Reflective Essay: How Marching Band Changed My Life

To the average person, the high school marching band is nothing more than a bunch of geeks that play during half time at the football games or monopolize the benches by the band hall, but to me, it is so much more. To me it is a family, a safe haven, a creative outlet, a home. I have been involved in marching band for three years, going on four, and I wouldn 't trade the experience for anything. When I entered high school as a scared and awkward freshman, I immediately had three hundred people that I could rely on. The program quickly became like a second home to me and opened up a whole new path in my life. Playing percussion took on a whole new definition in my eyes and I gained not only a greater respect for music, but for the people that created it and managed it and loved it like no other. Through my high

Marching Band is rapidly becoming a sport. Some people believe that marching band is not a sport while some believe it is. Marching band falls under the sports category, according to the Oxford dictionary Marching band is a sport, because a sport is something involving physical exertion where people can compete against others.

Did you know that marching band members spend so much time putting drill on the field for an entire summer break?The Friday nights, and Saturday afternoons we spend on a football field? The energy, sweat, and pride we put onto a football field or parking lot? All this, but unfortunately, marching band is still known for an “elective”.

By definition, a sport is an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment, which is exactly what marching band is. There's is a scoring system, and after almost every parade with bands, there's an award ceremony where the bands receive their scores and find out their rank. Marching itself, with the choreographed movements throughout the performance of the band, is already physically challenging. However, the people in it are also carrying around their instruments. Some of them, like the sousaphones, weigh 30-35 pounds. Furthermore, drums, depending on their size, come in at around 20 pounds. Even if the instrument isn't

Marching band a sport? Many people would say that is a crazy idea while others may understand it completely. Marching band is playing a musical instrument while marching a certain way to a tempo. Marching band is a form of entertainment that competes at competitions against other marching bands. Myself, knowing what marching band is and how it works from personal experience, marching band should be considered a sport.

As I embark on the newest chapter in my life it occurs to me that I must first take time to fully process and appreciate the magnitude of what it really is to be a Warrant Officer in the United States Army. From my own perspective as well as the perspective seen from society I can see my new responsibilities will hold a paramount position in many different aspects. This being said, I can look forward to a major shift in what my focus will be and how my decisions will directly impact those around me.

Even before I had my first day of school at McGavock high school I had already been going to practices for the marching band. I had just been a freshman when I joined, and I had not known about the long legacy that

I have always been a particularly musical person. When I was younger, I wanted to become a singer when I grew up, but upon joining the choir in elementary I realized I did not have the talent for singing that I thought I had. Continually singing off key and never sounding as good as my peers did, I decided to confine myself to singing at home where only my family could hear me. Despite this revelation that I was, in fact, a terrible singer, I still wanted to participate in some type of musical performance and decided to join the band in middle school. After trying out various different instruments, I settled on the flute and quickly fell in love.

“Marching band is for dorks and nerds that have nothing to do”, I used to think to myself. After all, the media has portrayed band students to be this way. How could I not think that band kids had no social life and were all geeky! It was a flaw of mine to believe the stereotypes, but after my friend constantly insisted in me trying out for the color guard, I could not say no. Weeks passed by as I thought about

When you think of sports, marching band is not necessarily something that comes to mind but should definitely be included in the category of a sport. First, marching band fits the definition of a sport by being physically exerting and requiring skill. A marching band not only consists of band members that play instruments, but also include the color guard. The color guard is a section of the band that does not play an instrument but uses props, flags or other items to enhance the visual appeal of the performance. Most times they can do as much, if not more, work than the members that play instruments. Second, playing in a marching band requires a lot of skill. Band members must march in time while playing music from memory and traveling to different points on the field at designated times. The definition of a sport includes activities that can be played by an individual or a team. Marching band is a group effort but requires an individual band member to perform to the best of their ability. Without each member fulfilling their part, a marching band’s performance

“Ting, tong, tong, tong, ting, tong, tong, tong,” the doctor beat echos through the bitter cold October air in the early hours of a Saturday morning. It’s marching season. Band kids across northern Indiana are hard at work perfecting their show for competition that has yet to come in the afternoon. The past three months have been used to learn and fine tune their show to it 's best. Long hours of hard work, sweat, tears, dedication, time, love, and much more is put into a band program and what comes out of it is a strong group of individuals who have the ability to do great things in life. Lessons that you learn during the course of your marching band career will stay with you for the

Imagine you were standing on a massive football field with thousands of eyes on you. Your legs quiver with excitement, ready to show the audience what you and your closest friends have got. And it begins; your very first marching band performance. This is the beautiful part of marching band: compassion, friendship, competitiveness, courage, and the strength to continue. This is why marching band is a sport.

Easy to encounter, not so easy to overcome, failures claw at hopes and successes. They bring down those who are weak enough to let them in. They strengthen those that can get past them. I got past one that almost ruined my chances for new opportunities.

It is extremely irritating when people do not recognize all the sports that are out there. Sure, there are a lot of them but if we can consider cheerleading a sport then I think that we can call marching band a sport. People do not understand why I am so easily annoyed when they diss this great sport.

Marching band began 2 days after my 15th birthday. I was both excited and scared of what was to happen to my well being. Would I make friends, would I be mocked, would I get yelled at? Most of all, would I die. Oh, but how can you die in marching band you might ask? There are these trained assassins of the band, the most malevolent people of all. Mess with them and off to the hospital you go. Am I kidding? Not at all. They are called the guard. I was glad that in the beginning we didn’t practice with them