On Nov. 9, the Green Hope Marching Band and Color Guard traveled to the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. There, the two groups competed in the Grand National Bands of America competition where they placed 55th out of 90 schools across the United States.
Bands of America, which hosted the competition, is an organization that advocates for musical education and promotes marching band competitions throughout the United States. Founded in 1975 as the Marching Bands of America (MBA) by Larry McCormick, the group changed its name to Bands of America in 1984.
Green Hope’s show theme was “Transcend,” which symbolized going beyond one’s limits and how band members became the best version of themselves by the end of the season. Overall, both band and color guard were satisfied with their performance in Indianapolis. Color guard instructor Ms. Bernadine Whyte described the group’s experience, “We left here [the school] on Thursday and we competed on Friday morning at 8:45. We went through warm ups for like 30 minutes,” Ms. Whyte said. “We performed our show which is about 15 minutes long…It was one of their best performances that they’ve had considering they’ve never performed on a turf field before.”
Band director Mr. Creighton Flowers agreed, saying, “It went very well. We had a good solid performance. I think the band had their best performance of the year.”
Marching band consists of multiple sections: brass, woodwinds, percussion, front ensemble and color guard. The sections practiced together after school three times a week to prepare for both the competition and regular performances at sporting events and local competitions.
During the summer, marching band members attended a 10-day camp where they learned the fundamentals of marching, skills for their instruments, drills and music. The camp and practices boosted team chemistry in preparation for the group’s eventful season.
Marching band drum major George Lin (’24) carried out the instructions of the band director and led the marching band during performances and rehearsals. “Our practices were long, especially during the summer. We started around June when it was extremely hot and we were outside for almost 8 hours,” Lin said.
Lin described the band’s strategies when practicing. “In terms of how we practiced we would just continuously repeat things until they were good enough for us to move on without forgetting. With that kind of practice it really helped us prepare as we did not have to add new things. While yes it had a lot of components it was also much easier and simpler than other schools had which I think benefited us a lot,” he said.
Like the band, color guard also practiced rigorously in preparation for the competition. Color guard co-captain Evelyn Perez (’24) spoke to how often they practiced. “We practice three days a week, for us it’s Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Thursdays we will practice with the band. Mondays and Wednesdays are when we practice by ourselves, usually inside. It’s a good time for us to develop our skills,” Perez said.
While the season for marching band and color guard ended, the groups continue to strive for improvement as color guard transitions into winter guard and marching band transitions into jazz band and indoor percussion.
