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Post by bandislife on Oct 14, 2007 13:45:26 GMT -5
Just recently I was asked to design a t-shirt that included all of the sports teams at my school...it took a great amount of self control to resist including marching band. My griends were shocked that I didn't find some way to sneak it into my design. It guess it's not technically a sport, but it does have the whole physical activity thing going for it.
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Post by bluescalesdragon on Jan 12, 2008 15:34:14 GMT -5
I feel similarly before a performance in a big competition than I do before a big race in a swim meet. Nervous as hell, but excited to perform. Towards the end of a show, I feel like my arms will fall off. The oxygen deprivation also makes marching band similar to swimming, except that while marching, you breathe while you have a chance, whereas in swimming, you usually have a set breathing pattern not affected by your music. As we march off the field at the end, I am sweaty, hot, thirsty, tired, happy, and hopefully, satisfied that my band has done well. It certainly feels like a sport to me, and a darn well better use of time than field hockey or football. (Swimming, fortunately, is in the winter after marching band. I would never put down swimming.)
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 12, 2008 17:34:19 GMT -5
I have to disagree with everybody. Band is not a sport, for one primary reason: it has no objective goals. You say "to put on the best field show possible" but there are many ways to do that and it is subjected to the judges' approval or disapproval, therefore it is subjective. A touchdown is a touchdown, regardless of how it is executed or looks, granted it is within the right parameters, which are, at least in theory, objective parameters. If the ball goes through the right hoop under the right circumstances, it is one, two or three points. If the horse goes over the jump properly, it is scored using objective criteria. Those are all sports; band, however, isn't. I'm sorry. That doesn't mean it's easy, or that it doesn't deserve credit, but it's not a sport.
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Post by jello on Jan 16, 2008 14:10:33 GMT -5
I think I've replied in this before but marching band is now officially a sport since my school is required to do this physical testing thing. I think we're doing a pacer test or whatever and the other schools in our school has to do it also. Is this like a state thing or a national thing? Anyway back to subject band is a sport because you sweat don't you?
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Post by kahlen on Jan 16, 2008 21:40:28 GMT -5
I recently read this response on a different forum and felt it was worth mentioning. www.thrillnetwork.com/boards/showpost.php?p=744553&postcount=127"I have been watching this thread for a while, and I have not said a word. However, I think it is now time to include my input. First of all, let me start by saying I am a music teacher. However, in high school, I played baseball, ran track, and worked out with many members of different sports throughout the school, including football, cross country, soccer, basketball and other sports. In college, I left all that behind to do what I loved, which was music. You all are trying to compare apples and oranges. As a musician, teacher and enthusiast for both music and sports, I wouldn't want anything that has to do with music to be included in sports. Most band teachers don't even want marching band to be included in football and it should be said that the best marching bands are those that do not concentrate on silly little football games, but the marching band competitions that they will travel sometimes over a thousand miles to become number one. If you think a football game is grueling, try traveling on a bus for 10 hours to be off the bus for twenty minutes to warm up, perform a fifteen minute performance, have an hour to watch a couple other bands, collect a seven foot trophy among other awards, and then turn around and travel back another ten hours. Now, that can be grueling. I think enough of you have made it very clear that playing in a marching band can be as grueling if not more than being a linesman on a football team, running a cross country meet or enduring a game of basketball or soccer match. Remember, one who learns a sport learns a game. However, one who learns a musical instrument learns much more, because… …Music is a Science It is exact, specific, and it demands exact acoustics. A conductor's full score is a chart, a graph which indicates frequencies, intensities, volume changes, melody, and harmony all at once with the most exact control of time. …Music is Mathematical It is rhythmically based on the subdivisions of time into fractions which must be done instantaneously, not worked out on paper. …Music is a Foreign Language Most of the terms are in Italian, German, or French; and the notation is certainly not English, but a highly developed kind of shorthand that uses symbols to represent ideas. The semantics of music is the most complex and universal language. …Music is History Music usually reflects the environment and times of creation, often even the country and/or the racial feeling. …Music is Physical Education It requires fantastic coordination of fingers, hands, arms, lips, cheek and facial muscles, in addition to extraordinary control of the diaphragmatic, back, stomach, and chest muscles, which respond instantly to the sound the ear hears and the mind interprets. ...Music is All of These Things, But Most of All, Music is Art It allows a human being to take all these dry, technically boring (but difficult) techniques and use them to create emotion. That is one thing science cannot duplicate: humanism, feeling, emotion, call it what you will. Now, take all that information, include memorizing enough music to perform for over an hour, memorizing each step (which is a completely different type of experience in itself that only someone in a marching band could understand) and practice over and over and over. When it comes down to it…music is so much more than a sport. This leads me to fully believe that when it comes down to it, there is simply no comparison. So, in my humble opinion: Marching band or any type of music is simply not a sport…it is much, much more!!"
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Post by Lprdgecko on Jan 16, 2008 21:44:53 GMT -5
^Wow... That's all I have to say... That was amazing...
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claribeth
Band Nerd
"I love band! Band is my life! If I didn't have band, I think I'd die!"
Posts: 315
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Post by claribeth on Feb 11, 2008 20:18:11 GMT -5
well it really depends on how you look at it. its got the same basic concept to it such as practice, working together, games, competions, etc. it kinda is, but then again its not. basically, it depends how you look at it.
