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Leo's Parade Diaries:
The BMA Parade
Leo the Patriotic Lion here. Leo the Tiger asked me to narrate this one since he's busy with his own important duties, but let's be honest. If anybody deserves to be hailed as the absolute greatest drum major in history, he's the one. His incredible talents for leading three bands at once, his skills as a drum major leading and conducting, his amazingly positive outlook on life, and many other factors thereof (particluarly how befriended Zanta the white kitten, prince and head of the D-19, and later Blue and his twin sister, Pink, from the Toppet Kingdom) all play an important part in contributing to just that. I can gladly say I witnessed him win the Guinness World Record for leading the world's largest marching band, because on one occasion he and a ton of musicians performed a rousing rendition of "76 Trombones" with a band that actually matches the descriptions in the song: "76 trombones led the big parade, with 110 cornets close at hand." The exception was the bass; the song says, "Then I modestly took my place as the one and only bass, and I oom-pahed, up and down the square." Leo's performance involved a lot more than just one Sousaphone.
While I focus on my duties as President, my philosophy continues to hold true: if you have time to lead a country, you have time for music. As such, it isn't uncommon for me to invite marching bands to perform at the White House, and thanks to the Drumbums and the other Forsythians, it's especially gotten popular when I do it with sports teams, since the President traditionally invites sports teams to the White House. (I plan to do that with the Houston Astros, who won the 2022 World Series in front of their hometown fans; no doubt Wrangler Wolf is howling with excitement.) Because of this, whenever Leo the Tiger is the invited guest, he brings all three bands of his, all tigers: a military-style band, his showoffs (think college football halftime show there), and a pipe and drum band. (Not everybody tolerates the shrill sound of the bagpipes, but the reason he has a pipe and drum band was to honor the requests of previous Krieglandonian monarchs who wanted them for funerals and other appropriate purposes, happy and sad.) In some cases, the pipes will play a melody by themselves at first, and then they'll ask the brass and the percussion of the showoffs (sans the cymbals) to join in; creating a unique sound. ("Scotland the Brave" is the best example of this.)
Today, the guests were the animals in the marching bands and drum and bugle corps of BMA, Battlefield Music Academy, a prestigious music school in Wildcat City that makes other schools such as Berklee College of Music and the Juilliard School pale in comparison, although those two are still hard to get into; you have to be the best of the best of the best to get into any of those. Among the talented faculty and staff also appearing were Prof. Leonardo Williams (Rhythm Lion) and Art Pendegraf (Rhythm Rat), both of whom were percussion prodigies. Both, however, led the parade as drum majors with whistles and maces. Their music was a mix of traditional marching music, marching band arrangements of film scores, and popular songs that were featured in the Nintendo Wii video game "Battle of the Bands," because one of the five options you can select is marching band; the other four options are rock/metal, funk/hip-hop, country western, and Latin. (Listening to the marching bands arrangements on YouTube confused me, since they seemed to use concert percussion instead of actual marching percussion you'd hear on the football field, but it still works because the drum parts are written like the football drums, so it creates a unique approach. If I'm correct, they used timpani for the tenor drum parts. I could be wrong. Don't quote me on that, people.)
"Battle of the Bands" plays as follows: the game features two of the eleven bands in the game playing the song head-to-head against one another. Notes will roll up from the bottom of the screen (as opposed to from the top like similar games) and the player must move the remote in sync like a conducting baton. The game also features various power-ups including electrifying the other player's board, shrinking notes, replace notes as landmines, or flipping the notes around and can be activated if played a certain amount of notes in a chain while one of the members attack the enemy band with their instruments formed as guns. However, certain instances allow the other player to block the effects from taking place with synced button presses. The music of the player playing the best will have their music playing dominantly, with the others being less audible. When there is a face off verse, one band attacks while the opposing band defend and vice versa. At the end of the song, band with the most points will destroy the losing band, then do their winning animation.
