Freshmen new to marching band?

Question

The freshmen are starting to come to parades and practice starts in July. We have two new members (well, one definitely) and neither of them can march. At all. Yesterday, we had a parade and the new freshman came. Amazingly, he stayed in step, but he kept drifting towards me, can falling behind and getting ahead, and his horn angle was terrible! My band plays with marching trombones (for those who don't know, it's like a big trumpet, but a small tuba), and he was playing towards the ground. Put all of these together and thats what you get when a judge walked by. How can my friend and I (the only two girls in the low brass section) whip this boy into shape?

Answer 1

I would say talk to your band director.  You should try your best to teach him, but if your director could get involved and help him out he would probably improve a lot.

Answer 2

try to talk to him & teach him, offering advice from your own experiences. if he won't listen, enlist the aid of your director.

Answer 3

Practice Practice Practice!!! After school at lunch when ever!!

Answer 4

hey

im in marching band and i know EXACTLY what you're talking about. what i had to do was i took this kid aside with my friend and we taught him the basics of marching and guiding. don't be mean to the guy and take it as slow as you need to. if he has someone to coach him to be better and for someone to teach him to be better he will be.

also have you tried making him stand at set to keep his horn angle up?

that'll work

Answer 5

I totally understand! In the case of him drifting toward you, explain it as invisible graph paper so that he can understand how each person has a line to follow and what not, if not that, you can tell him to look at the person's head in front of him, that will not only keep him better in line, but help him horn angle to be up because his chin will be up.

Hope that helps.

p.s. Other than that, all you can do is practice and maybe get the aid of your director.