A little advice?

[tommyfromhowardst]

Hahahaha!! Who said chivalry was dead!!

[Bob J]

Anything was better than Dynastys in the 80s!

Did you have the one with the valve cluster out at arm's length??

That's the one! They were durable though. The buckle on the uniform would dent more easily that those horns (insert parade rest - buckle smash sound clip here)!

[fourouttheforty]

Just get a horn and ankle weights.

[84BDsop]

That's the one! They were durable though. The buckle on the uniform would dent more easily that those horns (insert parade rest - buckle smash sound clip here)!

Oh man.....our entire block would cringe when you did that!

[liebot]

Water key water key water key.

When it gets heavy, just pretend you're emptying your water key ("spit valve" if you prefer) and give your shoulders a breather.

AND NO ONE WILL BE THE WISER.

It amazes me that people thought they could do this and no one would figure it out. Blows my mind.

[contrajedi8]

Water key water key water key.

When it gets heavy, just pretend you're emptying your water key ("spit valve" if you prefer) and give your shoulders a breather.

AND NO ONE WILL BE THE WISER.

Doing the above act says "I'm a bag-out and probably the weakest dude in the corps. I also probably can't play my show very well since I can't even handle my instrument. I have a bad attitude and will let my other corpsmates down by pretending to empty water even though condensation doesn't build up when it's 95 degrees while they're all holding their instruments up. Man, this trumpet is heavy!"

If you wannamarchcorps, prepare to be in pain and don't expect the staff or your corpsmates to buy your reindeer games.

[Paralda]

I'm no horn player, but I would assume standing and practicing for 2-3 hours a day would help.

[Galen]

Too true. Do this. And since timing yourself can become monotonous, not only time yourself but listen to music or watch tv as you do it. The first few minutes suck, but after consistent efforts, you'll get stronger/better at it. It's the only way. For those of us who did hold up baritones/euphs, if you don't do it in the winter, you'll do it in the summer when there's no choice.

That's how I'd do it. I'd just pull up some corps shows, crank the volume and imagine I was marching that show. Got REALLY fun with those 5 minute openers

[euponitone]

Water key water key water key.

When it gets heavy, just pretend you're emptying your water key ("spit valve" if you prefer) and give your shoulders a breather.

AND NO ONE WILL BE THE WISER.

Even the directors in the bands I work with are smarter than to allow that crap. If by noone will be the wiser, you mean EVERYONE will know exactly what you are doing and glare at you, then yes, you are exactly right. I've never seen a hornline that just lets its members put their horns down in the middle of a parade or encore tune anyway (and forget about shows), even if it was to empty water. The only time we could do that was during a 'fun' tune, like when we played moondance as an encore and we were relaxed anyway. Oh, and your logic probably wont work that well during marching block either...think about it

[84BDsop]

Water key water key water key.

When it gets heavy, just pretend you're emptying your water key ("spit valve" if you prefer) and give your shoulders a breather.

AND NO ONE WILL BE THE WISER.

Uhhh...no. You can't do it in show unless it's written in (we had a spit valve spot during a pit break in La Fiesta in BD...made it into a visual to hide what we were doing)....don't get in the habit of doing it in practice.