Marching brass
Marching brass instruments are brass instruments specially designed to be played while the player is moving. Not all instruments have a corresponding marching version, but many do, including the following:
The main difference between concert brass instruments and their marching counterparts is that the bell has been relocated to project sound forward rather than over the player's shoulder. These adapted instruments are employed by a number of ensemble types, ranging from high school marching bands to drum and bugle corps.
Bugles
The drum and bugle corps activity has been a driving force of innovation behind the creation of marching brass instruments for many decades. The mellophone and the contrabass bugle are among the creations spawned by instrument manufacturers for use in the marching activity due to the influence of drum and bugle corps hornlines.The bugles utilized in modern drum corps are distinguished from their marching band counterparts mostly by their key: bugles are keyed in G; band instruments are keyed in B. Bugle voices are grouped and referenced by the equivalent voices in a choir. The naming conventions for these various instruments can be confusing however, due to the evolution of the bugles used in the drum and bugle corps activity. All these are descended from the old United States Army G major "straight" standard bugles adopted in 1892 Army-wide.
Soprano voices
In the drum corps activity, there have been two separate types of instruments that have been classified as soprano voices: the soprano bugle and the piccolo soprano.Piccolo soprano
The piccolo soprano entered regular production during the two piston valve bugle era in the late 1970s, and very closely resembles a G soprano trumpet in size. Piccolo sopranos were made in both two and three valve configurations, and are no longer mass-produced, but available as custom orders. The primary difference between a G trumpet and a G piccolo soprano is the throat of the bell and the bore size. G trumpets typically have a bore size of.440"-.450" while the G piccolo soprano was offered in a larger.468" bore. This larger bore often led to intonation issues throughout the range of the piccolo soprano.Soprano
The soprano bugle was the first instrument in the drum corps bugle family. A direct descendant of the M1892 US Army field trumpet which was adopted within the Army and later on by the pioneer drum and bugle corps in the early 20th century, this instrument has undergone every design change since the start of the activity. In early corps, the soprano was pitched either in G or F to allow a split ensemble to play simple melodies across the group. The first design change was to add an additional loop of tubing to lower the soprano to the key of D via a locking piston valve tucked horizontally under the handhold. This allowed four possible keys: G and F with the valve open, and D and C with the valve closed. In the 1930s, the competitive circuits allowed the valve to be unlocked, which allowed for more complex melodies to be played by each musician, instead of the melodies being split among 3 or 4 parts. The horizontal valve was still tucked under the handhold, operated by the right thumb. Through the 1940s and 1950s, corps experimented with sanding down the tuning slide to be as quick and smooth in operation as a trombone slide, to allow quick changes in tuning to reach notes within overtone series of the keys of F# and F. Combined with the piston valve, this allowed for notes within the overtone series of D and C. Many bugles were modified with a ring to allow the left hand to actuate the slip-slide tuning slide. Eventually this slip-slide setup became so popular that it became a factory option. By the early 1960s, the competitive circuits approved the use of a rotary valve tuning slide in place of the standard tuning slide on the soprano. The rotary valve was actuated by the left hand, and featured a length of tubing that lowered the pitch by either a half-step or a whole-step. Corps featured sopranos with both slides to allow for the greatest choice of available notes, however these instruments were still non-chromatic. Around 1967, the rules congress standardized an F piston valve and an F# rotary valve. This allowed the equivalent of the first and second valves on a typical brass instrument, with the piston equating the first valve, and the rotor equating the second valve. Older equipment was grandfathered in, however most corps chose to sell their older D piston sopranos or purchase a kit which allowed local band instrument repairmen to remove the D tubing and solder on an F tubing section. In the late 1970s, DCI's rules congress allowed for the soprano to be designed similarly to a trumpet, with two vertical piston valves. The European drum corps circuits skipped the two valve rule and allowed three vertical valves at this time. American bugle manufacturers then designed both two and three valve instruments at the same time, often using the same parts for both. By 1990, DCI approved the use of three valve sopranos in the North American circuit, thus ending the era of non-chromatic bugles. Sopranos are still manufactured by one company, which also still produces a two valve custom version for The Commandant's Own United States Marine Drum and Bugle Corps.Soprano bugles typically have a bore size of.468"-.470" and come in standard and "power bore" configurations. The "power bore" configurations typically feature heavier bracing, a heavier wall leadpipe, and a slightly larger bell.