DAY IN THE LIFE: Marching Band Section Leader
What does a marching band musician really go through in a day?
5:45 a.m.
My school day begins relatively normally. I wake up and prepare myself for the upcoming classes.
7:11 a.m.
First period is jazz band, then I walk to homeroom, AP Language, then AP US History, journalism, lunch, AP Spanish, and then AP Calculus. With such a hefty schedule, you might expect me to avoid extracurricular activities, especially one that comes with such a heavy time commitment as marching band. However, my love and passion for music cannot keep me away from this group.
1:53 p.m.
I take advantage of the time between the end of school and the start of practice. In order to maintain my grades and my sanity, I do all the homework I can, and of course, I eat. A three-hour-long practice requires some kind of fuel beforehand!
3:50 p.m.
Entering the band room, I’m greeted with the familiar noises of the winds and battery (more commonly referred to as the drumline) readying their equipment so they can head down to the blacktop quickly and efficiently. Instruments, music binders, drill charts, water, and other miscellaneous items are all necessary for our practices to be productive.
As a front ensemble co-section leader and a senior, I’m supposed to get to practice at 3:45, but I set a bad example and arrive about five minutes late. It’s fine most of the time, since Seth Ramirez is my co-section leader, and he is always there at the right time. Plus, no one ever really notices my tardiness except for him.
Every Thursday, the front ensemble has to take their equipment down to the blacktop by the tennis courts (or the field if we get it) at a certain time. Front-ensemble musicians do not march*, but Seth and I are skilled at marching, and the rest of our section is required to learn how to march and respond to the various commands.
Today, the marchers are finishing the drill — the directions they follow for marching — for the second movement. Marchers have to memorize all the spots they’re given. It’s a daunting task: remembering where to go and getting to that place in the allotted counts given, all while playing one’s instrument. The memorization of our show music, “Bound,” is necessary when they learn the drill.
Most of the winds and percussion players bear the task with ease and wisdom. The talent and determination required of students in marching band is impressive, and being a part of it is even more amazing.
I am pleasantly surprised when I hear that front-ensemble does not have to go down until 5:00 P.M. exactly. This means we can be in a sectional while the winds do the body warm-up and finish their drill. Mr. Barrett and Shane Wilcox, our percussion instructor, tell us to arrive at the blacktop by that time, but we like to take some sweet time and arrive a few minutes late. Until it’s time to go, Seth and I lead sectionals with our section.
I’m not too assertive of a person, so I’m always trying to improve my leadership skills in sectionals. We agree that by four o’clock, we’ll play movement two and three all together with the click track. As I look around, I see Lily Brown, our xylophone player, and Dylan Boggs, our glockenspiel player, playing along to the click track through earbuds. I get really proud when people in our section better themselves, and Lily has improved heaps since her freshman year. With a little more training, I’m sure she will be an impressive mallet-percussionist next year. Phillip Cross, the first synth player, walks up to me and shows me a video. He really liked the video and wanted to show it to me, which makes me feel important in a way.
I tell him to work on the end of movement two and work on movement three more. Seth plays the marimba, and I practice memorization of movement three on my vibraphone. We all work on our own during sectionals before getting back together at 4:00. The run-through of movement three does not go so well. Seth and I decide to give our section more individual time to prepare and regroup around 4:30.
4:50 p.m.
We start unenthusiastically wheeling the marimbas, my vibraphone, and the auxiliary cart to the set of stairs by the MPR. Taking these up-to-two-hundred-pound instruments down the stairs is not something I look forward to. A few wind players run up from the blacktop to come help us, since some of our front-ensemble members head down immediately. I arrive to the blacktop at what I assume is around our target time.
5:00 p.m.
The winds and battery finish the movement two drill, giving us the opportunity to practice with them while they march. This is uber important because we all have to watch Mr. Barrett and follow his tempo in order to stay together. This sounds easy, but if one person falls off the tempo, others will join in. Getting back into our band director’s tempo is a chore, so becoming used to his tempo is necessary for success. Since sections will practice at a tempo that’s sometimes different from Mr. Barrett’s, it’s hard to break that habit of muscle memory and follow him when we perform together.
The pursuit of excellence is only achieved if we put effort and quality into our weekly practices.
The mantra we follow is to perform while practicing. How can we expect to perform well if we do not treat run-throughs like performances? Following this mantra is essential for me, and I strive to instill it in my section. The pursuit of excellence is only achieved if we put effort and quality into our weekly practices, three hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays and two hours on Wednesdays.
5:25 p.m.
I begin to realize that today will be a rough practice. We’re not together on tempo, and some parts of the new drill are difficult for a handful of marchers. Dismayed, all the section leaders and Mr. Barrett seem to be in a much less excited mood, and it spreads like wildfire to everyone else. I try my best to stay in tempo and ignore outside influences, but I find myself straying away from tempo at times.
Mr. Barrett decides to gather us in the middle of the blacktop and discuss the elephant in the room. We’re not following his tempo and we’re all in a bad mood, which prevents us from improving. The discussion helps a little bit, but the lack of enthusiasm lingers, giving us a good last run-through but not the best we can do.
5:50 p.m.
Slightly disheartened, I pick that final run-through apart in my head while hauling my vibraphone back up to the band room. What could I have done better? What went wrong? As a section leader, how could I have improved my section’s performance? I have a shared responsibility with Seth to make our section great. It’s a daunting and anxiety-inducing task at times.
6:10 p.m.
On the drive home, I collect my thoughts. We devote so much time and work into this activity, and I want this band to succeed. Many people do not know what the marching band does, and some have only a skewed image of marching bands in general. My goal is to inspire more awe towards the marching band, like how the school watches and appreciates the cheerleaders and heat team. We perform just like them, after all, and put in hours upon hours of preparation for our seven-minute-and-fifty-second show.
Everything we do leads up to the unique rush of performing my heart out and putting everything I can muster into an unforgettable performance.
I love this performing art with all of my heart. Although I don’t enjoy practices all of the time, everything we do is worth it. The two weeks of band-camp before school starts, the practices in the unrelenting summer sun, the countless gallons of sweat produced, and the constant learning and perfecting of my music lead up to the unique rush of performing my heart out and putting everything I can muster into displaying an impactful, impressive, and unforgettable performance.
Carissa Napier is a member of the Class of 2019 academic top ten. She will apply to UCI and UCLA this fall, among other schools.
