What most people think we do: Most people think that we are marching around all the time in our uniforms. If you watch back to school commercials, the nerdy band kid is in full uniform and carrying their sousaphone (which is the marching version of a tuba, but should NEVER be called a tuba; it is very different, and an enraged sousaphone player is not someone you want to tangle with. You have been warned.) or they are carrying their clarinet in set position and they are walking back into school.
Real band kids do not wear their uniforms all the time because:
1) They are really thick and hold in heat like a sauna, so you have to really work at not passing out in them because....
2)... They are really hard to clean, so we can't sit in them, we can't touch the ground(unless we are unconscious), we can't eat, and we can't be near any liquid that isn't water. Unless its really hot, we aren't even supposed to drink water with our jacket on.
3) They take about 5 minutes for you to put them on, and that's a pretty quick time, especially if you are in full uniform, which includes: pants/overalls, shoes, jacket(which zips in the back), gloves, gauntlets, helmet(with plume), and you sure don't want to forget black socks. (nothing is nerdier than black pants[most common MB uniform pant color] and black shoes with white socks). Plus, with this much on, it takes just as long to take everything off, and put away so you don't get it dirty or ripped (God forbid!) and you usually don't have that much time when you have to use the bathroom really badly.
4) They aren't very attractive or comfortable. Some of us would not be caught dead in them. So we get them off as soon as we are dismissed to.
What our non-band *friends think we do: Granted, all groups have a few kids who are like this, however you risk getting trolled on by the band if a couple so much as holds hands in front of the band and the band parents. ( I know from personal experience) So this only happens when the kids are alone, and in band, you are never alone. Unless you are in the back if the bus on the ride home at like 2 am and separate boy/girl seats aren't thoroughly enforced (not likely). You won't get any make-out time. well during band anyway, there is too much to do because you music is never expressive enough and your drill is never too clean. Sorry if that disappoints you (not really, cause there's a reason the term band slut isn't a term).
What our parents think we do It's true that marching band couldn't happen without all of the support from our band moms and dads, who become parents to everyone in the band, not just their own offspring. They braid hair and drive the trailer, sew new flags and guard uniforms EVERY SINGLE YEAR. They make us lunch during competitions and camp. They get us to and from practice, football games and competitions.They watch the trailer while we perform, help get pit ( front line percussion) on and off the field and are always our biggest fans. To them we may always be the little ones at our first recital, but wherever we are, they always have our backs.
What we think we do: We obviously think that we are amazing at our drill and have our music down, unless we don't, which is most of the time the case. If you look at some of the top marching bands in the country, you can see that they all know each note and all of the dynamics in their music. They also know exactly where their next set is and are confident in their timing and their confidence shows. These are what makes a show fun to watch. Everybody wants their show to look like that, but not everyone puts in the amount of effort it requires.
What Taylor Swift thinks we do: I'm not really sure what she thinks of marching band, but from this picture I can tell you that we usually don't get along like that all of the time. As with any group, there is conflict: discontent with the section leaders, with the drum majors, the band parents, the band directors, the new marchers for not knowing their music or their drill, toward the section that just can't play their part correctly and you all have to stop and wait as they rehearse it over and over until it's right. But above it all we really do bond and become close, mostly because during marching season we spend more time with each other at school and practice and going to competitions than we spend with our own families. If you have to spend that much with a group of people, you might as well like them. And most of the time we really do get along and have lots of fun. We make lifetime friendships in band and even some people end up dating and later marrying someone they met in band. We have our rough spots, but we are just like an extremely dysfunctional family: we have our sweets, our sours, our bitters, our flavorful-s, and some are just plain nuts!!!
What we really do:
We got new uniforms my freshman year, so I didn't know what the old ones looked like. When I saw this picture, I could have sworn that it was a picture from our band. We are all slightly nuts, and we don't have perverted minds, we have sexy imaginations, so you have to be careful how you phrase thoughts in the band, or risk a "that's what she said" or worse. Some of our band moms even drop "that's what she said"'s if they are around. We are so used to Mr. Drewlow ( a band dad) and his camera making his rounds during events that we even enjoy forming ridiculous scenes for him to capture, and general tiredness and caffeine and sugar as fuel add to the hilarity. You often learn things about other band kids that you may not have wanted to know. For this reason, a great deal of what happens in band, stays in band.
Like any subject, to really get a better understanding of a subject, you need to see multiple perspectives of it, however not all of the truth is in one perspective. The question is, figuring out which parts are true, and which aren't. Good luck with that.
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