Marching band setup?

[passion4tuba]

In the stands for a marching band, is it logical to put the tubas and low brass on the bottom, then the drumline then the woodwinds behind them? if that sounds confusing, the set up is like this......



woodwinds<<<<<top of the stands
:::::::::::::::::
drumline
:::::::::::::::::
trumpets
:::::::::::::::::
tubas/low brass <<<<bottom of the stands

not only this, but we don't set up in rows anymore, we're in windows.. so yea i'm kinda upset and yes
it looks horrible, honestly. My director says it sounds better, but all i hear is low brass since the drumline completly covers up the woodwinds...

opinions?

[THE TUBA]

If all you can only hear low brass, then it does sound better!

My high school band always set up like this:
S O U S A S
Euphoniums/T-bones
Mellophones/Saxes
T r u m p e t s
P e r c u s s i o n
C l a r i n e t s
F L U T E S
Drum Major

[Alex F]

Your director could have you arranged in quartets or quintets.

In the early 1980s, when I sang in the Grant Park Symphony Chorus, our director, Thomas Peck, changed the piano rehearsal seating from the usual S1S2 . . . B1B2 to quartet seating, SATB. It was maddening. At the last piano rehearsal, the program conductor, Leonard Slatkin, liked the sound so well that we performed the full concert that way, outdoors, in the music shell. I've never had to pay that much attention to pitch and blend since. The audience loved it.

So . . let's see here . . . clarinet, horn, sousaphone, flute???

[ThomasP]

I don't really know why WW's are always down front. You're not gonna hear a clarinet player, but it's tradition, and I guess the placement of the woodwinds is in hopes that people will hear them.

High School the sousas were in the back.

College, the sousas were lined up the stands on each side. We got a lot of complaints from people not being able to see when we were in the back. I liked that better cause I could sit next to different people each game and not the same lowbrass players.

I have no clue what it sounded like...

[Arkietuba]

This year we have a new and unusual set up...

Sousaphones (Top 2 Rows)
Flutes
Clarinets
Saxophones
Drum Line
Trumpets
Mellophones and Baritones
Trombones

[Pure Sound]

***

[Bandmaster]

Putting your woodwinds at the top of the formation only means one thing... you want your band to sound like a drum and bugle corps instead of a BAND! If you don't want to hear the woodwinds, be respectful enough to just tell them that you don't need them and they should stay home and not waste their time. BUT... if you REALLY want to sound like a band, you do what ever it takes to create a balanced sound!!!!!!!! If that means the woodwinds are in front, so be it!

My college band, Long Beach State (CA), back in the 1970's was awesome. We always sat in the stands in concert formation. Flutes/piccolos, clarinets, Saxes, french horns (yep, no mellophones), drums, either trumpets or trombones/baritones (depending which was the more powerful), and finally sousaphones at the top.

Listen to the woodwinds in this recording of Malaguena from 1975. That's what woodwinds can do for a marching band if you let them.

[iiipopes]

Listen to the woodwinds in this recording of Malaguena from 1975. That's what woodwinds can do for a marching band if you let them.

Nice. The clarinet/flute octaves/unisons almost sounded like a second brass chorus echoing the main theme in Gabrielli style. Also one of the longest controlled, balanced sfz p crec endings I've ever heard, and on this song and arrangement it fits so well.

[Leland]

Briefly: Woodwinds can be useful if the arrangement doesn't have them doubling the brass all day long.

Anyway, one college band setup I've been in went like this:

Trumpets
Trombones
Baritones
Mellos
Saxes
Flutes/Piccs
Flag Line
T U B A S (and only enough of us at any one time to go all the way across)
Drums at the bottom

Tuba & drum sound carries well enough no matter where they sit; why not keep them down low, out of the way of spectators, and not carry their junk up all those stairs. That band's arrangements wasted the woodwinds, so it was no problem burying them in the lower third. The brasses' sound sailed over everyone just fine, and their swinging side-to-side moves put a nice visual "top" to the whole arrangement.

Plus, I got to lean back against the flag girls' knees...

[tubatooter1940]

I agree with John_L, keep all percussionists up front where their behavior can be scrutinized-you know how people are who go 'round pounding on things-but most important of all, keep the majorettes in front of everybody.

[TubaRay]

keep the majorettes in front of everybody.

What's a "majorette?"

[iiipopes]

The female counterpart to a male drum major.