The Gloucester High School Marching Band is very busy. They have a class to learn music, rehearsal to practice, as well as football games and competitions to play and compete at. They have to memorize their music, their marches, and do them at the same time.
Samuel Venable is the person in charge of the band. He writes the music and plans the marches. He is also the one who teaches the music to them and makes sure they can play it correctly. Venable does have help from three other people though.
The band students have actual class every other day at school. Class consists of learning the music for the next football game or competition. Class is mostly about the music and less about the marching they will have to do. They redo pieces they messed up on and practice pieces that are completely new.
In rehearsal they review their last show and go over what mistakes were made so they can work on them. They try to fix their mistakes and do better in their next competition. Rehearsal is also the class that they learn their marches in. They have to memorize all of the steps they take or they’ll be in the wrong place and mess everybody else up.
Sophia Hollifield said that the movement memorization is harder than the music memorization. This is her first year in marching band and it is very new to her. The marching is also new to Emmitt Smith. She also stated that having to remember where to walk while having to remember what to play is a difficult task.
The band plays at every football game that happens at GHS. They play in the stands for most of the time, but like all of the football games on TV, they do a halftime show. This is when they have to do the marching part of marching band.
In addition to the football games they play at, they have competitions to go to every Saturday from late Sept. to early Nov. They are judged and given a score along with every other high school marching band there. The score they get from this competition and how they performed is what they review and fix in rehearsal.
Interviewees were asked to rate the difficulty of marching band on a scale of one to 10, 10 being the most difficult. Sophia Levitov rated the marching band a 6 ½, Arella Wiliams rated it a five, Hollifield rated it a seven, Smith rated it an 8 ½, and Alexis Veasey rated it a two.
When asked why they rated it this, it all came down to memorization. For some people memorizing was a more difficult task and for others it was simple. The instrument they played did not seem to make the course harder or easier nor did how long they’d been practicing band.
Despite marching band being difficult for most, they seem to enjoy it. It has been categorized as a positive, social environment that keeps everyone active.
“It’s a very welcoming atmosphere,” said Hollifield.
“I don’t know what I’d do without band,” stated Smith.
“Try out band because it’s really fun and a good community of people,” was a suggestion from Williams.
Even though band can be hard sometimes and is very time consuming, people urge others to try it out. The teacher is very good at getting the music and steps into someone’s head and joining gives students something to do outside of school. The community of people is very fun and inviting. Band in general is an enjoyable activity that allows GHS students to gain experience with the music they like.
