Eagles March On

The Fair Grove High School band team marches in their last competition on October 22, 2022. 

The Eagles band team has been practicing for this competition since early before school started. The students in the band practice outside of school, and average around 8 hours of practicing each week. Natalie Palomo, the band teacher, said, “We have been rehearsing since August before school to prepare. We average about 8 hours of rehearsal a week, in addition to any outside practice time the kids are putting in.”

Another thing that the Eagles have been doing to prepare for this competition is going through each section and performing to prepare. Kaden Baker (10) stated, “Over the past two weeks we have been going through each section of the show to prepare and we have also been marching as much as we can so this performance is executed to our best ability.”

A weakness of the marching band is slides. Slides are when the band is marching sideways, but needs to keep their upper body straight whilst playing their instrument. “This is a tricky, uncomfortable position to be in normally, and made further uncomfortable when you’re expected to be playing with musical expression and staying in step at a quick tempo. We’ve made huge strides in improving our slide technique so far though!” Palomo stated.

Going into the competition, the Eagles have many schools to look out for. No specific school is a worry for the marching band though. Palomo stated, “I don’t know if there’s any specific school I’m more worried about more than the rest. We are in a highly competitive class this weekend, and I truly think it’ll be a close spread across the board. We just have to go do our best at what we do, and hope the judges like it a lot!”

All of the different sections in the marching band play important roles, but the drum line is the most crucial to a good performance. Baker stated, “I think that all of the sections in the band play a crucial role in what happens on the field but I do think that the biggest difference is the drum line because we are the ones who the band listens to when they can’t see the drum major.”

The Fair Grove High School marching band took 3rd place in the preliminary awards, securing their spot in finals, for the October 22, 2022 competition.