Marching

[I.D.10-t]

I was walking home the other day and had my fife in my pack so I decided to pull it out and play a few tunes for what they were meant for, marching. I noticed that the fife wanted to bounce around and that my tone quality went from bad to worse. I also was surprised at the pace of the songs and how fast I had to go to make the songs feel right.

So the question for all of the flute players that were in high school band and the people that march with fifes or band flutes, what special techniques (if any) are used for marching and playing. What would be the normal tempo for such things. Also how is the breathing affected.

On the plus side I found that my posture was better and it made the walk go by quickly. Maybe I have found another form of exercise that I can work into my day.

[rebl_rn]

Well, I don't play fife or flute, so I can't address specific issues with those instruments, but I was in marching band (played the saxophone). A big part of marching, while playing, is marching with a rolling stride (rolling from the heels to the balls of your feet), not the big knee up bouncy type of stride. This type of stride keeps your upper body still, so your instrument is not bouncing around.

Sometimes your breathing is affected, especially if you're out of shape.

A lot of marching is just practice, practice, practice. Ah, the memories of band camp!

Beth

[I.D.10-t]

Sometimes your breathing is affected, especially if you're out of shape.

Not a good sign

[peeplj]

I spent my years in marching bands, 3 in junior high, 2 in high school, 2 in college.

My own experience: flute is easier to march with than piccolo; the embouchure on flute is more forgiving to the bouncing and jostling of marching. Even using a "roll step" it is practically impossible to eliminate all upper body movement. I've not tried marching with a fife but I would imagine it would have most of the difficulties of a piccolo; being smaller and lighter would make it that much harder to keep exactly in place.

Marching and playing gets easier the more you practice it. Years ago I could play the same piece sitting still or standing and marking time (marching in place) with little or no difference in the music produced. Not true any more!!!

--James

[andrewK]

Do the buskers among you play marching tunes between sites ?
I had assumed the thread about getting better before moving on was about buskers !

[Danner]

This fall was my first year in marching band. I played piccolo, and when I screwed up, it was noticible. (We were lucky to have 30 people in the band, and most of the time only 20 or so were actually playing.) It is especially hard to march and play piccolo. The rolling step (put your heel down first and roll through to your toe in a smooth motion) really helps. Also, taking really tiny steps helps a lot. Most of the shorter people in band took steps that were a little longer than toe-to-heel, but some of the really tall guys had to take steps so short that their feet overlapped. When you march, you're supposed to keep your head tilted up so that you walk down the street straighter. (The way you look far out ahead when you drive a car.) I think that keeping your head tilted slightly above the normal straight posistion helps to keep it more still. My question for you is: Why in the world would you want to march and play and instrument at the same time???

[fyffer]

With the fife as my primary flute (at least for now), and having just marched in my first parade of the season (an early St. Patrick's Day parade in Pawtucket, RI), I'll chime in here...
Marching while playing is an acquired taste. I agree with the 'heel to toe' philosophy, except that in some contexts, that is not appropriate. It does keep the upper body movement down, and you kind of "glide" down the street, but it's more of a Drum Corps thing than a Fife & Drum corps thing (two *very* different philosophies of marching performance).
The one thing I've learned, is that you really have to use your arms as "shock absorbers", in order to maintain your embouchure. You will occasionally lose the lip placement, but once you find it again, if you can concentrate on really using your arms (in a very relaxed manner, of course) to balance the fife or flute while playing, you'll be OK.
AFA as tempos, we generally march between 90 and 100 bpm, leaning towards the high end for jigs, and keeping it down to 90 for the reels and F&D standard marches.

Hope this helps.

[andrewK]

I bought a Euphonium last night.
I have no idea why.
It won't be long before people tell me to try marching with it !

[Cathy Wilde]

Just be glad you didn't go to a Big 10 college in the early 80s. Chair step all the way, baby!

And even better were those Monday practices when you hadn't learned the week's music yet and had to tuck a lyre under your arm to hold your flip book whilst marching God knows where and attempting to play, too.

Whoo. Enough of that reverie from Hades. ... Anyway, making sure your elbows can ever-so-gently "float" with your picc or fife or flute helps a lot. After that, it's merely a matter of mileage.

