Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Cadence: Don't Embarrass Yourself

While moving your formation, your evaluating officers will often require that you call cadence.  Everyone will eventually get a chance to lead cadence, and some of you will improve your Order of Merit List (OML) Score by showing confidence and originality.  Trite, but true.  You'll be surprised what one dimensional "E" can do when there are over 5,000 cadets on the OML.

If you've got a musical inclination of any kind, cadence will seem to come naturally.  If you don't, you'll have to work harder to understand the rhythm behind it.  You have likely heard cadence called a few times in your career so far.  You know that when it's done well, it lifts morale in an amazing way; when it's done poorly, it is an embarrassment to all involved, and a joke to everyone else.  In order to avoid humiliating your comrades, you must pay attention to the elementary musical elements.

There are two kinds of cadences, often confused with one another.  They are quick time and double time.   Quick Time is a marching pace with a thirty inch step.  The proper time is approximately 100 beats per minute.  Its cadences are often slower in tempo.  See the metronome on the right side of this blog to hear the proper marching time.  At 100 beats per minute, one beat is one step.  Double Time is a running pace of approximately 180 beats per minute.  Remember that cadence is always in 4/4 time.  That's the same time signature of all your favorite pop songs.  If you're not musically inclined, you might benefit from calling out "One, two, three, four, One, two, three four," a few times before you trip on your crank.

I won't attempt to write down every cadence here, because by now you have your own favorites and .  If you're afraid to embarrass yourself, try them with the metronome before you try them in front of a platoon.  And whatever you do, do not attempt to call a running cadence while walking.

No comments:

Post a Comment