Forum - View topicNEWS: Sound! Euphonium Anime's 7th DVD/BD Bundles Extra Episode
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TexasDevin
Posts: 5 |
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Counterpoint: I played trombone in marching band in high school and I was lazy and goofed off all the time. |
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 9848 Location: Virginia |
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@samuelp & TexasDevin and anyone else who served a tour in a high school band.
As someone who never even considered playing an instrument, ever, Why would you subject yourself to a high school band?? It certainly produced no social prestige in my high school. Looking through my yearbook I had classmates who were in band and never admitted it. Unlike a guitar or a piano the instruments are not useful at parties or in a rock band. Many of the instruments had no post school employment potential. Band practice involved being on a field with a lot of others in the sun being yelled at. You were also subject to long uncomfortable bus rides to stadiums where no one paid any attention to you. In private you had to do long hours of practice just to master the instrument. I'm sure there was some friendship, but knowing high school kids there was sure to be the usual bickering, cliques, bullying and backbiting. So just why? While this show was engaging and fun to watch, I didn't see anything going on that would have been fun to participate in. |
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samuelp
Industry Insider
Posts: 2231 Location: San Antonio, USA |
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Because we sucked too bad to get on a sports team. But in all seriousness because it can be extremely exhilarating to play concerts (especially ones in a competition) or put on a good show for the crowd, hit your marks, make that maneuver you practiced 50 times in the hot summer mornings without ever working finally click... And because marching band (especially the level I was in) with 50+ people all having to work together, it was one of the most communal group things you can do in high school, even more than sports where even team games are all about the superstars. The hard drills and long hours of practice teach discipline and teamwork and there are lots of smaller goals to strive for individually (being selected as section leader or assistant section leader, teacher the younger people as you get more senior, getting the solo part in an audition, etc...). Euphonium turned everything into a giant melodrama (no melophone pun intended) but it's kind of accurate in terms of what makes band enjoyable. For me personally it was also very much about the music, but that's not even required for marching band especially. It sounds to me like for you high school was mainly about being _perceived_ as being one of the cool kids and how other's saw you. I could care less what other people thought of me in high school and did what I enjoyed. Some of my best friends I made in band (we ended up forming a brass sextet... even played in the West Wing of the white house one Christmas for now Japanese Ambassador Carolyn Kennedy), and through all the political bullshit it was an extremely formative experience. |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 9848 Location: Virginia |
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@samuelp
Like you I also sucked too bad to get on a sports team. After a disastrous week in junior high I learned that the hard way. After that I did not join anything voluntarily. I was so far from being cool as to be off everyone's radar. It had the effect of not my worrying what others thought of what I liked or was doing. This made it easy to get into anime years later. (many years later, I graduated in '63) I was just getting at what could be the rewards from being in the band. I could see the effort but not the payoff. Watching Sound Euphonium it just seemed to be an awful lot of work to learn a small part in a couple of pieces over a whole school year. You raise an additional issue. When or how did music get to be a competitive sport? I would have thought it was more a competition with yourself to get better. |
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samuelp
Industry Insider
Posts: 2231 Location: San Antonio, USA |
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I'm not sure the history of band competitions but music IS competitive, at every level aside from like "jamming with your friends in a garage" level. When it comes to bands they are structured (and I think the history of them will back this up) like military organizations, with section leaders, and "chairs" where each individual is ranked according to one's skills. In my program if you wanted to move up a chair you had to challenge a higher chair to an audition and beat them. It was crazy stressful but structured. Also, don't underestimate the demands of my generation when it comes to college applications and extracurricular activity... "Not doing anything" would make getting into those top-choice schools nearly impossible. They aren't about fun, exactly, so much as preparing your for making it in the real world? I bet Japanese bands are no different, preparing their young members for the horror of Japanese business life. |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 9848 Location: Virginia |
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I understand what you mean by the problem of "not doing anything". I was more or less forced to join the Audio/Visual club in my last two years of school. This was something the school guidance councilor and my mother cooked up because I had no extra curricular actives of record. This was a fairly good fit as I was a geek before the term became wide spread. Turned out to be a waste of time as I ended up in the state university which only considered grades and SAT scores for admission back then.
You are probably right about the origin of bands. They probably rose directly from the military bands that were a feature of most military units in the Civil War or earlier. That would explain the uniforms and the marching in formation. The military still has bands as far as that goes. My wife's cousin joined the Marine Corp to play in the band. She and her husband are the other anime fans in the family. Thanks for the response. It still seems like a lot of work for the available rewards, but to each his own. If I was more musical I might think differently. |
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