The Los Banos High School Band has their very first competition of the school year. On September 30, 2023 the band will be taking on multiple different band teams from surrounding towns at Pitman High School. The band is in division 2A and will be going up against six other schools.
The band leaders, Band Director, Mrs. Cavasos, Drum Major, Elizabeth Guardado (12), and Color Guard Captain, Guillermo Lopez (12) agree the band is, “only partially ready for the competition.” Cavasos stated, “We can perform the music decently, but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done before I feel we are fully prepared. This competition is very early in the season, so there are bound to be some mistakes.”
The band and color guard will be performing The Directorate by John Philip Sousa. Cavasos said, “Sousa is known as the ‘March King’ because of the astounding number of brilliant marches he composed during his lifetime.”
To compete in a competition, band members need to focus on playing and memorizing the music. “Once students can confidently accomplish both skills, then we put them together. The judges are looking for accuracy in both marching and playing, ” said Cavasos.
Guardado said, “Practices are ESSENTIAL to our success.” The leaders are expecting members to not only practice during class, during band practice, but during the individual’s personal time.
Competitions allow the band to grow. The purpose of competitions is to “get critiqued by music, marching, and other adjudicators related to band/color guard,” said Guardado.
The competition itself “will last only a couple minutes,” according to Cavasos, but the band only has a single shot to perform and need to get the perfect run the first time. Students will be at the competition from “7:30 A.M. and should end around 3 P.M. when awards are over,” said Guardado.
All leaders are incredibly proud of their group and proud of how the band members’ skills have strengthened overtime. Cavasos said, “Overall, I am very proud of how far the students have come. There is definitely more work that needs to be done, but I have seen a lot of progress these past few weeks.”
