* Accidentals - Wrong notes.
* Air - Driving force behind brass players; lack of causes clarinets to squeak.
* Alto Saxophones - Instrument for people who, like trumpet players, think they are God.
* Arc - A shape with three corners and a huge whole.
* Attention - Another word for standing absolutely still while sticking out your butt and chest like a bird; what drum majors, directors, and section leaders never get.
* Auxillary - see "color guard".


* Band Freak - A member of band that is mentally insane.
* Band Girl - A female person that is a member of the band.
* Band Guy - A male person that is a member of the band, not a band girl.
* Bandie - Band member; a want to be band member; see definition of "band nerd".
* Band Jacket - Status symbol; official dress for band nerds; they only keep you from freezing your arms off in the band hall.
* Band Mating Season - Between the months of October and December when unusual behavior occurs between band members.
* Band Nerd - Someone of the band who spends way too much of his or her free time in the band hall doing band things; someone that thinks and/or talks about band stuff almost all the time; a band member without a social life.
* Band Orgy - When a group of band members huddle together for "warmth". This is very prone to happen late in marching season.
* Band Party - Where scary things occur.
* Band Reject - Any member who is not accepted by anyone in the band. ex: percussionists
* Band Hall - Base camp of all operations; where band members spend most of their time; a very cold place.
* Baritone Saxophone aka Bari Sax - Instrument for woodwind players that couldn't play tubas.
* Be quiet - You can talk if nobody catches you.
* Bell - A percussion instrument; a part of an instrument. This part, which occurs on all wind instruments except those in the flute and piccolo family, is the point where sound resonates from and is amplified.
* Bell-front Instrument - A directional brass instrument made for blasting and overblowing.
* Booster - A member's parent and/or guardian who 1. is trying to relive their childhood through their children, 2. has nothing better to do than torture their child, or 3. thinks they are being helpful; YOUR MOM.
* Box, The - The drum majors' ten minutes of fame.
* Brain Fart - A leak of gaseous substances from the brain. It is the nasty stench that follows the brass around because, above all others, their heads are the most full of gas.
* Brass - All instruments that are played by buzzing into a metal mouth piece and overblowing. ex. trumpets, French horns, baritones, trombones and tubas.
* Bus - A home on wheels, made for three year olds, in which the band dwells during marching season; a portable changing room.

* Cadence - Quick way to make people forget about the messy half time show; a chance to do the "booty dance"; something to march to going to and from the stands that provides an opportunity for section visuals that don't look as good as some people think.
* Can't - Oh My God! Somebody, quick! Call my band director and tell him this word is in here!
* Chearleaders - Way too peppy people that dance and cheer and smile and jump and scream and...
* Circle - A closed shape with definite corners and sides.
* Clarinet - Licorice stick that squeaks.
* Classes - Waste of non-band time.
* Collar - What hair isn't supposed to touch while in uniform; what drummers are used to wearing.
* Color Guard - People who try to distract the audiences attention from the band with flags, sabers and rifles; people who distract the band; the evil ones that continually hit band people with flags and other objects as they jazz run across the field.
* Competition - A gathering of bands for the sole purpose to show how much better the are; a place where PDA is acceptable and appropriate.
* Concert - Torture for band members and audience, esp. when exceeding an hour.
* Concert Season - This is during the months of December, January, February, March, April, and May. During this time the band focuses on playing music indoors and does little to no marching.
* Conducting - A drum major (or director's) way of amusing a band to the point of uncontrollable laughter.
* Crack - A substance that too many people are smoking; someone behaving in an odd way.

* Director - Someone who thinks they're in charge; someone who claims to be in charge when everything is going great; someone who denies responsibility when everything is going wrong.
* Dr. Beat - A type of metronome; a violation of the 8th amendment (cruel and unusual punishment).
* Dollar Bill - Used to clean sax pads; what it takes to buy a tiny can of soda from the band boosters at a football game.
* Drill - Marching manuvers; marching test; pages that show what the form should look like. They are usually discarded after the first week of marching band camp and can be later found in some very unusual places.
* Drum - Hollow devices used to keep the beat by unceasingly pounding on them with sticks or mallets; those annoying loud things that go bang bang and make the band deaf after a week so that we can not hear when we are making mistakes.
* Drum Major - See definition of "Director".
* Dynamics - FF, FFF

* Exponential Growth - When you lose one senior flute player and gain three freshman flute players.

