"This one time at band camp...."
Many people who have never been a part of a marching band always mention band camp in a joking or mocking manner. Little do they know that marching band, and yes band camp, too, is an experience that we will never be able to forget. This experience stays with us and influences us in our day-to-day lives, whether we served one season or ten. This experience stays with us and influences us almost some aspect of our day every day, whether we served one season or ten.
Band camp is a grueling experience that helps to build connections between the sections. We stand and play in the heat together. We sweat together. We learn that everyone has their place and we need everyone in line for our work to pay off. Camp is a grueling experience that helps to build connections between the sections. We stand and play in the heat together. We sweat together. We learn that everyone has their place and we need everyone in line for our work to pay off.
We share water, count, enjoy breeze appreciations, clap rhythms, adjust steps, suit up in uniform, do some whacky stuff, and last but most importantly, we play together.
We do this all together and become a family.
First, we become close to our own section, our sections are our parents and our siblings. Then the rest of the instruments that share our section types, like the rest of the woodwinds, performance, percussion, or brass, become our aunts, uncles, and cousins. Then our family tree branches over into the other instruments. So on and so forth.
We perform together and become a cohesive unit that feels the pulse of the rhythm like the beat of our hearts. But how does all of this carry over into "the real world"?
Well, we often find ourselves performing some habits from the turf when we don't mean to.
We will walk across a parking lot with a weird strange stride and count our steps in 8's. We will practice fingerings for songs that we haven't played in months on nothing but the air. We will do our stand dances in the shower, or in public. Oops!
When we get caught behind a little old lady who is walking painfully slow, we are able to control our steps to avoid seeming rude by racing by her. Songs that we've played in the past will NEVER sound the same to us again. In fact, if a song we've played comes on the radio, it may be physically impossible for us to enjoy it. We will always hear the trumpets blaring right behind our heads or that one piccolo with the splitting screech.
Band. Puns.
Can you clari-not? I'm saxy, and I know it! I'm just having a bari bad day.
We may have come to band mostly normal. The exhaustion and chaos of band camp corrupt us. Each and every one of us. But it also makes us better in the long run. We learn a sense of discipline, good time management, and forget to fear germs. Strange how we all get sick at the same time...
Marching band is a lifestyle, even if we leave it behind. It gets into our blood. We will see people who we once marched with and never spoke to but in a second, once band brotherhood is mentioned, we can chat for ages.
So yes go ahead with your "did you go to band camp?" It doesn't hurt us. It makes us stronger and teaches us so many skills. Some may be useful and others not so much.
Nonetheless, band gets into your blood faster than spit gets in a reed. If I could go back to before band, I'd do it all over again and again.
Would you?