"Push It" for Marching Band

Our drum major and a few others thought that playing the popular song "Push It" was not only a fun idea, but a way to get the audiences more involved in the music. We're not playing it this is year. As far as I know, there is no marching band arrangement of it... yet. My goal was to attempt to arrange the song for marching band, while having no knowledge of any "rules" used to write marching songs. So, I thought about past songs we've played, and tried to apply the fundamentals to my arrangement. Some of it is a little random, but that could add to the craziness of the song. :huh: However, I'd like to know if it's too random.

The MP3 is kinda bad, but so is the MIDI. Ha. The ending theme is still a WIP; I'd like suggestions/comments for the whole piece, no matter how harse they are.

Thanks! :D

MP3: http://www.saband.org/PushIt.mp3

Push_It.mid

Sounds really good. I was a snare drummer in marching band, so I must suggest a drum break. So much fun, those. That 'boom - tch' stuff was not. But we make do. The woodblock was a nice touch.

I don't know if your band has quads, but a figure for those would be greatly appreciated by those guys. They like to make full use of their seventy-pound awesomeness.

I think the saxophones(?) would be blowing out bits of lung, after a few measures of that fast sixteenth figure. Especially when actually marching, as opposed to in the stands. But I'm not a wind player.

Other than those, sweet arrangement. If you want some examples of sweet drums, check this out: Click on 'Opener Percussion Feature'

My first great love - drum corps.......*sigh*

I actually already had a drum break in mind, but I was gonna leave that up to my friend to write when I finished the actual song, as well as some of the battery parts.

I play snare, too... played bass last year, and just joined a local drum corps to fill a needed bass drum spot.

You may consider swapping the fast sax part (or whatever has that sixteenth pattern behind the melody, I can't tell just what it is from the mp3) with the more melodic flute part; flutes handle that stuff better than saxes, generally, but if you want to push your saxes to excellence, then it's fine (or if you just like that sound better than a flute's).

One thing composers (or arrangers, I suppose) do when they take other songs and arrange it for marching band is to add a significantly different intro. This often irritates me, but don't be afraid to write a brief, original theme and slap it on the front of that, then let the drumline take over and establish that groove before the band comes in with the familiar melody. That's probably what I would do.

Just FYI-

I do this all the time - I start singing in the shower and write down this kickin' melody and then realize after I'm half way done that this is an already published melody. I don't know if you were trying to quote the tune, but you main motif has already been written. Keep that in mind when writing. And I must say, it's a pretty hackneyed motif - but hey, if that floats your boat, awesome. I just finished writing something that quoted skip to my lou, that 'na na na na na' tune that kids do to each other when they are trying to annoy each other (the first example that comes to my mind is when kids play tag), and the intro from that Mouse Detectives movie that disney produced some while ago.

Oh, so now I see you were writing an arrangement - hahaha - way to go me!!!! As you can tell from the earlier posts, I really don't like that motif, so I guess I'm not a great person to comment.

I made a few changes; I'm liking it a lot more now.

Stubbazubba, I was actually thinking about starting off with a few bars of something what would be rather boring to the audience, perhaps Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata (I'm not implying his works are boring, but in my opinion it's not exciting enough for marching band), then a quick transition into an intro of my own, then a sudden 8 or so measure drum break into the song. It would grab people's attention more in my opinion.

No MP3, because my attempt at one sucked this time, so an MIDI will do. It sounds pretty decent.

Also, there's a few things I really want to change (I have some pretty weird horn parts, ha) and remember, it's not done yet. The ending is no where near how I have it in my head.

Push_It.mid