Every year, the band marches, plays at football games, has early morning practices, go to competitions, amongst other activities. Not everyone thinks about what goes into being in band or what students in band really go through. Would you want to get up every morning to come to school to practice? Is it easy to march and play an instrument? Is it really difficult to be in band? 

Imagine waking up around five in the morning just to be at school by 6:45. Band students have to be at school before the sun rises to be able to practice and keep practicing all the way through first hour. Although they have to practice for a long time, they have a good time hanging out with one another.

“It’s a great time, you get to go and hang out with people while playing an instrument,” senior Abe Colburn said.

According to senior Kylie Hansen, being in band means being able to function as a team even when you don’t like someone, and no matter what, band always has to be a team and members must support one another to become better. Supporting each other helps everyone be on the same beat and make sure they play the same notes. 

“There are some situations where I didn’t really enjoy having the freshmen around but a lot of the time they’ve been a big help,” Hansen said. “They helped us load and unload the U-Haul, helped us move equipment, gotta love the freshmen percussionist. I enjoy them being around.” 

While the band plays at most of the football games and at assemblies. Band students think that they do a lot of work but many people don’t notice. They practice so much and many of the band students feel like they don’t get noticed unless it is during announcements. 

“I don’t think we do (get noticed), we work so hard for everything we do, and not even the student section claps for us, but at competitions, we do (get recognition) because fellow bands know how much effort a band has to put in and how much a group has to go through to get what we want,” junior Zoe Mendoza said. “Nobody really shows up to our stuff but we always show up to theirs.”

This year, band is working on involving the freshmen more. In past years, freshmen would not go to competitions. Although freshmen can not play at competitions, they are going and supporting their fellow band members. Seniors like having these 9th graders around, and think it’s good that freshmen are really getting to be part of band more this year. 

“I really like it,” Aubree Poppino said. “I think the freshmen have enjoyed what we’ve involved them in. At first, I was a little skeptical because there were a lot of bodies that we have to keep track of, and sometimes would get in the way when 50 kids are trying to change on a bus at competitions, and most of them aren’t even changing. But I’ve really enjoyed their presence.”