In Brazil, school marching bands are responsible for training instrumentalists who make up the scene of music teaching institutions, professional groups, and orchestras. In Goiânia, capital of the state of Goiás (Brazil), there are thirty-five school bands, and those residing in civil and military schools have up to two hundred students each band, aged between eleven and seventeen years old. They have a staff of music teachers divided by instrument categories, which are: trumpet, trombone, tuba, horn, euphonium, percussion, and front commission (choreographic body). Collective musical teaching is developed by suits and each teacher is responsible for his instrument. That said, this article, part of a research carried out as part of a doctorate between 2017 and the end of 2021, seeks to reflect on the history of these bands and the applicability of their educational practices in school bands based in full-time or part-time military schools.

Keywords: Brazil, music education, marching bands

This historical investigation sought to recover the activity of groups of wind instruments that has been documented in Brazil since the 17th century, having as initial reference sources the Charameleiros (organizers in the formation of suits), in religious brotherhoods and in bands with activity in the farms of large rural landowners.¹ In this sense, the dissemination of groups of identical wind instruments, designated today as musical bands, first took place in the Southeast and Northeast regions of Brazil and, later, in other regions. These musical formations have become true places of musical education in Brazil, mainly with their realization in schools.

In the study Military Music Bands in the City of Goiás (1822-1937), Joelson Pontes Vieira outlined a historical analysis of bands in Brazil in the state of Goiás and in the City of Goiás. For the author, in the beginning, Brazilian bands had a strong connection with European customs, a fact arising in the musical repertoire. In addition, the historical transitions that Brazil has gone through since its colonization also reflected in the history of music in Goiás. After the march to the west, in the government of Getúlio Vargas.

Even so, historical records brought by Tinhorão indicate that the National Guard bands already existed in the states of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Goiás since 1840, information confirmed by Alencar,² another researcher at area, which states that music bands were already active in the City of Goiás since the 19th century. In Goiânia, capital of the state of Goiás, the bands appeared documented in 1942, within the festivities of the cultural baptism of the city, with the presentation of the Military Police Band, transferred from the old capital Goiás to the new capital that maintained a school for its military-musicians, as Pina explains. Mendonça³  clarifies that in the state of Goiás, the first record of a band is in the city of Pirenópolis (Goiás – Brazil). Another city that stood out as a place of expansion, birth, and promotion of bands in the State was the city of Goiás, as can be seen in Sousa.¹

According to Alencar,² in the Midwest region, particularly in the city of Goiânia, bands emerged in the first decade of the foundation of the capital, however, since the 19th century, in Goiás Velho (Goiás – Brazil), there were already active music bands. In the past, the creation of bands took place through the bandmaster, the one who had the ability to play all the instruments, conduct, manage and teach all the instruments to the students of the band. In the new capital, after the cultural baptism, Goiânia became the new center for civil and military bands.

According to Sousa,¹ at that time in the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, the creation of bands took place through the bandmaster, the one who had the ability to play all the instruments, conduct, manage and teach all the instruments to the students of the band. In times past, in the 19th century in Brazil, civil bands and school bands played an important social and educational role in the training of musicians and continue to be centers of training and preparation of young musicians for selection processes and public competitions for admission to the various existing military bands. In the state of Goiás, bands have encouraged the musical formation of many basic education students, especially school bands, which are mostly martial. Some of these bands, such as those from the State of Goiás Education Secretariat and the Goiânia Municipal Education Secretariat, for example, are responsible for the initiation and musical training of young people. They provide a unique and perhaps decisive opportunity for training future music teachers. Thus, throughout the history of bands from Goiás - Brazil, it is possible to observe that military bands were pioneers in the construction and development of the movement of Musical Bands in the country. In the past, civil bands and school bands played their social and educational role in the training of musicians and were training and preparation centers for young musicians to join different instrumental formations. Since the founding of the state of Goiás, in the 19th century, the history of these bands permeates the civil and military context.

When observing the historical context of the school band referring to the city of Goiânia, a significant expansion of musical pedagogy was visible, mainly from the beginning of the 21st century with the work of musical bands. This was initially since there were many specific music teaching schools in the capital. It is possible to say, then, that most of the teachers of school bands in Goiás had their professional training in local institutions, such as, for example, the Federal Institute of Goiás (Symphonic Band ‘Nilo Peçanha’), Gustav Ritter Cultural Center, Professional Education Center in Arts ‘Basileu França’, Free Arts Center and Federal University of Goiás and in the school bands of the municipal and state secretary of education in Goiás – Brazil.

