Senior Dylan Babcock hasn’t always had a love for music. But now, he loves it more than ever.
In fifth grade, Dylan had to make the choice of what type of music class to do. He ended up choosing band and then had to make the decision on what instrument to play. Ultimately, he decided to play the trumpet because his dad had played it before him, and he encouraged Dylan to take it up as well.
“I just kind of went on without a care,” said Dylan. “All through middle school, I didn’t care about trumpet. Like I probably should’ve quit because I did not like it. Freshman year was even worse because of COVID, but by the end of freshman year and beginning of sophomore year, things started to change.”
After COVID went away, Dylan started enjoying band much more. During band camp, Dylan felt more part of the band and started liking the band more and more each day. In his freshman and sophomore years he only took one band, but in his junior year, because of his new love for music, he decided to join the percussion ensemble as a zero hour and also took wind ensemble. This year he is now taking three different band classes: percussion ensemble—which is during zero hour—wind ensemble, and jazz band.
Zero hour is an hour that is before school, and it goes up until right before school starts. You need to wake up early, and adds a whole extra hour to your day. It is an extra time commitment to add to your busy schedule.
“[I like] marching season [more] 100%.” said Dylan. “I’ve been kind of known to play loud… I still like concert band, I prefer jazz a bit more. Concert band is more balanced, and I still see it as a value, and I still like concert band. But marching season, It’s just so much fun being on that field.”
Another thing Dylan likes about marching season is the community of the band. Dylan thinks that the marching band is a lot like one big family, but specifically in your sections. In your sections, everybody is super welcoming to the newcomers such as the freshman. Yes, the whole band is welcoming, but your section is like an automatic family because you spend all of your time together.
“[Marching band is] not really like any other sport or activity,” said Dylan. “It’s just different. I think people are more welcoming because we all have a shared love for music.”
Another thing that Dylan likes about marching band is the music. Dylan enjoys playing the music and getting to hear the pieces come together after working hard to get there. After learning and memorizing all of the music, listening to it come together near the end of the season is something that he loves most about marching band.
There are so many different bands, and Dylan is in every single one of them: percussion ensemble, marching band, wind ensemble, and jazz band. The hardest thing for Dylan to decide is which band he likes more.
“I like wind [ensemble] and jazz [band] a bit more than I do percussion [ensemble], and I’ve been in wind, or traditional concert band, for a bit longer,” said Dylan. “This is my first year in jazz. I’m starting to like jazz a bit more [than wind ensemble] because it’s more of an opportunity to express, and it’s a smaller group. I also kind of like the style of it a bit more. More solos and stuff like that. I just like the jazz aspect more than the traditional music”
