<p>When U of WI - Madison had one of their audition days for the Music Department, the question of Marching Band came up. UW Madison has a top Marching Band program. The comment the faculty made was that of the 200+ kids that are in Marching Band, only a handful (less than 10?) were Music Majors.</p>
<p>I mention it because, in addition to which schools have Marching Band and Performance, you may want to look into the relationship between the Marching Band and the Music Department. If it is not a good relationship, your Son may not get out of the School what he is hoping for.</p>
<p>A lot of colleges give students scholarships for participation in marching band and some small schools require it. It is also often a requirement for those going into music ed. It is a good suggestion to look at how many music performance majors are part of the marching band and on what instrument. My experience has been that when performance majors do participate in marching band, it is often on another instrument. One should also consider whether most participants view the marching band as a musical or a social activity (this does not necessarily have anything to do with the quality of the band). Is is a musical activity with serious attention paid to music, difficulty of music, rhythm, etc. Or is it more like a sport where music is secondary to athleticism/school spirit/partying, etc. Answers to these questions may be closely correlated to the number of performance majors participating and the attitude of the music dept. toward the band. Also, who is the band director? Does he/she have a doctorate or only a master’s degree? Is he/she a newbie on the faculty (often the less desirable tasks are given to the newest faculty member)? Or is he/she a very senior (near retirement) faculty member with only a master’s degree? All this will give you indications of the status of the marching band in the music program.</p>