Forward, March!

School begins early in Alabama - usually in mid-August. This means that the last week of July marks the date for most high schools to kick off their annual pre-school marching band camp.

What exactly is band camp, you ask? Band camp is basic training, a group hug, and a rite of passage. It is long stretches of tedious repetitions of short bits of music and/or marching, punctuated by total exhilaration when they are finally mastered. (The exhilaration is tempered for directors and older students, since they know that those same short bits will have to be mastered several more times in the weeks to come before they are truly mastered.)

Band camp is where the new members first learn to play their instrument and march at the same time. It is where those newbies earn the right to be considered full-fledged members of the band. It is where the older students mature into positions of leadership, mentoring and serving as role models for the younger ones.

Band camp is where the entire group begins to put together the presentation that it will perform at half-time shows and competitive events during the fall. It is where the group's sense of cohesiveness, its esprit, begins to form. Ask any present or former member of a high-quality high school marching band about their band experiences, and they will talk to you about band camp.

Why do they do it? We hear so much these days about how disengaged our young people are; about how all they are interested in is playing video games and sending text messages. Why do millions of our supposedly turned off high school students all over the United States, and in many other countries, commit themselves to countless hours of strenuous rehearsals on hot, dusty band fields? Why do they keep coming back, day after day, week after week, to participate in this activity we call Marching Band? Why do parents make very real sacrifices of money and time to enable their children to be a part of the band?

For the students, I think it begins with the lure of being part of something, of being a member of a cohesive, defined group. Marching bands tend to be really tightly knit socially. That is certainly understandable, because the members spend so many hours together working so intensely for a common goal. They naturally tend to gravitate toward other band members for social interactions also.

I served as Band Director at a large high school in Montgomery for fifteen years. I usually arrived at the school about an hour before the first classes began, and I was always greeted by a dozen or more students waiting at the Bandroom door. Within ten minutes after I unlocked the door, the large open rehearsal room would be filled with happy, noisy band members, spending their free time before class where everyone in their group was. They laughed, they gossiped, they flirted, they argued, they caught up on homework,- but mainly they just wanted to be together.

Another draw for the students, I have to believe, is the music. It is the excitement of playing together in an ensemble, of matching your tone, your articulation, your breath support and your releases with all the other members of that ensemble. The rush that comes from playing a fortissimo chord with 25 (or 150) of your closest friends, beginning it exactly at the same time as all the others, and ending it at precisely the same time all the others do - that's an experience you can't adequately describe verbally. You just have to live it to understand.

The same point can be made about really good, clean, precise marching. There is a tremendous satisfaction that comes from being part of a group that has just executed some intricate marching maneuver exactly as it is meant to be done. During a performance, there is no such thing as an unimportant band member. Each and every person on the field must execute all marching movements correctly. If some individual fails to do that, if Susie Jones steps off a beat early, or Mike Jackson doesn't have the correct posture, it is not just a problem for Susie or Mike. It detracts from The Band's performance. It counts off points from The Band's score in competition. There is real pressure on each person to do their very best, and the emotional payoff for having done your best is enormous. The older students are invested in seeing that the younger ones around them execute correctly, and those younger marchers are reminded every day that what they do matters; that their maximum effort is needed for The Band to achieve its goals.

So, what about the parents? What sorts of factors do they consider when they encourage their teenager to become a part of the marching band? I expect that for most of them, having their child become a part of a cohesive, goal-oriented peer group ranks very high. I know that was the case with my wife and me as our two children were approaching their middle school years. We knew that our kids would attend a very large, diverse high school; and that if they were not part of some smaller group within the school, they could float aimlessly in a sea of more than 2,000 students.

Also, consider this. During each year I taught at the school in question, and during each year our two children attended it, the percentage of Honor Roll students in the band exceeded the Honor Roll percentage of the school as a whole, and in many years that percentage difference was quite large. In most high schools, students in the marching band are more likely than their peers to hang around with other kids that are serious about academics.

Band members learn early and well the importance of being places on time, with all the necessary items of their uniform, their instrument, and their printed music. Most well-run high school bands have very strict punctuality standards. A student who is late to a performance doesn't get to perform. The bus is scheduled to leave for an out-of-town performance at 4:00. If you show up at 4:02, the bus has left without you. Every rehearsal, every performance, every trip is another opportunity to learn responsibility and self-reliance. Those lessons will serve them well after high school.

This summer and fall, if you happen to pass by your local high school at a time that the band is on the field, take a few minutes to watch what's going on. What you're seeing is Education, in the best sense of the word. The band students on that field are learning to play their instrument, and learning to march; but they are learning so much more. They will graduate knowing what responsibility means, how to work within a group for a common goal. They are learning to manage their time effectively, balancing all the aspects of being in the band while keeping up with their academics and their social lives. Those kids you see sweating on that field will be better workers, better employers, better parents, and better citizens because of their band experience.

Strike Up The Band!

Thomas R. Borden
Waugh, Alabama
March 27, 2020

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