Winter, summer, spring, and back to fall as football season begins, so does band season. And with band season comes band camp, competitions, halftime shows, and a team that slowly becomes some of your closest friends.
Band is a lot more than playing music. There are fun games to play during band camp, a variation of secret Santa for competition season known as “Secret Pals” and memories to last a lifetime.
Of course, playing music is one of the most important parts of band, but so is learning drill. Drill is our places on the field while we play halftime, and it can take months to learn, revise, and add creative visuals.
Learning visuals in a performance is a lot more fun than people would think. We get to laugh, learn silly dances, and the best part is getting to work with the colorguard on how to make it look better. No matter what, we always find a way to make practice fun. And Finley Hahn, a freshman who plays clarinet, said it best when they said, “Practice is fun, if you make it fun.”
Though practices are fun, the schedule can be a lot. With practice 4 days a week and 2-4 hours of work, it can be tough to manage. Emma Hambel, a senior who is Drum Major, described practices perfectly when she said, “Practices are kind of crazy hours wise, but ultimately I think that long practices are good because we can get a lot of reps in.” Reps are good so we can see what we need to work on and what to fix.
Even if practices feel like a lot, in the end it is so worth it. David Parsons, a junior who plays trumpet, described what band is as a whole, not just people who play at halftime, when he said, “I love the people, I love playing the trumpet, I love performing and the excitement before a football game and competition, and being a part of something.” I know a lot of people in band can say the same, including myself.
Being a part of something really is the best feeling. Having that place where most people see it as their home and their safe space, is just something you don’t get all the time. It is incredible that band has that for so many students.
Band can be people’s safe space, even though it can also be incredibly stressful sometimes. But it makes it all worth it, when we do little things like huddling in a group and telling each other how proud we are of each other and hugging each other good luck, or even just making jokes during practice. Every stressful moment, and every worry about halftime and competitions, makes it all worth it.