In addition, it is important to emphasize that many instrumentalists in the city of Goiânia had their musical initiation in school bands, later following a career as a musician or opting for teaching.⁴ Public institutions are, therefore, training centers for bands in our state, whether as a technical course, as a curricular or optional subject in basic education schools, or even in higher education courses in music at our institutes and universities. Of these training centers, most have an official band or practical disciplines that contemplate band instruments or the reality of the instruments that make up the band. According to Sêga,⁵ through a principle of cooperation, individuals have been imbued with different actions or social practices, sometimes spontaneous, sometimes imposed by the rules of each society, so most of the instrumentalists of brass, wood and percussion began their studies in marching bands or school bands, many of whom work professionally with military bands, fire brigade bands and city orchestras, evangelical church bands and non-governmental organizations.¹

The tradition of school bands in Brazil goes back a long way, as the first school bands were recorded in religious institutions in the southeastern states, for example, in Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais, as Benedito⁶ explains. At the end of the 20th century, the school band already played a great social and educational role in society with young people and adolescents who, in a short future and in the transformations of the time, became great music teachers. Throughout the history of Brazil, bands have been influenced both by society and by the musical training of renowned professionals in the field of wind and percussion instruments. For Nascimento,⁷ many professional musicians receive some influence through the music band in their musical formation, and this influence was and is often caused by the social context of the band, which participates in social events of different natures, such as masses, processions, parties, portraits, civic-military parades, sporting events, among others, enchanting the public through their music.

Salles stated that the first school band in the state of Pará dates from 1839. For the author, it is the band of the ‘Lauro Sodré’ Institute, a professional music establishment that maintains teaching and instrumental practice aimed at human and social formation of the students. On the other hand, Lima stated that school bands developed separately over the years after 1960, and that they fragmented in an astonishing way in the last decade of the 20th century. Barbosa,⁸ in turn, ratified this thought by stating that both the bands' tradition and innovation are present in their internal and external activities. According to the author, the external ones pervade the religious, social, artistic, political, civil, and military spheres, and in the external environment it is directed towards instrumental training, school and performance of the repertoire, teaching, and practices of clothing, marches, choreographies with the members of the corporation.

With all the history and developments of bands in Brazil, behold, in 1976 the first project was created in estancia and federal administration in the country. Lemos,⁹ discusses in his article that Funarte (National Arts Foundation), through its National Institute of Music, launched the Music Bands Project, designed, and organized to learn about the reality of the civil music band in the country and to help identify their difficulties and challenges. problems, with the purpose of supporting them in these demands. Thus, the project aims to register Brazilian civil bands, propose training courses, donate instruments to these bands, carry out competitions, and promote ‘Funarte Training Panels’ throughout the country in partnership with state, municipal and private bodies throughout Brazil.

This relationship between the bands and the communities has been maintained for decades. According to a study by Holanda,¹⁰ the Educational Center Band ‘Juventude Padre João Piamarta’, founded in 1973, investigated by the author, has the mission to train musicians and citizens, in a specific socioeconomic and cultural context of the city of Fortaleza. Its mission is human development through school band activity, which includes concerts, parades and tours in Brazil and Europe. The study presents many former members of the band, who work professionally with music in the country and abroad. In the same sense, Higino¹¹ presented the Symphonic Band of School ‘Salesiano Santa Rosa’, from the city of Niterói, in Rio de Janeiro. It is a band founded in 1888, of recognized prestige in the Brazilian music scene, with awards in national and European competitions. In his work, Higino¹¹ quoted the founder of the Salesian order Don Bosco: A school without music is a body without soul. According to him, joy is the basic element of education, which is why the bands of Salesian schools have always been at the forefront of civic festivities, infecting the public with marches and patriotic hymns, commanding school parades, imposing their cadence and expressing, through music, the feeling of community. Higino¹¹ also made a list of former members of the band who work professionally in the field of music in Brazil and abroad, including prominent national leaders, such as composer Luciano Gallet (1893-1931), former director of the National Institute of Music.

