When the air starts to feel crisp you know that it's the perfect time for football season. That means its also marching band season! High school bands across the country will be perfecting their halftime shows and putting in countless hours of practice. I look back to my years in high school band and I miss it. As a college freshman, I've realized how much my band experience has shaped who I am and helped me prepare for college.
College is a big step up from high school. It requires you to completely shift your learning style and suddenly you are working harder and paying for it... wee! However, if you are lucky enough to be a member of a marching band, odds are you are much more likely to have the skills necessary to do well.
Marching band teaches you...
1. Hard work.
Marching band is not for the faint of heart. Students must know their spots in the show, how to get to their spot, how to march correctly, have the music memorized and basically do it all at the same time.
When I was in band, my band director had this saying, "It's the hard that makes it good." This was his way of saying that if we worked hard, we would see a reward. Learning how to work hard in band was so helpful to me for college because I had learned that if I worked hard, I could earn something and feel like I've accomplished something worthwhile.
2. How to follow leaders.
When you are a part of a team that requires a lot of cooperation, you usually have to have several leadership positions in place to make sure everything is running smoothly.
My marching band had section leaders, drill captains, drum majors and also big brothers/sisters. Each new band member had to find an upperclassman to be their big brother or big sister. We were instructed to try and find someone who we thought to be helpful and reliable. From my experience in choosing a big sister, I learned the importance of seeking out wise counsel. I knew how to distinguish the helpful upperclassman from the one that would forget to remind me of important things such as when to arrive on a game day and all the necessary tidbits that underclassman seem to forget.
Just like the first year of marching band, the first year of college is like sailing into unknown waters. It can be scary. However, finding an upperclassman who has been there done that, so to speak, can be a life-saver. They can help you know what professors to take, and can help you avoid all the silly mistakes they made.
3. To get out of your comfort zone.
If you have ever felt pressured to stick to the status quo, then you have not had the pleasure of being a band kid. A marching band is made up of so many different types of people and it just starts feeling like your second family.
During football games, I have seen so many introverted kids start dancing, laughing and having a grand old time. In my experience, I tried to get involved in all the group dances as much as I could. Even though I am a horrible dancer, it was so fun to get out of my comfort zone and have fun with my band family.
In college, it's great to explore different clubs and organizations on campus. College is a time where you discover more about yourself, and being a band member helped me explore more of who I was. It helped prepare me for all the times I've had to reach outside my comfort zone (becoming a writer for The Odyssey is one example!).
4. To be on time.
Marching season requires lots of rehearsal time, and if you show up late, you're wasting it, and odds are your band director won't be too happy about it.
In order for marching band to run smoothly, everyone must be present. The people around you help you to get to your spot, so if the people around you show up 15 minutes late, they create problems for the entire band.
I was supposed to show up for band before 8 a.m. to make sure I was out on the field by 8. Making sure I was on time for band has helped me with the issue of time for college classes. I know I am not getting my money's worth if I'm not showing up on time. It also helped me realize how rude it was to my professor and my peers if I showed up while they were trying to teach/learn.
5. How to work with difficult people.
While band is full of a lot of great cooperative people, there will always be a few people that we work with that are hard to communicate with. You may have clashing personalities and different ideas on how to do things but a big part of the band experience is that you have to work through your differences.
This is a skill that transfers well in college because sometimes you have to work in groups. If you thought you were done with group projects, I'm so sorry. It has been my experience that college still includes group projects. If your dreading the idea of that, don't worry, you are not alone.
However, if you have skills in working with difficult people from Marching Band, then you know how to conquer even the most difficult group assignment. Life requires you to work with people, even after college.
Thinking about marching band will always bring back great memories for me, but it also allows me to think back to how well it prepared me for college. I encourage every band kid to stick with it and make the most of their time in band because they can get a lot more out of it than they might think!
