Life as a Band Kid

Written by Emma Mills

You practice for hours and hours in one day. The work is physically and mentally exhausting. Months are spent repeating one thing until it is perfect. You must work as one mind with your group or everything will fall apart. When you finally put your skills to the test, everything comes together. All your hard work has paid off and you, as a group, perform perfectly. You feel so satisfied and proud. 

This activity isn’t football, basketball, or any sport. It’s band. 

Many people do not understand how difficult playing an instrument can be. As a member of the Daphne High School Band, I can personally attest to how challenging it can be to play your instrument correctly and at a high technical level. It doesn’t just consist of blowing air into a horn or hitting a drum with a stick. Musicians must use a combination of mental focus and physical strength. 

For wind instruments such as a clarinet, trumpet or tuba you must have strong diaphragm muscles in order to sustain air and pitches, and you must know how to control your embouchure, or facial muscles, to get a clean beautiful sound. In addition, musicians put their mind to the test. They must simultaneously use these physical aspects with mental aspects such as reading music, playing correctly and matching tone and pitch with the rest of the band, as well as keeping time. 

Daphne High School has one of the best bands in the county due to the dedication and hard work of the students and the excellent guidance of the band directors, Mr. Dumas and Mr. Foster. 

During the fall we have marching band and practice our half-time show. We spend the entire summer memorizing our parts, learning how to march and putting that all together in a coordinated marching pattern. It is hot, grueling work but it is all worth it when we hear our band name called out for one of the top spots at a competition. 

In winter and spring we stop marching and switch gears to symphonic band. We are currently in symphonic band season, and we have spent from November until March working on our music. 

On March 3, 2015, we journeyed to Baker High School in Mobile to perform our Music Performance Assessment. It is the single reason that we have been perfecting our music. Our two bands, symphonic and concert, performed their pieces. 

It is exhilarating to be on stage with the lights trained on you, people staring at your face and people listening to you perform, judging you. After the performance we felt so proud; however, it was not over. 

We then had to walk across the hall to a room where we would sight read a piece of music. This means that we have to play a piece of music that we have never seen in our lives.  We only get one chance to do it, and someone is judging us. When we finally walked out of the building we were exhausted. We were already satisfied with our performance, so we were ecstatic to learn that all of the judges gave us the highest scores possible. 

I am so proud to say that I am part of the Daphne High School band!