The Zionsville Marching Eagles
Competitive marching arts use music, movement, and compelling visuals to portray a story or to convey an overall theme or idea to an audience. Like any performance, the intent is to persuade and influence the audience to an emotional response. Shows last from 6- to 7 minutes on average and may have 4 or more movements or songs. Unlike college marching bands, competitive marching arts performers take months to learn a single show due to the complexity of the music, movement, and visuals.
People Elements
Drum Majors
Composed of 2- to 3-selected marching band members to conduct the music and be a leader of the band.
Section Leaders
The selected leader of each instrument section.
Color Guard/Color Guard Captains
Composed of color guard members. Color guard captains are selected members designated as the leaders of the color guard.
Winds
Composed of brass and woodwind instruments.
Percussion
Composed of the front ensemble and battery.
Band Buddies
Like secret Santa. Every marcher will be randomly assigned a marcher. Before each competition, marchers will exchange band buddy gifts. Gifts are always small and less than $10. Candy, instrument or band-related accessories, and gag gifts are common. Marchers will receive a list of favorites and allergy warnings.
Show Elements
Music
The marching arts is not your old college band! We rearrange, remix, and combine original, old, new, and unique music to capitalize on the unique performance atmosphere of a football field. Music will have moments of high and loud impact, quiet to compel, and a mixture of tempos to incite interest and enhance the difficulty rating. We will feature a variety of solos and instruments to showcase our performers, their talents, and their hard work.
Drill
Drill consists of the sequence of movements performers undertake during the show. Each marcher has a dot with an alphanumeric identification to follow throughout the show. Through practice, they have memorized their dot. Performers move constantly during a performance to convey the theme’s message. How they move, where they move to on the field, how they travel from dot to dot, the body’s position during all of this movement, and sudden, dramatic pauses of the movement, all convey meaning. Marchers should remain in step with one another and have consistent techniques to maximize our visual effect. Marchers will often have choreography during pauses or key dots in the drill to enhance our visual effect. Marchers will do all of this movement while playing beautifully their memorized music.
Color Guard Tools
Color Guard will move alongside and in relation to the band. They often represent key visual story-telling elements, such as dance, flags, rifles, and other tools they toss, twirl, spin, and move in coordination with the drill, the music, and one another. Color guard members must also perform compelling facial expressions to connect with the audience.
Props
Props should enhance the music and visuals of the members but not overtake or replace them as the primary story-telling elements. Props may include tarps on the field, large fabric overlays, backdrops, and moveable objects such as mirrors, stairs, walls, ladders, and more. Pit Crew volunteers may help place props onto the field and remove them after a show. They may not move props during a show. Performers must conduct any prop movement during a show.
Classes
Indiana State School Music Association (ISSMA) organizes marching bands into competitive classes based on school size, labeled alphabetically from small to large as D, C, B, and A. They also divide bands into two categories based on overall band size. Bands below a designated threshold amount of 110 are Scholastic and bands over the designated threshold amount of 110 are Open. Zionsville was a Scholastic A class band in 2023. We will wait to see how many marchers we have in 2024 to determine if we will continue in Scholastic class or bump into Open A.
ISSMA also hosts a Festival class, which offers unlimited school size and band size.
Scoring and Judging
Every competition has a panel of judges in four categories: music, visual, musical effect, and visual effect. Judges evaluate our themed show.
Music judges are evaluating how well we play our music. Visual judges evaluate how well we move and execute our show’s drill. Musical effect evaluates the execution and impact of our musical performance. Visual effect evaluates the impact and execution of the various aspects of our show (color guard, drill, props, etc.). Judges watch and listen to the show from the box or on the field, depending on their adjudication. They record developmental feedback during the performance for us to listen to. After each performance, directors and staff are given a critique and a score. Scores run on a 0 to 100 scale, with 100 being the best thing a judge has ever seen. Top-performing groups should expect to score above 85 by the end of the season.
Caption Awards
Some contests have special awards for the high scoring group in particular categories. These categories may include:
Outstanding drum major
Outstanding color guard
Outstanding percussion
Best music
Best visual effect
Practices
While we practice a lot and maintain a high level of focus, band kids report practicing is actually fun! We make sure to rotate in and out of the sun, allot adequate breaks, and facilitate variety in how we spend our time together. All members will receive a detailed practice calendar for the entire season in April or May. You may use the general calendar or check the ZCHS Bands website to make plans for the summer before April or May.
Attendance
Being competitive is a choice. Each year, members set high standards and goals for themselves. They want to feel successful and hope to win! Unlike many sports or activities, marching band is a true collaborative effort–if even one member is missing, we have a hole in our drill and music we can’t fill with anyone else. This is the strength of the activity: everyone is important! This is also the central challenge because everyone is important. We understand things happen. But we also request you try to plan around the band calendar as much as possible. We need all members to attend each practice with focus and determination.
Practice Method
ZCHS Bands prioritize growth in challenging material over the course of a season. This means we rarely have a full show on the field until mid-season. Our method offers participants a challenge and then encourages, coaches, and guides them toward effective execution over time. We will clean and perfect the material before we move on to learning new material. This accounts for the cognitive load of the marching arts. We practice until skills, songs, and movements become automatic. We demonstrate mastery when we can perform a show, not just complete it. As we demonstrate mastery over the beginning stages of our show, later pieces become easier. Then, next year, our skills elevate even higher to grow and develop our program towards excellence. This aligns with best educational practices and promotes meaningful lifelong learning skills.
annual fees and other costs to consider
Once upon a time, running an effective competitive band program didn't cost much. Modern programs, though, are different. The marching arts combine compelling visuals with complex music in a theatrical performance. It rolls dancing, synchronous movements, beautiful playing and music, and acting all into one. Some of the costs are:
copyright fees
transportation
entry fees
maintenance
uniforms
Instruments and other equipment
staff
props
color guard tools, and
show design and writing
The costs for each have increased exponentially in the last ten years. Meanwhile, public education funding dollars for the arts have decreased. We work extremely hard to minimize costs to ensure ZCHS Bands remain accessible to all. Yet, it does cost money to maintain a competitive program. Families may offset costs through fundraising efforts provided by the Band Boosters. It is never ZCHS Band’s wish that anyone should not participate due to the cost. Connect with the Band Booster Treasurer with questions and concerns.