By: Lizzy Lavin –

“Band is a really big family [of] about 200 people,” said senior member Shaylee Wagner. “We all are really close. Even [though] we aren’t all friends, we all know each other.”

Wagner has been a bass clarinet player in Marching Band since her freshman year. She has been playing the instrument overall since fourth grade. While the minimum requirement to join Marching Band is the ability to play an instrument, it takes a lot more than that to be successful in this activity.

“A day in the life of a marching band member is waking up at six in the morning to get to school at 7 a.m. {Then we usually]  go out to the practice field and march for two hours,” said Wagner.

Some days members start their day and end their day with marching.

“Sometimes we’ll have Seacrest practice at nights or we’ll play volleyball games or we’ll go to football games,” said Wagner.

Time commitment is only one of the many dedications a member would need. Marching Band is more complex than the ability to play an instrument, it takes a persistent desire to perform one’s best while putting on a show.

“I think some people don’t realize how much time and effort we put into our show,” said Wagner.

In addition to playing an instrument and hitting all the right notes, members of Marching Band also have to master movement during performances.

“We put on a show on the field, which is really hard,” said Wagner. “We memorize our whole show and our drill, which is the movement on the field. Then we perform at football games. It takes a lot of work.”  

Watching members at halftime during football or having their practice wake you up while walking from the parking lot to your first class of the day, that effort and performances take a lot from one member, even when there are almost 200 students participating.  

“It’s different than any other performance I’ve ever done before.” said Wagner, “Performing at Seacrest, it’s so much different [compared to a stage] because you can see everyone.”

The nerves can especially kick in when it comes to competitions. And contest season is approaching for Marching Band.

“The whole stands are filled at marching band competitions and it’s absolutely terrifying.” said Wagner.

When it comes to competitions, it isn’t judged from afar, judges are on the field with the members while they perform.

“Judges are walking around next to you, doing your drill, listening to you play your music,” said Wagner.”You’re personally responsible to make the band better as an individual even though you are just yourself. The judge could pick one person and march with them the whole time.”

Even though the Marching Band is very large, and one may think they can’t be heard amongst the din of noise, members know just how important one musician is to the entire performance.