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What's up guys. Haven't been on here for a couple of days, found some time and decided might as well post something.

Title is what it is, if you were in marching band, compare how you played in it as to how you would play in concert season. Any differences? Similarites, different mouth pieces you'd have to use? Differences in volume, note length and projection?? Basically, just compare you Marching Band playing style to your Concert Band style. I'm interested in what y'all have to say. Thanks.


Off topic: for guys who read/replyed to my volume topic. Just wanted to say director thinks I basically covering up the first row(where all the clarinets in flutes sit, and the saxophones; hahaha) gotta cut back a bit. Thanks for the help on the volume, it sure sure did help.

Keep in mind that in both cases , it is ensemble music you are making -
your conductor or band director should guide you- but, if you can't hear the other parts being played, you might need to dial it back

I hated marching band and sousaphones. So to compare marching vs concert for me I guess you could say marching was a little lazier and sloppier. It's just not something I enjoy.

A marching band is a concert band that marches

Ideally, yes.
But how many concerts do you have to play uphill, tripping over cat's eyes ?
Or avoiding divots and cow-splat after the cattle show ?
Or playing for four straight hours because the d... Dragon Dance team holds up the parade at every intersection for a set-piece ?

What's different for marching:
lyre
sling
Knee-brace
Dead acoustics
Back-support corset
Sun-block and dark glasses
ugly uncomfortable shoes to match the uniform
moderate mouthpiece with wide, comfortable rim
Noticing that each breath gets shared between me and the tuba

Growing out of the youth band truly and wholly sucks. It's no fun reaching the band that has declared itself "too gray to march", either (actually, they're mostly ex-military, and have interesting views on the discipline involved in marching).

How about Skating Band?

sloan wrote:How about Skating Band?

Pretty much the same, only you have to be able to avoid the odd Zamboni...

All interesting posts I'd say. Surprised, nothing on differences on sound quality. Knowing Sousas are generally lower quality and all. I'd like to hear yalls experiences with the different kinds of sound your putting out for each.

Like I said I hate sousaphones. I personally think they're crappy horns. I know some people would disagree with me though.

Well, in my experiences. True, you can make a Sousa sound good if you know what your doing. Maybe even better. 20k's are the best Sousa out there in my opinion.

And ya I listen to my share of tuba battles, gigs. Gotta admit there fun though. Never hurts to do some honking...as long as its not all you do, Haha.

Surely the biggest difference not mentioned here is the acoustics of the surroundings?

Outdoors the sound can easily get lost in the open space. Greater projection is therefore often required in marching band with slightly more edge to the notes if definition is not to be lost. My experience is pp should not be played so quiet marching either or the music will be lost with all the ambient sounds outdoors.

This is just a matter of playing to suit surroundings, rather than differences in marching and concert band.

Like a lot of others have posted marching band should be the same as concert in the players approach the main thing being to produce a musical performance.
There are different challenges when marching but most of them can be overcome by attentive listening or good direction.
The main tip would be don't blow your brains out to compensate for bad acoustics or weak section mates instead concentrate on being in unison you will be am
azed at the difference in projection
having marched with a Besson upright tuba and a Conn sousa I prefer the sousa for marching the sound is different but the mechanics of playing and listening are the same.

For me personally the main difference at the moment is the repertoire the concert band has an older more experienced membership so we play more challenging music the marching band plays easier more popular music.

nothing on differences on sound quality

My problem is air support; march up a hill or two (even small ones) and there just isn't enough air for me and the tuba - getting a decent sound isn't possible when you have to gasp for breath between each note. Add to that the need to play loud enough so the rest of the band can hear the tuba, even though they're a lot further away than usual, and marching gets to be quite a chore.

You could probably make a good case for using a brighter sound for marching, going for projection to cut through the rest of the band, rather than trying to balance them with dark-sounding massive presence; For me, this is purely a matter of air supply - I just can't generate "big, warm, slow air" on the march, so the dark sound is beyond my reach. I don't have enough control to change my sound color at will, so if I was going to be doing many parades, I would be shopping for a moderate sized mouthpiece (to conserve what air I have left) with a shallow cup (for a bright sound) and a wide well rounded rim (for comfort and endurance - pity about the articulation).

