My band director has talked about some book called Peaks and Valley's ever since he first came to our school. In our band we talk about the peaks and valleys we experience during our marching season. Sometimes this serves as a motivation to do better and get on a peak after being stuck in a valley for so long.
One of the hardest daily struggles would have to be dealing with peak's and valley's. Peak's and valley's meaning going from the highly productive, positive, and successful points in your experience as a high school musician and going to the low, disappointing, dreadful moments. There will be times in concerts, performances, competitions, festivals, practices, rehearsals, etc. when you or the director will be extremely proud of what has been accomplished and as a student you will celebrate. However there will be times when nothing is going right and you just want to drop everything and quit...the struggle to keep going through the valley's and reach your next peak can be a stressful one.
I asked some of the band students at my school and my director about peaks and valleys or the positive and negative aspects of band. The results are below (:
One of the hardest daily struggles would have to be dealing with peak's and valley's. Peak's and valley's meaning going from the highly productive, positive, and successful points in your experience as a high school musician and going to the low, disappointing, dreadful moments. There will be times in concerts, performances, competitions, festivals, practices, rehearsals, etc. when you or the director will be extremely proud of what has been accomplished and as a student you will celebrate. However there will be times when nothing is going right and you just want to drop everything and quit...the struggle to keep going through the valley's and reach your next peak can be a stressful one.
I asked some of the band students at my school and my director about peaks and valleys or the positive and negative aspects of band. The results are below (:
Some of the peaks, or positive moments of being in band
"When you finally memorize music plus get it on the field, it's like that HUGE weight is lifted off your shoulders"-Taylor "Playing music, and also when everyone does their part correctly and the song sounds great after a week of hard work."-Paul "That family marching band feel is an unbeatable feeling. Going through failures until finally you succeed. It's just an indescribable feeling."-Bonnie "I enjoy expressing myself through music, especially with the rest of the drumline guys."-Josiah "It's funny to make fun of the director."-John "I love being part of a music family"-Olivia "I love how close we are, just like an extended family! I think it's an advantage that freshmen get to meet some of the seniors and juniors and become friends with them. I'm glad to have the bond in band."-Holly "It's a fun experience, you get to meet new people, and I just love making music."-Aliza "Playing a great instrument"-Mark 'It's something to do."-Emily "Marching band is my second family. I love working with the people in my section. It's also really fun to learn new music and challenge myself."-Lindsey "I enjoy when we play all together with no problems. We could do that fine last year."-DeJuan "I enjoy the emotional satisfaction of everything"-Verbeke "I love learning new music and new things"-Kaitlyn "I Love learning new music"-Matthew "Being able to play an instrument again."-unknown trumpet player? "Mr. Verbeke is a very cool teacher."-Janae "Learning how to play cool tunes."-Noah "I love being able to learn more about music."-Brenna "Marching band is like a second family to me, I love working together with everyone because we can accomplish great things."-Stephanie |
Some of the valleys,or not so good moments of being in band
"Trying to keep a positive attitude when things get tough." -Jessica "When my life revolves around it, and at times there are more important things that matter to me."-Taylor "When you're done, and tired and it needs to be done again."-Taylor "Trying to practice music, go to rehearsal, and do homework all in one day when you're already tired."-Paul "Sometimes the management gets a little difficult like finding the time to do all my homework and still get to all the practices."-Stephanie "Sometimes, having to depend on others for a music part is very difficult. You're only as strong as your weakest link."-Josiah "It's repetitive."-Kyle "It gets tough to remember all of your sets, along with music, dynamics, articulation, while marching good.(Sliding is the worst.)"-Taylor "It can be hard to count ,and try to play music at the same time. It gets hard to read music when we get the high notes. And lastly, some of the people start to get on my nerves."-Holly "A negative is how often I get teased about it."-Lily "Simply when someone doesn't care or isn't into the whole thing."-Verbeke "It takes time."-Jimmy "It's a lot of hard work."-Matthew "Sometimes I forget to play my flute, count, and march at the same time."-Olivia "The mass amount of time it takes up."-Emily "Time is a huge struggle for marching band kids. We do need three hours of practice, but add onto that work, homework, and other extra curriculars and you're honestly always cramming or tired."-Bonnie |
The video below is just a random squirrel that happened to be very friendly at camp.