The school year might just be kicking off, but the Redhawk band has been practicing for weeks to get ready for the coming season. Practicing anywhere from four to more than eight hours a day, the band is trying to create the most polished show possible.
“Ever since late July we have been spending hours everyday at school (during what is known as “summer band”) perfecting our marching technique and musical ability to ensure that we are competitive this coming marching season,” drum major, senior Kanad Bhandarkar said. “For the first two weeks, we would come in at 7:45 a.m. and work on marching fundamentals on the band lot. At about 11 a.m., we would take a lunch break and then proceed to work on the music both as individual sections and as the full band.”
As part of “summer band”, the music-making Redhawks have two types of practices – afternoon practices, and full day practices.
On longer full day practices, the band splits up their practices, separating learning the music from the marching, to adapt to the scorching Texas heat before piecing everything together in the evening.
“For a typical full day practice, we start outside with a stretch block from 7:45 a.m. to 8 a.m,” drumline captain, senior Srishti Shetty said. “Then, [the] drumline splits off to do more advanced marching while the rest of the band focuses on fundamentals because they have more people. We do that until about 11 a.m. where we break for lunch. After lunch, we really just focus on music until 4 p.m.”
For shorter afternoon practices though, the order is flip-flopped with the music coming before the marching.
“For afternoon rehearsals, we start with music at 5 p.m. because it’s hot and then usually end the rehearsals with tracking our drill on the field and repping our marching with music,” Shetty said.
For some band members, like trumpet section leader, senior Krishna Perneti, the best part of practice is seeing all the music and practice come together during rehearsals.
“My favorite part of practice is the show chunk rehearsals we do outside, as it feels really rewarding to have our music and our marching come together in a complete performance,” Perneti said.
But for others, including Bhandarkar, it’s the community setting that really makes practice something special.
“My favorite part of practice is the atmosphere we create; there is nothing like doing something you love with 160 of your closest friends,” Bhandarkar said.
But just as fun and rewarding as band practice can be, it comes with its own set of challenges.
“The most challenging part of practice is fighting through the fatigue and still keeping energy and morale up,” Bhandarkar said “It honestly gets difficult at times, however, the support system we have within band helps us overcome all those challenges.”
In addition to the physical toll of marching practice, especially outside in the Texas heat, band members face a mental toll, stemming from the sheer amount of memorizing the fine art requires.
“Marching band requires a lot of thinking forward and memorizing to ensure you don’t mess up and accidentally hurt someone or yourself,” Perneti said. “[So, the most challenging part is] definitely the mental toll during practice.”
But despite all the challenges that come with the practices, Shetty remains hopeful and excited for the competition season ahead.
“I’m most looking forward to competitions so other schools can see all the changes we’ve made and the new impression we want to leave,” Shetty said. “With almost an entire new team of directors our show definitely has a different level of skill and professionalism, which will definitely shock other bands!”
