When at Color Guard, music is used for almost everything that we do. Every song that is used has a particular reason for being used. Yes we have our show music, which we need to know every single count of. We learn through practice, how to count the music and apply it to our work. We then take this knowledge, and apply it to our performance which we work on throughout the whole season.
Learning how to count the music is very important. Even when I was in High School at Color Guard, we would use music for everything. It was around this time that I learned how to count the music.
When learning anything from a stretch, dance, routine, or anything that would eventually end up in your show, you need to be familiar with the music. Learning how to count the music helps further any choreography and helping you understand the music.
This website gives some very good tips as to how to count beats in a song. There are three different methods given as to how to count beats. The first method, Listening by Ear, is the way that I learned how to count music.
During a stretch block while warming up before practice, we choose a variety of music to play. On a day of a performance, we stretch out to “pumped up” music to help start our day. The day after a performance, we stretch out to calm music. This varies depending how us as a group feel.
Each stretch, each body exercise , each dance exercise, each across the floor, they all have a song for each thing. We learn a lot of different things which all have their own song that matches the body thing that we learn. A slow song could be used for stretching, something with a consistent beat could be used for jumping, etc. Everything is planned out to follow the “counts” to each song while following the tempo.
Songs are also used for weapon and flag warmups during technique block. Any song with a consistent beat can be used. For weapon and flag warmups, we use songs to practice hand spins.
This may all seem confusing and difficult to understand in text, but it is easier to notice when you look at a stopped image during a part of a show where everyone should be counting. If some counting is off, then it can be easily seen in the image. Below are two different images from Blessed Sacraments 2018 performance, Hello.
Being able to understand and count a song is very important in Color Guard. Not all songs that are used by Color Guard teams have lyrics, so knowing how to count through a song it is a very important skill that Color Guard members should have.
Life as a Competitive Color Guard Member 