Lima,¹² in his work on the Philharmonic ‘24 de Outubro de Cruzeta’ (a band that began its activities in 1986) and the ‘Hermann Gmeiner Philharmonic Band’ (founded in 1990) of the Project ‘Aldeias Infantis SOS’, from Caicó, both from Seridó, in the backlands of the North Rio-Grandense region, highlighted the unique relationship between the members of the school band and the teachers, which stems from shared training, since the work carried out focuses on training the individual as a complex being, not reduced to just to learning a musical instrument, but inserted in an educational process capable of facilitating the unveiling of oneself, the other and society.

Corroborating with Lima,¹² Monte and Montenegro¹³ realized that the band, or school fanfare, contributes to improving the quality of the sociocultural education of the students who are part of it. They observed that the students who are members of the fanfare band at the Amauri de Medeiros school, established on October 1, 2008, by the ‘More Education’ Project, at the Amaury de Medeiros School of the state education network in the state of Pernambuco, attribute high value to this artistic activity. -musical, since many of them become professional musicians and, those who do not become professional, keep in touch with art in their lives in general, the authors argue that the school band performs interpersonal training among its components, which shows that, in addition to making music, this practice effectively contributes to the sociocultural formation of its participants.

Alves da Silva¹⁴ reported, as objectives of his work, the performance of school band masters and the evaluation of the musical development of students in school bands and proposes rehearsal methodologies for school bands. The author analyzed three ways of relating to music: music appreciation (questionnaire and semi-structured confirmatory interview); composition (composition and improvisation) and performance (prepared study and study at first glance). The research was carried out in four school music bands that worked all these three ways mentioned by the author, the work was carried out in the State of Rio de Janeiro, state of origin of these bands. Thus, the importance of music education work, through the school music band, in the human formation of the student inserted in the school environment in various locations in the country is evident, as Almeida¹⁵ also pointed out in his study on the band from the military college of the Fire Department of Ceará. In the spectrum of reciprocal determinism, the work identified that the music band environment can provide the construction of social learning, as it is capable of awakening in the people involved new knowledge, not only musical, but also that of the other, of self-discipline, of the ability to reflect, question, criticize and, at the same time, strengthen their ability to face challenges.¹⁵

From this learning, the participant will, spontaneously, perceive himself, and stimulate himself to carry out his tasks within the school context. Since the author mentions that when these stimuli are observed from the outside, they are perceived in individuals by the way they start to interact in situations that require immediate solutions or responses. That is, musical training positively interferes with individual behavior about the exercise of communication and interaction with each other. As a daily practice, in the band's environment, a good relationship is built between everyone, and everyone gets involved in the debate regarding the awareness of the daily aspects of society and the context in which they live.

Silva and Wolffenbüttel,¹⁶ in their experience report, considered it pertinent that the marching band is the first contact that many public-school students have with music. Considering historical and social issues, the marching band really has been, most of the time, the first contact of many students with music, mainly for public school students in the city of Montenegro, State of ‘Rio Grande do Sul’. In the band, students can have musical learning initiated through percussive and wind instruments, having contact with a wide variety of sounds, timbres, and different sound formats. From this, students begin to identify low and high sounds, develop rhythmic perception, and find themselves facing a pedagogical-musical aspect of vast possibilities for making music and even relating these musical aspects to the environment and their environment. daily. Marching bands and school bands, through music teaching, have a pedagogical relevance that permeates some paths of music education, such as the sound exploration of timbres and even certain values, which contributes to the integral formation of the individual, even when they are not inserted in the mandatory curriculum.

Tozzo and Lorenzet¹⁷ reported the musical activity carried out in school bands in the city of Chapecó, in the interior of Santa Catarina, in southern Brazil, which, in the authors' perspective, has the purpose of rescuing cultural values, respect, love of the country and moral formation. The school band activity enables the development and strengthening of logical-mathematical reasoning, aesthetic sense, sound, and spatial perception, as well as motor coordination and inventive capacity, especially among children and adolescents. Also, for these authors, music school bands have encouraged the formation of many brass, woodwind, and percussion instrumentalists for the world of professional music: a significant number of professional musicians received their first lessons through the music school band in their training. Such influence is often caused by the social context of the band, in addition to actively imprinting a positive change in the school environment, they participate in social events of different natures, such as masses, processions, parties, parades, civic-military parades, sporting events, etc. school parties, among others, enchanting the public with their music.

