Summer camp drills set tone for fall marches
“Reset back to one! Reset back to one! Run the whole thing again!”
“Every time you do it, improve something!”
The commands are barked out over a practice field marked off in yard lines.
But it's not a coach drilling new plays into his high school squad at a football camp. It's Moniteau band director Mark Rodgers putting his charges through their paces on an overcast Friday.
On practice fields and parking lots in the waning days of summer vacation, high school bands have been putting in time in their own camps, learning the music and movements that will make up the halftime shows for the upcoming football season.
For the 85 members of the Moniteau marching band and dancing drill team, Thursday's practice has been going on since 8:30 a.m. The band has been practicing 4½ hours a day from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. five days a week since Aug 6.
For the 75 members of the Mars marching band and color guard, the practices are even longer, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on the school parking lot for four days a week since July 30.
Mars band director Tammi Redmond said the extra hours are needed.
“We do lots more drill than other bands in the area,” Redmond said. “Most bands will march for two or three songs and then stand still, but we move the whole time.”“It makes for a lot more music, a lot more rehearsal and a lot more repetition,” she said.Both Rodgers and Redmond are using the summer practices to both work in new music and new band members filling spots left by graduating seniors.“We have 17 new members this fall. That's about average. A quarter of any band is new,” said Rodgers.Redmond said she has to integrate about a third of the band as new members.“I would say we have about 23 freshmen. It's a little more than usual, concentrated in the woodwinds and percussion,” Redmond said.In addition to adapting to new members, the bands have to learn new music and formations.“We plan throughout the week. We figure out the movements first, then add the music,” said Rodgers. “We'll do four songs for half time and three songs for our pregame performance.” “The strengths and weaknesses of each section determines what the halftime show is,” Rodgers said.
He said this year the band will be performing a pop music show featuring really contemporary songs: “Rolling in the Deep” by Adele, “You Belong With Me” by Taylor Swift, “Party Rock Anthem” by LMFAO and “Last Friday Night” by Katy Perry.“We really have to reach the students where they are musically and culturally,” said Rodgers.“We really try to pick music that reaches the students' interest, that is the band members', the student body's interest and the interest of the community and supporters,” Rodgers said.Rodgers designed the halftime show. He has designed halftime shows for other high schools, including this fall's halftime show for Butler High School.Rodgers said he designs between seven and 10 halftime shows each summer. It takes roughly 25 hours per show.“I wrote for one friend of mine, and he recommended me to a couple other band directors, and it's been word of mouth the last couple of years,” said Rodgers.“Since we are competitive, we always have our show written and designed for us,” said Redmond.
Mars takes part in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Marching Band Association's Class AAA circuit, eight Saturday competitions culminating in a Nov. 3 championship at Penn Trafford High School in Harrison City.Redmond said former band director Chuck Prijatelj designed this year's show which incorporates four Earth, Wind and Fire songs: “Gotta Get You Into My Life,” “After the Love Has Gone,” “Let's Groove” and “Getaway.”Both bands practice by breaking down songs to single movements and single musical passages and practicing them again and again.“Saxophones and clarinets, your half notes come in first,” said Redmond after one passage before returning the band to its starting point to repeat the music and the movement.“Look at the spacing from left to right. That's where we are having trouble with it,” she pointed out after one pattern had played out.With new songs and new steps to learn, which is harder?“Older members focus more on the music. They've learned the basics of marching,” Rodgers said. “The younger ones are struggling with the marching right now.”Mars freshman flutist Kaitlin Cadamore would agree learning the movements is harder.
“It's kind of more difficult. You have to count in your head and remember the music and you have to stop and remember exactly where you are,” Kaitlin said.Despite the sizes of the bands, the long hours, the endless repetitions of the same movements and notes and the tendency of teens to get rambunctious under the best of conditions, both band camps run with boot camp discipline.It's a self-discipline said Rodgers.“The truth is band is an elective. Students chose to be here,” Rodgers said. “We have very little issues or discipline issues. The students are highly motivated. We believe we have some of the nicest and most highly motivated students in the community.”“They are focused in,” said Redmond of her band members. “They know it takes a lot of work ethic to do what we want to accomplish. We put a lot more time into it that way.”Rodgers said the practices are well attended because the band members are aware they have a history to uphold.“The tradition is that the band is very good here at Moniteau High School,” said Rodgers. “They hold us to a higher standard.”
The hours of practice don't bother Madison Unverzagt, a Moniteau sophomore who is in her first year as a member of the dance drill team.“This is where we learn everything, so it's good to have it at four and a half hours,” Madison said.Kaitlin said her first band camp was “pretty cool. It's a lot of fun and the people are great. They are very supportive.”But for some band members, they are learning their halftime routines for the last time.“I'm definitely sad about this being the last year,” said Moniteau senior and bass drum player Monica Saunders, adding the best part of her band involvement was “probably meeting my best friends and becoming part of the drum line.”Mars senior Alanna Stolz, a mellophone player who's starting her fifth year with the band said of her final band camp “It's kind of bittersweet. No one remembers what I remember because I started as an eighth-grader.”Still, her final band camp hasn't gotten any easier, she said. “I personally think the music is harder, some think the drills are harder. It's all whether your mind is music-based or movement based.”
Still, both Alanna and Monica will be taking something away from their years with their respective high school bands. Both plan to continue to be invovled in music in the future.Monica said she hopes to go on to a college with a good marching band.“I would suggest band to everyone, especially anyone who isn't social. It's a great way to help them get out of their shell,” she said.Next year, Alanna said, “I really want to be marching in a drum and bugle corps” such as the Bluecoats from Ohio or the Carolina Crowns of South Carolina.But for others, the upcoming football season is looming larger.Asked about being ready for her first half-time show, Mars begins its football season Sept. 7. Kaitlin said, “I think I'm going to do OK. I will probably be nervous, but I will do OK."
