The Madison Marching Dodgers have consistently had the most demanding schedule out of all of Madison’s extracurricular activities. Considering the 12 hour practice days in the August heat, learning a new show every year, performing at competitions and football games, and individual at home practice with instruments, the Madison marching band is one of the hardest working groups here at MHS. This season, the Marching Dodgers are kicking off their new show “Overdrive”, and they are putting in all the work to make it perfect.
Each marching band season actually begins in May of the previous year for recruiting new talents and planning for the season ahead. At this point, band members are meeting 1-2 days per week for 2-3 hour practices just to start their training. Throughout the summer, the band holds camps consisting of 1-2 practices each week for each specific section of the band. The final week of the summer is a week-long camp from 9am-9pm each day. Every section of the band is in attendance at these practices, and their purpose is to nail the choreography and music altogether before competitions begin. According to drum major Ella Tucker, these practice days rotate between music and marching days. By the end of these days, each marcher has “their music memorized, all their steps, and everything, in their head so they can have a better performance.”
The details of each performance are carefully planned to create a better show, even though they might go unnoticed. For example, the specific steps are planned to coincide with the story told throughout the show, and as the marchers move, the instruments will always face the crowd in order to keep the audience facing the music.
This year, the Madison Marching Dodgers are introducing their new show, “Overdrive”, and it is much different from their shows in the past. According to drum major Henry McCann, the band is “focusing more on the visual aspect this year”. The visual elements of the show include stop lights and colorful flags from the color guard section of the band, used to tell a story throughout the performance. With the new visual effects, drum major, Ella Tucker, also mentioned the use of new popular music. This year, we will see a combination of many pop culture songs from artists such as Rihanna, and Olivia Rodrigo.
Both the musical selection and visual elements work together to create an impressive performance designed to win competitions. The stylistic choice of bringing in popular music is a refreshing take on classic marching band performances and is a demanding process for the band. However, with all of the practice put in this season, Madison’s “Overdrive” will certainly be hard to beat at competitions this year.