This was ABSOLUTELY the case when that became good advice - in the 1970s, 1980s and into the 1990s, when the majority of the "retired" judges were teachers working in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s - and they learned from people who may have directly learned from Sousa or his bandsmen.

Nearly all of those judges are now dead or fully retired.

Since we now are a generation or two removed from the "Sousa has to be this way" folks, the majority of judges don't have a strong attachment to the man or to a particular style of Sousa anymore. It's just as safe to play as Karl King now.

tl;dr: Play it.