Drum Major App
Drum Major Audition 1. What specific skills do you posses that qualify you as a drum major. What qualifies me as a drum major is the experience that I have within this band program. Being a section leader for the past two years has given me a much better understanding of show and music, along with advanced understanding of marching technique and fundamentals. 2. Describe your level of musicianship and instrumental pedagogy skills. From the start of my music career at Cryar, I’ve always been the top Tuba player. Even throughout Junior High-school and Even so far in High-school, I’ve been in Wind Ensemble.
Being in the Wind Ensemble shows my musical ability, along with my musical understanding. Being in the Wind Ensemble gives me a opportunity to study and prepare more difficult music that I would find being in any other band. 3. Describe your level of marching fundamentals competency. My level of marching, I would say, is one of the more advanced in the band; I’m basing this statement on the fact that I’ve already had three years of marching experience, but not just marching experience, I’ve also had two years of teaching marching to underclassmen.
With this experience I believe puts me ahead of other students in the band, because I was the only Sophomore section leader. 4. Describe your level of drill design (and execution of) understanding. My level of drill design and understanding is advanced compared to others in the band. Since Sophomore year I’ve been presented with the drill charts, that normal students would only see outside of rehearsal. So I have a fairly good understanding how to dress forms and how to fix forms that might not be working as well as it should be. 5. List and describe the points of attention . Feet The heels of the marchers feel should be touching, and their toes separated so that the gap at the intersection of the heels at a 45 degree angle. Along with the position of the feet, the weight of the marcher should be balanced solely on the ball of the foot. If this is done correctly then the marcher should be able to bounce up and down on their feet without shifting their weight. b. Knees The marchers knees should be in a comfortable bend. The worst thing for a marcher to do is lock their knees when they are in attention.
This could lead to a possible blackout of the marcher due to the cut of of blood to the brain. c. Hips The marchers hips should flat to front, and should also be pushed and tilted forward slightly. The hips is one of the most important parts of a good marcher, it’s what separates the musician from the athlete. This is a important thing to remember later when we start marching. d. Arms The Marchers arms should be at a slight, comfortable bend. With their hands resting on the sides of the legs, wear the seam of their shorts should be. The elbows should be facing directly backwards, not outward to any degree.
The hands should be in a loose fist with their thumb facing directly downward in line with the seam on their shorts. e. Shoulder The marchers shoulders should be in a line with the heals of their feet and their hips. They should be relaxed but bold. This can be achieved by raising the shoulder to the ears, pulling them back, and relaxing them downward. This will portray a stronger individual. f. Head The marchers head should be held high. So that they are looking directly forward. There should be absolutely no movement what so ever while the marcher is in attention.
Not to adjust hair, or wipe sweat, regardless to circumstance, if you are in attention, you are not moving. 6. List and describe the points of forward march. a. Head The head should remain flat to front or back at all times,unless directed otherwise. b. Shoulders The marchers shoulders should always be facing flat to front or back, unless directed otherwise. They should also be in the same position that they were in the attention position. c. Hips The marchers hips should be facing the direction in which the marcher is marching.
The hips should also be in the same position that they were in while in attention. d. Legs The legs go through many different check points during the forward march. The first point is the first step. The first step will always be taken with the left foot. The leg should be extended forward until it is straight, at this point the heel of the left foot should be touching the ground. After the initial impact of the heel on the ground, the marcher will “Roll Through” , this can be accomplished by imagining you are squeezing every last bit of toothpaste out of a toothpaste bottle.
By the time the foot has finished rolling through, the right leg should have started its progress forward, and should be right next to the left leg, with the foot parallel to the ground hovering as close to the ground as possible. As the left foot rolls through to the tip of the toes, the marcher should be repeating that same process with their right foot. This process should be continued until the end of a set, or a still portion of the drill. The marcher will stop marching forward be either changing directions to backwards marching, or stopping.
