Marching Show... suggestions anyone?

Hi there. I'm a pit percussionist in marching band and percussion ensemble and I've been writing music for a while now. I'm new to the site and I was hoping to get some suggestions for this marching band show I'm writing. The entire show is called Parallel Worlds, but the opener is Realm of the Dragons. I've had to cut the battery parts out of the MIDI file because I've been using the SmartMusic MIDI on Finale so when It's converted back to the default MIDI the drums make all kinds of weird sounds. Bells and whistles and the like. This is also only the first of four movements, any constructive criticism would be great! Thanks!

Edit: I have rewritten parts of the first movement and added the second movement. Again, no battery parts, and for the first part of the piece the pit are playing handbells. It's a flute - clarinet solo. What do you think?

Edit: I've now added movement 3 which is my drum break. I really need to find a way to get the battery parts to play properly with this midi - there are a lot of empty spaces where the battery is playing. Again any constructive criticism would be awesome! Thanks!

Sounds like it's really kicking!


Dumb question (from one not familiar the intricacies of the US marching band scene): is this intended to be played with some of the musicians on the move? Eg: sports arena of some description; mallets at the side; all other players doing choreography of one sort or another?

I'm assuming that the midifile is for demo purposes in terms of getting the whole production to the next stage, so final instrumental scoring decisions might not have been made yet. (I looked at the midifile in Sibelius.)

It's just that some of the brass ranges might be ambitious if the player isn't parked in a comfortable position behind a music stand. Every big band has a trumpeter who can play D's above the stave. (OK, every college and upwards big band...) The same player might cack and sprawk playing the same music on the march in the middle of a pyro show. ("Realm of the Dragons" – ?? – I'm seeing flashpots – I'm hearing split notes.) Then again, if this were a really big production, the TV feeds would be pre-records – you'd make sure you got enough foldback to enough players one way or another to keep in sync – problem solved.

The french horn/s – which came up as horn in Bb in Sibelius (??!!) – look/s unrealistically stratospheric. Nothing that can't be sorted out.

The other thing that came to mind: when the two minutes were up, I'd heard a lot of A minor. Nothing wrong with that per se, but at this early stage I'd be looking at the possibility of introducing more variety with regard to key-centres. (You might be able to do some easy experiments. Save the original. In a copy, drag and drop some whole sections randomly, or even just use the pitch wheel if your playback setup allows. If it sounds like it might be worth following up ... etc, etc)

I found myself wishing that bar 56 was in a different key. For instance, just jump straight into F#m. (Hey – modulation's for sissies! Or: modulate 'properly' out of the F#m section back to Am and the finish.) But ... bar 56 is probably too late in a 70-bar piece to go wandering for the first time. *scratches head in 'Colombo' manner*


All that said, it sounds like it could be a winner. Interested to see how it turns out.


cheers – jada

Thank you for your input I will see what I can do. It's ironic that you should pick F#m because the fourth movement that I am writing of this piece is in F#m. And yes, in the US marching band all wind players and marching percussion march while larger percussion instruments such as mallet instruments are at the front. Thanks for your comment!

I definitely liked it in general. Excellent use of the pit. I'd have to agree with jada that the tonal center is a little stagnant. It seems a little short even for a field show movement, mabye throw in a contrasting section to break up all the A minor and give it a little more length. I also think the ending might be better if you ended it on a nice big chord as opposed to the unison. All of the rising scales in the mallets seem to be building up to something, but it just isn't there. Much better than I could do over-all though.

Hmm thank you I will see about adding some chord changes and definately have the ending on a chord, thank you for your comment!

as an instumentalist i found this great and very good sounding for a concert band setting, but for a marching band setting it was kinda boring and blunt., but that is my opinoin.

If the battery part is half as good as the rest of the midi files, I think that its gonna be a really great marching show. I'm also a pit percussionist so I think that this would be a blast. The scales in the mallet section are really intriguing to me. I would love to see the score and actually try to play some of it because unlike, blm22 I thought that it would be cool to play at both concert season and marching season, not just one. I think that the only adjustment that would have to be made really, is the changing of marching instruments to concert.

Thanks! I can probably get you a sample of some of the marimba music if you wanted

I would love to have a sample. I love having a new challenge whenever I can. I think that being a percussionist in the front ensemble of my band is probably one of the most exciting things I've ever done. You could give me any mallet percussion music and I'd play it, or atleast attempt to play it.