What do water bottles, sunscreen, sunglasses, bucket hats, various styles of festive attire including tie-dyes, silly socks, pod bandanas, tutus and inflatable swim toys have to do with Band? It’s MARCHING BAND SEASON, of course! Band camp this year was an adventure, with logistics interruptions, running short staffed for a couple of days, losing time to a severe storm warning that sent everyone home, having no AC to cool off in during lunchtime, and needing to relocate to the middle school on two different days due to construction related electricity interruptions. Through it all, the Marching Band kids were STILL hard working, positive and resilient. Drum majors Victoria Buhl and Lily Brown led the way with creative interpretations on each Band Camp dress up day, pulling it all together with inflatable life preservers to collapse into at break time. Seeing them blow those inner tubes up to start the day was entertaining to watch, a GREAT breathing exercise for musicians for sure!
Band camp centers around building relationships, while learning and memorizing music, locking in the fundamentals of marching, building balance and core muscle control for directional changes and visual choreography, gaining the stamina to withstand the extremes of temperature and exhaustion that comes with Marching Band, learning this year’s show drill, and learning the pre-game and stand music. This year’s show theme is based around the concept of being “Trapped”, with the Band members being the antagonists, and capturing the drum majors during various parts of the show. The kids are excited about the possibilities for music, visuals and dramatic effect to create the atmosphere and feeling of trying to escape the unknown.
The first non-football game performance is coming up fast, we hope everyone will join us at Spotswood HS on Tuesday, September 19 at 7:00pm to cheer on the Fighting Gobbler Regiment, as they perform along with all the other local High School Bands. The annual City-County Marching Showcase is a chance for all the local high schools to come and perform for one another in a non-competitive, supportive environment. It is the only time they will get to see each other perform this season, since they are all actively engaged in their own competition schedules each weekend. Admission is typically $1 per person and concessions will be available for dinner, thanks to the SHS Band Boosters. We hope you will join us at the Showcase, as well as at other competitions throughout the season. Please also enjoy the Band performances at BHS varsity football games, for Pre-game, stand tunes and halftime. I will leave you with a recent social media post from “Grown and Flown”, the #1 site for parents of teens, college students and young adults, “Because parenting never ends”. We appreciate our community’s continued support of music in our schools!
~ A Friendly Seasonal PSA ~
Dear High School Football Fans,
Another season of Friday night lights is upon us. We’re all looking forward to seeing our kids play and perform. We know you’re so excited to see the football team take the field. As marching band fans, we’re excited to see our team take the field, too.
We’re all here for the same reason: to cheer on our kids and and support our schools and communities. We understand that you’re probably not in the stadium to see the marching band. But when they’re on the field for their halftime show, we ask that you kindly show respect for the band fan sitting next to you and let them listen. Music is an auditory experience. They’re probably trying to hear their son or granddaughter or niece or friend play. Talking while that happens is like standing directly and intentionally in the line of vision of a football parent while their child is making a game-winning play.
On the other hand, please DO cheer for the band: clap and yell when they take the field and between songs in their show and after a soloist finishes playing and pretty much anytime they do a formation that looks particularly tricky. These are the band’s equivalent of touchdowns.
Football players work incredibly hard; so do our band kids. They march and practice and play and learn drill and give up summer free time in 90-degree heat to get their “game” ready, too. There’s no “marching band madness” coverage to balance out “football frenzy” on the 11 o’clock news, and the local newspaper probably didn’t give a run-down of their show and who’s on their roster and what they’re expecting from the season. The halftime show IS their big moment.
And all those formations the football team puts together on the field? The marching band has them, too. But instead of trying to make them work with eleven team members at one time, the band has to do it with 50 or 100 or more players all at once. This sounds tricky because it is.
At most high schools, members of the football team are lauded and applauded and respected and admired, which is great for them. But at a lot of those same schools, members of the marching band are made fun of. They do marching band anyway because they love it and want to be part of something bigger than themselves. The halftime show is their chance, for a few minutes, to be encouraged and cheered on.
And one more thing: if you see a marching band member after the game, tell them, “Great show tonight.”
Appreciatively,
Marching Band Fans Everywhere
