Marching Band Music Composition

1. Different Modern Marching Bands

2. For hundreds of years, marching bands have been in existence and in the UK they were usually connected to the military. Drummers, buglers or pipers lead the troop into battles. Signals were given for retreating, etc. using these instruments. Indeed, even during WWII, platoons of fighting troops were led off the arriving craft and up the beaches of France by a piper. Mainly for ceremonial purposes, as often seen on Beating Retreat, Trooping the Color or the Edinburgh Tattoo, the role of military bands is important in today's armed forces. Different Marching Bands Marching bands now exist in various styles. There are various compositions for Marching Bands. In the UK we tend to have traditional marching bands, comprising of snare drums (with either bottom snares or both top and bottom snares such as the Premier 1049-S), tenor drums, bass drum, cymbals and then tuned instruments such as valve trumpets, bugles, bell lyres, and other brass and woodwind. Organizations including the scouts, air training corps, sea cadet corps etc. often use such bands. In British towns these bands are a familiar sight at parades and festivals.

3. Originated in Scotland is another big part of marching music that comes from Pipe bands. With many top bands coming from Canada and the USA, these pipe bands have of course become popular all over the world. The American style Drum Corps or show bands give rise to a huge growth area in the world marching scene. Apart from snare drums and a selection of various sized bass drums, the drum corps has cymbals, multi - tenors / quads, and a pit at the front featuring a percussions range such as marimbas, xylophones, bells etc. Brass players comprise the rest of the band. Some extremely complex marching band music compositionis played by these bands, which form a big part of the music education system in the USA.