When the marcher is stopping, they will step forward with their right food, and roll through starting at the toe this time, at the correct angle of attention, and then smoothly place their left foot into the attention position. 7. List and describe the points of backward march. a. Head The head should remain flat to front or back at all times,unless directed otherwise. b. Shoulders The marchers shoulders should always be facing flat to front or back, unless directed otherwise. They should also be in the same position that they were in the attention position. c. Hips
The marchers hips should be facing the direction in which the marcher is marching. The hips should also be in the same position that they were in while in attention. d. Legs The legs will go through many different check points throughout the backwards marching process. The first check point is the first step. The marcher, beginning from their attention position, will lift their right heel of the ground just enough so that their left foot is dangling by their side. The marcher will then swing the left leg backwards, without bending their knee, and touch their ball of their foot behind them.
Once the back foot has been firmly planted onto the ground, the marcher will then repeat the process with their right food, and continue repeating this process until directed by a director. 8. List and describe the points of a slide march. While the marcher is slide marching their lower body will remain the same, such as marching check points, the only difference between slide marching and regular marching is the direction the upper body is facing in comparison to the lower body. When the marcher is standing in attention horns up(we will describe later) their first check point is their hips.
The marcher will rotate their hips 45 degrees to the left or right, according to the directions of the directors. Along with the rotation of the hips the whole rest of the upper body will move with the hips, but the feet will not move. The next step is the shoulders, the shoulders; the shoulders will then complete the rotation started at the hips with another 45 degree turn of the shoulders in the same direction that the hips had just moved. From here the marchers shoulders should be at a 90 degree angle in comparison to the feet which should be facing forward.
From this point the marcher will be able to repeat the steps in the forward and backwards march instructions to begin the slide marching process. Something that should always be remembered is that while the marcher is marching in the slide position, they should always have their horn in the same position that they would as if they were marching normal. 9. Describe the horns up position in detail. From the attention position, the marcher will be addressed “’clap,clap,clap,clap’ band horns up” this sequence of commands represents a common counting pattern of marching band, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8.
Notice that there is only seven commands, the 8 count of the addressed sequence is the time in which the marcher will very quickly put their horns up, and as the horn comes up the marcher will make a very short but loud ‘Tsst’ sound. The position of the hands in horns up position is as follows. The marchers fist will be right in front of the marchers mouth, the left hand should be in a fist and the right hand should be covering the left hand. The marchers thumbs should resemble an ‘X’ shape in front of their mouth, this is to represent the mouthpiece.
After proper hand position is established, the marcher should pay attention that their wrists are not bent in any place. The wrist should always be completely straight. The marchers elbows should be bent at a 90 degree angle. The rest of the marchers body will remain the same as it is in attention position. To transition from horns up to horns down, the marcher will just rotate their fists so that the ‘X’ is facing directly up. 10. Describe how to dress a line.
During marching season, there will be many times that you will be marching in a line, these are very important parts in a show, because perfect lines stand out to people who are experienced and also inexperienced with marching shows. a. Forward. If you are marching in a line that is in front of you, you should see nothing but the person directly in front of you. b. Side to side. If you are in a line that is side to side you should use your peripheral vision to address the line, if you can see someone other than the person directly to your left or right, you aren’t in the line, and must adjust immediately. 1. Describe how to dress a curve. The curve is very essential to the type of marching band that we are today. Curves is what separates our band from military marching bands. Curves can be anywhere in a marching show, and for them to impressive there should always be equal spacing and a smooth flow from person to person. To dress a curve the marcher should always have each set memorized, and while we are dressing each set individually, should memorize the way the curve looks, and to hit it every time no matter what.
If you see the curve rolling smoothly from person to person, the curve is correct. If there is a bump in a curve, such as someone jutting out, this person needs to reevaluate is set placement. 12. Describe how to dress a diagonal. Diagonals, just like lines, are an essential part of marching bands. The way a marcher will dress diagonals is the pretty much the same way one would dress a line. By looking down the diagonal that the marcher is in, and making sure that no one else is visible except the person right immediately next in the line.