The video I watched had the player playing as the marching band.
The actual parade was the same route used for my big inauguration parade, and the parade honoring my vice-president and best friend, Tom the Patriotic Tiger, which revealed he has the same problem I have: drawing crowds so big, it is a safety hazard. (The Nielsen ratings also use this comparison when reporting the ratings, because when either of us, or on a different note, Cripto, appears on TV, every single TV set that is on at the time is tuned in to us; well, every TV chosen to participate in the sample is tuned in, anyways, but because the sample estimates what the entire group is watching, it's still accurate to say the entire nation is watching.) As you might have guessed, all the animals marched barefoot, but it had a variety of animals, not just mammals. All the male rifle marchers in the color guard were dragons, actually.
BMA's uniforms are based on the school colors, blue, orange, and white, so the shakos have a white plume with a silver paw print on them. The hat itself is orange, with the rims colored blue. (The shade of blue is royal blue, just in case you're wondering.) The uniform itself is divided into three parts, with a white triangle on top, and a line going down to the bottom of the chest; the left half is blue, while the right half is orange. The pants are blue with orange stripes. The band wears black marching shoes if shoes are necessary, but here, they marched barefoot.
The drumline was made up of the modern drums I like to call football drums, but to add to the mix, once the marchers made it on to the White House lawn and stopped marching, Rhythm Rat and Rhythm Lion added their field drums (meaning the rope-tensioned snare drums we sometimes call "soldier's drums") to add to the mix. This was due to a special call-and-response routine they had developed; they'd play their drums, and two snare drums from the drumline had to provide the response. The result was some sophiscated action you probably wouldn't even see from the NCAA marching band hailed the greatest in the nation, the Ohio State University Marching Band. (The OSU Band has also performed at the White House, but even they said the Drumbums and/or Forsythian bands could out-perform them any day of the week.)
The applause heard was from the crowds watching and my administration, who was watching from the balcony. We then walked downstairs to meet the bands, and Rhythm Rat then played a drum roll to command all to attention so the band could play the appropriate music. Each of my administration walked out to the appropriate music based on their career and/or history, past and present, so, for example, Zachary Chandler's association with the U.S. Army meant the band played "The Army Goes Rolling Along." Mechayote, however, had associations with the Space Force, which at the time didn't have an anthem. The band opted to play a rendition of the theme tune to the original "Star Trek" to represent the Space Force, and the coyote took it with honor. (Sometimes the Sousa march "The Invincible Eagle" is used to represent them as well.)
It became clear that the introductions would save Tom and me for last, in that order. Tom's anthem as the Vice-President, if you don't know, is the song "Hail Columbia," just as mine is "Hail to the Chief." Due to the status I had gained as the Galactic Emperor of the Universe, however, the band didn't just play "Hail to the Chief" when I marched out. They also played various "Star Wars" music.
Other routines were done mainly as a polite gesture, such as when Rhythm Rat marched up to Zachary, played a drum roll, and saluted the coyote. (Zachary returned the salute.)
Upon the completion of all the music, I addressed the band from my podium with microphones. "Thank you all for coming and performing for us today," I said. "It's fantastic that music like yours can liven up the atmosphere. You're also helping me prove that a society cannot function without music, whether you know it or not. Try doing that. It's impossible!" (I had more I said, but I'm just using an excerpt here because it might bore you to death.)
The band saluted me when I finished, and then played the national anthem. Upon the conclusion of that, red, white, and blue confetti shot into the air as everybody applauded.
Later, we took the band on a formal tour of the White House, saving the music room for last. When we got to that part, I had the pleasure of conducting the band as they played a few songs they did not play during the parade. The drumline's members switched to the concert percussion for these selections. Those who played instruments in my administration also played alongside them; Tom had his fife, while Zachary had his field drum. Because he and Shadow Lord Coy once played a snare drum alongside the coyotes in the U.S. Coyote Drum and Bugle Corps, Mechayote dressed himself in an appropriate uniform and also played a field drum.
