Eyes set on Band Visual Camp

Band students begin three day long rehearsal through Thursday

Eyes+set+on+Band+Visual+Camp

Michael Martin

Grant Milleson, Staff Reporter
April 27, 2022

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Friday, the Redhawk band will head to San Antonio in order to take part in the Bluebonnet Classic Music Festival. Assistant director of bands Cecily Yoakam believes this will be a great opportunity for students to experience a different environment outside of Frisco. The group is set to make stops at Dave and Busters, Six Flags, as well as Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels before heading home.
Band heads to Bluebonnet Classical Music Festival Friday
Redhawks perform in the auditorium during a concert. Tuesday evening, band students will be playing UIL music in their Pre-UIL concert in order to prepare for the contest in April.
Practice makes perfect: band prepares for Pre-UIl concert Tuesday
While students have been practicing to demonstrate their talent, Moving onward in the UIL competition season, each band student has been perfecting their solo which they will perform Saturday. For many students who were previously online, the solo contest will be an entirely new experience.
UIL solo and ensemble Saturday for band students

The music stopped for the week on Tuesday as band members started Band Visual Camp, which focuses on visual fundamentals, in preparation for the upcoming marching season.

“We will have all incoming 9th graders and current Liberty students come to the gym where we will break down the fundamentals of how to look during marching along with the physical steps of how to march,” assistant director of bands Cecily Yoakam said.

The camp is a three day long after-school rehearsal in order to teach basic visual techniques, fundamentals, and marching.

“I think visual camp will help during marching season because we’ll get to build relationships with everyone in band and new people will get to know what to expect for this upcoming season,” junior Isabelle Raade said. “I’m really excited to meet the new freshmen because it’s my senior year and when I was a freshman a senior left a huge impression on me and I want to be able to do that to someone.”

The visual camp is the first way to introduce incoming freshmen to the new people in their section as well as to the idea of marching and playing.

“The visual camps help tremendously with preparing for next fall,” Yoakam said. “Again, it gives students a chance to get to know one another and get used to high school band, and it also gives us an instructional advantage in the summer because we don’t have to get so detailed when we have a lot of material to cover.”

Not only for new members, the visual camp allows returning players to relearn and improve their marching technique.

“Visual camps are a great way to help introduce newcomers to what we do here in the marching band, while also giving the old members a chance to meet with the freshmen,” sophomore Shivansh Tiwari said. “I am very excited to meet with the new freshmen and see what they can add to our program as well as seeing what the 2022 – 2023 Redhawk Marching Band will look like.”