls in people who might otherwise not play a band instrument at all.
In my case, I had a background in choral singing and piano. I was in the process of "giving up" on piano (that didn't work - I still play from time to time, 40 years later). Chorus wasn't quite working for me (I wasn't all that good). I could very easily have drifted away from music.
Except that, the band needed more Sousaphones on the field. They didn't really need any more Sousaphones for concert season (yes, we played the same Sousaphones for concerts). But they needed bodies on the field. So, I was offered free lessons (summer school in the band room), in exchange for the promise to sign up for the band during the school year.
And the rest is history...
I now have two sons in the local high school band. But, much more importantly, *I'm* playing in the local community band (along with my wife - who I met in the college band). It just would not have happened without the need for enough Sousaphones to spell out the town name on the football field.