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Remembrance Day: National holiday?/"Veterans' Day"? (merged)

Remembrance Day should be a National Holiday?

  • Yes

    Votes: 82 60.7%
  • No

    Votes: 44 32.6%
  • Undecided

    Votes: 4 3.0%
  • Don't care

    Votes: 5 3.7%

  • Total voters
    135
When you march to the Pipes & Drums at 110 paces per minute you have to learn to swagger. Once you get the rhythm you will be ok.
Now doing 140 per Rifle Regiments requires short sharp paces. Double Pasts at 180 requires a fair bit of practice.

I bet these two videos would be much better with a brass band.

Edit to add that I bet most of these people where more acquainted with marching Without a band at the normal 120 paces per minute. Then throw them in with a Band (Pipe) @110, you are looking at the results.
 
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When you march to the Pipes & Drums at 110 paces per minute you have to learn to swagger. Once you get the rhythm you will be ok.
Now doing 140 per Rifle Regiments requires short sharp paces. Double Pasts at 180 requires a fair bit of practice.

I bet these two videos would be much better with a brass band.

Edit to add that I bet most of these people where more acquainted with marching Without a band at the normal 120 paces per minute. Then throw them in with a Band (Pipe) @110, you are looking at the results.
Can confirm. Our first Ph IV grad parade practice at the Infantry School in Gagetown (Forty years ago! Where did the time go?), they had the pipes and drums of 2RCR playing. It really messed with our pacing until we got used to it.
 
When you march to the Pipes & Drums at 110 paces per minute you have to learn to swagger. Once you get the rhythm you will be ok.
Now doing 140 per Rifle Regiments requires short sharp paces. Double Pasts at 180 requires a fair bit of practice.

I bet these two videos would be much better with a brass band.
We also don't know how much rehearsal time as a group they had before the parade, if drill is as low a priority as many here with current/more recent experience are saying. Could also be folks cobbled together from a bunch of different units/teams ad hoc?
 
The Ceremonial Guard has been around since 1959... When were you last in Ottawa , anyways?

had to think about that then clued in where I was mistaken. It wasn't the ceremonial guard, it was the standing guard for the cemetery I was thinking of. Started in 2011/2012 so that there was a core group instead of putting together people every time, some on short notice.
Ya, really lousy acoustic. It's hard to follow the tangle of feet but it doesn't look like anyone is marching to the music. If there's an actual pace going on it looks closer to standard quick time. Highland pace is fairly easy if you can hear the bass and just go with the beat. Even most non-marchers can settle in but it often takes time and real estate; doing lap in an arena of hall isn't likely to do it; the wheels will keep screwing them up. Then again, some are simply irredeemable.

Marching to the music? Is that the way it's supposed to be done? I was taught early on to ignore the music and march to the step of the people in front of you. it was the markers job to try and match the music thus if the marker messed up everyone was messed up but at least you were all in step with each other. As I was usually in the middle never bothered listening to the music on any parades.
 
I was taught early on to ignore the music and march to the step of the people in front of you.
You were taught wrong... Your foot should be striking the ground at the same time as a bass drum is struck. That's the entire reason to have a band and a base drum in it.

it was the markers job to try and match the music thus if the marker messed up everyone was messed up but at least you were all in step with each other. As I was usually in the middle never bothered listening to the music on any parades.
People not marching to the drum is exactly how you end up with a parade where everybody is out of step and spends half the time skipping down the road to get into "step" with the person in front of them doing the same.
 
You were taught wrong... Your foot should be striking the ground at the same time as a bass drum is struck. That's the entire reason to have a band and a base drum in it.
In a perfect marching environment and well drilled troops yes. Absolutely.
People not marching to the drum is exactly how you end up with a parade where everybody is out of step and spends half the time skipping down the road to get into "step" with the person in front of them doing the same.
The problem with the sort of Nov 11th parade indoors or like at NWM is drums are going but they then echoing off of walls or buildings. Or the band is 4 to 7 contingents ahead of you (hundred plus meters in some cases) It creates chaos in ranks.

Then national one has three bands playing at different parts and different areas with echoes etc. It can turn into a gong show real quick.

On those occasions you try and keep your guard in step and try to get back with the drum if and when you can.

And don’t get me started on parade commanders’ voice culture when marching with a band…
 
The problem with the sort of Nov 11th parade indoors or like at NWM is drums are going but they then echoing off of walls or buildings. Or the band is 4 to 7 contingents ahead of you (hundred plus meters in some cases) It creates chaos in ranks.

