As the cold icey air bit the audience Nov. 22 at 6 p.m., the marching band made their way across the stadium, forming a circle on the field. Band director Taylor Duchai invited audience members to the stadium. Viewers progressed to the center of the circle where they sat surrounded as the musicians ran through various warm ups. The brisk atmosphere set an ethereal tone for the band’s carefully constructed performance.
The band has been building on the same performance since the beginning of the school year. The show, being inspired by George Orwell’s “1984”, uses quotes from the book with a haunting melody, capturing the same tone as felt in the dystopian story. The quotes are incorporated with samples from a company called Project rise. The quotes along with the entire show come from this company.
“It was a very good show… it was a lot better than last year’s community performance by an incredible amount,” Duchai said.
As tradition the seniors left the field to watch a rerun of the concert offering a glimpse of the band’s future soon to be without them. Though the sound felt less full without the upperclassmen, the rest of the band delivered a great performance.
Performances take extensive amounts of coordination as there are 61 members divided into 4 different sections.
“I would say one of the biggest struggles as far as actually teaching the show is that there’s winds, the battery, the front ensemble and the color guard.” Duchai said. “That’s four different ways you have to change how you teach the show to them,”
The band director uses drone footage recording the band to look for any mistakes made to make the show as flawless as possible.
Community performances are mainly for the families of the musicians to be able to hear the band clearly and see their progress. Marching band routinely plays at halftime during football games and oftentimes the audience members make lots of noise since many are there solely for the game.
Marching band practices Mondays and Tuesdays from 3 p.m. – 6 p.m., Wednesdays from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and
Fridays from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. — 11 hours of practice a week total, on top of many band members also taking advanced classes. Upper Woodwinds section leader and Senior Bower Gillespie practices 2 to 3 hours a day, all while taking AP classes.
“I try to do schoolwork between periods… I take breaks between to stay regulated.” Gillespie said.
The marching band recently won a third place trophy at a competition in Camarillo, with a score of 75.10. Marching band takes more effort than it may seem; during field tournaments members of the marching band arrive at school at 9 a.m., and take buses to the competition and head home at midnight.
Though learning an instrument can be difficult, marching band is a very rewarding group to be a part of. Many members have built strong connections with each other, it’s described to be almost impossible not to make friends.
“It’s a very positive environment, and you’re always going to be supported by a big group of people.” Gillespie said.