Campos,¹⁸ in his article, brought up a new subject in his analysis of bands in the Midwest of Brazil. These can have an educational function, as in school bands and fanfares, which are a significant space for musical experience and training, being greatly influenced by military bands, in terms of discipline and organization, and by municipal bands, in terms of activities, civic presentations and championships they dispute. However, these bands are not always able to develop systematic music teaching and, many times, aspects such as musicality and expression are not consistently developed, due to the emphasis on repertoire rehearsals, necessary to maintain the various presentations, and this teaching context is directed to contests, competitions, and civic parades. The emphasis on these band competitions is observed in other regions of the country, in addition, Brazilian competitions demonstrate extreme similarity with the North American reality.

It should be remembered that, until recently, the brass band was one of the most popular means of access to musical culture in our country. Through the presence of music in basic education in Brazil, through the Law 11.769/2008, the strengthening of musical groups in Brazilian schools was intensified, mainly in the states of the Center-West of Brazil and some locations in the South, in the other states there was improvement, but not as significant as those mentioned above. As a result, public tenders, training, and improvement courses were held throughout Brazil, in addition to intensifying the promotion of research in this area.¹

In Brazil, currently, a high percentage of music professionals are starting their studies in marching bands in basic education, it is possible, then, to state that bands have encouraged the musical training of many students of the basic education. Some of these marching bands, such as those from the State of Goiás Education Secretariat and the Goiânia Municipal Education Secretariat, for example, are responsible for the initiation and musical training of young people. They provide a unique and perhaps decisive opportunity for training future music teachers.¹

In the state of Goiás, since 1999, the teaching of bands has been developed and systematized through the Center for Study and Research ‘Ciranda da Arte’, department of the State Secretariat, Education, Sport, and Culture of Goiás, which is responsible for training, training, and management of state art teachers. This department is a pioneering body that has played a leading role in the construction of music teaching in state schools, mainly by prioritizing study groups, artistic production groups, choirs, and bands to promote training, concerts, recitals and didactic concerts for schools, teachers, administrators, and students.

In 2006, 2009 and 2010, three public tenders were held by the State Department of Education (SEDUC), the first of which was with specific vacancies for band teachers, and the last two for music teachers and art teachers in general. Undoubtedly, these competitions gave motivation and appreciation to the profession of band teacher. In addition, it should be mentioned that, if the 2015 School Census of the state education network of Goiás is considered, together with the last population census of the state, it will be clear that the school bands located in Goiânia and in the state had a drop in their corporations compared to the total number of students in the state.¹

As noted in the quotes above, in the city of Goiânia, where the research took place, the influence of marching bands has encouraged the musical training of several students. What is observed is a high percentage of music professionals who began their studies in elementary school marching bands. Some of these bands, such as those from the Goiás State Department of Education, for example, are a reference in the initiation and musical training of young people. They provide a unique and sometimes decisive opportunity for future music teachers. There are cases of students who returned, after several years of study, as teachers at the institution where they started their first musical studies. Finally, the considerable number of marching bands in Goiânia has solidified and supplied a promising employability market. “In Goiânia, marching bands are part of the musical activity of wind instruments in regular schools, and corporations such as firefighters and military police; become the gateway for musicians initiated in these schools to work.”¹⁹

In this line of reasoning, Nascimento⁷ found that the school band contributes significantly to the musician's professional experience in all areas of professional activity. But, despite these qualities, to complement the musical training of teachers, educational assistance is needed in formal music teaching institutions. For the author, school bands, despite contributing to the training of professional musicians, are not self-sufficient for the overall musical education of the individual. Thus, it is notorious that, in some cases, band teachers introduce their students to the instrument using only empirical knowledge, that is, there is no systematization of the use of methodologies for classes. In addition, another relevant issue, which also hinders the educational process, is the lack of specific didactic material for marching bands. Thus, in the context of school bands, research related to collective music teaching aims to bring methodological proposals that support and improve the work carried out in student bands. As for the pedagogical material that is used today in bands and marching bands in Goiânia, about 70% of respondents say that teachers do not adopt a specific method, nor follow a predetermined pedagogical scheme. This demonstrates the relative lack of preparation of these professors, a situation aggravated by training failures. This confirms the finding of Sousa & Ray²⁰ who explained that in places where music teaching has qualified professionals, not only methods are adopted but also handouts are created by teachers to meet the specific needs of groups of students in each location.

