Academic literature on the topic 'Marching bands'

College marching bands are a large and visible part of American music education. Institutions of higher learning have benefited from the existence of marching bands, as they serve as a powerful recruitment tool and an essential public relations vehicle for music departments and universities. The benefit students may receive from marching band participation is influenced by a variety of social and educational factors. This article is a review of literature on the benefits of marching bands and band participation for universities and college students. The review is organized as follows: (a) brief introduction and methodology, (b) benefits for colleges and universities, (c) benefits for college students, (d) challenges for college students, and (e) summary and recommendations. This article presents scholarship on the possible benefits of marching bands for students and universities in an effort to aid recruitment and inform administrators of the value a marching band brings to their school.

This academic article aims to 1) study the history of the national marching band contest; 2) the development of the national marching band contest. The results showed that National Marching Band Contest has been held from 1982 until the present. The contest in the early age from 1982 to 1993 is divided into three categories: Category A, Men, Category B, Men and Women, Category C, Women. The winning marching band will receive a royal trophy. In addition, the marching band has to play three songs at the Supachalasai Stadium: royal song (Rama IX), Thai Thao song or Prelude song, and a selected song according to preference, continuing with the march music: sports ground music, and Thai Military Bank (TMB) song which is a compulsory one. The marching band contest has been developed because the contest management activity is an important factor in the development of standards for marching bands to grow rapidly at the national level from an early age to the present.

In Brazil, school marching bands are responsible for training instrumentalists who make up the scene of music teaching institutions, professional groups, and orchestras. In Goiânia, capital of the state of Goiás (Brazil), there are thirty-five school bands, and those residing in civil and military schools have up to two hundred students each band, aged between eleven and seventeen years old. They have a staff of music teachers divided by instrument categories, which are: trumpet, trombone, tuba, horn, euphonium, percussion, and front commission (choreographic body). Collective musical teaching is developed by suits and each teacher is responsible for his instrument. That said, this article, part of a research carried out as part of a doctorate between 2017 and the end of 2021, seeks to reflect on the history of these bands and the applicability of their educational practices in school bands based in full-time or part-time military schools.

The purpose of this study was to investigate hazing in collegiate marching bands. Specifically, the researchers were interested in marching band students’ experiences with hazing behaviors, to whom they were reported, attitudes toward hazing, and level of awareness of institutional hazing policies. Using a multistage cluster sampling approach, we distributed an online questionnaire to college marching band members attending National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I schools. Participants ( N = 1,215) were representative of 30 different states and included college freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors, and graduate students. Nearly 30% of respondents indicated they observed some form of hazing in their marching band. The most common acts of hazing involved public verbal humiliation or degradation, which generally went unreported. Reticence to report hazing was largely due to fear of social retaliation or perceptions that the hazing behaviors were innocuous. The vast majority of participants had negative attitudes regarding hazing and most learned about their institution’s hazing policy through a marching band orientation. Implications for the college marching band, contextualization of results, and future directions are discussed.

The purpose of this study is to construct a concise historical narrative of the development and characteristics of African American styles of marching band. While some extant research studies have been published in this area of study, the focus has been primarily on individual exemplary teachers or university band programs. In this article, much of the available published and unpublished scholarly work was reviewed for synthesis into narrative form. Unique style characteristics of African American marching bands are identified and tied to historical developments. The author proposes that African American styles of marching band be examined as an art form through the lens of historicultural research.

AbstractMusic-induced hearing disorders are known to result from exposure to excessive levels of music of different genres. Marching band music, with its heavy emphasis on brass and percussion, is one type that is a likely contributor to music-induced hearing disorders, although specific data on sound pressure levels of marching bands have not been widely studied. Furthermore, if marching band music does lead to music-induced hearing disorders, the musicians may not be the only individuals at risk. Support personnel such as directors, equipment managers, and performing arts healthcare providers may also be exposed to potentially damaging sound pressures. Thus, we sought to explore to what degree healthcare providers receive sound dosages above recommended limits during their work with a marching band.The purpose of this study was to determine the sound exposure of healthcare professionals (specifically, athletic trainers [ATs]) who provide on-site care to a large, well-known university marching band. We hypothesized that sound pressure levels to which these individuals were exposed would exceed the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) daily percentage allowance.Descriptive observational studyEight ATs working with a well-known American university marching band volunteered to wear noise dosimeters.During the marching band season, ATs wore an Etymotic ER-200D dosimeter whenever working with the band at outdoor rehearsals, indoor field house rehearsals, and outdoor performances. The dosimeters recorded dose percent exposure, equivalent continuous sound levels in A-weighted decibels, and duration of exposure. For comparison, a dosimeter also was worn by an AT working in the university’s performing arts medicine clinic. Participants did not alter their typical duties during any data collection sessions. Sound data were collected with the dosimeters set at the NIOSH standards of 85 dBA threshold and 3 dBA exchange rate; the NIOSH 100% daily dose is an exposure to 85 dBA over 8 h. Dose data for each session were converted to a standardized dose intensity by dividing the dose percentage by the duration of the exposure and setting the NIOSH standard as a factor of 1.0. This allowed convenient relative comparisons of dose percentages of vastly different exposure durations. Analysis of variance examined relationships of noise exposures among the venues; post hoc testing was used to assess pairwise differences.As hypothesized, ATs were exposed to high sound pressure levels and dose percentages greatly exceeding those recommended by NIOSH. Higher sound levels were recorded in performance venues compared with rehearsal venues. In addition to the band music, crowd noise and public address systems contribute to high sound levels at performances.Our results suggest that healthcare providers working with marching bands are exposed to dangerous levels of sound during performances. This is especially true at venues such as football stadiums, where crowd noise and public address systems add to sound pressure. A hearing conservation program, including protection, should be required for all healthcare staff who work with marching bands. Moreover, our results should inform hearing conservation practices for marching musicians, directors, and support personnel.

Abstract The purpose of this phenomenological investigation was to examine the lived experiences of undergraduate students serving in leadership roles in college marching bands. Ten student leaders completed written responses to an open set of questions that were then discussed during two corresponding in-depth interviews. The following research questions were addressed: (1) How do student leaders describe their experiences in college marching band? (2) How do student leaders perceive their growth through these experiences? (3) How do students perceive these experiences in relation to their future careers? Our findings indicated that student leaders may gain invaluable experience by adapting and reacting to challenges and reflecting on those experiences in ways that inform future behaviors. These experiences, from students’ communications with directors to opportunities for mentorship between peers, affected their growth in leadership roles. Participants—particularly those who were music education majors—actively used their experiences to build a vision for themselves and their future careers.