Touchdown.  The crowd roars as the clock’s buzz reverberates off the sides of the stadium.  On the field, the players and coaches rejoice while the stands swell with spirit. In the background of the chaos, is the tune of the well-known Randall High Fight Song, played by what looks to be a bunch of geeks in overalls holding shiny objects.
​The geeks in overalls making all the racket that, tuned and practiced correctly, can sound amazing, are the Raider Rhythm, and they deserve your full attention.  Their game day started the second the 3:50 bell rang, as they headed out to the “marching field” in uniform—be it 100 degrees or zero—to run through the halftime show.   They also dedicated everything from their late-start Monday morning to football game freedom to be better than the opponent bands.
Friday night dinners are prepared and served by parent volunteers. The menu can include anything from Mexican pile-on to casseroles. To a weary musician coming in from running through an entire show, there is no cooking in the world equivalent to that of the band moms’. And to a band mom, there’s nothing quite as alarming as the amount of food these kids can eat. Almost everyone’s asking for seconds.
The notorious bus rides can in reality be the most uncomfortable experience about being in band. There are instruments, hat boxes, and of course, people crammed into yellow dogs. At this point, iPods are produced, and there’s often horrendous singing accompanying the loud rumble of the buses. Let’s just say there’s a reason we’re not in choir.
Being in band requires attendance at football games, so most of the time we know what’s going on. Time spent in the stands is usually monotonous, but everyone tries to have a good time with friends in-between frequent bouts of the Fight Song and other stand tunes. Some things that we have found amusing include the famous “Jewish song,” a quick tune played loudly by a trumpet to which the band will dance and the Randall percussion’s “Old Set” beat that is frequently played in pep rallies and games. There is a paradoxical mix of both hardcore school-spirited and indifferent individuals that make up the band. It instills a certain amount of school pride in everyone, though, being in on the action all season.
​When the clock nears the second quarter, we begin to prepare for the performance by putting on gloves, gauntlets, hats, and circular Velcro mirrors that are located in the middle of our jacket and make the uniforms stand out more from the press box. It’s out to the parking lot to warm up before a short speech of encouragement from Mr. Wright and a moment of silence.
Suddenly, we’re out on the sidelines preparing to take the field. The next few minutes pass quickly but feel slow. There’s a lot to keep in mind…horns should be above a 90 degree angle from the ground and the curves and lines in the forms, not to mention the memorized places to be and music to play. The crowd is for the most part preoccupied. The parents of band members and most adults tend to pay attention to the performance, but from the field the stands are noisy and distracting. Lucky for us, at big competitions like Putnam City and UIL, the spectators are there to see the band so we have their full attention when it really counts.
A good performance means that nothing fell apart–the delicate balance between the percussion in the front and back of the stadium and the drum majors was consistent, the forms were decent, and the music was in tune and sounded correct. Bonus points if everyone was in step and the marching looks clean. The performance is usually recorded from the press box. This recording will be looked at closely by the directors as they search for forms that need work and weak points in music to improve upon the following week. If anything, being in band is about constant individual improvement. All performances can be a little better.
How do we stand it, then? The constant push for self-improvement and that of the entire group of people is never-ending. We really are the craziest people on the planet to put up to seven hours of work per week outside of school time all season into seven minutes of show. But we do it because we have pride in our accomplishments and of course, our school to fuel the demand for improvement.