The Struggles of Marching Band
In day-to-day life, whether you know it or not, you are surrounded by people who are or have been in a marching band. Roommates, family, and friends may have all been at one point or another been in a high school or university marching band.
Marching bands are the unsung heroes of football. They must master music as well as movement. They practice and perform rain or shine. They must endure the “hospitality” offered to them when their team visits their rival. And for all their efforts, they don’t even get to be broadcasted on T.V., and most of the people in the stadium use halftime to grab a snack or take a whiz.
In a world where people can look up game scores in real time on their phones, why is the halftime report still relevant? Show us the band!
Marching band members both past and present were asked what challenges they faced and why they choose to endure them.
In the search for stories of marching band struggles, an anecdote came up from Shone Brooks. This story is from his time with the Michigan Marching Band. On November 21st, 1992, the Michigan Marching Band went down to Columbus, Ohio, the home of rival Ohio State. The Michigan Marching Band had just taken the field for their portion of the halftime show, and with them, a streaker, who proceeded to perform a cartwheel next to the band. Of course, had Shone quit after witnessing a nude Ohioan (a sight many never recover their sanity from), he never would have held the rare privilege to perform during the 1993 Rose Bowl.
Unfortunately, the time commitment, which had been mentioned by Chris earlier, proved to be too much for Shone, who eventually quit the marching band when he fell behind in his graduation schedule, and took up hockey band. This is quite likely the primary reason many people are no longer in marching band. They no longer want to devote all that time. It’s understandable when you realize that this Saturday has been the first Saturday Nathan hasn’t had a marching band function to attend since school began.
So please, next time you are at a football game, at least listen to the band every once in a while. They put an untold amount of work into their craft.
