I am from Edison High School and our Marching band is a show band. We have done songs like Shout it Out from Drumline and Crazy Train. I just wondered what everyone else thinks about dynamics. We are LOUD all the time and I think it is great with a 140 member marching band.

Dynamics are your friend. Certain passages may seem ok being balls to the walls all the time, but certain things call for softer dynamics.

Yeah, most drumcorps or marching bands will start of medium loud in the show then have a sort of sad or mourning part in the middle.At the end they have grown to be very loud, alomst blairing in the horn section. I do like dynamics in the drumline because it makes it more professional and articulite.

When performing pieces with the rest of the band, dynamics are very important (since our line is characteristically too loud for the winds.) But when it comes to cadences, dynamics are thrown out the window and it's just beat the hell out of your drum time.

"sad or mourning part"..

yea, you meant the ballad



Anyways, having music without dynamics makes it really bland after a while, especially if the writing is where the phrase is repeated eachtime, but with a different ending.

dynamics are usually what seperates drummers from musicians.

I think it makes your show so much more exciting if you have dynamics.

You’re not going to find an experienced drummer or musician alive that would say you should play loud the entire time. It’s just bad form and sounds bad.

Dynamics are the one thing that seperate the good pecussionists or musicians in general from the great ones. Its one of the most musical affects you can include in the passage. You definately want dynamic contrast in your show but you have to be careful about how you do it so you don't loose all the sound and the ensuing disarray which has happened on the field to bands I've seen before. Generally for marching season we tell the battery they have 4 dynamics. Soft, Loud, Very Loud, You can't hear the guy next to you.

yeah all music in generally would be very boring if it was one volume all the time

Keep this in mind though. When you are a Show Band that plays mostly Rock and Roll and such and they rest can match the sound of the percussion section it becomes very powerful.

But still only one dynamic level is really bad for a 120 member marching band...

correction: one dynamic level is bad (or rather, very undesired) for any size band.

if you talked it one volume, it would be boring... why would music not be if it was at the same volume?

People must like it for some reason to have 1/3 of our student body in our band, and to get accepted to soooo many events.

I always pick dynamics over just playing LOUD. I have to repeatedly stress this to a lot my beginners and sometimes the oldheads as well.

I've seen some bands whose idea of dynamics was purely F, FF and FFF.

Things like "With Quiet Courage" by _____________ or "Yesterday" by The Beatles you especially need dynamics. Its a good sign of a mature musician. Any elementary school band can play loud, it takes more talent to shape the music.

If you don't play dynamics you aren't playing musically. In my mind, you mine as well not play the right notes if you aren't going to play with dynamics. They are very important to music, that is why they are written in.

I know of a school nearby that plays LOUD. I live near the field.. and when they are there I can tell.. At games, they play popular music and watnot, so the people on both sides loves them. (Then we get booed. ) I don't like it.. dynamics rock.

Dynamics DEFINETLEY. With a drum, it's not like you really have notes (except quads but still). Musicality keeps you like, on the edge like, 'What's going to happen next?' instead of just loud.
Also, you might hurt yourself playing so loud, don't ya think?