Being a part of the Marching Band community isn’t just about working and marching together; it is about each individual’s responsibility to make the community thrive.

Brendon Gates, junior trombonist and sectional leader, knows that after hard work improvement follows.

“Marching Band makes everyone practice more for our performances. It makes me want to practice more to improve,” he said. “We always work on sound quality improvement, note accuracy and rhythm. I know it pushes a lot of us to work harder to become better because it’s done that to me.”

Aside from just marching band rehearsals, there are some key differences between marching band and regular concert band.

“Musically, a lot of the songs are much easier than in concert. Most of them are songs that we have heard on the radio,” said Pooja Khatri, sophomore clarinetist.  “Yet, memorization does get hard at times when we don’t have our music with us.”

“The major difference is everyone who is in band plays; while in concert they’re put into different groups by level,” Khatri continued. “Everyone has fun while playing with each other too.”

Along with the fun that comes along with being in marching band, it take work and focus to perform at peak levels.

“We have sacrificed a lot this year in order to improve [how we] perform. We lost a lot of seniors this year who were essential to the band,” said Adele Shirkley, sophomore flutist and sectional leader.  “Without them, we don’t have that ‘sound’ that we had last year. So everyone makes a lot of sacrifices such as time and energy to put in effort of constantly improving to get the sound we need for marching band to have that full sound quality.” 

Everyone has a role he or she must play in the community for it to perform as one. When each member takes on his or her responsibility to work hard and improve, then the whole team progresses. When everyone shows progress, it gives a much better experience and vibe to the community.