It’s been a swell season for the Penn State Blue Band, but it will be drawing to a close. This weekend marks the last new show for the 2014 season. Being that Veteran’s Day was this week, the theme of this week’s show is America, specifically the Armed Forces Medley (which seems to be pretty self explanatory), Semper Paratus meaning Always Prepared (the Coast Guard song), and National Emblem. The last song is by no means extensively difficult for my instrument, but the drill we are doing is crazy. Instead of the standard 8-to-5 step the band normally uses, we use a 6-to-5 for the majority of this song. Now, the steps are broken down by the first number being the amount of steps someone needs to take in order to move 5 yards. So, an 8-to-5 step is 8 steps to travel 5 yards. An 8-to-5 is 22.5 inches. This means that for our show this week, we will be marching in 30 inch steps. This is very difficult for some people because the standard 8-to-5 is ingrained in their head. For others, like myself, it is as close to a leisurely stroll as I can get. I love that part of it. What screws me and many others up is that at the end of a measure of music, the right foot usually will hit a yard line or halfway between yardlines. That’s because of the 8 step interval. With a six step interval, halfway between a yardline happens on the left foot and hitting the yardline happens halfway through a measure of music. It throws a lot of the timing off in many seasoned bandies. We’ve managed to iron out 99% of the kinks in the show though, so finishing touches Saturday morning and another dynamite show will find its way to Beaver Stadium.
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