LSU Band Formations

Yes, I exaggerated. Tiger Band does corps-style better than almost anybody, it is not simple, and they sound great. When Wickes brought it here, it was something new and popular.

Now . . . its getting a bit long in the tooth, everybody does it, and I had hoped the new director would take it in a new direction. The response A&M gets from its simple military style marching is tremendous as we are about to find out soon. I have seen them bring down the house in Tiger Stadium.

But the drills of the WF Swor bands were amazingly complex and far better than the simple block drills of A&M. They did block drills, line drills, circle drills and others including making complex animated figures.

 

For all the musicians out there, the following is for those with no training. Just trying to keep it simple.

Tiga, music is written in different "times". When written, the music on the sheet is divided into what is called measures. How many major beats are in the measure defines the "time" of that section of music. Most music is written with either 2,3,4, or 6 beats per measure. The hand movements are specific to the time of the music and the conductor uses a specific pattern for specific "times".

For the sake of this primer, I am talking about the conductor's right hand. For 2 beats per measure, the conductor (or drum major) would make a J shape with his hand movements. He would start with his hand in the up position, and trace the J pattern for beat one, then reverse this for beat 2.



For 3 beats per measure, he would start at the top (you always start with your hand in the up, or top position and finish the measure where you started), go straight down for beat one, to his left for beat 2, and back up for beat 3.



Four beats is down, left, right, up.



Finally, 6 beats per measure: