Nine Years of "That One Time at Band Camp"

I have been to band camp nine, count 'em, NINE times. Four of those were my own camps as a student. As a student I looked forward to that week of overnight band camp the entire summer. Our whole band did. That's just a) marching band culture and b) the atmosphere that our director developed.

I'm sure everyone reading this has either attended band camp themselves or has seen American Pie: Band Camp, so everyone reading this either knows exactly what I'm talking about or actually has no clue whatsoever. Spoiler alert: American Pie is not actually anything close to what real band camp is like - at least not any camp I've attended, taught at, or heard about.

Look out, flashback to 2003 here, guys:

"Badass" at band camp? UGH HIGH SCHOOL WHAT?

I WAS THE band nerd, in every musical ensemble that existed at our high school, taking on leadership roles in each one, and exhibiting never-ending enthusiasm for all things band, especially marching band. NB: Except might I add that I was also a lettering track and cross country runner and also obviously very cool. Obviously?
Also our marching band is a "competition band," which for those of you not part of this culture, means we not only forego playing "popular music" at the risk of being misunderstood by football goons and their parents, but also dedicate every weekend between August and November to a Friday Football game/Saturday Competition double-duty routine.

Anyway, it's funny because for as much as I loved band, and although I already knew that I would be majoring in music, I made it very clear to myself that my fourth camp was my last (going so far as to call the photo album from the last year of high school "Last band camp EVERRRRRRRRRRRR"), I think in part so that I wouldn't be disappointed if I was never asked to come back as staff, as the chosen few music majors are.

Obviously things have changed. Fast forward to college: Oberlin does not have a "real" marching band (D III school) and I had no interest in participating, but now I'm back on the bandwagon (HA) and have been teaching marching band for five years. Although I was in denial after arriving at my conservatory, where people often scoff at marching band, I can no longer lie about this: It was fun as a student, and it is fun as a teacher. I like teaching marching band. Plus I can honestly say that I watch kids grow up from teeny tiny baby freshmen with no friends to confident, competent individuals in the ninth grade with so many friends by the end of the summer. Plus, as a teacher, I always see it as a joy to have opportunities to teach, even if I'm not working on Beethoven - Hey, who's to say there's no merit in marching band? I've gotten over that personal down-talking because I do know that this is important in the lives of these kids, as it was to me. It's something stable, fun, communal, difficult (you try putting your mouth on a metal mouthpiece when it is 40 degrees outside and sleeting, then trudge try to stand perfectly straight and move in time around on a field while producing a good tone) and incredibly rewarding.





Since we'll be moving to Canada, I have no idea what our summers will be like in the coming years - but I really hope that I'll be able to stick with teaching band during the summer. This year it's just two weeks of teaching for me (in the past it's been as much as five or six weeks) and I am so glad I took the time to do it. Great kids, great program, great fun.