Then national one has three bands playing at different parts and different areas with echoes etc. It can turn into a gong show real quick.

On those occasions you try and keep your guard in step and try to get back with the drum if and when you can.

And don’t get me started on parade commanders’ voice culture when marching with a band…
In some environments you need to mix the drums and watching others, but even at the NWM it's not impossible to stay in step. I've done the parade a couple of times now, and apart from when two bands are playing different paces, it's pretty reasonable to stay in step. This year they fixed it by not having the parade marching when the pipe band was playing.
 
In some environments you need to mix the drums and watching others, but even at the NWM it's not impossible to stay in step. I've done the parade a couple of times now, and apart from when two bands are playing different paces, it's pretty reasonable to stay in step. This year they fixed it by not having the parade marching when the pipe band was playing.
Depends where you were in the parade, the closer to the band the better. The further back the harder it is especially when the guards in front of you are all out of step.

Practice can mitigate that but enough practice is something rarely done for these things.
 
In typical NDP Hamas loving fashion, Heather McPherson compared wearing a watermelon pin to the poppy in the HOC.


Just shows you how much CAF support there is from Edmontons southern riding.
 
In typical NDP Hamas loving fashion, Heather McPherson compared wearing a watermelon pin to the poppy in the HOC.


Just shows you how much CAF support there is from Edmontons southern riding.
Good - but lets not forget we live in a free society and if she wants to wear it then that is her choice.

The rest of us are free to call her out over it.
 
Good - but lets not forget we live in a free society and if she wants to wear it then that is her choice.

The rest of us are free to call her out over it.
Freedom of expression =/= freedom from consequence
 
In a perfect marching environment and well drilled troops yes. Absolutely.

The problem with the sort of Nov 11th parade indoors or like at NWM is drums are going but they then echoing off of walls or buildings. Or the band is 4 to 7 contingents ahead of you (hundred plus meters in some cases) It creates chaos in ranks.

Then national one has three bands playing at different parts and different areas with echoes etc. It can turn into a gong show real quick.

On those occasions you try and keep your guard in step and try to get back with the drum if and when you can.

And don’t get me started on parade commanders’ voice culture when marching with a band…
This was always the problem at large police funerals and memorial services in Ottawa and Toronto. If you between two bands and the sound is bouncing around it can be confusing, and some commanders make it worse. It can often go into the dump right from the beginning in large troops if the 'quick march' starts from the from and works its way back.

Cops who have some semblance of training are bad enough but we now like to intersperse civilian staff into the ranks and they generally have no clue.

Watching the person in front of you often makes it worse if they think they are fine and ever body else is out of step.
 
You were taught wrong... Your foot should be striking the ground at the same time as a bass drum is struck. That's the entire reason to have a band and a base drum in it.


People not marching to the drum is exactly how you end up with a parade where everybody is out of step and spends half the time skipping down the road to get into "step" with the person in front of them doing the same.
Sure wrong but we never had a parade that was totally screwed up.

In my experience you ended up with everybody out of step when they tried to march to the drum beat that was echoing off walls so they were all hearing it at slightly different times. Everyone marching to the marker ensured everyone at least was marching to the same step although not necessarily to the drum. Ottawa was the worse with more than one band on parade that didn't beat at the same time and at points overlapped each other because of the route used. Hopefully they resolved that issue since then.
 
Sure wrong but we never had a parade that was totally screwed up.

In my experience you ended up with everybody out of step when they tried to march to the drum beat that was echoing off walls so they were all hearing it at slightly different times. Everyone marching to the marker ensured everyone at least was marching to the same step although not necessarily to the drum. Ottawa was the worse with more than one band on parade that didn't beat at the same time and at points overlapped each other because of the route used. Hopefully they resolved that issue since then.
That you could see...

In my experience all it takes is one marker near the front to be messed up, then every follow on division is stuck trying to get back to the actual pace.

If everybody does what they are supposed to do, it all works out. Teaching people the wrong way is what causes markers to think they know better than the band and to march at the wrong pace.
 
That you could see...

In my experience all it takes is one marker near the front to be messed up, then every follow on division is stuck trying to get back to the actual pace.

If everybody does what they are supposed to do, it all works out. Teaching people the wrong way is what causes markers to think they know better than the band and to march at the wrong pace.

The key to success: drums!


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