* Facing - The process of turning a singular body while standing still.
* F.C.P.L. - An abbreviation for the brass dynamic "Forget Control - Play Loud".
* Festival Tunes - Songs worked up to be played at a music festival.
* Field - Strip of mud, rocks, and sand stretching 100 yards that is covered in ant hills and water sprinkler heads; the place where the band practices and performs.
* Field Show - This is also sometimes called a halftime show. This is when the band plays music and marches on the field. The show is usually 10 - 12 min. in length.
* Fight Song - Peppy/corny song that is played at the beginning of each quarter or whenever the team scores a point. Played most often at the quarter.
* Figure Eight - A squad manuver that uses pinwheels.
* Flag - Weapon used by the guard.
* Flanking - The process for turning a singular body while in motion.
* Flat - How instruments sound on a cold night.
* Flute - An untuneable device for weak armed people that don't want to be heard.
* Football Players - The missing link.
* Football Team - The main reason the band can't always use the marching field; the big guys with big egos that think we are here for them.
* Forte - Lowest dynamic possible on a brass instrument.
* Forte-Piano Crescendo - The act of blatting, stopping, then blasting.
* Freeform - The shapes and formations that are executed during a field show.
* French Horn - Weird instrument played with the left hand that uses strings and valves. It can be played neither loud or fast - or in tune, for that matter.
* Freshmen - Designed to make up at least half the band; fresh meat; the people that have no clue.
* Fund Raiser - Excuse to sell/buy candy at twice the regular price.

* Halt - A time when everyone is theoretically (I repeat, theoretically) stopped.
* Happy - An expression used to express a particularly good looking person; cheerful.
* Home - The place you sleep, sometimes.
* Homework - Something teachers give to amuse band members on the bus or in the stands; something we like to think that we do; something we don't do.
* Horn Pop - Another way of making people forget about that last cracked note by pleasing their eyes instead of their ears.
* Hotdog - A squad movement that involves pinwheels and foward marching; Friday night dinners during marching season.
* Hours of fun - A fuzzy ball attached to an elastic string that is used for pure amusement; a sarcastic expression to express displeasure.

* Instrument - Something that makes noise and costs a lot of $.
* Instructor - Someone payed to tell you when you screw up.
* Interval - The distance between notes; the distance between people which decreases and increases as you go down a line.

* Juniors - Wanna be seniors who think they can boss people around.

* Lost - Uh....Where am I? Where flute players are half of the time; where that clarinetists' mouthpieces are (this usually happens when they mysteriously float into the drum cabinet).

* Marching Season - The months of August, September, October, November and part of December. During these months The band is preparing for field show competitions, parades, and football games.
* Marching Shoes - Shoes that are ugly, cheap, mandatory to wear at performances, yet surprisingly comfortable.
* Mark Time - A type of marching in place by only moving the heels while keeping time to "a different drum".
* Mellophone - Instrument designed to be unable to tune, kills all freshman who attempt to keep the horn up, and is impossible to snap - let alone play.
* Melody - The main part of a song that is usu. played by the trumpets, piccolos, or other screachingly loud instruments.
* Memorization - The act of learning the melody of a song by memory so that you can play the cool part instead of your own part.
* Mezzo-Piano (mp) - The loudest dynamic reachable for any woodwind excluding the piccolo.
* Motivation - Excessive push-ups or another form of cruel torture.
* Mouthpiece - Useful to mark positions in pictures.
* Music - A sound other than noise and therefore never created during marching band; sheets of paper covered in lines, dots, and other weird symbols that in theory are supposed to tell the player what the noise coming out the end of their horn should sound like.

* Newbies - People new to the band whether freshmen or transfers; more fresh meat.
* Notes - Dots with lines and flags sometimes attached to them that represent the pitches trying to be attained by a player.

* Oboe - Double-reeded instrument that sounds like a mosquito.
* On Time - 15 minutes early; no such thing.
* Orch Dorks - Members of the evil stringed orchestra.
* Orchestra, Stringed - Arch enemy of the band that uses stringed instruments like violins.

* Pads - Something that swells and falls off woodwinds when wet and causes air leaks.
* Parade - Torture used even in hell that consists of marching miles and miles while only playing one or two songs.
* Parade Rest - Form of attention where everyone talks.
* Peanut Gallery - Non-bandie student body.
* Pep Band - A small group of band members made up of representatives of each section.
* Pep Rally - Another excuse to play the fight song and act like animals.
* Percussion - Any instrument that is played by hitting one thing against another. ex. snare drum, bass drum, bells, cymbals, marimba, heads.
* Performance - See "concert".
* Piano - A string instrument; a dynamic where the director asks that only 1/3 of the band actually play while the rest fake it.
* Piccolo - A flute type instrument that, unlike its lower counterpart and other woodwinds, is so high that you can actually hear that it's out of tune.
* Pimple - In an arc, the one person standing at least four steps away from where he or she should be.
* Pinwheel - A gate turn performed by a squad while in motion.
* Pit - People, mostly percussionists, that can't march and therefore stand on the sideline.
* Plume - Dead bird that adds 9 inches to a hat.
* Power Trip - When a person THINKS that they are "GOD" and know everything and can do everything correctly.
* Practice - The continual repetition of a sequence of notes in an attempt to become more skilled; a form of torture for a band member's family.
* Practice, Home - Something no one does.
* Practice Field - Place of much work and sweat; place made entirely of mud, rocks, and holes.
* Practice Room - Place to smooch.
* Prance - Something the guard tries to do.
* Preset - Start point of a drill.
* Preset, Back to - Different depending on sections. Woodwinds: walk slowly while mumbling complaints. Brass: complain loudy, curse, and storm to their spots then yell "should have been there". Guard: wander around like cows. Percussion: stand still with stupid looks on their faces.
* Pushups - Form of punishment used to silence rebellion and fix mistakes through repetitive torture.

