Practice makes perfect in marching band

Most people underestimate marching band. They don’t realize all of the hard work that goes into it.  In fact, marching band isn’t as easy as you think.  Numerous hours of practice go into learning the field show and making it perfect.  Because of the many hours we practice, marching band in my opinion requires more hard work than any other extracurricular activity.

            Marching band practices start in the summer, and the season usually ends in November.  We practice in a range of 90 to 30 degree weather.  In addition, we practice outside when it rains.  We learn to deal with the conditions in order to make our show great.  We also deal with the conditions or our field.  In the past, we marched on our field when it looked like a swamp.  Even if conditions are bad, we still continue marching and keep doing our best.  During halftime at our home football game, it started to snow.  The snow stuck to the field, and yard lines weren’t visible.  The other band still continued to march their show even though a blanket of snow covered the field.  The snow made it hard for them to see where they were going, and probably ruined the tone of their instruments, but they still gave the performance their all.

            Marching band practices last a long time.  In August, we have band camp where we practice for eight hours every day for the first week.  During this week we learn basic marching, and start learning our field show for competitions.  For the whole month of August, we practice almost every day.  Marching band shares the same similarities as a sport.  They both involve a work out.  We stretch and run laps before we start practicing, just like any sport would.  Even though we do receive water breaks, practice causes exhaustion and soreness.  Wisegeek.com says, “Shows are typically about five to ten minutes long and may be performed in any kind of weather.  Depending upon the skill of a band, a show can be an extraordinarily hard work out.”  Marching band combines athleticism and musicianship.

            After summer practices, we practice during the week.  Then, we play in football games where we practice even more.  Finally, on competition days we start practice in the morning and practice almost all day for our performance in the evening.  Marching band takes hard work and dedication from everyone.  In addition, practices can involve many run-throughs of the show from top to bottom.  Marching the whole show over and over causes exhaustion.  I think we practice just as much as sports, maybe even more.  Also, we add musicianship to athleticism; we not only move quickly but also play difficult, memorized music at the same time.  This seems much harder than any extracurricular activity.  We practice together all the time during marching season.  I don’t think any other activity involves this much practice and hard work.  I’ve never worked this hard for perfection in my life, and I don’t think other people in marching band have either.