By Amanda Nguyen
<[email protected]>

For non high school students, participating in a high school organization can be a frightening experience. This was the case for Tyler Walls, tuba player and junior, when first he joined the Carmel Marching Band in his eighth grade year.

“I was mainly scared at first. I thought (the high school students) were going to shun me or something, but it turned out to be really cool. The other high school students embraced me. I think a lot of people liked me more just because I was in eighth grade,” Walls said.

Although Walls said he was nervous in the beginning, joining marching band wasn’t a difficult change for him. “My friends (outside of marching band) didn’t really support me, but I was having fun with it so I didn’t really care. The music was harder (than the eighth grade repertoire), but I was ready for it,” he said.

Andrew Cook, the associate director of bands, said, “Tyler was taking private lessons with me so I knew him since his sixth grade year. We designed the marching band formation with a certain number of tubas and one of our tuba players moved to another school. We needed to fill the hole, so we asked Tyler to play with us.”

Walls said he joined marching band because he knew Cook and also because his brother participated in it. He said, “Marching band is a big part of my life because it’s made up of 200 people and I get close to all of them during the season. I just wanted to have fun with it.” Walls said.

Even as an eighth grader, Walls was well-qualified to play with the high school marching band. He said he won the Director’s Award from Wendy Higdon, director of bands at Creekside Middle School. He also earned gold rankings in several ISSMA solo and ensemble competitions.

Regardless of a player’s talent, marching band students must practice many hours, according to Walls. Marching band members practice before school at 7 and after school until 6 on weekdays and all day on Saturdays. During the summer, members have three-a-day practices that start from 8 or 9 in the morning and lasts until 9 at night.

When Walls was an eighth grader, he said he had to leave right after school to go to the marching band field.

He said, “One of the directors would pick me up because it was legal back then, and I practiced with the rest of the band, but I didn’t have to go to the morning practices.”

Like Walls, Bailey Cook, mellophone player and junior, also joined marching band her eighth grade year. “I got involved in marching band before high school because my dad is one of the band directors at Carmel and seeing his involvement made me really interested and influenced me to do it in eighth grade,” she said via e-mail. “Because I was involved in the marching band in eighth grade, I was surrounded by high schoolers and made a bunch of friends at that time. It helped a lot when I went into high school because I already knew people.”

Walls said there are many exciting events that occur prior to, during and after competition.

According to Mr. Cook, each year the marching band’s first performance is the Fourth of July parade. He said, “We meet with the incoming ninth graders in January and February to talk to them about all the activities they can do like jazz band and marching band. We rehearse in June with the students. It’s usually our first tradition of the new marching band season.”

Another tradition that the marching band participates in is the dress up days during the week of State competition.

Walls said one of most exciting events that he experienced his eighth grade year was winning the Grand Nationals competition.

“My experience of winning Nationals was crazy because the whole front half of the RCA Dome was filled with people. It was the first time and you can’t prepare for an experience like it. It was hard to imagine we could win Nationals, but somehow we did,” Walls said.

Walls said he enjoys most aspects of marching band, but he enjoys one thing above all else. “My favorite part is going on the trips, getting to know everybody better on the bus ride is fun,” he said.

Even with another year and a national competition experience under his belt, Walls said, “I don’t have as much experience as the seniors do this year, but I have more experience marching so I can teach others how to march better. Even though I have a year on other people, I don’t boss them around.”

Bailey agreed with Walls in that another year of marching band doesn’t impact her tremendously. “Next year will be my fifth year and having that extra year may not do a whole lot, but it definitely has helped me in my leadership skills and helping the freshmen transition from middle school to high school,” she said. “I love marching band. It is really stressful and time consuming, but I’ve enjoyed it every year and I’m always disappointed when the season is over.”
Walls said his experience in marching band has been great so far. He said, “Through marching band I’ve met new friends and I’ve become a better musician.”