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what is the fastest tempo your band or a band you have heard had to march?


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I've always dubbed 180 BPM "Battle Speed".  It's kind of the de facto "fast tempo" that you see a lot in BOA.  It's not very practical to go much faster than this since it becomes more difficult to keep your cross counts uniform.

There are generally a couple instances every year of bands going "Ramming Speed" though (190 or faster).  Homestead (IN) 1994's closer is a good example.  Their tempo is kind of all over the place in the recording but it floats between 195 and 210, and right in the last moments kicks it up to 215.



starting at 6:12
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  • 3 weeks later...

Avon 2008 has gotta be up there. They fly across the field the majority of the time. This show is so underrated IMO.. I know it won, but I hardly ever see it get talked about. 

 

185 - 190 in the fast sections before the Ave Maria, At least a solid 190 in the closer (I would guess 192 was the rehearsed tempo).

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In BD's 2009 show, I know that they had a tempo in I've got rhythm that was around 250-255.

 

 

Wow.  I hadn't seen that show before.  That IS fast! But......250 is a bit of a stretch.....or at least they didn't do 250 during finals.  I can't quite pinpoint it exactly but it's faster than 230, though anything above about 242 gets ahead of what I hear. I would say 235-240.

 

I will say though, I was listening to sections of their show that I was clocking at 181, and it sticks right to 181 for a solid length of time...no more no less....It's actually probably 180 or 182 and is just taking a second to desync from my tempo, but that's more than I can say for a lot of these HS groups that are marching that fast...The tempo starts drifting quite a bit once you get up above 180 for most HS groups.

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I will say though, I was listening to sections of their show that I was clocking at 181, and it sticks right to 181 for a solid length of time...no more no less....It's actually probably 180 or 182 and is just taking a second to desync from my tempo, but that's more than I can say for a lot of these HS groups that are marching that fast...The tempo starts drifting quite a bit once you get up above 180 for most HS groups.

You must have one of those fancy clocko-marchometer thingies the BOA judges use. You're such a nerd. ;)

 

Love it!!

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This year at Oak Ridge, our opener gradually accelerates from 152-196ish. We have pushed over 200 in a few extremely high energy runs. When it hits full speed, the brass has a half-time company front and the woodwinds have a double time snake around idea going through the brass and across the field. The end of our how has a technical section written at 184 where the full band has constant runs, we're about 8 beats under tempo for now but it's getting there.

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This year at Oak Ridge, our opener gradually accelerates from 152-196ish. We have pushed over 200 in a few extremely high energy runs. When it hits full speed, the brass has a half-time company front and the woodwinds have a double time snake around idea going through the brass and across the field. The end of our how has a technical section written at 184 where the full band has constant runs, we're about 8 beats under tempo for now but it's getting there.

Have to say, I loved Oak Ridges show this year, reminds me a bit of what Clements did my freshmen year, 2015

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