In addition to this difficulty with the materials and use of methodologies for the bands, we also observed that the training of teachers who work in these bands has been undergoing several transformations. Thus, in a survey carried out between 2011 and mid-2015, the expectations for the future of band managers and teachers in Goiânia are deposited in marching bands, where about 90% of teachers begin to study. Since about 90% act as teachers in these bands, and 95% also act as instrumentalists in popular bands or orchestras. It is also verified that most teachers do not have adequate training, and 60% have not had higher-level pedagogical training or school management. Thus, investment in teacher training is indispensable and urgent, as only about 40% of teachers working in band management have a degree in music, with rare people having a degree in another area. The training of teachers in this area needs to encompass related knowledge, not only in the practical field, but also on musical-pedagogical development, since bands are found in the school context, a place of great promotion and employability for band teachers.¹

In Brazil, school bands are true training centers for instrumentalists. In the state of Goiás, they are configured in the following typology: marching band, marching band, concert band, simple fanfare, melodic percussion band and rudimentary percussion band. Specifically in the city of Goiânia, the majority is composed of marching bands, since this number is significant due to the cost-effectiveness of maintenance being cheaper and consistent with the reality of maintenance by school managers.

As mentioned above, school bands have encouraged the musical training of many basic education students and contributed to the initiation and musical training of music professionals. Some of these bands, such as those from the State of Goiás Education Secretariat and the Goiânia Municipal Education Secretariat, are responsible for the unique and, perhaps, decisive opportunity in the training of future music teachers. According to Alves¹⁹ in Goiânia, marching bands are part of the musical activity of wind instruments in regular schools. Most of these bands contain, in their repertoire, arrangements of popular songs, arrangements of international songs, dubs and marches. The original compositions for these formations are somewhat scarce, as the composers dedicate their compositions to brass band, symphonic band, and wind orchestra. They usually wear well decorated uniforms, giving great importance to props, hats, shoes, flags, and banners. There is a dispute among them about having the best uniform. Another preponderant factor is that all these bands have Pavilhão Nacional, Choreographic Body, ‘Baliza and Mor’, which constitute the so-called front line, which is generally made up of women. Let's say that the band section is responsible for all the choreographic part of these bands and that they are occupied by teachers with training in music, physical education, or dance. However, there is little bibliographic and technical material on the front line.¹

In the state of Goiás, since 1999, the teaching of bands has been developed and systematized through the Center for Study and Research ‘Ciranda da Arte’, department of the Secretary of State, Education, Sport, and Culture of Goiás, which is responsible for training, and management of state art teachers. This department is a pioneering body that has been leading the construction of music teaching in state schools, and it is a department in which there are study groups, artistic production groups, choirs, and bands to promote training, concerts, recitals and concerts didactic materials for schools, teachers, administrators, and students. In motion with teachers and associations, in 2006, 2009 and 2010, three public tenders were held by the State Department of Education (SEDUC), the first of which was with specific vacancies for a band teacher, and the last two for a music teacher and art teachers in general. These contests gave motivation and appreciation to the profession of band teacher, and today we have approximately twenty effective band teachers and those who are not public servants have their role as teachers. temporary band members at these schools. It should be mentioned that, if the 2015 School Census of the state education network of Goiás is considered, together with the last population census of the state of Goiás, it will be clear that the school bands located in Goiânia and in the state had a drop in their corporations compared to the total number of students in the state.

Goiânia, a city close to Brasilia, the capital of the country, has 22 school bands in the state network, six of which are from full-time schools, five are from military schools and 11 from part-time schools (morning, afternoon, and evening). Marching bands present in schools in the state of Goiás are based on three models: 1) full-time school bands, where the student stays at the educational institution all day, regardless of choosing to study a musical instrument; 2) those in part-time school; 3) those belonging to military schools. The six school bands that are part of full-time schools serve approximately 200 students, each with 4 to 7 music teachers, in addition to the front committee teachers.

The band activity is part of the school's curriculum, being an optional curricular subject that takes place four times a week. In part-time and military schools, the band is part of each school's extension projects, and classes take place between shift changes, at lunchtime and in the late afternoon. School bands in Goiânia have between 5 and 8 music teachers, this being one of the pioneering states in the Union to systematize a specific teacher for each instrument in the band. In full-time and military schools, for example, band teachers have as many as 8 teachers, and in some cases, due to the number of students, there are two trumpet teachers and/or two front-line teachers.¹

The growth of teaching bands in public schools and the opening of higher education courses and public tenders occurred, from 2008 to 2016, thanks to Law nº 11,769, which cites the obligation of teaching music in Brazilian schools. However, the Curriculum Reformulation Law with the BNCC (Common National Curriculum Base) removed the obligation of this teaching. After 2016, music teacher representatives at school, hiring, public tenders and investments were reduced by more than 60% in state public schools. All this because of the following laws in force in Brazil: Law nº 13,278, of May 2, 2016, which obliges the teaching of artistic languages (Theatre, Visual Arts, Music, and Dance) in basic education, and Law nº 13,415, of February 16, 2017, which talks about High School Reform.

