By: Lenaia Powell
Attending Apopka High School has its privileges. Every Friday morning during football season, the melodic yet energized blaring of instruments paired with vivid peach and pink sunrises wake up the students in preparation for the school day. Our band gets the school hyped up for Friday night games by playing certain pieces such as the fight song and the newly added “Sweet Caroline,” which can be heard throughout the whole campus (BAH BAH BAAAH). With a relatively new teacher, Mr. Langford, and plenty of underclassmen, the Apopka High School band is looking forward to a new season of music and performances.
“The next big thing that we’re preparing for is the fall concert, which is the first weekend in November, and we’re actually going to have our marching band play because the concert is for veterans–a veterans day concert. And our show this year is ‘Patriotics’ so it makes sense to play that at the concert. However, all of our sit-down bands, our concert bands, our jazz bands, all the smaller groups will play at that particular event and that’s where we’re starting to – now that we’ve started the year – we’re starting to shift our focus towards that,” says Mr. Langford, clearly looking forward to their first real performance of the year.
In addition to in-school performances, there are events such as MPA (Musical Performance Assessments) that play a gigantic role in determining the rank or talent of a musical group.
“We do pretty well [at MPA], but I feel like we could do better. We’ve always gotten superiors, but, you know, it just doesn’t feel like we deserve that superior if that makes sense.” says April Han, oboe and alto saxophone player.
April Han and Gabriela De Jesús – both of whom are juniors – perform in the Apopka High School marching band, playing the oboe and clarinet, respectively. They had much to say about their experience in band, and it was clear that they were extremely passionate about being part of this unique community.
“It’s really easy to get into the music and let it excite you and you feel all the emotions, like this one song – I forgot what it was called – it was really sad and you could tell that the person who wrote it was sad and I was like, [imitates crying],” expressed Gabriela, who was able to communicate just how much being in band matters to her.
As well as their instruments throughout campus, their voices can be heard in the halls of the performing arts building, as it is their interesting way of practicing what their music should sound like. It is quite impressive too, coming from a choir student, as their blend and resonance are phenomenal.
“Well, I’ll put it this way, it’s unique if you want the kids to play well ‘cause before they can ever play anything correctly on their instrument they have to first have it in their ear, and it’s just like when you smell the taste of something or taste the smell of something, we can hear and sing. They’re very much interrelated, our voice and our ears. So if I can get them to sing it, which you’ve used that musical instrument since you were born, but if I can get you to get that musical voice where it needs to be, the instrument will stand a chance at playing correctly. And plus, it’s kind of fun to let ‘em sing a little bit, their eyes just light up like ‘Wow, did you hear us?’ Yes, I did,” Langford explained about the benefits of singing before playing.
Band students must devote much time after school to practicing for halftime shows, as being in a band class means that you are automatically in marching band.
“I would say more than most people should, (laughs) I can’t really give you like a good estimate but I would say I practice like three to four times a week…” said April.
“I don’t know if it’s more than people should, but it’s a healthy, big amount of time, but it’s worth it because I love it, it’s something I want to do,” inputs Gabriela De Jesús, clarinet player.
The band students spend the majority of their free time after school practicing, but a lot of their social time deals with other people that play their instruments.
“My section, although it’s small, we do interact with each other really well, and it’s a really good thing that we have the chemistry and the relationships built up so that when we do have to talk about things musically it will just be a lot better than rambling at each other,” April explained in response to how much she and her section communicate.
Our band is very social with each other and the rest of the school, and we hope to keep it that way. We should also hope that they continue to perform well in school during the mornings as well as at events like MPA, as their status as a group represents our school in general. Luckily, they have been doing a pretty fantastic job at making us look good so far.