Banding Together

Photo by Rick Devera of Rick D Photography

Marching bands have always amazed and inspired me. Their levels of drive, dedication, perseverance, passion,

responsibility, accountability, work ethic, teamwork, 

and more seem unparalleled. 

Here's a halftime show your students will undoubtedly connect with, a video-game tribute performed by The Ohio State Buckeye Band. Show it to them, then make a list of the things that stand out to them about the performance. Find out, for example, what character traits they think it must take to make that mustang run and rear up at the six-minute mark. How much preparation? How much grit? How many re-dos?

Prepare to be WoWed by this entertaining show!

Another similar performance (if you want to compare and contrast!) hails from Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Here's their 2012 Homecoming show; of special note is their tribute to the basketball team that enjoyed a 40-0 record this past season about seven minutes into the performance. Again I wonder: How much practice and preparation does a performance like this take? I am positively in awe . . .

Our music teacher recently showed the Friendswood High School Mighty Mustang Band show - All The World's A Stage - and asked her fourth and fifth graders to brainstorm a list of what they saw as our band students put character into action out on the field and here's what they said:

I wonder what you would add to this list.