Sousaphones meet gravity, pileup ensues

[TexasTowelie]

Making the rounds on the internet recently is this six-sousaphone pileup during a performance of the Lake Travis High School marching band.

Marching bands start working out these routines during the summer and perfect them throughout the football season.

In an instant, all that work can come crashing down.

Accidents happen. They don't always happen while you have a sousaphone wrapped around your body.

Here's the part where gravity takes over.

More at http://www.statesman.com/weblogs/all-ablog-austin/2013/sep/30/sousaphones-meet-gravity-pileup-ensues/ .

Cross-posted in Weird News Group.

[northoftheborder]

1. This is hilarious! But to the band's credit, it continued the music and the fallen members jumped up

...up and continued into the change of formation on the field. Along with football, the Texas high school band is a big thing...lots of members. They start practice for their music and formations at least a month before school starts in the fall. And then early morning practice after school starts. I had two sons in high school band, and I know how important the band is to the school traditions and pride, and the parents are an active group fund-raising for band uniform, travel funds, etc., as the school budget is never enough. They travel to out-of-town games, and compete all year in UIL competitions. They learn team-work, work ethic, contribute to school spirit as well as learn to play an instrument. They also have to be physically fit!

[TexasTowelie]

2. I agree with you about staying physically fit.

My high school was so small that half of the marching band was eighth graders. We used to march military style which meant picking the knees up, sharp turns when we did right/left flanks or spin to turn around, and counter-marches to turn around (...5, 6, 7, 8, step, turn, step, turn). There were years when we did double-time to get on the field and we raised our knees so high that our thighs were parallel to the plane of the field.

I can recall that we would repeat the 8 minute drills five or six times during our morning practice which meant that we were marching nearly three miles a day and who can forget the kaleidoscope drills? Our band director only had two volume levels for the brass players in the band, forte and fortissimo, so I developed excellent aerobic capacity which countered (or is that enhanced?) my catnip consumption during the college years.

My final year we went to a corp style and for some reason I would always be on the inside of the pinwheels taking baby steps while the short people would be out on the end having to stretch to sweep the 90 degree arc. The only thing that I didn't do though was march backwards like what was shown in the video. I imagine that we would have had the same mishaps as what was shown in the video.

The students today have it much easier today since I consider most their marching to be walking instead and usually they only move about 30%-40% of the time versus the 90% that my generation did. We also had to wear the full wool uniforms throughout the entire football game and couldn't strip down to the T-shirts that is more common today in hot weather. I recall our band director pointing out that the members of another band were caught smoking in their unbuttoned uniforms during the third quarter so the pride aspect was definitely emphasized.

There was a lot of team-work shown in getting prepared for the shows. And of course the band is usually the only form of artistry or culture that is found in small rural schools around Texas. I went on to play trumpet in the symphonic band during college and became knowledgeable about music theory--occasionally that is reflected in the Friday Night Catnip threads that are posted in the Music Appreciation Group.