CHS band students get ready for football season. 

The stadium crowd goes silent, the drum major raises their mace, and their 200 hearts beating at once. The band students beginning a new year are feeling stressed, excited, and nervous. During the summer rehearsals often start in the heat in July, running 8 to 12 hours a day outdoors. Marching while carrying heavy brass instruments, a 35 pound snare drum, or a sousaphone builds extreme leg core, back strength members rely on gallon water jugs, athletic shoes, sunscreen, flip folders for their sheet music. I talked to a band student named Jeremiah Rambo and he said playing music brings him a type of joy that nothing else does, and I wanted to try it anyway. When I first heard the music it scared me,it looked really hard and I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to play it. Now I realize it wasn’t as hard as I thought it was. Letter F is where we all struggled the most, it took us a bit to get the slowdown correct, after that i’d say the flow down at I, it goes from really fast to 72 bpm. Involves roughly 150 to 200 total students in the high school band across the broader band program, with a large general marching band and a focused competitive marching unit. Includes wind and brass players, battery and front ensemble percussion, and a colorguard Performs Pre-game and half time shows at football games. I interviewed this band student named Kayleigh Woolsey said she decided to join marching band because she wanted to follow her uncle footsteps it was a way to make friends learn new thing as a kid when i joined in 6th grade I didn’t really understand what I was becoming apart of and what I wanted to do but I grew a strong passion for it and helped me so much and let me branch out make new friends and now I”m captain and im a example and I’m giving back to new people I’m showing them than branching out and meeting new people is okay to do. My section supports each other when things get stressed by doing little things. Such as taking things off their plate like caring for each other. If someone doesn’t feel good they help each other by counting and knowing their music as they help each other out and communicate. When I first set drill I felt very overwhelmed and was wondering what I wanted to happen next wondering how I was going to make it to my spot in time and if I had to play my music or was the set just marching and not playing. Probably the transitions at the tempo change  its hard cause we move and also set the tempo for the band. If you step off at the wrong time someone gets hurt if you don’t play your part the band gets off so you always have to be prepared and on your toes about when the transition happens. Just being confident on the sets how many counts they are how far you go and how your music lines up with the drill and the band but It can be difficult you have to really decide at first what you want to fix do you want to fix the note or do you want to fix your marching you pick and then you fix it after you fix it you move on to the next thing you want to fix and then you pair them together and make sure they don’t clash and they work together that is how marching band works you learn your instrument and then you learn how they work then you pair them together and make them work together.