When you think of a high school band, you probably think of sitting in a band room playing music. When people think of high school marching band, they think of football games and competitions. There can be so many more experiences that can be had in a high school band.
Being a freshman in high school I definitely thought that being in my high school’s marching band would just be us going to the football games and the competitions. What I didn’t realize is that there are so many more events that I would get to be a part of.
One event was in November of 2018. It was Veterans Day and throughout the day I was getting texts from our head drum major that the marching band and select concert band members had an important meeting that night and we must attend. We were not in school this day, so it was strange to me that they were calling a meeting when we weren’t at school. That night my parents drove me and dropped me off at the band room and I went in. When we all were inside the band room, our band director told us that we would be performing at the CMA Awards with a Country Music star in 3 days. From that moment our band was in show mode. We had early rehearsal on Monday morning at school, then dress rehearsal the next day, then the show the following day. Being able to share that big stage with one of the biggest Country Music stars was incredible and something that I will never forget.
I thought for sure that the experience of the CMA Awards would be the last big experience of the year. In the second semester, we got told once again that we had a special meeting. This time it was the marching band and concert band meeting. We were told we would get the opportunity to march in Disney World down Main Street. I don’t know about a lot of people, but to be able to have a Disney World experience where I get to play music with some of the music creators for movies and create a shortened movie soundtrack, and get to march down Main Street is something I never thought I would get to do. So, over our spring break, we got to go to Disney and have a music session where we recorded music from a movie, then the movie music creators put it with the film. It was like we got to create a short Disney movie, although the movie had been created already, with the sounds of our band instead of the original. It was so fascinating and cool to learn about and see what being a musician at Disney would be like, both a movie musician as well as a park musician.
Never expect to know every opportunity music will give you--sometimes there will be surprises that become memories for a lifetime!