i need help getting the whole 7/8 thing i just switched schools and my old school never left 4/4 so any suggestions.... i dont know anything about marching 7/8 if that lets u know where im at thanx

This early in the season I would bet that the rest of the band isn't that clear on it either. If you honestly feel that far behind, ask one of the instructors to take you off to the side and explain it, or stay after for a little while to help you, they should be more than happy to.

I dont march but when i watch the band all i see is them counting (or what sounds like counting) 123 12 12 123 12 12...
With accents on the ones. It keeps them in time but i dont know much morethen that.

There's really two ways to march 7/8.

You can either march the pulse (like 123 12 12, 12 12 123, 12 123 12) or you can March it straight. If the music allows it, 7/8 + 7/8 can = 7/4, so therefore march it straight. I'm currently using this solution in the line I teach for the percussion feature (a rowloff one in 7/8) so I just made it 7/4, problem solved.

Additionally, a judge might notice like "oooh, you're marching across the beat"

i dont know if this really helps but if you are marching in 7/8 you will take 3 1/2 steps a measure, 7 steps in 2 measures...so that means in 4 measures you will take 14 steps with the 15th being the downstep of the measure but you will be back on your left foot. 7/8 is one of the grooviest time signatures around, you def. have to plant your feet when u are marking time

The only way that I've ever seen 7/8 or 5/8 marched is by breaking down the meaure to the playing feel (12, 12, 123)and putting the foot down on the ones, causing the third (or second, or first, depending on how the measure is arranged) to have a "delay" or a "hiccup" feel.

if a good marching ensemble is marching in odd time signatures, you wont know it unless they want you to. ala BD 03, blue rondo. (also X-men 03)... ALOT of drum corps do odd time signatures you just dont notice it unless you really look for it. cavaliers shows tend to have many metric permutations...

We had a part in our show where we marched 2 measures of 7/8, but rather then marching it over the bar, we actually held our foot in the air longer as we did it. The music had a 12-12-123 12-12-123 feel, so we just marched the first two beats normally, and then for the third, we just floated our foot in the air for an extra 8th. It worked out pretty well...it was relatively easy to learn, and the judges like it a lot.

Having said that though, I definetly agree with breakingbryan in that your directors should make it clear as to how your going to do it so that everyone is doing the same thing. If you're struggling, don't be afraid to ask for extra help from your instructors...after all, that's what they're there for.

See, I'm opposed to that Baker - I feel as if it looks... choppy. Maybe if coupled with some marching visual that would appear cool.

Yeah I tend to agree with you there, but I remember judges specifically saying "nice job marching the odd time", so hey whatever works I guess.

The way we cheated it this year was we marched it in 7/4. Every 2 bars of 7/8 was one 7/4 bar. This makes it semi-easy to deal with, since you are marching the half note basically.

Derek

Actually EnsErmac, if you're marching it in 7/4, you're marching the quarternote.

I was a bit off, I think I got my point across though...

Yup, you did- just clarifying incase others say something.

My sophomore year we had 7/8 in our show Stained Glass it was awesome. And it looks good because we where crab marching so it really brought out the steps. Just think of it like this 1, 2, 123 when you march and hopefully the music corresponds easilty to this. First practice the marching then the playing then slowly bring it together.