In fact, with the reform of secondary education and with the application of the BNCC, we moved from a reality of the school space in which we had the conductor arts teacher, the conductor music teacher and two teachers at school bands to only one teacher of arts in many realities. This impact also reached the last public tenders in our state, since the notices that referred to the years 2009, 2010 and 2016 were for art teachers of their respective training, for example: 50 vacancies for music teacher; 50 vacancies for performing arts teacher; 50 vacancies for visual arts teacher; 50 vacancies for dance teacher.

All public tenders, from 2017 until today, were based on BNCC regulations. That said, opportunities for art teachers were opened, that is, nine vacancies for art teachers with training in Performing Arts, Music, Visual Arts and Dance. In 2022, a public tender provided 54 vacancies for arts-theatre, 53 for arts-dance professors, 54 for arts-music professors and 54 vacancies for arts-visual arts professors. Therefore, vacancies were considered for the major area of arts and not for the component of each training area. These events advanced classroom-ruling arts teachers. The reality of marching band teachers has also become more difficult, since there are no vacancies for band teachers in public competition. They also reduced the workload in schools and the number of teachers in these marching bands in state and municipal schools in the greater metropolitan region.

Currently, after the creation and expansion of Licentiate Music courses throughout Brazil, the use and systematization of collective teaching has become regular teaching and research activities in these courses. On the other hand, the increase in undergraduate scientific initiation and institutional research support programs have opened opportunities for financially supported research. In this way, research that seeks to analyse the applicability of the Collective Teaching of Musical Instruments (ECIM), focusing on understanding and understanding the procedures indicated in the collective methods, are being contemplated. Another important factor is the increase in bibliographies related to this subject, which come from research groups and works at undergraduate and graduate levels, and which are contributing to investigations. Bands, throughout the history of Brazil, had a great influence on society as well as on the musical training of renowned professionals in the area. Nascimento⁷ states that many professional musicians received some influence through the music band in their musical formation.

Despite this finding, Reimer Bennett²¹ revealed that student bands were situated at the level of entertainment and, therefore, did not constitute a serious field of study, given that their activities were not relevant to Music Education.

Combining tradition and field of study, as seen in Brazil, research involving music bands has grown gradually. Kandler and Figueiredo²² highlighted that in the last ten years, research indicates that more than 40% of theses and dissertations deal with teaching and learning processes of band instruments. According to the authors, the Southeast and South regions concentrate the most research on this subject, followed by the Midwest and Northeast.

In the Southeast region, studies such as those by Sulpicio & Sulpicio²³ and Rodrigues²⁴ dealt with problems related to the lack of adequate musical training for band teachers, the lack of specific literature on teaching music in bands and the lack of academic courses of music aimed at training band conductors. All these factors aggravate the teaching process, which triggers all the preparation of these bands' performances in concerts, festivals and competitions for bands throughout Brazil. In the state of Santa Catarina, in the southern region, among the different teaching processes for band instruments, just over 45% of the bands adopt collective teaching and approximately 55% of them adopt the individual teaching methodology.

