Marching to the beat of a blue drum
Band, ten-hut. USU.
This chant is all too familiar for members of the Aggie Marching Band, as it is their call to attention. With the left foot snapping to the right foot with military precision and instruments smartly brought to attention position, the band prepares to play a new show. The tricky part? They learned it in just one week.
“Most bands in high school don’t change music and shows like we do,” said Thomas Rohrer, director of bands at USU for the past 10 years. “We change the show because it is entertaining to the audience to see something different each week.”
Creating a new show is not as easy as learning a couple new tunes. Rohrer said he coordinates the show, which involves selecting the songs, designing the march routes and keeping it all together.
Members of the marching band said trying to learn a new show every couple of weeks is one of the most challenging parts of being in the band.
“You are learning a new show every time you perform,” Nicholas Maw, junior in biology, said. “Sometimes you only have a week to learn a show, and it is really hard. In high school, marching band is more physically demanding, but in college it is more mentally demanding.”
Maw said he also thinks learning to put the music to the marching can be one of the hardest parts about being in the band.
“It is really difficult to march to the correct area and play your part,” Maw said. “If you are playing difficult music, it is hard to do it all at the same time. You can’t catch your breath when you are constantly playing an instrument.”
Emily Sorensen, senior in music therapy, said she thinks the hardest part of being in the band is working so hard to perform an entertaining show to the students at the games and not being recognized for it.
“It is hard to not be recognized as some of the other organization are,” Sorensen said. “A lot of people don’t know or care that we exist. We would like and deserve as much support as the basketball team. I don’t know if (the student body) could support us that much in the near future, but if people start paying attention and realize that we do a lot for school spirit, we could get close to that point.”
Lindsay Barnhouse, junior in business administration, said she agrees that the students deserve as much recognition as other organizations on campus.
“We work just as hard as the basketball team does,” Barnhouse said. “We do put in a lot of hours. They are different fields of course, but we work pretty hard. Our director is just like a coach. He tells us what to work on, and he makes our strengths come out.”
Rohrer said he thinks the marching band does a lot to make up the unique atmosphere at the games.
“The band is the unique thing about college sports,” Rohrer said. “It creates the atmosphere of college. Professional football does not have band.”
Even with the struggles that sometimes come up in the band, Sorensen said she thinks performing out in front of an audience makes everything worthwhile.
“I just like playing and feeling the rushing that playing music and performing gives,” Sorensen said. “I like playing for people and making them feel a little bit more school spirit than they would have felt otherwise through my music.”
Maw said he thinks it is the friendships he has made in band that make it worthwhile.
“I keep doing band because you meet a lot of new friends and have a good time, and you get to become a better player,” Maw said. “There are a lot of good things, but the best thing is the friendship. Everyone in the band knows you, and you know everyone else.”
Rohrer said the Aggie Marching Band has great retention compared to other schools because of what the band does for the students.
“We don’t waste the students’ time, and we provide them with the best experience possible,” Rohrer said.
The marching band is a big time commitment, Maw said. The band practices for an hour and a half three days a week, and they have to be willing to give up their Saturday anytime there is a home game to go and play, he said.
“It is a lot of time to give to the band,” Maw said. “But it is completely worth it. It keeps you sane. It is my way to relax. You don’t feel like you are at school when you are at band.”
Marching band is more than an activity; it’s a class. Students get two credits per semester for being in the band, Maw said.
With marching band being a two credit class, while requiring almost five hours worth of time commitment per week, some students might say marching band is not worth the time, but not the students in it. Marching band is something that has to be done with motivation more than for the credit, Sorensen said.
“I think it is worth the credit, but it is something I enjoy not just for the credit,” Sorensen said. “I don’t need extra credit, I just choose to do it because it is worth my time.”
Sorensen said she thinks even though it can be a time commitment to be in the band, being in the marching band in college is a lot less time-consuming than it was in high school.
“The director realizes that we are all not band majors and makes sure that we have time to do other things,” Sorensen said. “In high school, band had to be your entire life. Now it is just fun.”
-debrajoy.h@aggiemail.usu.edu