"I didn't know you were a drummer, too," Rhythm Rat said in between numbers.
"I don't play regularly, but I do play," said Mechayote. "When I was a student at FSU, I remember spending time with the marching band kids there, humans and furries. That is how and where I learned how snare drums work, how to play them, and what their purpose is in the band. However, I spent more time doing football and weighlifting."
"Well, football and marching bands do go together."
"They do indeed."
The next day was a regular day for my administration, but the band members took the day as a vacation so they could visit the other tourist attractions of the city, from the Washington Monument to the Smithsonian.
THE END
-----------------------------------------
Leo's Parade Diaries:
The BMA Parade
Leo the Patriotic Lion here. Leo the Tiger asked me to narrate this one since he's busy with his own important duties, but let's be honest. If anybody deserves to be hailed as the absolute greatest drum major in history, he's the one. His incredible talents for leading three bands at once, his skills as a drum major leading and conducting, his amazingly positive outlook on life, and many other factors thereof (particluarly how befriended Zanta the white kitten, prince and head of the D-19, and later Blue and his twin sister, Pink, from the Toppet Kingdom) all play an important part in contributing to just that. I can gladly say I witnessed him win the Guinness World Record for leading the world's largest marching band, because on one occasion he and a ton of musicians performed a rousing rendition of "76 Trombones" with a band that actually matches the descriptions in the song: "76 trombones led the big parade, with 110 cornets close at hand." The exception was the bass; the song says, "Then I modestly took my place as the one and only bass, and I oom-pahed, up and down the square." Leo's performance involved a lot more than just one Sousaphone.
While I focus on my duties as President, my philosophy continues to hold true: if you have time to lead a country, you have time for music. As such, it isn't uncommon for me to invite marching bands to perform at the White House, and thanks to the Drumbums and the other Forsythians, it's especially gotten popular when I do it with sports teams, since the President traditionally invites sports teams to the White House. (I plan to do that with the Houston Astros, who won the 2022 World Series in front of their hometown fans; no doubt Wrangler Wolf is howling with excitement.) Because of this, whenever Leo the Tiger is the invited guest, he brings all three bands of his, all tigers: a military-style band, his showoffs (think college football halftime show there), and a pipe and drum band. (Not everybody tolerates the shrill sound of the bagpipes, but the reason he has a pipe and drum band was to honor the requests of previous Krieglandonian monarchs who wanted them for funerals and other appropriate purposes, happy and sad.) In some cases, the pipes will play a melody by themselves at first, and then they'll ask the brass and the percussion of the showoffs (sans the cymbals) to join in; creating a unique sound. ("Scotland the Brave" is the best example of this.)
Today, the guests were the animals in the marching bands and drum and bugle corps of BMA, Battlefield Music Academy, a prestigious music school in Wildcat City that makes other schools such as Berklee College of Music and the Juilliard School pale in comparison, although those two are still hard to get into; you have to be the best of the best of the best to get into any of those. Among the talented faculty and staff also appearing were Prof. Leonardo Williams (Rhythm Lion) and Art Pendegraf (Rhythm Rat), both of whom were percussion prodigies. Both, however, led the parade as drum majors with whistles and maces. Their music was a mix of traditional marching music, marching band arrangements of film scores, and popular songs that were featured in the Nintendo Wii video game "Battle of the Bands," because one of the five options you can select is marching band; the other four options are rock/metal, funk/hip-hop, country western, and Latin. (Listening to the marching bands arrangements on YouTube confused me, since they seemed to use concert percussion instead of actual marching percussion you'd hear on the football field, but it still works because the drum parts are written like the football drums, so it creates a unique approach. If I'm correct, they used timpani for the tenor drum parts. I could be wrong. Don't quote me on that, people.)
