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Bryce Harris
Ingram
UWRT 1101
12 October 2014
What Happens at Band Camp
There are many speculations as to what goes on during band camp. Maybe youve heard
some rumors from friends or even the notorious American Pie series. Many of the stories you
hear are fake and inaccurate. As of right now, you will experience the story of band camp from a
true band geek like myself.
Unlike lazy summer mornings, band kids woke up at 6 a.m. Monday through Saturday
and the days end at 7 p.m. (Trust me, we werent flawless like Beyonc when she woke up, quite
the opposite). We grabbed the worst food possible like Bojangles and McDonalds; eating
healthy was the last concern on our minds. The older students drove themselves to band camp,
while the freshmen would be dropped off by their over eager parents. It was their first time at
band camp; little did they know the hell they were about to experience.
To start the morning off right, a fundamental marching block is formed with over 100
people in a parking lot; however, it wasnt an average lot. The white lines were faded and to top
it off, it was for the school buses, meaning that there were yellow lines, literally crossing the
other white lines. Sunlight beats down on you constantly from the lack of proper shade. There
were trees, but, ironically, they werent tall enough. Oh well, I would say. There was one night
where the drum major was trampled by a deer, but I digress*.

*a story for another time

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On most days, the low was in the 90s; the real feel, mostly 102. We all wore tank
tops/sports bras, shorts/ Sophies, and hats. Some guys thought they were cool enough to go
without shirts in the hopes of impressing the female band students. Unlike my friends, I was
more concerned about getting darker and skin cancer. As you can tell, I tanned a lot. During
breaks, you could hear ice-water juggling around in the water bottles. To make things more
interesting, we tied the bottles around our waists with shoestrings; ghetto but functional. Just in
case people passed out, people always had water with them. I remember one morning twelve
people at least sat down in the grass (pansies).
Imagine walking in a cool building away from the heat after the morning fundamentals
block was completed. Well, it never happened. To save money, most public schools cut off the
air conditioning units during the summer since there is no one there. The real story is that we
walked into a humid band room where we all tried to cool down. This place feels like a sauna,
my former band director said. What hits you first is the smell. People who you thought were
attractive in the band program, lose value in your eyes; congratulations; you have smelt their
funk. People left behind sweat marks on the floor making the once polished and waxed surface
look like a crime scene where someone was murdered. The cops decided to use brown chalk
besides white those days.
Then, we all proceeded to the cafeteria with the marching band staff and directors. You
might think we have catered lunches and youd be correct Meals from Hardees and
McDonalds. Most of the food was off of the dollar menus (bon appetit). Personally, I liked them
because we had a station with condiments to put on top of the sandwiches. The sweet stuff was
halfway decent, but the Gatorade and ice tea were horrible. Since we had to go outside later, the

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parents deliberately used the powered versions of Gatorade and tea from Sams Club that came
in the canisters, meaning no sugar; the cruelty and madness of it all.
The actual music was difficult. Since I played the saxophone, our parts were filled with
sixteenth note runs (very fast notes); the brass players on the other hand, had slower moving
notes but they all had the same part. We spent most of our afternoons inside playing our
instruments. All of the sections spread throughout the school to learn their parts; however, it only
took about thirty minutes to learn the majority of the music. Versus the other sections, I had two
people under me who would run my saxophone players for me. Since I was the soloist in the
band, I learned different parts than my section (played outside with a mic on my horn and
rehearsed dance routines with the color guard. Thank you sweet baby Jesus for giving me
rhythm.
The best feeling in the world was to perform at marching band competitions. Many
people went to see all of the bands from across the state go head-to-head. The top contest we
attended was The Bands of America circuit. The average band size at those competitions were
about 150 kids and the finals happened in the Indianapolis Colts stadium. Every year, the
average number of attendance in the audience was 21,000. It was one of the coolest sites Ive
ever seen. When we were about to perform, we stood in the entrance tunnel to the field, and you
could hear the masses of the crowd screaming, cheering, and clapping. What made my senior
year very special at my last show was that I had a lot of solos. Performance anxiety was the
biggest problem I had playing for the longest time, but eventually, I got over it. During the
competition, we were near the end of playing, and that was when I played the last solo. The last
movement of the show was a ballad (a slow and beautiful song). I remember leaning back and
putting my legs and knees on the artificial turf holding out a high pitched long note. It made the

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crowd absolutely go insane and cheer, almost like an uproar of praise. After the show, I received
many compliments and even a couple of phone numbers (not bad for a band geek).
The memories and experiences that I had during band were incredible. There were the
times where we pranked the staff with water balloon fights, hot sauce in drinks, and we released
pigs numbered one, two, and four with a black sharpie in the school while they looked for the
third pig. Even though we had our shenanigans, we got our work done according to schedule. It
would take all day to complete, but it was worth it once we performed at football games and
competitions. I met amazing people in band. From the tuba player, Ray, who has a huge interest
in knitting to the flutist, Sarah, who was a boxer, everyone had a different story. The connections
that I made from band will surely last forever. Im still in contact with my former high school
band director and people at that school as I continue to help write music and drill coordinates for
their show and my best friend is going to attend UNC Charlotte next year!
Band camp is one of those things that no one really wants to go through, but at the end of
the finish line, people see their progress and growth. It makes the long and hot days bearable
when later in the season youre decorated with gold medals and 1st place trophies.

..

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* It was a normal night rehearsal after school. The band did a series of repetitions
of a certain movement of the show. Our drum major, Sarah, was conducting
vigorously, almost to the point where we all thought that her hands were about
to fall off. If you remember the space surrounding the parking, there were short
trees. Also, we had lights to illuminate the lot. During one of the runs of the show,
everything was going normal, impact moments and fast moving feet. In the
second movement, Sarah would step down from her podium and conduct in
the middle of the field. As she approached the 50 yard line, the music began to
quiet down. Simultaneously, behind me, I heard approaching footsteps getting
louder and louder. I thought that it was just another Sousaphone player with his
size 16 shoes. This time, I was wrong. When I turned my head around, I felt a
strong gush of wind on my face. Without hesitation, I turned my eyes back to the
front and noticed antlers in my peripheral. As Sarah was standing in the middle
of the field, a deer charged and trampled her with his massive horns. She
immediately dropped down on the asphalt, and the deer scurried off into the
tries quickly. The band director was the first one to rush to her. Eventually, we all
stopped playing (we were taught to keep on going if something happened
during a performance so it took a while) and rushed over to her screaming Are
you alright? Sarah gathered herself up with a smile and began laughing and
said limping away with an old mans swagger, Im ok. Clearly, she wasnt.