It was July 31, and I was standing outside in about 100 degree weather while it was raining, learning drill and choreography. This is what it’s like to be in the Marching Band. I’ve been in the marching band for four seasons, which in reality is two years.
One of the hardest things about being in the Marching Band is learning choreography and drill. It’s difficult because some things you get taught on flag, rifle or saber are brand new to you, and you only have a certain amount of time to perfect it, or get close to perfecting it.
One thing I love about the Marching Band is being able to learn new things and perfect them in a day or two. I like this because of how much of a fast learner I am. I tend to get things very quickly.
For the first year of my marching band season, I only did flag. But this year during marching season, our director started making everyone do rifle and saber, and I again caught on pretty quickly. This new winter season, I made it onto full weapon line, so I do everything now, which can be pretty hard, in my opinion.
Balancing flag, rifle, and saber is quite a difficult task since you have a lot more choreo to learn, and you have to keep up with the others. Learning choreography can be extremely frustrating, especially if you’re a first season on the weapon line.
Our past season, the show was called “Utopia,” which we called a secret society. For our first two or three competitions, we got first place, which made our band ecstatic. We continued working hard to try and continue winning first place. At our 2nd to last competition, we got 3rd the first time we performed, and then once we performed against the last 12 bands, we got 7th.
At our very last competition, which was in Covina, California, we also got 3rd place. After we performed, the next day we got to spend the entire day in Six Flags as a little treat the directors give us every few years. We ended up not getting home that night until about 11:40 p.m., and then it took us a good 30 minutes to unload both trucks.
Something that makes me want to continue with the marching band is just being able to learn more and more things from the people above me and my directors. Learning new things for me is difficult, but I catch on pretty quickly after seeing it once or twice. I strive to be a better person when it comes to marching band.
In the future, I actually want to play an instrument, which I’ve been looking into for the past few months. Being around the marching band really rubs off on you. Since my partner plays an instrument, I think he rubbed off on me, because I want to play the same instrument he does, which is the clarinet. I have been looking forward to playing, and my partner even lets me test the instrument sometimes to get the feeling and to see if I really want to play. I’m really only waiting to either save up, or get my parents to rent me one.
This is my experience with the marching band, or color guard, I should say. Being in the guard is fun, although I do still want to play an instrument. I strive to be a better person when it comes to guard, since I know people believe in me.