"Battle of the Bands" plays as follows: the game features two of the eleven bands in the game playing the song head-to-head against one another. Notes will roll up from the bottom of the screen (as opposed to from the top like similar games) and the player must move the remote in sync like a conducting baton. The game also features various power-ups including electrifying the other player's board, shrinking notes, replace notes as landmines, or flipping the notes around and can be activated if played a certain amount of notes in a chain while one of the members attack the enemy band with their instruments formed as guns. However, certain instances allow the other player to block the effects from taking place with synced button presses. The music of the player playing the best will have their music playing dominantly, with the others being less audible. When there is a face off verse, one band attacks while the opposing band defend and vice versa. At the end of the song, band with the most points will destroy the losing band, then do their winning animation.
The video I watched had the player playing as the marching band.
The actual parade was the same route used for my big inauguration parade, and the parade honoring my vice-president and best friend, Tom the Patriotic Tiger, which revealed he has the same problem I have: drawing crowds so big, it is a safety hazard. (The Nielsen ratings also use this comparison when reporting the ratings, because when either of us, or on a different note, Cripto, appears on TV, every single TV set that is on at the time is tuned in to us; well, every TV chosen to participate in the sample is tuned in, anyways, but because the sample estimates what the entire group is watching, it's still accurate to say the entire nation is watching.) As you might have guessed, all the animals marched barefoot, but it had a variety of animals, not just mammals. All the male rifle marchers in the color guard were dragons, actually.
BMA's uniforms are based on the school colors, blue, orange, and white, so the shakos have a white plume with a silver paw print on them. The hat itself is orange, with the rims colored blue. (The shade of blue is royal blue, just in case you're wondering.) The uniform itself is divided into three parts, with a white triangle on top, and a line going down to the bottom of the chest; the left half is blue, while the right half is orange. The pants are blue with orange stripes. The band wears black marching shoes if shoes are necessary, but here, they marched barefoot.
The drumline was made up of the modern drums I like to call football drums, but to add to the mix, once the marchers made it on to the White House lawn and stopped marching, Rhythm Rat and Rhythm Lion added their field drums (meaning the rope-tensioned snare drums we sometimes call "soldier's drums") to add to the mix. This was due to a special call-and-response routine they had developed; they'd play their drums, and two snare drums from the drumline had to provide the response. The result was some sophiscated action you probably wouldn't even see from the NCAA marching band hailed the greatest in the nation, the Ohio State University Marching Band. (The OSU Band has also performed at the White House, but even they said the Drumbums and/or Forsythian bands could out-perform them any day of the week.)
The applause heard was from the crowds watching and my administration, who was watching from the balcony. We then walked downstairs to meet the bands, and Rhythm Rat then played a drum roll to command all to attention so the band could play the appropriate music. Each of my administration walked out to the appropriate music based on their career and/or history, past and present, so, for example, Zachary Chandler's association with the U.S. Army meant the band played "The Army Goes Rolling Along." Mechayote, however, had associations with the Space Force, which at the time didn't have an anthem. The band opted to play a rendition of the theme tune to the original "Star Trek" to represent the Space Force, and the coyote took it with honor. (Sometimes the Sousa march "The Invincible Eagle" is used to represent them as well.)
It became clear that the introductions would save Tom and me for last, in that order. Tom's anthem as the Vice-President, if you don't know, is the song "Hail Columbia," just as mine is "Hail to the Chief." Due to the status I had gained as the Galactic Emperor of the Universe, however, the band didn't just play "Hail to the Chief" when I marched out. They also played various "Star Wars" music.
Other routines were done mainly as a polite gesture, such as when Rhythm Rat marched up to Zachary, played a drum roll, and saluted the coyote. (Zachary returned the salute.)
Upon the completion of all the music, I addressed the band from my podium with microphones. "Thank you all for coming and performing for us today," I said. "It's fantastic that music like yours can liven up the atmosphere. You're also helping me prove that a society cannot function without music, whether you know it or not. Try doing that. It's impossible!" (I had more I said, but I'm just using an excerpt here because it might bore you to death.)