In the Midwest, researchers such as Campos¹⁸ and Sousa²⁵ reported that collective teaching with the full band (heterogeneous) and collective teaching of brass instrument sections (homogeneous) prevail. According to these authors, this occurrence is due to the lack of teachers for each instrument or because they adopt the concept of social inclusion in which novice and veteran students learn together. In the North region, collective teaching also predominates, reaching 95% of bands.²⁶ In the Northeast region, it is observed that collective teaching is predominant, noting that the reflection of the music band experience in the professional practice of the musician is present in all areas of professional performance.²⁷ The first initiative to systematize collective musical teaching in Brazil is commonly attributed to Heitor Villa-Lobos, in the 1930s, during the Vargas government, as a proposal to implement ‘Orpheonic Chant’ as music teaching in schools. Later, other names emerged on the scene of collective music education. According to Cruvinel,^28,29 in Brazil, names like Alberto Jaffé, José Coelho de Almeida, Pedro Cameron, Maria de Lourdes Junqueira, Diana Santiago, Alda Oliveira, Cristina Tourinho, Joel Barbosa, Maria Isabel Montandon, Abel Moraes, João Maurício Galindo, use collective teaching as an efficient methodology in instrumental initiation. The author argues, in her study, that collective instrument teaching is an important tool for the socialization of musical education, democratizing citizen access and musical training. However, the collective teaching proposal in Brazil is still little used. A good part of music education institutions follows the conservatory model as an educational base, whose development of the band was due to the formation of its master, who had the ability to play all the instruments of the band and the obligation to teach them to each musician, mainly, because there is only one professional in most bands to teach these classes.

It is also observed that this type of teaching is predominant in other countries, such as Portugal, for example. According to Mota,³⁰ the teaching of band instruments was done by the conductor of the corporation, with the objective of inserting the student as quickly as possible in the music band, a Portuguese model adopted in Brazil since colonial times and with repercussions until the days of today in the training of instrumentalists. This teaching is still present in the states of the North, Northeast and Southeast. This does not happen by choice, but because of the consolidated European tradition and the lack of qualified labour to serve so many bands in Brazil. With this reality, teaching by suit is present, since the bandmaster, in many states of Brazil, oversees designating the best instrumentalist of each suit to assist him in the instrumental teaching of the band.

In Brazil, conservatories, schools, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and university extension projects adopt collective teaching (homogeneous and heterogeneous) in their bands. Collective teaching in these institutions, in addition to motivating students, is also a way to make them study collaboratively. In addition to motivation, collective study is an important factor in social transformation and in training citizens for a better society. Such a transformation has been observed in Brazil since the first bands of slaves, still in the colonial period.

The methodology of collective musical teaching consists of giving classes to several students at the same time. These classes can be homogeneous or heterogeneous. It is understood as homogeneous when the same instrument is taught in a group; collective teaching, on the other hand, becomes heterogeneous when several different instruments are used in the same group.³¹ These classes can be carried out in a multidisciplinary way, that is, in addition to instrumental practice, other academically titled musical knowledge can be taught, such as: music theory, music perception, music history, improvisation, composition, among others.³¹

The method ‘Play Together’ Marching Band Collective Teaching, initiation level, published by Alves (2014) and adopted in school bands in the State of Goiás, opened other horizons, which are the research propositions regarding its effective use in the context of basic education, covering primary and secondary education. It can be mentioned that the basis for the construction of this method was the method already used throughout Brazil, which are the ‘Da Capo’³² and ‘Da Capo Creativity’³³ methods. These two methods, proposed by Joel Barbosa, from the Federal University of Bahia, are representative works in relation to the collective teaching of bands in Brazil. The Da Capo method is one of the great possibilities for immediate and easily adaptable results in a regular pedagogical structure in any Brazilian school unit.³⁴

Therefore, this article, which is part of what began in 2017 and ended at the end of 2017, aims to investigate the historical context of marching bands in Goiânia, and their training practices, in collective teaching processes in the context of marching bands in a full-time, part-time and military school in the city of Goiânia, through a bibliographical review, field research and analysis of didactic material, with the appropriate methodologies used in its application, which involves collective teaching in a marching band.

Thus, the band, which is part of the other artistic areas of the school, becomes a full-time school subject, containing schedules, planning meetings, diaries, and fortnightly evaluations. In Brazil, research that seeks to analyze the applicability of the Collective Teaching of Musical Instruments (ECIM) seeks to understand the effectiveness of the procedures indicated in the collective methods. These indicate the lack of specific literature on band teaching, also pointing to the scarcity of Brazilian methods capable of facilitating learning in school groups that make use of collective teaching of musical instruments.

In a preliminary survey, it is observed that there is still no clear understanding of the methodological approach to collective teaching for marching bands by band teachers and conductors. The study presented here seeks, then, to open paths of specific information in musical performance in terms of methodologies and methods for collective teaching of marching band instruments (brass and percussion). In this way, it is hoped that this investigation can contribute to answering questions that instructors, teachers, and band conductors still ask regarding music teaching collectively.

