How many Sousa's in Marching Band

Andy Rummel · Post by **Andy Rummel** » Thu May 03, 2007 9:10 pm

Hi all....

We are exploring the possibility of expanding the sousaphone section of our university marching band. For those of you in marching band, or with wonderful memories of marching band how many did your band march? How large was the band? Thanks in advance.

Andy Rummel

tubatooter1940 · Post by **tubatooter1940** » Thu May 03, 2007 9:20 pm

McGill Institute band numbered 60 with two tubas.

Tom Holtz · Post by **Tom Holtz** » Thu May 03, 2007 9:20 pm

Can't be too many, dude. Rack 'em up.

Steve Inman · Post by **Steve Inman** » Thu May 03, 2007 9:32 pm

Hmmm... didn't march in college, but did attend a large high school. Our "standard" marching band had about 100, and we had 8 sousaphones. Our "parade" marching band added another 50 (the "newbie band" -- incoming sophomores, mostly) and at least another 4 sousies -- same proportion.

Cheers,

tuba72 · Post by **tuba72** » Thu May 03, 2007 9:33 pm

As memory serves me the band numbered over 40 and I was all by my lonesome. I made up for it though!

Steve Inman · Post by **Steve Inman** » Thu May 03, 2007 10:03 pm

richland tuba 01 wrote:250 people and 10 sousas for competition band. but 15 otherwise.

Allen high school marches about 400 though with 25 tubas.

.... er ... maybe I attended a "medium" sized high school ....

Dan Schultz · Post by **Dan Schultz** » Thu May 03, 2007 11:00 pm

I counted 26 of 'em at a Purdue University band show five or six years ago.

DonShirer · Post by **DonShirer** » Fri May 04, 2007 12:03 am

It's too long ago to be sure, but I think I remember 5 sousies in our 50-60 member college marching band.

Bandmaster · Post by **Bandmaster** » Fri May 04, 2007 12:22 am

Let's see... back in the early 70's I was in the marching band at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. No fine arts majors and we marched 120 musicians including 8 sousaphones. In the mid 70's I was in the marching band at Calif. St. Univ. at Long Beach and we marched 273 musicians in the 1977 Rose Parade including 21 sousaphones. Both bands had a good musical balance with that instrumentation.

Gorilla Tuba · Post by **Gorilla Tuba** » Fri May 04, 2007 1:00 am

My Band is about 150 musicians with 12 sousaphones. Next year we may have 14 or 15 sousas.... I may ask a few to play baritone because I only have 12 good horns in addition to 6 nasty old HN Whites that are dented unrecognizably. Nasty as the old ones are, they actually play darned well.

LoyalTubist · Post by **LoyalTubist** » Fri May 04, 2007 2:28 am

When I was going through the Armed Forces School of Music, for the Independence Day Parade in Norfolk (or was that Virginia Beach?) I was in a tri-service band of 150 members with every tuba student in the school participating (only soldiers and marines; no sailors)--I think that was probably somewhere around 18 or 20.

dtemp · Post by **dtemp** » Fri May 04, 2007 8:42 am

bloke wrote:
Gorilla Tuba wrote:My Band is about 150 musicians with 12 sousaphones. Next year we may have 14 or 15 sousas.... I may ask a few to play baritone because I only have 12 good horns in addition to 6 nasty old HN Whites that are dented unrecognizably. Nasty as the old ones are, they actually play darned well.
That was the approximate ratio when I went to kollij...

...Of course, there were only about 4-5 folks who were doing all the "work" (par for the course...??)

Same here. Although out of the dozen we had, 10 were "music majors".

bearphonium · Post by **bearphonium** » Fri May 04, 2007 12:14 pm

HS band of 64 marched three sousas, one of them a state champion and the other a flute player who carried one for "visual effect". College band didn't march.

Chadtuba · Post by **Chadtuba** » Fri May 04, 2007 12:18 pm

Bands of anywhere from 30-75 and I was typically the only one, though one year we had 3 (one sax player who really played tuba well, one who played ok, and one who needed to be taken behind the bleachers and shot) so that year I marched a euph.

Leland · Post by **Leland** » Fri May 04, 2007 12:24 pm

Greg wrote:If I were in charge, had the instruments and the players, I would march one sousaphone to every ten band members.

To be picky, I might say one sousaphone to every ten brass instruments, and add another to balance the entire woodwind section.

Of course, for the last basketball game I played, I think we had more sousaphones than trombones, so I'm willing to fudge a bit, too.

Greg wrote: If I had the instruments and not the players.....I would get the players even if I had to convince flutists to transfer.

Seems to me like flutists are easier to transfer to tuba than most other instrumentalists because they're already experienced in moving that much air so much of the time.

Steve Inman · Post by **Steve Inman** » Fri May 04, 2007 3:25 pm

I count 19 in the back row .... (silver sousies).

You'll have to count the rest of the band to figure out the ratio ...

HTH.

Cheers,

TubaRay · Post by **TubaRay** » Fri May 04, 2007 4:43 pm

My band's bigger than your band!

Leland · Post by **Leland** » Fri May 04, 2007 4:43 pm

tubashaman wrote:Ummm i know several people from allen, and they march 630 people and about 25 tubas this year

Jeezus......

Steve Inman · Post by **Steve Inman** » Fri May 04, 2007 5:02 pm

tubashaman wrote:Allen high school marches about 400 though with 25 tubas.

Ummm i know several people from allen, and they march 630 people and about 25 tubas this year

As we have found several tuba-to-total ratios between 1:10 and 1:12 (with the occasional 1:75 being noted!), this would suggest that "Allen" needs a few more tubas! About double their alleged count this year! C'mon -- are you in Texas, or aren't you?

(heh heh -- unless they have 250 musicians and in 380 flag corps ... in which case, I apologize!)

Cheers,

tubatom91 · Post by **tubatom91** » Fri May 04, 2007 6:17 pm

'05-'06 212 members 12 sousas
'06-'07 250+ members 11 sousas
'07-'08 prolly going to be like 15 sousaphones (maybe!)[7 incoming freshmen!!!]

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