This post is pertaining to my fellow New Orleans school kids. As much as I hate to admit this, I don't think a lot of our kids know what is a good sound compared to that of an inferior one. How many mello members and which band could best try to imitate SU seem to be what really matters to a lot of kids. That's sad. That proves to me that the N.O.'s marching band prominence may be over. At least until music is taught again. How to read it, how to play with proper tone and control. All the things that truly matter. What kids today seem to forget is that music goes beyond parade and football season. Can you play anything other than top 40 rap/r&b songs? You know there is nothing better than a good strong concert band or jazz ensemble. Listening to individual parts of a superior rated concert band is very enlightening. You get to really hear music then. But see, when kids watch the SU vs JSU clips, they focus on that element of the band experience with all the energy and fanfare of those battles. Which is fine for games and all but...well...band is much more than that. I mean I love to watch those battles just like the next guy but being a former band member myself, I realize that there's much more to the listening experience than just 5th Quarter battles. Note to novice players: You are NOT on the college level yet. No matter how hard you blow, you won't sound like SU or FAMU or any other HBC that you admire. So please stop trying to "beast" or "rape" or whatever you call trying to out-volume the opposing school at football games and parades. Nobody wants to hear mellos blasting out of tune notes. Please take time to LISTEN. If you could really "hear" what the rest of us are hearing, you may want to change your approach. Learn to know what your are listening for. That may take a trained ear beause it's hard to do while blasting whole notes. But I'm looking foward to seeing schools like St. Aug, Karr, and Walker try to take us back to what marching/concert bands used to be like in the city. They have good musical foundations to kickstart everything. Aug has the tradition and supportive alumni to keep them moving in the right direction. Karr and Walker have good teachers as directors. But it all comes back to the kids. The question is, while they are learning are they listening? Just curious. To anyone reading this post, what are you listening for and which school seems to have "it"?-DaOtherPurpleOne
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This is so true man.................Im not against the volume but it's getting harder to educate people on what a good sound is and what is not..........A lot of people on here just say anything. Stuff that clearly sounds bad, people get on here and say they "beast" that........lol
I always listen for Balance first. Accuracy second. Intonation third.
if the arrangement is good then that's half the battle, then if the bands is balanced then that's another quarter right there
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if the arrangement is good then that's half the battle, then if the bands is balanced then that's another quarter right there