Contra Marching Catastrophy

This article submitted by David on 10/10/99.

Topic: Give your tale a brief descriptive title

The Tale:

What do you get when you cross 12 marching contra (tuba) players, a tempo of about 208, and a blind passthrough? Well, if it is not already obvious, envision this if you will. My Sophomore year, my high school marching band was blessed to have 12 contra players marching that year. Our band director was into a very "DCI" style of marching and music, so our drill and music was extremely advanced. Our Third peice to our show - Celebration by Philip Sparke - entailed some extremely fast marching and yes, the dreaded contra pass through. Out state competiton, one contra was off by about a step right before the move and as my line of 6 contra's backed up and the other line of 6 came forward, there was a loud crash, a stumble, and a pile of 12 contra's and players lying in a heap on the 50 yard line. It wasn't really funny then, but watching it now, it's pretty funny to look at.

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