Anecdotes of collapses and droppings

[Majic]

Tripped on a (roughly) 6/5 backleft move during rehearsal one time. My first move of the show, and we'd skipped a full stretching/fundamentals session before rehearsal. I simply rolled over my shoulder, got back up, and kept going. Thank the lord I kept my parallel to the ground; it's a brand new marching baritone, and I don't think the directors would've have liked for me to total it. Had an annoying bruise on my right arse cheek for a couple days, though.

 

Performancewise, nothing serious. Came a bit close to falling during BOA Arlington last year at a turnaround, but I'm sure others had the same problem. Rain + marching band = less than desirable conditions.

 

Random story that doesn't involve me: during the same rehearsal, I belive, a trombone fell during a backwards snake move. Caused a three or four person pileup, and the horn of the responsible party was crushed a section leader's butt. The bell of the bone now resembles a sort of brass taco. At least it was a only a pea shooter, and at that one with a tuning slide somebody salvaged to replace their own.

[oh_snap44]

At my first BOA (Huntsville 2002), we were watching Finals and Bell was performing. They were doing a very fast move (it looked kind of like the three man weave) at the front of the field and a trombone just disappeared under people. There one second, gone the next. He got up and back in pretty fast, but it looked like that one hurt.

 

Last year at Area C prelims, we were in our closer and the tenor sax in front of me clipped another guy and rolled over backwards and back into the form. It just looked like he added some tumbling to the drill. After the run, he was hurting pretty bad though....

 

And not marching related..... I was running a "Spirit Lap" with my section after a Thursday rehearsal last year. My friend decided to run at me with his water jug like he was going to dump it on me, so I tried to dodge him. Ended up having to jump over some baritones out the ground as well and totally wiped out right in front of the drumline and all of the drill techs. That one hurt a lot.

[MartinHorn]

I have only fallen once and hopefully it will never happen again. We were doing a runthrough and during a simple backwards set I trip and hit the ground on my back. According to one of the marching techs I sprang right back up. I didn't hurt myself except for my pride, although my horn on the otherhand, was not so lucky. Part of the bell bent back and the valves jammed. I had to march the rest of the runthrough with a messed up horn. For the rest of the season I marched with a silver horn (only person with a silver horn that marched the show, so I kinda stood out).

 

ahhhh good times.

[XXCreektubaXX]

I had my very first fall with my sousaphone just a few weeks ago. I guess it was just my time. I was the last in the section to fall. One of the last practices of my senior year and I fall.

 

I moving at 5 to 5 steps at around 180bpm, backwards. I had to get in line with a tenor sax player, and I was almost to my set when I stepped on his foot. I felt all my balance go and time slow down. I started falling back and my mind was racing a million miles a minute. All I could think of was saving the horn. On my way to the ground, I somehow managed to get the sousaphone off my shoulder and in front of me. When I hit the ground, I landed on my butt and my upper body fell back, smacking my skull against the concrete but my horn was safe and sound sitting on my chest and lap.

[tubamaxCHS]

the first day we got our coordinates this year, and were marching the first couple of sets (with our tubas off, thank God) there was this one set where all of the tubas were in a line parallel to the S30 i think, and had 32 counts of 6 to 5 steps backwards marching. i, being the only tuba freshman slipped and i and everyone in front of me fell hard. i still have the scar on my lower back.

[itsstephenyo]

Haha I've never fallen while marching. A few slips, but nothing bad. However, one morning when we were doing our morning warm-up lap, I started running backwards towards the end of the run, which is downhill. I also forgot that there were speed bumps and sure enough, my ankle caught the speed bump and I did a backwards somersault over the speed bump. I'm glad I didn't bust my head open or something.

[GuitarJoe]

The one and only time I've fallen was at a rehearsal my sophmore year when I was at Trinity. This small group of saxes I was in had a fairly easy 8-5 backwards march in a diagonal for 8 or 12 counts and the tenor player behind me fell down and started rolling. Since I couldn't see him, I ended up tripping over him backwards and almost stabbed myself in the face with my mouthpiece. Those Selmer C stars are pretty sharp...

 

The same year later in the season, we had an away game against Boswell. The field was incredibly slippery and muddy, and the same tenor player totally ate it on this fast forward march. He slipped and fell, and then got up really fast and tried to run to his next set. He slipped AGAIN and smacked himself in the head with his tenor and blacked out for like 5 or 6 seconds, so he was just sprawled out on the field like 4 steps infront of the sideline. This guy is pretty darn big too. 6'4'' and like 220+ pounds.

[the_DRUM_MAJOR]

hmm it was Pearland 05-06 when i saw a bass clarinet faint at the Alief marching contest and everyone marched over her i think, and this year at Area F, a tuba from the woodlands fell

[Aegis Fang]

was it Westlake state marching contest in 2003 or something when the entire flute section was in a line marching back, and the front girl tripped and dominoed the entire flute line behind her, and they still won State?

