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Skyler Maynard

Professor Gardiakos

ENC 1101

29 July 2021

Topic Three

A well-done marching show is able to capture the attention of its audience in any

situation. While it seems easy to do because of how well the band works to create a beautiful

show, there are many hardships and problems that the band community goes through before it

reaches a level worth performing. The marching band discourse community functions similarly

to other communities, with its own individual ways of communications, issues, and language.

The marching band is a discourse community created by high school students choosing

band as an elective course. It functions similarly to other recreational discourse communities, in

which members can choose to be as involved as they wish to be. This means there are varying

levels of interest, dedication, and involvement among the active members, as well as many

differences in hobbies and personalities. Instead of being connected through these means, active

members are connected through their shared enjoyment of music and their goals for the marching

band. Specifically, the goals are to entertain their audience and get superior ratings at the district

Music Performance Assessment (MPA). In order to achieve these goals, members often find

there is a large cost of affiliation in regards to marching band. For example, all members must go

to every practice, unless there is a legitimate reason they can’t attend. Due to this, many

members find it difficult to maintain friendships and grades outside of the band community.

With that being said, many find friends within the band and create other recreational
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communities outside of marching band. Aside from the mandatory practices, other events and

practices may be scheduled through group chats, sectionals, e-mails, or otherwise. This, in turn,

increases the amount of time and dedication needed for the program but allows for the group’s

goals to be realized sooner. Eventually, members become inactive in the community due to

graduating from high school. In this instance, many remain connected to the marching band by

supporting the current members but aren’t able to participate themselves.

The marching band community also has specific genres and lexis that active members

use. A large majority of the lexis and genres are used with the purpose of learning. When

learning a marching show, the community will refer to specific movements or actions as

terminology or commands to make the learning process easier. For example, one of the most

important commands in high school marching band is “Band, ten hut.” This command is used to

call the band into attention and to greet the audience at halftime. The command is symbolic of

the respect being given to the person using it, so by greeting the audience with it, the band is

showing their appreciation and respect to their viewers. Due to this, the importance of this

command is greatly raised, making it necessary for every member in the band to learn. Other

commands used may lack the symbolism of “Band, ten hut,” but are as equally as important for

the members to understand. For example, many commands used are to direct the band when

marching, allowing for a more uniform and clean look throughout the show. Commands like

“left hace” and “right hace,” tell the band to pivot their feet in a specific direction. Without

understanding these commands, it would be impossible to meet the goals of the community.

When it comes to genres, the marching band has two main forms of genres; drill charts

and sheet music. Drill charts are a form of genre that members of the marching band use to

coordinate their positions in the marching show. It has a list of sets, which are the various images
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being created throughout the show, and the corresponding coordinates for each one. When

someone joins band, reading drill charts is one of the first things they learn because of how

essential it is to the program. Without being able to read a drill chart, the show wouldn’t function

how it is supposed to. The lexis used to describe how members march is applied to the drill chart.

For example, there are many times that marching techniques like “about face,” which refers to

when a band member does a 360° rotation, are applied to the show. By doing this, the band is

able to reach an agreement on how to march specific sets, allowing for a more aesthetic

presentation. Sheet music functions in a similar manner as the drill charts. While it doesn’t tell

band members where to go physically, it does this musically from the start of the piece to the

end. Within the music, there are notes, terms, and markings that convey the composer’s ideas on

how the piece should be interpreted and played. When playing music, there is a necessary level

of pre-existing knowledge of the various types of lexis seen in sheet music. Similar to how lexis

is used in marching, lexis is used in sheet music to describe the emotional and technical way a

piece should be played. For example, the term “staccato” means short and detached and is

notated through a small dot overtop musical notes. In order to have the marching band on the

same page, it is necessary for each individual to understand the lexis used on sheet music.

Due to factors like lexis and genre, many people consider marching band to have a large

learning curve. Meaning, people find it extremely difficult when first joining the community. For

reasons like this, the marching band has student leadership. Student leadership is responsible for

many things depending on the position, but overall, is meant to help the general body of

members and help the band progress. The leadership team is broken into two large categories,

upper leadership, and general leaderships, in which upper leadership has more power and

responsibilities than general leadership does. Upper leadership consists of the marching band’s
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presidents, drum majors, and captains. Each of these roles is responsible for leading the entire

band. Meanwhile, general leadership consists of the section leaders and crew captains. Section

leaders are responsible for a specific group of instruments and crew captains are responsible for a

specific crew. Due to the use of the term, “upper leadership,” there is a distinct hierarchy within

the leadership team. This leads to many conflicts between band members because egotism plays

a large role in the band program. Within band, there are chairs, which act as a symbol of how

strong a person is in terms of musical capability. For example, the person who holds the position

of “first chair” is considered the strongest player in their given instrument section, while “last

chair” would refer to the weakest player. Oftentimes, the members that have high chair

placements aren’t given a leadership position, causing conflict to occur. This is because those

that don’t receive a leadership position feel like they deserve it more than the person entrusted

with the role since they are a better player. This results in a rebellion of sorts, where the members

that believe they deserve leadership refuse to listen to the designated leadership team. The

rebellions are always unsuccessful and are eventually worked out through communication

between the two parties. On the other hand, there are also instances where leadership abuses their

power, causing conflict as well. This often happens when upper leadership tries to take over the

responsibilities of the general leadership team. An example of this would be a drum major

attempting to run a sectional against the section leader’s wishes. Similarly, this issue also stems

from the problem of egotism within the band. In these kinds of instances, the conflict occurs

because the general leadership team members feel like their authority is being threatened by

upper leader, a group of people that are higher in the leadership hierarchy. This oftentimes

doesn’t result in any form of rebellion and is solved through communication.

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Conflict doesn’t only occur within leadership, it also occurs between sections. Since the

marching band is split into instrument sections, every member of the band feels a family-like

attachment to their given section. This often causes conflicts because many members act harshly

to other sections due to the pride they feel for their own section. Arguments often occur between

sections, each side arguing a different instrument is better than the others. Most of the time these

are relatively harmless and more like a form of banter between the members of the marching

band, but sometimes it becomes a legitimate argument. This type of argument doesn’t prevent

the band from achieving goals, but more so results in tense relationships between individuals or

sections, which is often resolved through communication. Arguments within a given section are

quite frequent as well. Chair placements cause many conflicts between band members because it

attacks the individual’s playing capability and ego. Due to this, many people feel resentment for

their fellow section members when they receive a lower chair placement than others.

In conclusion, the marching band community has a lot of behind-the-scenes activities and

hardships that affect their ability to perform. A well-done marching show experiences all the

problems that other forms of communities experience, but the community is able to work

through them to meet their goals for the band.