* Rain - Nature's way of telling a band that they need to go inside to practice their music.
* Reed - A thin piece of wood fixed to the mouthpiece of most woodwinds that causes noise when vibrated; a great excuse for bad sound and/or squeaks. Usage: "Sorry, my reed is new" and "Oops, my reed just broke"; something to plug up a clarinet players's mouth.
* Rehearsal - Attempt to get better before a performance.

* School - Place bandies attend only because they must rest between marching practice.
* Section - Group of people that play the same instrument and consider it the best instrument to play.
* Section Leader - The oldest and/or best player in the section that has the right to boss around people in their section. No leadership qualities are necessarily required.
* Senior - A person that thinks they know everything and won't shut up till they have told you all of it.
* Senioritis - The condition of being a senior. Symptoms include being lazy, procrastinating, and calling seniority whenever possible.
* Seniority - The right to harrass bandies of a lower grade and skip them in the water and bus lines.
* SFZ p Crescendo - BLASTING, silence, BLASTING
* Shoe Polish - Something bandies have never heard of except for JROTC members and true band nerds.
* "Should Have Been There" - Yelled mostly by brass players that don't move between pictures and think everyone else should be in their spot in an instant.
* Show Tunes - Songs and marching drill practiced for football halftime shows and marching festivals. see also festival tunes.
* Sleep - Something we like to day dream about; what we do in class.
* Slouch - What flutes do during concert season.
* Shut Up - If you make any type of noise you will be dragged out into the street and beat with a large blunt object by every other member of the band until you are a bloody corpse.
* Snare Drum - Drum used primarily to keep the beat (whatever that is).
* Socks - Absolutely, positively must be black, but gray will do if no one sees them. As a matter of fact, white is also acceptable.
* Sophomores - People that try to make up for being picked on as freshmen by picking on this year's freshmen as much as they can and thus continuing the cruel circle of punishment.
* Squeak - The only sign that a woodwind, other than a piccolo, is playing.
* Stands Tunes - Funny tunes played in the stands that are played too loud and rush.
* Star Spangled Banner - Song played before home games when, for once, the people in the stands are quiet (o.k., maybe not).
* Steady Beat - Beat that is unheard and therefore no one can hear or feel.
* Student Body - Non-bandies who claim they don't give a care about the band while we bandies know that they secretly wish they were one of us.
* Summer Band Camp - Excuse to play around, act like animals, and pick on freshmen; cruel and unusual torture.

* Teachers - School personnel other than the band director that fail to understand the commitment of a bandie to the band.
* Tempo - The rate at which the mistakes occur in a song. Doubling the tempo quadruples the rate of mistakes.
* Tenor Saxophone - The best instrument in the world.
* Traditions - Scary things done by the band just because.
* Travel Shirt - Piece of dorky clothing worn with black dress band pants while traveling or worn under the marching uniform.
* Trombone - An instrument that makes notes by changing the size of a long slide that is unable to tune; an instrument used to propel spit while hitting people with the slide.
* Trumpet - An instrument designed to be so loud that the rest of the band is drowned out along with their mistakes except for the mistakes of the trumpet players; players of which think they are God himself reincarnated into human form.
* Tuba - Makes up the bass line; players of which think that they are "da mak".
* Tune (In Tune) - When all the instruments in the band are within a half step of each other; something flutes and mellophones can not do.

* Under Classman - Freshmen and sophomores that wish they were upper classman.
* Uniform - Hot, smelly clothing that makes you look fat and is twice as heavy when wet.
* Upper Classman - Juniors and seniors that think they are the rulers of the world and therefore boss the under classmen around.

* Valve - An essential part of a brass instrument that always sticks during important performances.
* Valve Oil - Liquid that doubles as a projectile.

* Water - Clear liquid substance that always comes out the pores during marching season but never goes in.
* Water break - An excuse for running around like a monkey.
* Winds - Any instruments that require a person to blow air into it to make a sound. This includes woodwind and brass instruments.
* Woodwinds - These are instruments that are played with a reed with the exception of flutes and piccolos which are also woodwinds and are so classified because of their sound. Confusing? ex. flutes, clarinets, saxes, oboes and bassoons. The only time they can be heard is when they squeak (with the exclusion of the piccolo). Since flutes don't squeak, they can't be heard.

* Yelling - Something that drum majors do too much of.

* Zippers - Things on uniforms that either stick or don't stay up.