Marching & Running Cadences

[josephd]

ok I'll give in.....

I have never heard anyone "sing song" not at the depot/boot camp. When DI's have sing song'd I have never heard the regular lyrics, just the marching cadence called to the beat.

Now and then on a hump(platoon/company/Bn., etc) Marines will sing songs but that is not to a cadence, that is just to keep the mind busy and boost morale.

[USMC 2571]

That's kind of what I thought, Joe, that maybe after boot camp, to get the troops into the run, and take their minds off of the sweat, that they sing those songs/lyrics.

[josephd]

Sing-songing is one of those things only done at boot camp to make recruits feel all warm and fuzzy inside. If any Plt.Sgt/former DI did that back in the fleet, they would probably lose any and all respect from their Marines....a Plt.Sgt should have better things to do anyway than to march a platoon around using any sort of cadence anytime.

[LitLover84]

Hello all,

Like USMC2571 mentioned, I'm here to give some context to this whole thing.

I'm a graduate student, working on my Master's Degree in Composition, Rhetoric, and Literacy Studies. That translates to "I study English but focus on how people use, share, spread, and teach language/reading/writing."

In my time on this forum, it’s become clear that the Marine Corps has a very distinct culture which sets it apart from other branches of service, a culture that’s rich and interesting. It’s something Marines clearly honor and celebrate. Since I study how language is used in certain situations or cultures, it occurred to me while randomly listening to a cadence on YouTube that USMC cadences could be considered teaching and cultural texts within and unique to the USMC.

For my overarching project that will eventually be my Ph.D. dissertation, I'm wanting to look at how lyric based chants/cadences are used in the Marine Corps possibly to teach Marine history/culture in recruit training and in other various ways later on during service in the Corps. Since the scope for the entire project is quite large, I’m planning to address cadence usage in recruit training for my Master’s thesis, adding the other areas of research (use in the Corps after boot) when I move on to my Ph.D. work.

Hopefully, this has helped clear up what I’m looking for as well as why I’m asking these questions in the first place. I’m interested in investigating not only how the Marine Corps uses cadences as language based tools but also what we (public in general and writing instructors/scholars) can learn from the Corps to better our understanding of language use/study and the teaching of writing/language as a whole.

[LitLover84]

That's interesting to hear you say that, josephd. From what I've seen/read thus far, it seems most mentions of marching cadences reference use in boot while cadence use after graduation seems to be largely double time cadences used for motivation/entertainment/distraction for runs or humps.

[josephd]

That's interesting to hear you say that, josephd. From what I've seen/read thus far, it seems most mentions of marching cadences reference use in boot while cadence use after graduation seems to be largely double time cadences used for motivation/entertainment/distraction for runs or humps.

yes, you're correct

I think you are confusing a marching cadence(and sing songing that) from a running cadence where you sing little rhyming songs to help breathing over long distance runs...both are completely different.

[josephd]

marching cadence and sing-songing, running cadences(songs), and singing while humping are all completely different things....while all can/are done for morale purposes, each have their own other purposes

[USMC 2571]

I introduced that confusion myself, when I referred to "sing song" I meant singing a song, lyrics etc while running....but "sing song" really means just calling cadence WITHOUT lyrics.....so I confused the issue right off the bat.

[LitLover84]

Gotcha. I think some terms have been used interchangeably here that shouldn't be. What I'm looking at are lyric based cadences that are sung while marching, running, and humping.

So what other purposes do you see these having outside of morale boosting?

[USMC 2571]

Interesting topic, which includes the use of language for various purposes.

[USMC 2571]

You're asking that question of Joe, but I think he signed off so I'll offer my own view. One of the things the singing of songs does is to implicitly say to the troops, "I'm the leader of this group, but we are one unit, I am with you and you are with me. We are one unit". I think that's one unconscious or conscious purpose/use of singing those songs. Hence the singing back and forth, not just by the leader. Cohesion of the whole unit reinforced by interacting verbally with each other.

[USMC 2571]

In addition to taking the mind off of the drudgery of running along for extended periods of time. Trying to interject some fun into it, which accounts for some of the comical lyrics that they come up with. And sometimes the lyrics follow a story, so that your mind, while running, is on the unfolding verbal story you are repeating back to the leader/platoon sergeant as he gives it to you.

[USMC 2571]

Those songs are hardly ever "aimless". They have points to them, specific endings of the stories that are sung, and part of the purpose is to keep your attention on the story being told, waiting for the "punch line". They are hardly ever just wandering stories or songs with no meaning.

[josephd]

Gotcha. I think some terms have been used interchangeably here that shouldn't be. What I'm looking at are lyric based cadences that are sung while marching, running, and humping.

So what other purposes do you see these having outside of morale boosting?

there aren't really any lyric based cadences for marching, not in the Marine Corps anyway. Marching cadence is left to the "left, right, low right" cadence to a song beat....again which they call "sing song"

running cadences are a bit different, there is the "left, right, low right" cadence just at a faster pace. there is also the songs/dittys that are sung...eg. delayed cadence, little yellow birdy, momma and poppa, airborne ranger, etc, etc...

I have never done any sort of "cadence" to humping/hiking....we just end up singing some goofy pop song thats cool during that time

[josephd]

Go to YouTube and search all of this stuff....I know Sgt Major Vines as alot of recorded stuff out there that you can listen to