In this perspective, the lack of systematization of the teaching methodology and pedagogical practice and the scarcity of material related to collective musical teaching in Brazil, as well as its limited availability to the public, were the factors that contributed to the choice of the theme of this research. Currently, in bibliographic surveys in the national territory, there is only one specific method for marching bands, the method ‘Play Together - Marching Band Collective Teaching’, initiation level, published and adopted in school bands in Goiás. Aimed at musical bands, there are two Brazilian methods: ‘Da Capo’ and ‘Da Capo Creativity’, and their use requires adaptation to the reality of a marching band. In this way, the proposition of a collective teaching method for marching bands can be valid to bring contributions that support and improve the work of activities and musicals of the school band in Brazil.

The objective of this project is to investigate the reality of collective teaching and its historical and social context in marching bands in full-time, part-time, and military schools in the city of Goiânia, Brazil. In this sense, this research seeks to identify and analyze the practices of collective teaching of instrumental music and analyze the teaching materials used. This study aims, therefore, to expand the discussion on the relationship between processes and didactic materials and the contexts of their application, hoping to contribute, mainly, with the reflective demands of conductors and teachers of bands.

Remembering that your clipping is directed to the marching bands of the city of Goiânia; regarding the methodological procedures, the present research adopted the following actions. At first, a literature review was carried out to investigate the current state of the subject in focus and the historical-cultural value of these bands in the educational context. In a second moment, a survey and partial analysis of didactic materials used in marching bands, such as methods of collective teaching of bands and repertoire, were carried out. In addition, teaching strategies involving group classes were observed and analyzed, as well as didactic plans based on exercises proposed by musical instrument teaching methods. In a third moment, interviews were conducted with marching band teachers and conductors to better understand their pedagogical choices.

The proposition of a collective teaching method for marching bands can be valid to bring contributions that support and improve the work of activities and musical practices. The research analyzed the pertinence of the didactic material used in the marching bands of Goiânia, for the collective teaching of music, as well as the different educational practices in the scope of the teaching of collective music.

In the current state of investigations, different teaching and learning problems were found within the pluralistic vision of collective musical pedagogy, such as: little knowledge about the theme of collective teaching of musical instruments; little training and information about teaching materials for collective teaching; resistance by a large part of band teachers with collective teaching in marching bands; few training and recycling courses on collective teaching of musical instruments; limited didactic material on collective teaching of marching bands and professionals who do not understand the collective methodology of musical instruments.

Even though the state of Goiás was one of the first to implement the music discipline in the full-time school curriculum and having the marching band as a sub-area of the discipline, only six schools have the marching band. In fact, there are many obstacles in the management, formatting, and inclusion of this discipline on the part of managers and directors of school units in the state of Goiás, since there is extreme resistance to assume all the responsibilities and expenses that a marching band needs to proper development.

Another factor that generates many dialogues about the management of band teachers are the issues of compliance with the workload, development of school planning, preparation of the semester evaluation and meeting with the management group and the local community. This is a great challenge for the reality of music teachers in Brazil, as many come from large orchestras and instrument degree courses. Since the implementation of this full-time school marching band model, structures have been built and strengthened between band managers and teachers, which is why, currently, all schools that have a marching band have a team of five to seven teachers divided by specific instruments. This generated the possibility of carrying out quality work that meets the demand of the full-time school project, managing to carry out music education through brass instruments, percussion, and front commission (choreographic body).

Thus, it is possible to conclude that, with this reality and such changes in educational laws, and the political problems we have been experiencing since 2016, we will seek to contribute to future studies that prove the educational importance of bands and the possible perspectives for the future, alerting to the dismantling of public policies regarding the teaching of music that Brazil and the educational system are going through. It is also expected to raise guidelines for the elaboration of projects that guarantee their strengthening and continuity in schools, since these marching bands that are present in full-time, part-time, and military schools are directly a center of music education for young people and teenagers provided with free quality music training for them.

In addition, it is urgently necessary to repeal, or reform, the guidelines for teaching music in basic education, either with the improvement or the return of law 11.769, or even a drastic change in the guidelines for the new secondary education. , or the new technical secondary education that can truly contemplate the teaching of music, and that this teaching is not treated with a minimum of extra time within the school.

Music teaching, from the collective teaching of band and frontline music instruments, urgently needs the look of respect and seriousness from the Ministry of Education, since the vast majority of all this problem we are going through comes from the guidelines at the federal level in Brazil.

None.

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

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