[acsc1312]

lol...I remember this one rehearsal last year. We had this zig-zag move in the show, and for some reason on the asphalt practice field I would always slip on this one part of the field (of course where the move was). Anyway, so one day i guess i forgot about that soft spot and on one of the zags i fell straight on my knee and scraped it all up. I couldnt help but laugh, and neither could all the people by me. Nonetheless, I finished that run through with blood flowing down my leg, and sat out the next one

[bossman]

same story from the top... Tenor trips(and falls) top teeth are knocked out

then a guard member get her flag caught on a trombone player's slide. he is later found unconscious after the halftime performance

 

Show Title was "The Game Within" Westfield 04'

[teh_branday]

  acsc1312 said:

lol...I remember this one rehearsal last year. We had this zig-zag move in the show, and for some reason on the asphalt practice field I would always slip on this one part of the field (of course where the move was). Anyway, so one day i guess i forgot about that soft spot and on one of the zags i fell straight on my knee and scraped it all up. I couldnt help but laugh, and neither could all the people by me. Nonetheless, I finished that run through with blood flowing down my leg, and sat out the next one

haha..i remember that. too bad i actually missed you fall and only saw the blood part as you were sitting down in the next runthrough...loser.

 

but...i've only fallen once during a performance. how fun that was. It was...homecoming of...'04 and luckily, we performed AFTER the game so not as many people saw me as there could have been, though i did hear people say, "oh that was you?!" when i mentioned it the following monday. but, what happened was it was at the very end of our show where the flutes and clarinets were in a spiral and thats right when it sped up...many of the people around me weren't comfortable with the speed so someone behind me was rushing and the person in front of me wasn't going fast enough, so...the person behind me ending up stepping on my shoe and i ended up tripping and falling. all i remember was grabbing my instrument (because it ended up falling in the middle part), picking up my flip folder and stuffing it under my arm and getting back into my spot before the show was finished...but everyone else says i rolled on the ground to my spot and was back before they could blink. all i remember is what i said, and..i only missed 4 steps. ah...but that was funny...a lot of people from then said if anything bad happened during a show, to make sure it happened around either me or my sister (cuz she also slyly picked up half a clarinet and handed it back to the owner at UIL '03 without anyone noticing because of the visual).

 

i also remember another clarinet in my band falling at BOA Huntsville '04. We were all going back, and, i'm not sure how she fell, but i felt so bad because i didn't see her, but i ended up stepping right on her. that must've hurt because she had about 3 more people to step on her.

[Nancy08]

My freashman year our guard had these tire-like props that they rolled around the field. Unfortunately they didn't know their charts very well, so when our directors decided to start in the middle of a chunk of music, the guard didn't know where to put the props. One ended up 5 yards off the mark, right where the tenor saxes and trombones were supposed to go on the next chart...

So the first person sat on it, but didn't have time to shout "drill" before the next person came and sat on him. The pattern continued for the entire chart. We had like 8 people piled up at the end. The trombone leader was sooooo mad. She went off and cussed out the guard.

 

Luckily, no instruments were damaged...oh, and nobody was hurt.

[Serardian]

As our band director always says:

 

"If you're gonna fall, don't fall on the instrument! The horn comes first!"

[Salesmonkey]

  Quote

So the first person sat on it, but didn't have time to shout "drill" before the next person came and sat on him. The pattern continued for the entire chart. We had like 8 people piled up at the end. The trombone leader was sooooo mad. She went off and cussed out the guard.

 

Was I the first one to hit it? I dont remember, I remember doing that once though...stupid, stupid guard...

[MartinHorn]

  Serardian said:

As our band director always says:

 

"If you're gonna fall, don't fall on the instrument! The horn comes first!"

When someone falls I always shout is the horn okay before I see if the person is ok.

[sax5warrior]

well.

 

talk about falling over.

 

new turf with worn marching heels arent a good mix.

 

Area was a darn good scare for me, i didnt even play for the first 3 minutes thinking if im going to fall or not. It was pretty scary.

 

I think i have the UIL curse, something bad tends to happen to me in UIL competition that never occurs in practice.

[supermanuel]

i fell at state, twice

 

big steps forward to bigger steps back + a slick spot on the turf = embarassing.

 

and then i slipped trying to get up, embarassing (squared)

[Shiloh Phoenix]

well everyone in my band calls me turtle. it's even on the section shirts, I'll leave it to you to figure out why

[gavinrh]

ohh i love it when you fall...the moans and groans....

[psi_87]

 

the video speaks for itself lol

[barisaxy08]

Westfield 06' - BOA Houston pre-lims performance...

 

at the beginning of our opener after are intro...everyone has to step off...

 

in the french horn section, one french horn forgot to step off on beat one and caused the french horn in front of him to step on his foot while marching backwards and fall...allow a TRAIN of other french horns to fall as well...one by one they tumbled and mouthpieces flew everywhere and it was crazy...we still made finals but man that had me worried...

 

good thing i play the saxamaphone...

[MartinHorn]

  psi_87 said:

 

the video speaks for itself lol

Ouch....Man they stopped the whole show.

 

Does anybody recognize the music they were playing?

[itsstephenyo]

  MartinHorn said:

Ouch....Man they stopped the whole show.

 

Does anybody recognize the music they were playing?

Hahaha I laughed. That's pretty funny. And yea, I recognize the music but can't put a name to a tune...

[Aegis Fang]

sounded like Medea's Dance of Vengeance, but I could be wrong