Summer marches on

You can't spell the word "fundamental" without the word "fun." When it comes to the area high schools and their summer marching band experiences, that motto rings clearer than a French horn in an empty music hall. "In June, we look at basic fundamentals and getting through our music book so the kids can take it home and look at it," Greenwood Band Director Jon Sutton explains. "The two weeks preceding school, we have two-a-days to refine that music and those fundamentals." Although the summer signals the beginning of no more teachers or no more books, Matt Harloff, the assistant band director at Avon, said the summer also signals a completely new element to the school year. "The summer, for us, starts the new school year," Harloff says. "The band totally changes right after graduation. We have to prepare the schedule, staff, what music we would play. We also establish our basic fundamental in terms of music and marching, and we'll start learning some segments of our competitive season and show." Avon's competitive season is one of the highly touted ones in area, especially after claiming its seventh straight state championship in its division. The Orioles were also ranked as the second-best band in the country. Harloff credits the summer marching band session as a time when band members get to see each other beyond the tubas and trumpets that cover their faces—it's where band chemistry begins. "The most important thing is developing a relationship with the students," Harloff notes. "If they're coming from the middle school to the high school, there's a lot of anxiety there. It's them getting to know the high school directors and their teammates. We do the competitions and all these other things, but the No.1 thing is for the kids to be good teammates—we simply need to get to know each other." Greenwood's marching band is no stranger to competition success either, as it has won 10 state championships since 1986, including back-to-back state titles in 2006 and 2007. Much of that success, especially the marching techniques, stems back to the "fun"damentals that are practiced in the heat of the summer. "You have to be fundamentally sound," Sutton says. "You're talking about giving the kids the tools they need to be prepared for marching. We try very hard to cover any scenario from a fundamental standpoint. That way we can tell kids to do a certain things, and there's a technique to forward marching and backward marching, no back to the audience, upper body twists, etc." But what about the trips to Disney World? And Sea World? And every other World that families plan on going to during the summer? Well, the band directors stay flexible like any other extracurricular activity, making sure as many families as possible are still able to see Mickey and the gang while still balancing proper practice times. "We try to be very flexible because it is time for family vacations and stuff, but at the same time, it's also a time to be competitive," Harloff says. Avon's summer schedule typically practices about nine hours a week in June. The last two weeks of July, it will head up to band camp for two weeks (eight hours of practice a day for 10 total days). And when the school year starts, it's about nine hours of practice per week. The scorching asphalt and roaring heat waves are the elements that every summer marching band must overcome from a physical standpoint. "We have to be very careful and be sure the kids are hydrating and not drinking a lot of pop. We make sure they drink a lot of water," Sutton says. "Last year was just miserable. We're rehearsing on asphalt, so we have to be really careful with the heat, and we try to take them out in the evening when it's cooler." Sutton explained that a different element of Mother Nature—torrential downpours of rain—can have just as big of an influence as the heat. "A few years ago, every scheduled band rehearsal outside, it rained," Sutton says. "So we worked a lot on the marching steps. You can only play the kids so long, though." Harloff chuckled as he remembered past summer band sessions and the way the band members progress throughout the process—he says the improvement he's sees from the students makes the summer band worth every second. "It's tremendous," Harloff says. "We have awards at the end of the year, and one includes the most improved. That's one of the hardest to award. The improvement is just tremendous from where the students start. That's the fun part when you look back at things. They have no idea what they're capable of accomplishing until they do it." Whether someone plays the trombone, the flute or the drums, the intensive band camps are the outlet that helps students be sharp for the upcoming schools and are also the source for irreplaceable memories. "When you think about the summer, it's about the experiences we have during band camp," Harloff says. "That's what makes it unique. What the summer has and what the school year doesn't have is band camp. The kids stay in dorms and eat food in the college cafeteria; we have talent shows; the seniors have traditions they do. You be a kid and go off to a camp. Some of those memories, kids will have for a lifetime."