by Sydney Keaton
SANFORD – The 46th annual Brick Capital Classic is Saturday at Lee County High School. Even with competition season wrapping up, the Marching Yellow Jackets are still learning this season.
Though the band as a whole didn’t do as well as they would hope, the individual categories like, guard, drum major, and music did better while percussion got first out of the 1A and third overall in their first competition. Based on the feedback from the judges and other directors there is certainly a lot to improve on music wise and with drill. From listening to the judges tapes, band director Keven Ramirez now knows what to do in order to help his band succeed and improve throughout the season and into the future.
“I thought it helped me realize things that I miss as a director,” Ramirez states. “Especially as a second year director, where I’m still kind of learning how to figure out the little details that many experienced directors are able to get.”
While the band isn’t great at some things there are many strengths that they have. During rehearsals they tend to not put as much into it as they would for an actual performance. They are tired and hot and all they want to do is go home. However instead they persevere through it and work hard to reach their goals.
“When it comes to performance, they really bring out their energy,” Ramirez said smiling. “Their passion and understand their love for music.” Ramirez explains that to really motivate his students he tries to just show them how far they’ve come since the beginning. To look at how everything was at the start of the year and then look at the end of the season shows great determination and growth. He believes that by showing them all the progress that they will be even more motivated to be successful.
“With how long of a show it is, just being able to tell the kids, like, you guys are doing this not only for the pleasure of the audience,” Ramirez says. “But also the pleasure for yourself as an entertainer, being able to complete a show is like, the most satisfying thing in the world and doing it right too.”
Drum major Alison Hernandez Mendez is a senior at LCHS. Compared to Ramirez, Mendez has a completely different viewpoint. She looks at everything happening in the band through the eyes of a student. As drum major her job is to keep the band in time and step in for the director when they aren’t there. Self confidence is often the best motivation, as when you have faith that you will do well then you are more likely to do better.
“I definitely want them to believe in themselves even if things don’t look the greatest,” Mendez said. “Because there’s always a chance to improve little by little,
“I definitely want to look at the brighter side of things,” She says. “Even if it’s just like a tiny bit better, it honestly lifts me up and motivates me more than you would think, and I hope to bring that to the band.”
While most people think that band is just about music, it has so much more to offer. There are many life skills also involved. One of the most important skills you can earn from band is time management. You have to think in the form of a schedule and say this time is for music, this is time for work, this is time for school and then you can save some free time for extra stuff. Another great skill you get from a band is respect. You have to respect your band members even if you don’t like them. You have to learn to work together through the highs and the lows.
Band is a lot of hard work and it’s going to get tiring but at the end of the day you just have to get through it to get to the good part. “I think it’s just life skills that marching band really and just band programs in general bring to you that many students don’t realize until later down the road,” he explains.
Ramirez also talks about trying to get his students more involved by going to different places to perform. Places like school events, city events, competitions of course, or even out of city things. To spread your passion and see other people genuinely enjoy it and be happy is one of the things that motivate him as a
director.
He says, “I think music should be accessible to anyone. And not just any music book, great music, should be accessible.”