It's not so bad when you can line up several tubas, like the British band I used to play in (twenty five players, and FOUR of them were tubas), but marching is no fun at all when a lone tuba is trying to support a band of forty or more. I have to confess it was a huge relief when the old guard in our community band voted to hand over Remembrance Day to the youth band.

For concert playing, I try for a big, dark sound with massive presence, that puts a foundation under the band - most of the time the tuba parts are written for contrabass, and need to be felt rather than heard (not quite brown notes, but tending in that direction). My 4v-EEb and I need all the help we can get in the contrabass octave, which calls for a deep mouthpiece with a fair amount of funnel in its ancestry; I'm currently trying a Denis Wick 2, which seems promising (the DW3 is too bright). If I can't make that work, I'll just have to practice some more; when totally desperate, there is always the mouthpiece safari (yeah right, after I win the lottery).

I grew up learning how to play tuba (sousaphone) in a youth band where we were always criticized for overblowing, but I thought we sounded powerful. Then I marched in the 250 member Long Beach State University Big Brown Music Machine in the mid 1970's. We had a reputation among the local high school band directors as having the sound of a marching symphonic band, yet I found that, as a member of that band, I was playing even louder than I did when I was in the youth band. So it may have more to do with maturity and experience! If only we didn't play on fiberglass sousaphones. Long Beach State's band was truly awesome in my opinion, I had never heard a marching band quite like that before or since. We had an arranger, Marvin Branson, that scored that band like no other arranger I have seen and a director, Larry Curtis, with extremely high musical standards. It made for a unique combination, but sadly the band was discontinued when Long Beach State discontinued their football program.

Ja Da - features the trombones and we played this arrangement in the 1977 Rose Parade
Cantina Band - from Star Wars, a very unique arrangement
Theme from Rocky - recorded in an auditorium

A personal favorite from Long Beach State, and one of the most interesting choices of openers and music I've ever seen, considering where they were from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAp4PLNKXfw.

Tuboss2 wrote:Title is what it is, if you were in marching band, compare how you played in it as to how you would play in concert season. Any differences? Similarites, different mouth pieces you'd have to use? Differences in volume, note length and projection?? Basically, just compare you Marching Band playing style to your Concert Band style. I'm interested in what y'all have to say. Thanks.

There should be no differences between how you play in marching band compared to how you play in concert band. The end goal of each it to provide a quality musical product to the audience. Our most common role as tuba players in a marching band is to provide a solid foundation for the band's sound. As previously stated in this thread, using a sousaphone is the most efficient way for us to deliver that solid foundation. Having a large forward facing bell that rises above the rest of the band does not need any extra help to be heard. As a military bandsmen, I played quite of bit of the same music in a concert setting as I did on the march. Its easy to over play on a sousaphone since the sound is directed away from you, and you seemingly aren't playing as loud as you think you are. Someone mentioned warming up in front of a wall. I did that whenever I warmed up on my sousaphone. Its a good way to check and make sure you are making the best sound that you are capable of making.

In the end, that's what it boils down to. Producing the highest quality sound on whatever instrument you are playing, and providing the best support to the foundation of the ensemble you are playing with.

GC wrote:A personal favorite from Long Beach State, and one of the most interesting choices of openers and music I've ever seen, considering where they were from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAp4PLNKXfw.

Yes, that the year after I left. They only took band members that could afford the trip and had the time off to go, so that was about half of the total band at Long Beach State at the time. That little Civil War band was the beginning of the Americus Brass Band that is still together and performing today with many of the original members. http://americusbrassband.org/

Tuboss2 wrote:Haven't been on here for a couple of days, found some time and decided might as well post something.

This ancient thought process is believe by many experts to be the very fabric of TubeNet itself.

Biggs wrote:

Tuboss2 wrote:Haven't been on here for a couple of days, found some time and decided might as well post something.

This ancient thought process is believe by many experts to be the very fabric of TubeNet itself.

Indeed -- something to do with the Post-Time Continue-'em, or so I've heard ...

I despised marching band and couldn't wait to get through the crummy Christmas music so we could start to play "concert' music. Marching was required if you were in band so I forced to do it. Which made me hate it even more. Being in any other activity like cheerleading, sports etc. was the only was to get excused from marching so I wrestled for 2 years. I liked that way more than marching.

Let me clear up why I hate marching: Overweight, pale, asthmatic and scrawny. Not a marcher. I found this out many sunburns ago.