All it takes is one activity in high school to change your life forever. For me, that was marching band - I learned so much and made the most amazing friends and without the outstanding program of which I had the pleasure of being a part I would not have had those opportunities. When someone hears the words "marching band" many things can come to mind like "band geeks," noise, goofy uniforms, halftime performers, the stereotypical band kid playing poorly, and people falling on each other. What comes to my mind is dedication, memorization, life lessons, friends, talent, exercise, sportsmanship, and most importantly fun. There are many little things that make up a marching band and every little aspect is extremely important. .
What is marching band exactly? "A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who generally perform outdoors and who incorporate some type of marching or other movement with musical performance. Instrumentation includes brass, woodwinds, and percussion instruments, and the music usually incorporates a strong rhythmic component suitable for marching. A marching band not only performs musical compositions, but also entertains with flamboyant steps and movements to create a moving musical ensemble, sometimes forming designs such as letters, logos, or even animated pictures. In addition to traditional parade performances, many marching bands also perform field shows at special events such as football games or at marching band competitions" (Marching Band). Now I know that definition might seem like a foreign language to most people so I will break it down. Woodwinds include the flutes, clarinets, oboes, piccolos, and various types of saxophones. Brass includes the trumpets, mellophones, baritones, euphoniums, and tubas. There are two types of percussion: "the battery" which is the drum line on the field consisting of snare drums, tenors, bass drums and sometimes cymbals, and then there is the pit, which is the ensemble on the front sideline that has your vibraphones, xylophones, marimbas, chimes, timpanis, keyboards and much more.