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BAND BONDS HIGH-SCHOOL MUSICIANS
As a field commander is giving a pep talk, 200 young Americans in uniform stand at attention before they prepare to advance.
If this were an earlier century, this scene could have preceded an infantry charge. These days, it is more likely to take place before a school marching band performance.
According to Bands of America, a nonprofit music education program for U.S. high school students, more than 70,000 teens participate in its band events nationwide, with hundreds of thousands more in attendance. Some of those events include the Grand National Championships, Honor Band of America and the National Concert Band Festival. All of these events are highly competitive, even considered cutthroat by some.
Chances are, if you drive by any large high school this summer and fall, you will see marching band students learning their formations. Not only do they have to learn to play the music, they also need to learn how and when to move.
Students join marching band for many reasons -- but chiefly for the camaraderie it offers.
"Coming out of middle school, I didn't really know a lot of people, and my parents thought it would be a good idea for me to join marching band because I'd get to know a lot of people," said Will Schaust, 15, a percussionist for Lawrence North's marching band.Trumpet player Kiel Trotter, 18, said he joined Lawrence Central's marching band to learn new skills. "I can't do many sports, so I just thought marching band would be a good opportunity for me to actually do something, (and) it'd count for college credit," he said.
But marching band can be grueling. The season extends from early summer to late fall, and practices can be arduous.Harrison Bartel, 16, is a euphonium player at Lawrence Central. His instrument is a baritone, which looks like a small tuba in concert band but is played like a trumpet during marching band.
Handling a euphonium presents its own challenges, but the rigorous practice schedule poses more of a problem, he said. "It's just so time-consuming. If you want to do another fall sport, you can't, really, 'cause it takes up so much time."In some schools, the marching band practices more than the football team. Many of its workouts take place during the summer, for six to eight hours a day. And that isn't counting band camp.
For most students, band camp is a week of intensive practice at school. Lauren Slemenda, 17, who plays the flute and piccolo, says camp is critical for the Lawrence North band."It's about nine hours a day, and then we get to go home and sleep in our own beds, which is nice. It's the most essential part of the marching band season because that's when we learn our show and all our drills and stuff like that. So it's really important to be there, and it's a lot of fun, too," she said.
Some schools, such as Avon High School, choose to hold band camp off-site.
"The last three years, we've gone to Manchester College," said Kelly McKenna, 16, who plays the tenor drums at the school. "We share a room with one other band member, and every day we get up early and go eat breakfast together and just practice the entire day. We'll have sectionals, and then at the very end, the whole band will get together to play the new music we've gotten and do the new drill or whatnot." While band camp is when the students learn the show they'll be performing all fall, the rest of the season is spent practicing, practicing, practicing."When it's around marching band season, you're already (at school) all day," said percussionist Annie O'Connell, 15, of Lawrence Central.
Many students practice individually as well as with the band."During the school year, I (practice) a lot, like probably my whole study hall I'll practice 'cause I do all my homework after school, and I have track," Annie said.
Rachael Aull, 18, of Lawrence North High School, practices her alto saxophone outside school at least three or four times a week."I put at least an hour in. There have been times if I have a concert or if I have an audition coming up, I practice every day for about two hours a day," she said.
While the music and physical activity are challenging, the interpersonal relationships can be, too."There are so many different personalities of people that you have to deal with, especially when you're in a leadership position within the band," said Rachael, who is drum major. "You have to deal with a lot of people that maybe in a normal sense you wouldn't interact with."
The uniform, too, presents its own problems."I remember being in competitions where I've been extremely hot and just the only thing I wanted to do was take that uniform off," said Lauren. "In the winter marching-band season, especially with the marching bands that march (on) football fields, it gets really, really cold. Many seniors just completely froze up at the regional competition. It's kind of hard to strike a balance about the uniform that is good in hot weather and cold weather."
Some people, however, feel the uniform is a necessary part of the visual effect of the band's show. "I don't really have a problem with it because it makes us all look uniform, and it makes us just all look very professional and nice," Kelly said.Band directors offer another challenge. Many seem to take their cues from the military.
"Our old band director was really tough on us, and it wasn't OK to sit out if we had a headache or something," Lauren said. "If you didn't feel good, you'd still have to stay out there and march to make the band good because with marching band, it's not about you individually."Not all directors are dictatorial. Kerry Knight, 16, a trumpeter for Lawrence North, says his director can be helpful and encouraging while still striving for perfection.
"Before the rehearsal, he makes you get into this mind-set that if we don't do good, that it's OK, we tried hard, " he said. "But he's pretty strict about everything else, like discipline."Marching band is a competitive activity, and everyone wants to put on the best show.
"It is emotionally strenuous at times with all the directors harping on you about doing this right or doing that right and playing the music right. It was also physically tiring because if you were late, you had to run laps, and that kind of got old," Will said.But all the hard work pays off at contest time.
"We won nationals," Kiel said. "I got a nationals ring, and that looks great. Plus, I've gotten to go on a whole bunch of trips, and I've made tons of friends."The teens agree that toil breeds friendships.
"You all share the same sweat, the same tears, the same blood, everything, and you go through everything," Will explained."You make a lot of new friends," Annie said. "Like right off the bat, a lot of people are really happy to meet you."
Sometimes, however, these friendships are held up to ridicule. Typical is the depiction of band members in the 1999 movie "American Pie," where they are portrayed as geeky losers with no life outside of band.Tuba player Evan Coyle, 18, of Avon, says some of the stereotypes hold true for a few. "(If) they have all their friends in band, they don't really want to branch out," he said.
Harrison says the practice schedule makes it hard to meet new people. "Because you spend most of your time with these people, you don't really have time to do other things with other people."But many band members do reach out and have friends outside of marching band.
"I do marching band, but I'm doing track. So, at a different time, I have my own group of friends. (It) just depends who I'm with," Annie said. "I really don't think there are cliques in just marching band."Despite the fun they have, most of these students see marching band as a high school activity. All of these students plan to go to college, which makes them representative of marching band members as a whole -- 90 percent of whom go on to college, according to Bands of America.
"Marching band has been a good experience for me, but in the job world, I don't think that that's something I would want as a career per se," says Kelly. "I might consider, maybe, doing like an indoor drum line, like an independent drum line, but probably not like a drum-corps type of thing."On the other hand, Lauren, who also plays bassoon in hopes that it might make her eligible for more college scholarships, would like to pursue a music career.
"I want to major in music performance and hopefully get a graduate degree in performance and go on to play my flute for the rest of my life," she said.
REPORTER: Julia Moeller, 10.
Copyright 2006 Y-Press