Why You Should Use More Music in Your Guard Rehearsals

Hi, Rebecca here! One of the most impactful pieces of feedback I have ever received on my teaching was, “use more music.” So simple. So elegant. Not at all as easy as it sounds. 

Several summers ago when we were working at Fred J. Miller Summer Clinics, Jordan had a few opportunities to observe me teaching color guard. He challenged me a few times throughout one summer to use more music in my guard rehearsals. It took some planning and innovative thinking, but challenging myself to use more music brought my teaching to the next level. 

Planning a Rehearsal 

Using music during rehearsals takes planning. Please, do not waste your students’ time trying to find just the right song at just the right tempo. When you make your rehearsal plan, make your playlist! If you need some song ideas, check out my playlists below.

Warm Up

Let’s walk through a typical rehearsal. First, we warm up. Some groups have a warm-up song(s) – if this is you, congratulations, you are already using music. If your group does more of a follow the leader type stretch, throw on some background music that the students like. I like to play upbeat songs at the start of rehearsal so that everyone gets into a positive mindset before we dive in. 

Movement Block

After a warm-up, we might have a movement block. For my group, we typically do across the floors. I always like to think through what skills we need to know and how fast we need to do them before I pick which across the floors we need to do for the day and what songs we will do them to. We may practice Jazz walking at a variety of tempos, or maybe we will listen to songs with a tempo similar to our show. 

Equipment Technique Block

After movement, we will work on our equipment technique. I have playlists for each of our four main technique skills (shared below). This way, I always have songs ready to go at appropriate tempos for each skill. When we work on tosses, I try to put on some background music at a low level. The background music keeps students energized and focused, and we can take some tosses together to music instead of a metronome. I never use a metronome– In my opinion, music works just as well.

Choreography

When we move on to learning choreography, I do not always keep the show music running. I make sure that we run chunks of choreography with music every so often, so the students get used to what the music sounds like. I have even downloaded a speed changer app (like Step In Time), so I can slow down the music if we need to take some parts slower. This helps us work up to the tempo gradually while keeping the students more engaged. 

Innovative Thinking

A lot of these ideas may sound pretty straightforward. As long as you have a playlist ready to go, they shouldn’t be too hard to achieve. Once, you feel comfortable using music more often for reps, challenge yourself to think outside of the box.

This past year during marching band, we implemented a “water break song.” The director would always play the same short song during the water breaks, so the students knew how much time had passed and when they needed to be back in their spots. 

During winter guard we have added a “tarp folding song.” The goal is that students should be able to work together to fold the tarp up neatly before the song ends. We do not always achieve this, but we are working towards it and this will help us move through competition gyms more swiftly throughout the season.

Resources

Over the past few years, I have developed several playlists of clean color guard music. My six playlists are arranged by tempo so that I can navigate them easily during rehearsals. 

1. Thumb Flips – This playlist contains songs ranging from 75-84 bpm. I typically do thumb flips on both flag and rifle around 80 bpm so this playlist gives a bit of a range around that. Note: Some of the songs on this list are actually 150-164 bpm, but they are in this list because we count them in halftime. 
   
2. Drop Spins – This playlist contains songs ranging from 85-96 bpm. I typically do drop spins around 90 on both flag and rifle. I also use this playlist for spins and stops on rifle.
   
3. Pull Hits / Flourishes – This playlist contains songs ranging from 97-106 bpm. I typically do pull hits on flag around 100 bpm and flourishes on rifle around 105 bpm.
   
4. Cones/Carves – This playlist contains songs ranging from 107-123 bpm. I typically do cones on flag and rifle around 114 bpm.
   
5. Warm-up – This playlist contains songs ranging from 124-132 bpm. Active warm-ups work well at tempos around 128 bpm.
   
6. Other Songs – This playlist contains all of the songs ranging from 133-149 bpm that I use during rehearsals. 

This Google Sheet contains the song names, artist, tempo, and year for all the songs in my main playlists. You can also follow these playlists on Music Effect Design’s Spotify account.

Challenge 

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to use more music during your rehearsals. Set an achievable goal for yourself for your next rehearsal. What is one way to use music more? Keep the music running during your warm-up and technique blocks. Use your show music at least once every 5 reps while you work on choreography. Start with something small and keep adding more music each week.

They say you should practice like you are going to perform and we perform to music. So, why wouldn’t you practice to music? Not only does it help younger performers get into performance mode, using music saves your hands from clapping, keeps a steady tempo, and gives you another way to connect to your students. 

What are some innovative ways that you use music during your rehearsals? What are your go-to rehearsal songs? Let us know in the comments!