Andrew, I'm looking forward to hearing where people will be telling you to march your euphonium.

[I.D.10-t]

My question for you is: Why in the world would you want to march and play and instrument at the same time???

Other than the reasons that I stated, after seeing some Colonial Williamsburg marching and some videos of the Basler Fasnacht carnival I thought that this was something that looked fun. If I ever had the chance to participate in such an event I would like to only have to concentrate on learning the music, not the techniques involved in moving.

Out of curiosity I was wondering if music was ever used to motivate troupes movements, what the actual speed of the music was. Also, I just enjoy playing my fife and would like to take a stroll and play music if I felt like it without butchering the music to frustration. It doesn’t look like I will be buying a treadmill to practice any time soon though.

(Strange, most people wonder why in the world I want to play the fife. )

[fyffer]

(Strange, most people wonder why in the world I want to play the fife. )

I don't wonder at all!!
It's a very cool, fun instrument, the Fife and Drum community is just as much its own beast as the ITM community, with a lot of crossover.
If you do find a group to play with (Where are you? I can help you find a corps!), wait til you go to your first F&D Muster -- I guarantee you'll never turn back! My first muster was Deep River, Connecticut, 3 years ago -- it is the largest event of its kind in the world! Try to imagine 75 Fife and Drum Corps, parading into a field, each playing for 5 to 15 minutes, then jamming until the wee hours of the morning; all the participants camped back-to-back, like a neo-Colonial Woodstock; all kinds of drunken debauchery, all in the hot July sun ....

Ahhh, a little slice of heaven . . .

[Doug_Tipple]

I bought a Euphonium last night.
I have no idea why.
It won't be long before people tell me to try marching with it !

I attended a performance of the Purdue (big ten university in Indiana) concert band yesterday afternoon. The four euphonium players went absolutely wild on the finale of the last piece. Surely, the compose must have been chuckling from the grave.

Andrew, my suggestion is to give the euphonium a try. I think that it is a beautiful sounding instrument, and I'm sure that you have enough xxx air to make it really sing. The flute will feel real puny in comparison to the euphonium.

[Doug_Tipple]

I was playing flute on the street at the downtown farmer's market in Lafayette, IN when I was asked if I would be willing to play for the dedication of a new foot trail that was about to be opened in town along the Wabash River. I said OK, why not?

On the day of the dedication, it was a hot day in July, 90 degress and humid. All of the dignitaries from the city, county, and state government gathered together, and I led them down the new trail, playing my flute like the pied piper. I played mostly Americana tunes. Unfortunately for me, the wind was blowing that day, and I was having difficulty playing at all.

But it all worked out. I got to meet Sheila, the state congresswoman, and they gave me 20 bucks and a free box lunch. The salami sandwich with dill pickle sure tasted good after that ordeal. As Garrison Keillor might say, "Not such a bad performance for a quiet person."

[GaryKelly]

Out of curiosity I was wondering if music was ever used to motivate troupes movements, what the actual speed of the music was.

The Swiss "invented" fife and drum for military signalling and manoeuvring in the 15th century. Their victories on the battlefields of Europe were so significant that the likes of France, Germany and England were soon hiring Swiss fifers and drummers, and employing Swiss mercenaries.

http://www.flutehistory.com/Instrument/Military.php3

So there you have it. It's their fault

[I.D.10-t]

The Swiss "invented" fife and drum for military signalling and manoeuvring in the 15th century.

Yes, the flute may have been used for military signaling and maneuvering troops, but were they with the soldiers or off to the side directing traffic?

I think that Washington (with the help of the French?) used marching to increase the distance that groups of people could travel, and that there are paintings of drum and fife players marching back the wounded. Although it is hard (for me) to tell what is historically correct. (After all do you think that Washington would be standing at the bow of a small boat over turbulent cold waters as the pictures of him crossing the Delaware depict?)

Where are you? I can help you find a corps!

Live in Minneapolis, MN, near Ft. Snelling. They have some fifers but I have not found any groups that perform. Your comment about the fife music and ITM crossover is something that I have been discovering myself. It is nice to hear that it is not just local.