The marching band has come a long way since the old military style formations and the traditional John Phillip Sousa marches.
Today's marching band is a highly competitive activity combining theater, athletics, and music into an exciting blend of sights and sounds enjoyed each Friday night by hundreds of fans who buy tickets to watch. (Oh yeah, there's a football game going on too!) For the marching show, the band is divided into several groups performing simultaneously: wind instrument players (brass and woodwinds); on-field percussion (also called "battery" percussion); off-field percussion (also called "pit percussion" or "front ensemble"); and "colorguard" (flags, rifles, and/or other visual elements).
Marching performances can be compared to a carefully orchestrated Broadway show. Literally hundreds of hours of preparation can go into each minute of the band's performance. Due to the competitive and specialized nature of today's marching band, special music arrangers, drill designers and color guard specialists are hired to help the directors create, write and coordinate the show. The marching band will compete in several contests, mostly in October.
The Arlington High School Bands are comprised of three major performing ensembles (Wind Symphony, Symphonic Band, Concert Band) and the Jazz Band.
Color/winter guard participants are also considered band students (whether or not they play an instrument) and perform and compete in conjunction with, and separately from, the marching band. More about Guard...
The marching band, which has members from the three major bands, is active in exhibitions and competitions starting with Arlington's annual Independence Day Parade and continuing throughout marching season.
The Jazz Band, composed of instrumentalists and vocalists, performs for various local functions.
The three major bands also compete in UIL competitions during concert season and individual students also have the opportunity to compete in UIL Solo and Ensemble contest.
