Among changes winter guard, drumline begin rehearsals
Photos by Chris Swann
Due to the Coronavirus, marching season for the Apache Band, like football season, is moved to the spring semester. Because of this, the regular spring classes like indoor drumline, winter guard and symphonic band have been moved to the fall semester.
Gentry Gym is being used for the band’s new practice space. The gym can hold around 150 people who are six feet apart to maintain social distancing guidelines. Blue tape will be used to create the 6×6 foot spacing, and the trombones will have an extra three feet. Another precaution is all rows are straight forward so no member will be facing another.
A few members of the winter guard, Savannah Potter, Sydney Robinson and Victoria Deal, whose season was moved from spring to fall semester, commented on this semester’s challenges.
They spoke about how being an incoming-freshman will, “be a challenge,” Potter said, and how getting to know each other will be a “whole different story,” Deal said.
The Director of the Apache Band, Jeremy Strickland, spoke about mask requirements and other preventive measures the band is taking.
“If they’re not playing and it’s for any length of time, like let’s say it’s a three movement piece and they don’t play on the second movement, we’re going to ask them to put their mask on for that entire second movement,” Strickland said.
A movement is when there are sections in a musical piece. The movement can be, “performed on its own but is part of a larger composition,” according to liveabout.com.
Not only will there be social distancing between band and faculty members, the gym also will be cleaned in the morning and in the evenings along with other procedures. Chairs, stands or shared percussion equipment will be wiped after each use. There will be no shared instruments, and each band member will be assigned a seat for the semester.
“You have two competing priorities, health and safety, and then the quality of education,” Strickland said. “We have to make sure the health and safety stays, but also we have to make sure that we can still do band.”
Students who are interested in joining the Apache Band can apply online and fill out a membership form through the Tyler Junior College website. After filling out those forms, the band will contact applicants to schedule a live audition.
