What People Need To Know About Band

Alot of you think you know what the marching band does. Unless you're IN it, you don't. Or if you WERE in it, that counts, too. I do know that I'm only a sophomore, but I'm always having this conversation with people and I feel like you all should know YOU HAVE NO IDEA!

Are you aware that we have to run several laps a day...in step?
Do you know what "in step" means?
That means that unless every single person's heel hits at the exact same time, (and the correct foot. Which foot you are on is not a matter of choice) we run at least one more lap.

You know we carry heavy instruments, obviously. Some are less heavy than others, but holding them up for nearly eight minutes without puting them down is a lot of work. You may be thinking right now, "Hey Katelyn, you're in pit. Why are you complaining?" And I'm not complaining. I am simply telling you how it is. I mean yeah I may not march, but pit is no easy task either. A lot of people think that all you do is just hit stuff. But that's not true at all. For me it's learning a new clef, playing keyboard instruments with no piano experiance, memorizing cymbal stuff, and knowing how to hold mallets, when to crash a cymbal, when to hold for the snare drummers, learning cadences, and stand tunes. Honestly pit has more to do than anyother section I think. It is no easy task.

Hey, and we have summer band. Just like sports have summer work outs, so do we. Sometimes we'll go forty five minutes with no water break. Yes, some people do pass out. This can cause some pretty nasty bruising for the tuba players (asphalt+tuba+passing out. You do the math). It happens.

Did I mention March-A-Thon? It's in the summer, too. It's ten miles in the heat. We don't have a whole lot of breaks. We still have our instruments, we still have to march just like we were on the field. Nobody asks if it's convenient. It's a mandatory event for all band members unless you've talked to a director way before hand about conflicts.

All this, and we play memorized music.

This is just the basics. Not to mention we go to contest, there's the pressure of doing well, and a million other things that I could go on and on about. I just thought people might want to have an idea of what we do BEFORE they tell us how geeky what we do is.

You guys should really know that facts about anything before you start bashing it. Honestly is it really that hard to ask a simple question and listen for like two seconds about what we really do? Come on guys, you need a little bit of culture in your lives. What better way to start than asking a band member what we really do. Please, before you start to say anything negative about something you know nothing about think it over and maybe learn something about it. Thank you.