Band wraps up competition season

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The band performed at Plainfield South and recieved 3rd place for class 3A and best percussion.

Dylan Mau, Staff Writer

   The marching band is preparing for their final competition on Oct. 26 at Western Illinois University.
The band has several aspects to work on as well as adding some components.
“One thing over the next two weeks that we’ll be working on is adding choreography into the music. Soon they’ll be learning parts of classical ballet and karate. What we put on the show is based on the theme,” Chris Vanderwall, band director, said.
The music pieces of classical ballet and karate have a lot of history. It is based on music from Japan.
“The Japanese style of music is based on the Samurai Bushido Code, which is based on four pillars of Honor, Compassion, Loyalty, and Courage, which are the rules the Samurai follow,” Lucas Forbear, sophomore, said.
The karate music is great for the players at competitions. They enjoy playing it, and it benefits them as far as scoring goes.
“Karate free play plays a big role because it scores us more points. Visuals are important for the whole band in general,” Emilio Melero, sophomore, said.
The band puts a tremendous amount of work into their competitions. The band plays all year, but marching band is only from March through October.
“We usually start with percussion and color guard in March. We have a short break in the summer, then we do two weeks of band camp before school starts. Band camp is from 12p.m. to 9.p.m. The season is over by the very end of October,” Vanderwall said.
At these competitions the marching bands are given awards for the entire band, not individuals.
Bands are classified by size. The awards include: Best Musical Performance, Best General Effect, Best Colorguard, Best Percussionist,” Vanderwall said.
For their last performance, the seniors play an Irish Song as their final goodbye to the Plainfield High School band.
“All the band kids cry because the song is very moving, and we are sad to see them go, but knowing they are off to greater things is awesome,” Georgia Jackson, junior, said.
Many members of the band have been in band or played an instrument for a long time. Jackson has been in band “since fourth grade.” She would often watch her brothers play when they came home from band and talked about it. They were always excited about band.