The band saluted me when I finished, and then played the national anthem. Upon the conclusion of that, red, white, and blue confetti shot into the air as everybody applauded.
Later, we took the band on a formal tour of the White House, saving the music room for last. When we got to that part, I had the pleasure of conducting the band as they played a few songs they did not play during the parade. The drumline's members switched to the concert percussion for these selections. Those who played instruments in my administration also played alongside them; Tom had his fife, while Zachary had his field drum. Because he and Shadow Lord Coy once played a snare drum alongside the coyotes in the U.S. Coyote Drum and Bugle Corps, Mechayote dressed himself in an appropriate uniform and also played a field drum.
"I didn't know you were a drummer, too," Rhythm Rat said in between numbers.
"I don't play regularly, but I do play," said Mechayote. "When I was a student at FSU, I remember spending time with the marching band kids there, humans and furries. That is how and where I learned how snare drums work, how to play them, and what their purpose is in the band. However, I spent more time doing football and weighlifting."
"Well, football and marching bands do go together."
"They do indeed."
The next day was a regular day for my administration, but the band members took the day as a vacation so they could visit the other tourist attractions of the city, from the Washington Monument to the Smithsonian.
THE END
Leo's Parade Diaries: The BMA Parade
The marching band and the drum and bugle corps that represents Wildcat City's elite music school, Battlefield Music Academy, performs in Washington, D.C.
BMA, Leo the Tiger, Leo the Patriotic Lion, Drumbums, etc. © me and me alone
Zachary Chandler © Chuong
Mechayote © joint-ownership between Chuong and me
Battle of the Bands (video game) © Planet Moon Studios, THQ, and everybody else who owns the rights.
All music referenced © all who own the rights; I own nothing. The video game features 30 licensed songs in 5 different styles.
Battle of the Bands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpzrrWrs8aQ (video game demonstration)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNM.....cVsvK_Yrb7wkWA (marching band arrangements of the 30 licensed songs)
The Army Goes Rolling Along: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVmfoLixihs
Star Trek: The Original Series main theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdjL8WXjlGI
The Invincible Eagle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE354hNQvWw
BMA, Leo the Tiger, Leo the Patriotic Lion, Drumbums, etc. © me and me alone
Zachary Chandler © Chuong
Mechayote © joint-ownership between Chuong and me
Battle of the Bands (video game) © Planet Moon Studios, THQ, and everybody else who owns the rights.
All music referenced © all who own the rights; I own nothing. The video game features 30 licensed songs in 5 different styles.
Battle of the Bands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpzrrWrs8aQ (video game demonstration)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNM.....cVsvK_Yrb7wkWA (marching band arrangements of the 30 licensed songs)
The Army Goes Rolling Along: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVmfoLixihs
Star Trek: The Original Series main theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdjL8WXjlGI
The Invincible Eagle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE354hNQvWw
Category Story / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Gender Any
Size 120 x 120px
Wrangler Wolf: Y'all know my Astros well! We're a dynasty team! Our second World Series victory yeeehaaaw! *Howls with joy.*
Chuong: *Inspects a sousaphone.* This is a common marching band instrument in America?
Shadow Lord Coy: Uhm... Yeah. Trust me, it's not as hard as it looks. It's also lighter than it looks. Don't overthink it.
Chuong: *To Leo.* Using this sousaphone is easy to you?
Chuong: *Inspects a sousaphone.* This is a common marching band instrument in America?
Shadow Lord Coy: Uhm... Yeah. Trust me, it's not as hard as it looks. It's also lighter than it looks. Don't overthink it.
Chuong: *To Leo.* Using this sousaphone is easy to you?
Leo: Of course it's easy. You just wrap it around you like this and blow.
*He demonstrates how to put it around your body, and then blows a few notes.*
*He demonstrates how to put it around your body, and then blows a few notes.*
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