Q&A: Amber Friend
The Pride of Oklahoma marching band performs at every sooner home game, pumping up fans with the “Boomer Sooner” fight song. What may get lost in the intricate marches of the band is the flair and style the color guard. The non-musical counterpart of the band has become a tradition during halftime shows, providing a visual aspect for fans. As another football season gets underway, Senior Amber Friend recounts her experiences performing as a color guard dancer.
What made you want to join the color guard?
Me and my friend tried out for the dance team and of course didn’t make it. I had been doing dance for a couple of months and all my friends were in band. It was kinda like a seg-way, more doable because they pretty much just take everybody
Why not be a part of the actual band?
I played the flute in middle school; I sucked at it. I always assumed I would do color guard in the fall and go back to band in the spring, but quickly realized that I hate the flute and I really liked guard.
What is the color guard role in a marching band?
In high school especially, we did contest and you got judged on shit and there’s all these categories: music or marching style and then there’s general effect, it’s kinda like everything else and part of that score is where we fit in so it’s such a tiny thing but I think it’s slightly more fun to watch. I always watch it because i’m obsessed with it.
Do you watch other performances?
When we have other bands that come here we’ll watch their guard and watch their band. I went home last weekend, my brothers in percussion in his high school band so I watch their band shows. I did it a lot more in high school, we were really into it and so we’d always pull up drum corps videos
So what’s the difference between high school and college, a big football college?
In high school it’s very much about the contest, like that’s what the whole seasons about for band you’re going for the contest you’re not really there for football. Something our band director said to us before a football game was “it is merely a necessity that takes place before and after halftime.” The football games and the halftime performance are basically a practice for contest that we have the next day usually. There’s one show the whole season it’s very centered on perfection.
In college we do about three or four or five shows (we do it’s different for each college) a season and it’s purely to look good enough and kinda just pump up the crowd. We still got excited in high school but I care a lot more about it in college because it’s why we exist.
How long does it take for you to get that technique down?
Most of the stuff we do here is the same stuff we’ve been doing for awhile so it’s not too bad because it’s just muscle memory after a while.
So what type of people do color guard?
(Laughs) In my experience, it’s a little bit of everybody.
Do you still have fun in the color guard?
It gave me a group to know when I started college. Me and my best friend from high school started started with me and we’ve been doing it all four years. It’s probably not something i’m going to do after i graduate in a few months, i’m going to be done with it which is really weird for me.