When some people think of high school, the first thing that comes to their mind is studies. But when you’re in a band, it’s kind of hard to maintain those studies, especially since you have practice almost everyday, rallies, home games to attend, and competition.

Hardships and Obstacles

Not only do band members have to maintain their grades and also keep up with the newest sheet music, but the band director, Dana Campfield, also has things to maintain as well. She has to maintain all of the instruments, make sure that everything is cleaned up and put away correctly, and also make sure that the mini library is in order.

The field shows start in May but band must practice ahead of time in April of the prior year.

I have planning meetings with people who know marching band to come up with drill ideas and visual ideas,” said Campfield. “A lot of design work happens in rehearsals as well. I want the students to really know the show so that they can perform at a high level so that is why I start so early.

The easy part about band is the actual rehearsal time, yet the hardest part is actually making sure that the show looks amazing.

The band has a hornline, a drumline, and a colorguard and they all have to work separately but then join together to make a cohesive show,” said Campfield.

Assistant Drum Major, Julian Perez, 12, also has some input about the hardest and easiest part about band.

Easiest part is learning the sets and songs. Hardest part is making the best out of what you have while putting on one heck of a show” he said.

Positions in Band

Just like any other regular sports, band also has captains who have a lot of responsibility to make sure that band is running smoothly. The four important roles in band are Drum Major, Assistant Drum Major, Color Guard Captain, and Drum Captain. Section leaders in band is also a thing as well. All of these important positions in band requires a lot of experience and you must know what you’re doing.

Perez was interviewed and asked about how he achieved his position.

He said, “It was a very hard and… dangerous task, we had to practice constantly on and off field like conducting, we had to do sets, we had to do different voice commands to the band and it took awhile to get here but I’m finally here now.

Performances and Competition

San Bernardino High School’s marching band competes a lot. Their most recent competitions were at Canyon Springs High School in Moreno Valley and at Simi Valley High School in Simi Valley. Each band member works very hard to input their best performance.

Advice and Offers

Both Perez and Campfield were asked for the best advice they can give to incoming freshmen or anyone who wants to join band.

Campfield said, “If they would like to join, tell me or one of the band students so that we can start training you. It does take a lot of practice but you will end up liking that and you feel really accomplished once you can play what you want. We go on trips together also and the band generally has a really good time together.

Perez said, “Just come and join band like it’s a new experience I’m telling you like there’s people that have changed over the years because of band like they found out new experiences and they became better people not spiritually but mentally like you can do different things in band…

Perez was also asked about what band offers students and how it helps them not only better themselves, but their community as well.

Well what we can offer to kids such as new freshmen or- new kids we can offer discipline, we can offer anger management basically where we can teach them discipline on another level instead of the normal marching slash military level. We can also teach the young freshmen or new kids coming into the class about music in a whole different way in a spiritual more loving and we can teach them brotherhood and sisterhood.