Me in either 1997 or 1998 performing at state finals in Indianapolis at the now non-existent RCA Dome.
No farming post today, but I thought I’d show you what I did Saturday night. For several years now our high school has hosted a marching band competition. My high school band director got in touch with me through twitter and wanted to know if I’d like to help out this year. I said I would and ended up being the starter for the event. That means I released bands onto the field at the scheduled time, starting a countdown for a time limit in which they can set up, perform, and leave the field without penalty. I had a good time and got to see a lot of people I knew that were volunteering as well and also a couple of people I knew working with the other schools.
Now some of you might be wondering what a marching band contest might be. I don’t think it goes on in every state. Just like football or basketball the highest score wins and bands are placed in different classes according to school size. There are several different areas that are judged and you have the potential of scoring 100 points. I know we had some 89s and might have cracked 90 points in my day. When I was in school you had to get past district competition with a high enough score to get to regionals and a chance to qualify to be one of the 10 bands in your class to go to state. Now I believe they have added a semi-state level as well.
One of the bands performing. It's only a little wet in this picture.
Also just like any other sport you work really hard at it and practice a lot. I say sport because you’d be surprised how much of a workout you get running around a parking lot or football field (often backwards) “facing front” most of the time not being able to see where you’re going all while playing an instrument. A ton of time is needed from the faculty, students, and parents. When I was in high school band was first period and due to “block” scheduling we had band class 2 or 3 days per week. School started just after 8:00 , but the band was there at 6:45am practicing the show. And by the time the school year started you’d already spent a week of 10 hour days in the summer learning the marching and the music. All the music in a 6-10 minute show is memorized. We also practiced Monday and Wednesday nights after school and if there was time before we had to leave for competition on Saturdays we practiced that morning too.
- It began to rain about halfway through the contest and was pouring by the end of the night.
It’s a lot of hours, but I learned a lot of things I’m able to use now and into the future. You need focus and determination to continue doing something over and over again until you get it as perfect as you can. It takes a lot of time and organization from a whole bunch of people to put a show together, transport the band all over the state, and take care of all the uniforms and equipment. Two of my friends and I were trumpet section leaders. That left us in charge of making sure all our fellow trumpeters marched correctly, knew all their sets, and knew all their music.
I wish I could still being doing all that, so I was more than happy to offer my services. I’m ready to help out again next year.
- The home team “Spirit of Twin Lakes” had to perform their show as a stand still in the gym due to the rain. Shame they didn’t get to run through their show on the field and march as well, but the host school doesn’t compete. All the competing bands performed their whole show on the football field.
Everyone moved into the gym for the exhibition performance and for the presentation of awards after the downpour. There are an equal number of seats on the other side of the gym. In Indiana it's not unusual for a town like this of about 6000 people to have a basketball gym that seats nearly half the town. The movie "Hoosiers" is pretty much a documentary.
Hi Brian (always #AgBoy)~
Love that you shared this post. I was a theater/chorus girl so I get the dedication that it takes to be successful. Awesome that you had the chance to go back & be a part of it again.
Peggy
#GeekGirl
Thanks, Peggy. Musical time was always fun too being in the pit band working with the chorus kids on stage. At our school when it came time to perform the show there was no faculty involved. Everything on stage, to the music, changing sets, lighting, everything was 100% student run on prodution night.
Brian – what a great way to relive some of the best school years memories.
Thanks for sharing your story.
Marc
You’re welcome and thank you !
I played in the marching band in both high school and college.
Your post brought back lots of good memories.
Well I’m a few years late on this comment thread but I loved it anyway. You just never know from where a former marcher will emerge! My son marched high school band as well and his school took state in their division once while he was in school. His true love is drum corps however. He has one more year before he ages out of that. There are adult corps too. It’s not too late Brian!