Does your pit ever do visuals? Last year we did a "Oompa Loompa" visual where half of the pit bent their knees to go down on beats 1 and 3 and the other on 2 and 4. It was cool because the part was an accelerado and it was fun. But it was weird seeing other band watch us and go "What the hell are they doing?"

This year I'm pit captain and we have another visual. In our drum feature, there is a loud entrance when the band comeds in with 4 beats of cymnbals followed by 2 beats of keyboards repeated 3 times at like fortissimo. On the cymbal hits, we jump. It looks cool and goes with the music.

Anyway, my question is, does your pit to visuals? Why or Why not? What kinds of visuals do you do?

when i was in winterline we had a few odd visual things
to sync tempo we all did a 'mallet pulse'
during a battery feature we all hid behind our instruments
we were all in costume and made up our own little 'horror show' visuals
at the end we all dropped our mallets and pointed at the judges
it was supposed to be a demented circus type theme but we were playing the music from midnight in transylvania

We've done lots of different things. Somehow, the wave gets incorporated into any rest longer than 8 measures. We've also done where we keep our mallets in someone else's bag, and at a part in the show everyone goes and gets their mallets and comes back. It looks really cool if you plan it out right.

some are alright.... some are really cheesy... its as easy as that

You know, I am only a sophomore, but my pit has never really done visuals, our percussion section leader makes us whenever we rest do the whole, wave your mallets to the beats, it's kind of hard to explain. We usually don't have very much time for visuals, our pit usually consists of kids who couldn't make the drumline. Our "section leader" Crystal and I are the only ones that chose to be in pit, so we have to spend a lot of the time teaching the other pit members who have never even learned how to play keyboard.

I also chose to be in pit to be the pit captain, though now I kinda regret it. We're trying to put like a mallet "wave," but we cant find a large enough gap to put it.

You should totally just eat a baby on the feild...
No seriously...

I used to do visuals w/ my teams...and a lot of emoting.....but now not so much.....It's kinda dated and counterproductive towards the performance....To much movement distracts from the performers on the field. It's not fair to them because the pit IS the first thing you always see.....

In college, we used to walk left to right behind the boards, lowering ourselves with every step to create the illusion of walking down stairs. And, of course, turning around and coming back up. Ultimate cheese...

We do a lot of visuals. I'm not in pit anymore but they still do a lot of visuals. The only rules we have to abide by is that it must complement the music. We have done a bow and arrow visual when we had rests in the drum solo and have done cool ways to bring our mallets up to play. After the last battery hit in this years show the whole drum line and pit makes an x with our sticks/mallets over our heads while we slowly bring it down to our sides. It looks sweet!

My pits have typically done very few visuals. Pit visuals often come across as really cheesy. Or even worse, they look like grade school kids playing around and distracting from the performance.

Unless an opportunity for an appropriate visual is there in the music, all I ask of the pit members visually is to have good stage presence: look confident and like you're enjoying yourself.

The jumping thing is the only visual i thin that were doing, and i think that it really brings to mind the mood that that part of the music is, very bright, vibrant, fast-paced. We were considering the wave with our mallets, but that doesnt really go along with the music.

Our Percussion program's policy on Front Ensemble visuals goes something like this: Never.

Or, to put it in more detail, the Orchestral Percussion section should be like any Pit Orchestra, Heard but not Seen. The Orchestral section is there to compliment what is going on behind them. They are a musical version of the Colorguard, while the Colorguard provides visual accompaniment, the Orchestral section provides musical accompaniment.

The only time we consider visuals is during the indoor season, which provides a lot more flexibility in what we can do. But even then, we only do what's tasteful, and if there's no tasteful way to add something in to the show, we don't do it.

But that's just our philosophy on the issue.

I'm the Pit Captain at my school, and have been for three years. All of these we have been complimented on our 'showmanship' from nearly every percussion judge. We do visuals whenever we don't play... for some reason we just make them up while horsing around in practice. For instance: we do the first part of the macarena (is that how it's spelled? ) to the accented beats by tubas and marching bases. Another good one is when we dance/spin our mallets to the beat on a swing section of our show. It actually fits in nicely, beleive it or not. I don't think that pit should be heard and not seen, I think it should be both.

There's a big difference between visuals and showmanship. Showmanship = good. Visuals = cheese.

Playing and LOOKING confident, some eye contact amongst the pit (for cues or enjoying a moment) are the only visuals you need.

My pit had a few visuals this year. One part, we all jump on the downbeats while we play. It was interesting...

I still think pit visuals are really unnessasary. A judge would like to see some crazy mallet playing any day over a stupid visual. If it were up to me the only visuals pits would do is emoting the music. havin fun with it

I'll agree with this for marching pit too, the visuals prominently on the field, not hidden in the pit.

But that's just my two cents.

I still agree

I personally think it depends on whether you're in outdoor or indoor and the concept of the show.

For example-

Doing a really quick little visual before or after a sweet run during your marching band show = ineffective

Doing a really quick little visual before or after a sweet run during your indoor show that might have something to do with the theme = really neat if done right


Also, having pit visuals is a really good idea if the show calls for it. A show about robots or bouncing can include the pit in more visuals than a show about hope and peace or something that's more abstract.


So, in summation-

Pit visuals for the sake of having pit visuals = no good

Pit visuals for the sake of building to a moment or adding to a show concept = hecks yes


</two cents>

Yeah our pit never did visuals during marching season but for winter there a whole bunch of visuals they do and they do kinda help your score.