All- State Band and auditions

For high school band kids, and any musician, there is one thing similar. We all want to be an “All-Stater”. Many of us don’t get in and some of us don’t even get the chance to go to audition. Kennedy sends 30 kids from band to audition and it’s possible that maybe 7 will make it in. People who want a chance to audition start working in August or early September to prepare for the audition.

When school rolls around we start with pre-auditions, this is where Mrs. Fleer and Mr. Wacker figure out who will be going to the audition and who is getting cut. No one wants to get cut, but sometimes it has to happen; plus there is always the next year. This year about 10 people got cut from the group, which is a lot more compared to the last couple years. More and more people are getting interested in All State, which is a great thing for the band as a whole.

Once it gets down to who is going, it starts with clinics. Every Monday night when we have marching band practice, Mrs. Fleer and Mr. Wacker bring in people to help the ones who are getting the chance to audition. There is so much time, money and practice put into All- State. During SMART lunch twice a week, we have All-State seminars, which is set up to be a tool to help us get ready for the actual audition and to help us get more comfortable playing in front of people.

The audition for All- State Band happens in October; this year it is October 24^th in Oelwein, Iowa. It is the biggest opportunity band kids have. No matter how the audition goes you are still a winner, because if you don’t make it into All-State Band, you almost have a guaranteed spot in NEIBA. Which is a great honor band.

“Fake it ‘till you make it”; that phrase has become Mr. Wacker’s favorite thing to say. Most band kids live by that saying, so even if you think you can’t do it, just try and you will be able to accomplish anything you set your mind to. As a junior, I’m not a very good player and never thought I even had a chance at All-State but living off of that statement from Mr. Wacker I have just under a month until auditions and I’m pretty hopeful.

So all in all All-State is A LOT of work, but it pays off a lot in the end. If you go for the audition you basically have an automatic spot in Wind Symphony, which if you did not know if the top band at Kennedy, also it helps on trying to get into honor bands.

Cougar Marching Band

The 2015 Cougar Marching Band is off to a great start; way better than the last two years. And being in marching band, and knowing how it's supposed to work I can honestly say this year we might actually get somewhere. I think that marching band is a great experience and that everyone should be in it. Maybe marching band isn't the coolest sport or activity. But it is a great time and it creates a lot of great memories.

Marching band, for band kids, is like a way of life. It's not just an activity, or another class, or an easy A. It's just what we do. We don't do it cause we have to, we do it cause we want to be there. And the feeling you get taking the field is great, everything else disappears and nothing else matter except drill and your music. Everyone knows how we do after a performance before we were even told based on how we did personally and from what you can hear and see from down on the field.

I'm gonna be honest being a marcher it is a lot of work! We have evening rehearsals twice a week 6-9 at night. Then we have first hour every day cause it is considered a class. Sometimes we even have Saturday rehearsals before a compition to review and clean drill. Also football games, every home varsity football game, the band is there. We play the Star-Spangled Banner pregame, and march our show during half time.

Have you thought about college? Or do you need help paying for college? Band can help you with that. With most colleges out there you can get a music scholarship if you are a good player. Even if you don't want to major or minor in music, or do anything with music at all. And with college being so expensive now a days, any amount of scholarship money can help out a ton! 

Also most upper classmen in band watch out and try to help the under classmen in band. We are like one huge family. Need help on homework? Don't understand something? Ask your section leader or another upperclassmen. Cause it's almost garunteed that at least one of us has taken the class or classes that you sturggle or need help in. So advocate for yourself and ask.

So long story short, marching band is a great experience, and is a great idea.

Johnston

Johnston is usually the first competition that the 2015 Cougar Marching band takes place in. This year was no different. Saturday September 19th, we loaded the bus to head to Johnston High School. It was a pretty great day and a decent first performance. This year we were a lot farther along and had a lot more drill on the field compared to the last two years.

My freshmen year, the 2013 marching band. That year our show was from the movie and play Alice in Wonderland; Lost in Wonderland. That year, it didn't start out all that well. Going in to Johnston we had maybe 10 sets of drill on the field, at the most. Compared to this year where we have 43 sets of drill on the field already. But we ended out the year strong, In about 7th place at Valley(Valley is our biggest competition).

My sophomore year, which would be the 2014 Couagr Marching Band, we had about the whole opener on the field which is a big step up from the last year. The opener has on average maybe 25-30 sets at the most, which is pretty decent. Our show that year was from the tv hit Dr. Who. 

Each year we get better and better, like this year we have done better with our marching stay than the last two years, and we haven't done as well with our upper body placement and marching while facing the sideline. So we do have our strengths and weaknesses, but all in all we are a tough band, and we get what we need to get done.

How to march

During marching band there is so much work and time put into it. Most of it is even before school starts, usually the first week in August we start working. It starts with band camp, to the “basics”. The basics include several things that we use all marching band season, and out of season. And it carries with us most of the time no matter if we are on the field or in practice or just going to class.

The first thing you will learn is upper body; it is probably one of the easiest but most important thing we learn during basics. You have to keep your upper body facing the sideline and perfectly straight unless you are specifically told not to. It’s usually really easy unless we are doing an “8-5” facing the sideline. Most of the time it is really easy to tell if you are facing the wrong direction with your instrument. With some instruments it hurts to face the sideline, like flutes, we have to keep it straight all the time.

Then you learn how to stay in step which is the second most important thing in marching band. Being out of step is probably the worst thing you can do as a member of a marching band. If someone is out of step it is really easy to tell. So you have to really focus on staying in time even if that means not playing the music.

The next thing we learn is how to forward march; forward marching is the easiest thing to do. You pop your knee out on the “& of count 8” and take a step on count 1.  It might seem like you don’t even have to work on that, but there’s more to it than just taking one simple step. You have to keep your upper body straight towards the front with perfect posture.

The most important thing to forward marching is you can not bounce when marching! Or else it makes the whole form look funky. So upper body has to stay straight and stiff, and you roll through the step. It’s not like just walking normally, your heel hits the ground first and its one smooth motion. It can’t be choppy.

Then you will learn is how to back march, this one is a little more complicated. In order to back march you have to have a lot of balance. To start out instead of popping out your knee on the “& of 8” you have to get up on your toes. It’s kind of like tip toeing backwards, but harder. Your legs have to stay straight and you have to keep your weight evenly distributed between your feet or else you will lose your balance and probably fall over when we close.

Closing is hard to do back marching, because you are up on your toes, so you have to put your feet down softly or it will throw you off (Even upper classman lose their balance so don’t feel bad is you do). But with back marching, just like forward marching, it is even more important not to bounce. It look even worse when you bounce going back compared to going forward.

So all in all it is actually pretty difficult to be a marcher in a marching band. We just make it seem easy because most of us have done it for multiple years, and we really try our best to help the freshmen who can’t march, because we are like a family and it’s our job to help and take care of each other.