MARCHING TO......

I love a good march. No, I'm not talking about the month, I'm talking about the music. I grew up on Marches. My Dad was a music teacher so I heard a lot of marches and when I become a music teacher he would always ask me what Marches I was playing. I always had a march in my music concerts as I knew my Dad would be in the audience.

Sousa was one of my favorite march composers and again I got a lot of this from my Dad. Sousa wrote a "mean march", not easy to play by any means and to play it correctly as Sousa had wanted it to be is even harder. I sometimes wish I would have pursued a study in Sousa as I know very little about the man or his music. All I know Is that I like the Sousa march.

Sousa made the march popular, he was the Beatles of that era. My Dad actually played trombone under Sousa's baton when he was in college in Grand Forks,ND, I remember him telling me about how Sousa would give the downbeat to a March and his hand moved very little after that. Just a small up and down movement. Now, that's control.