Marching Band Fundamentals: Why the Basics Still Matter
Before the drill, choreography, staging, and visual effect can work, students need a foundation they can perform consistently.
By Christopher Keniley
This past weekend, I had the opportunity to adjudicate Visual Performance – Ensemble at the Geneseo Maple Leaf Classic.
It was a great day of marching band, with programs of different sizes and experience levels taking the field. Sitting above the field and evaluating the visual performance of the entire ensemble reinforced something I have seen over and over during more than 25 years of working in the marching arts:
The fundamentals still matter.
We spend a lot of time in marching band talking about drill, choreography, staging, transitions, body movement, visual effect, and increasingly complex responsibilities for performers.
Those things are important.
But underneath all of them are some very basic skills.
Feet.
Posture.
Instrument carriage and support.
Timing.
Body control.
Consistency.
Those fundamentals might not be the most exciting part of a marching band show, but when they aren’t consistent, everything built on top of them becomes more difficult.
The Bigger the Responsibility, the More Important the Foundation
Modern marching band asks a lot from students.
A performer might be expected to march a difficult pathway, maintain spacing, control step size, play a demanding musical phrase, adjust dynamically, watch the drum major, listen across the ensemble, maintain posture and instrument carriage, and possibly incorporate choreography—all at the same time.
That’s a lot of information for a young performer to process.
If basic marching technique requires a significant amount of conscious thought, adding more responsibilities becomes increasingly difficult.
That’s why fundamentals aren’t simply something we teach during band camp and then move past.
Fundamentals are what allow students to handle everything else.
When posture becomes natural, students have one less thing to think about.
When instrument carriage becomes consistent, they have one less thing to think about.
When feet and timing become dependable, they have one less thing to think about.
The better those basic skills become, the more attention students can give to music, communication, expression, choreography, and the larger production.
Feet Tell Us More Than We Sometimes Realize
When I am evaluating a visual ensemble from above, feet can reveal a tremendous amount about what’s happening within the group.
Are students arriving together?
Are step-offs unified?
Are direction changes happening at the same time?
Are performers controlling their step size?
Are they maintaining technique through transitions?
Are they anticipating the next set or reacting to it at the last second?
One individual timing discrepancy might be just that—an individual moment.
But when similar issues begin appearing throughout a section or across the ensemble, they can affect the clarity of the entire production.
A form can be designed beautifully on paper, but if performers aren’t arriving together, the audience never completely sees the intended picture.
That’s why cleaning a form isn’t always just about telling someone:
“Move over.”
Sometimes the real question is:
Why didn’t the form arrive together?
Was it pathway?
Step size?
Timing?
Technique?
Awareness?
Understanding the cause is much more valuable than simply correcting the final picture.
Posture Changes What the Audience Sees
Posture is another fundamental that can dramatically change the appearance of an ensemble.
From the audience, we don’t see individual students in isolation.
We see the collective picture.
When performers consistently carry themselves with confidence and control, the ensemble appears stronger before we even begin discussing drill complexity.
When posture changes from performer to performer, the visual presentation becomes less unified.
And posture isn’t only visual.
It can affect breathing, sound production, movement, balance, and a student’s ability to control the instrument while moving.
That is where music and visual performance begin connecting.
A visual responsibility should not exist in a vacuum.
What students do physically can influence what we’re hearing musically.
Instrument Carriage Is Part of the Ensemble Picture
Instrument carriage and support are sometimes treated as small details.
From the top of a stadium, they aren’t small.
A brass section with bells presented at noticeably different angles creates a different visual picture than one demonstrating consistent carriage.
The same is true with woodwinds, percussion, and other sections.
That doesn’t mean every student has identical physical characteristics or that every instrument can be treated exactly the same.
It means the ensemble should have a clearly taught and achievable standard.
Students need to know:
What does correct look like?
More importantly, they need enough repetition that correct becomes normal.
That’s when consistency begins to appear.
Consistency Is What Makes Design Read
As a designer, instructor, clinician, or judge, I can appreciate an ambitious visual idea.
But ambition alone doesn’t make an idea effective.
The audience has to be able to understand what they’re seeing.