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Post by bariclaribob on Feb 15, 2008 17:30:38 GMT -5
I just talked to a football player. He asked me if I play any sports. I said a hesitant no, unless you counted marching band. He seemed really interested, so I explained what it actually involves, you know, [in my band] conditioning, running, drills, marching, maneuvers, etc., etc., etc., and he seemed to agree with my thinking that it's a sport. Here's a poem I wrote for English:
(Untitled)
You jocks all scoff. You couldn't handle it. Oh? You run ladders? That's real tough. The coaches yell at you? Suck it up. You practice four days a week? That's laughable. You have games twice a week? So? Is that supposed to impress me?
You couldn't handle it: the blood, the tears, the constant aches, the sun blazing white overhead, the air so thick you can taste it, the pain, the prejudice, the sharp stones piercing the soles of your feet, the sweat running down your face, stinging your eye when you can't wipe it away, the drill, the long days, the even longer nights, the commitment, the shrill blast of a whistle two inches from your ear, the sensation of burning flesh, the rigidity, the fight against your natural impulses, the pressure, the loudness of it all, the ever-present beat of the drums, the seven mile marches, the vicious roar of the crowd, the scorn, the competition, the inhumanity, the thirst, the most powerful thirst, the anxiety, the fear, the need to succeed, the inability to face your comrades if you fail, the memorizations, the presentation, the battle, the preparation, the intensity, the drive, the pulse, the push-ups, the initiations, the rivalry, the fight, the fight between who you are and who you know you must become, the hopelessness, the technique, the determination, the force, the commands, the lack of bathroom facilities, the humiliation, the exposure, the conditioning, the pace, the emptiness in your lungs that you will never have enough time or air to fill, the panic, the decisiveness, the complexity, the tactics, the execution, the furiosity, the wool, ten pounds of wool weighing you down, the hat, cinched so tight you can't even think.
What? The army? I'm in marching band.
No offense meant to anyone in the military, by the way. I think that it just sums up some of the more vehement supporters of the "marching band is a sport" theory.
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Post by SaxGirl on Feb 15, 2008 18:09:33 GMT -5
^ Bravo, BCB. That was one big emotional statement that certainly plucked my heartstrings. That sums it up very well. I'm a good writer, yet I've never come close to describing what marching band is to me like you just did. I liked my college essay on marching band, but yours is succinct and full of impact. Nice work. It takes one to know one, I guess.
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Post by altoclarinets on Feb 22, 2008 22:30:39 GMT -5
In my personal opinion, the marching band at my school- don't know about others'- is not a sport. Yeah, we get PE credit for it- but you can also get PE credit for welding, shop and other vocational stuff if you pull the right strings. We just don't really work that hard... and our performances show it. We do maybe ten pushups every 2 weeks and one lap every five. Being a longtime track and XC junkie, I don't get anything in the way of a workout from band. Feel free to feel otherwise, the situation is likely different at your school.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2008 11:58:17 GMT -5
^Agreed. The only people who don't wear out immediately during marching season and get pissed off are the few cross-country people we have, the soccer players (who run as much as xc) and our sole football player. Volleyball wear out pretty fast, because their sport doesn't involve much endurance comparatively, but their legs tend to last longer. People also say they can't do sports because of band, and I laugh at them. (btw, I run a 30 min 5k and I am still in better shape than most of the band).
The only physically hard part of our marching season was the Friday of homecoming week, in which we had to march a 2-mile parade about two hours before the game, and that was only hard because we all expected it to be frigid out and it turned out to be about seventy. It was especially hard for me because I was sick at the time, but I still did better than the rest of them.
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Post by carlysnareperson on Feb 23, 2008 14:46:20 GMT -5
Here's what I think. Personally, I don't WANT to be considered a sport. Like Kahlen said, it is so much more. Maybe it's just the "sports are the most important thing in the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" mentality that my school has. The "Tradition of Excellence" that we boast pretty much only means "We're better than you at football, so we're better than you period." So I would rather not put myself, and my band at that level, I would prefer to sit where we are, in our own class, because really there is NOTHING in the world like Marching band. I would, however, like more credit and recognition. That's what I hate about not being considered a sport. I hate the incredible underestimation of what we do.
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Post by 1frodos1 on Mar 7, 2008 21:21:50 GMT -5
I say no because if we can say marching band is a sport then cheerleading is a sport.First it dossent take much skill to judge a sport you dont have to have played 20 years of it and majored in it to be judge.Second ,although you do compete what you do dosent affect your competition,i mean they're not going to change their show to include high stepping because another show had it. I consider band to be awsome and amazing but don't understand why some people get so offended by not being a sport -it dosent diminish the value of what you do,the effert you put into it,or the joy get out of it.
What really annoys me is our district wants to take away giving P.E credit for band.Do you think band should get P.E credit?If so what should the minimum standerds for practise be ?ie. hours required in physical Vs musical practise or practis length
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sakura11irving
Band Nerd
I <3 anime, manga, video games, and band.
Posts: 157
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Post by sakura11irving on May 3, 2008 8:41:50 GMT -5
I believe that it's a ton more work though, especially at my school. (We're one of the top 10 best bands in the state, both in concert and marching.) We work our butts off at every practice. Saturday practices we get at least once a month, maybe more. Tuesday night practices are also a requirement. We practice at school everyday. We run laps everyday, and do push-ups, sit-ups, etc. everyday.
Though, I agree with Kahlen's transmitted message from the music teacher. Marching band is SO much more than just physical education!
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Post by spartanchick on May 5, 2008 20:39:55 GMT -5
It is considerd a sport at my school but only for the following reasons 1 we can letter in it
2 we dont have take pe
3 we have to consider it a sport because our football team is so bad that we need a team in fall we can have pride in.
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