Performance Block
The Performance Block is the subset of the MMB that performs pre-game and halftime. An additional subset is called "half-time only" which adds to the performance block for half-time. The half-time block usually consists of an additional 6 piccolos, 6 alto saxophones, 12 horns, 3 bass drums, 4 snare drums, 4 tenor drums, 6 cymbals, and 6 to 12 sousaphones (depending on the drill requirements).
The rank leaders along with the MMB staff decide which members in block are to be challenged for their position in block. This method lessens tension in the band as a member does not need to challenge an individual member of the performance block for their position. There are no minimum or maximum requirements for challenges, and some members may not be challenged for an entire season.
Challenges are held after rehearsal on Fridays, for the game after the game which is on the next day. Challenges consist of a halftime marching audition while playing a musical excerpt from the weekly show, followed by performing a portion of the pre-game show. Results are posted the following Monday.
Students who do not make the performance block, called reserves, spend the week rehearsing fundamentals on an adjacent practice field while the performance block learns the show to prepare for the next week's challenge. The reserves are no less a part of the MMB, as they still wear the uniform and play in the stands during football games.
Read more about this topic: Michigan Marching Band
Famous quotes containing the words performance and/or block:
“True balance requires assigning realistic performance expectations to each of our roles. True balance requires us to acknowledge that our performance in some areas is more important than in others. True balance demands that we determine what accomplishments give us honest satisfaction as well as what failures cause us intolerable grief.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)
“Only he who can view his own past as an abortion sprung from compulsion and need can use it to full advantage in the present. For what one has lived is at best comparable to a beautiful statue which has had all its limbs knocked off in transit, and now yields nothing but the precious block out of which the image of one’s future must be hewn.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)