A relatively simple visual idea performed with tremendous clarity can often communicate more effectively than a highly sophisticated idea that students cannot yet perform consistently.
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t challenge students.
We absolutely should.
But challenge and achievement have to work together.
Good design should give students opportunities to grow while still allowing them to be successful.
That’s something I think about when writing drill and working with programs through CK Marching Services. Drill should be designed around the ensemble actually performing it—the number of students, their experience, instrumentation, musical responsibilities, and the amount of rehearsal time available. My marching services are built around that same approach: creating visual responsibilities that are engaging but achievable for the students on the field. Chris K Music Studio of Mattoon, IL
Fundamentals Affect the Music, Too
One of the things I enjoy about evaluating Visual Ensemble is considering how the visual performance relates to the musical presentation.
Marching band isn’t two completely separate activities happening simultaneously.
The visual and musical responsibilities interact constantly.
A difficult direction change might occur during an exposed musical entrance.
A large step size might happen during a phrase requiring significant breath support.
A demanding visual transition might lead directly into an important musical impact.
If students are fighting their feet, posture, pathway, or instrument carriage, there is less attention available for the musical responsibility.
That’s why visual fundamentals can ultimately affect things like:
Tone.
Balance.
Intonation.
Articulation.
Dynamic control.
Musical timing.
Sometimes what appears to be purely a musical problem may have a physical component underneath it.
Don’t Just Clean the Set—Teach the Skill
There is a difference between correcting a mistake and teaching students how to prevent it.
If a form doesn’t look right, we can move students around until it does.
That might fix the picture.
But did we fix the problem?
If the issue was inconsistent step size, the same problem may appear in the next form.
If it was timing, it may happen again during the next transition.
If students don’t understand their pathway, adjusting the endpoint doesn’t necessarily solve what happened between the sets.
This is where productive rehearsal becomes important.
Instead of only asking:
“What was wrong?”
Ask:
“Why was it wrong?”
Then teach the underlying skill.
That approach may take a little longer initially, but it creates students who eventually become capable of diagnosing and correcting their own performances.
And that’s the goal.
Students Should Learn to See It, Too
I regularly ask students to evaluate themselves.
Who thought that was a good repetition?
Who struggled?
Why?
What changed?
What are you going to do differently the next time?
We don’t want students to spend an entire season waiting for an instructor to tell them whether they succeeded.
Eventually, they should begin recognizing it themselves.
They should feel when timing isn’t together.
They should recognize when posture changes.
They should know when their instrument carriage drops.
They should understand when they arrive late.
They should begin making corrections before someone in the press box tells them to.
That is when we move beyond simply cleaning a marching band show.
We’re teaching students how to perform.
The Basics Aren’t Basic Because They’re Easy
Sometimes the word fundamentals makes something sound elementary.
But fundamentals aren’t important because they’re easy.
They’re important because everything else depends on them.
Professional athletes still practice fundamentals.
Professional musicians still practice scales, articulation, tone production, timing, and technique.
Experienced performers don’t graduate from fundamentals.
They become better at them.
Marching band is no different.
The most advanced choreography, drill, staging, and effect still depend on performers being able to control their bodies, instruments, timing, and responsibilities.
Great Shows Are Built From the Ground Up
Watching programs perform throughout a season reminds me how much great teaching is happening in marching bands.
There are students doing incredibly difficult things.
There are staffs creating thoughtful productions.
There are directors finding ways to challenge students while helping them succeed.
And there are programs at every competitive level doing great work.
Sometimes the next step forward isn’t adding another visual idea.
Sometimes it isn’t rewriting the drill.
Sometimes it isn’t making the show harder.
Sometimes the answer is going back to the beginning.
Feet.
Posture.
Instrument carriage.
Timing.
Control.
Consistency.
Get those things right, and suddenly everything built on top of them has a much better chance of succeeding.
Fundamentals aren’t the part of the show we leave behind.
They’re the foundation that allows the rest of the show to happen.
Looking for help with your marching program?
CK Marching Services offers drill design, visual coordination, clinics, show consultation, custom arranging, and adjudication/feedback for marching programs of different sizes and experience levels.