STUPID O'CLOCK

‘Oh, I know you guys don’t like waking up this early. Stupid o’clock is what I like to call it’, I heard the band teacher say to a group of about 45 sleepy students this morning. It was a few minutes past 6,30.

I observed the students from the doorway, along with the other two chaperones accompanying the band to Leander High School for the last performance of the year. The UIL, or University Interscholastic League. The band teacher stating this was like the STAAR test of band.

It was still dark when we all boarded the charter bus. Most of the instruments being put in the compartment under the bus. The few others taken upstairs to be put underneath the seats. Forty-five minutes after we departed, we finally arrived at the high school.

The band had 25 minutes for warmup practice before the competition, which was being judged by a panel of judges in the audience. The teacher was going through the music for the three songs and encouraging her students.

‘Don’t let the change of environment change how you sound’, she advised them. They continued to practice until their time was up and the next school band entered the room.

In the past two months, the band performed two practice runs for the competition. One was at Cedar Park High School. The other at Vandegrift High School, which shares the same parking lot as my son’s middle school. Both performances I saw from a spectator’s point of view in the audience. This time I was fortunate enough to be able to see them perform behind the scenes, on the stage.

After the three songs were completed, the students left the stage and walked to another room for the sight reading portion. Seeing a group of students learn a new piece in 7 minutes’ time was quite impressive. As soon as they had finished the piece, we all left the room and walked out into a cloudy scene. Rain had started sprinkling, so we all hurried towards the covered area by the entrance to wait for it to stop.

‘This was your best performance!’, exclaimed the band teacher as she returned a few minutes later.

‘Do you want to hear what we got for the sight reading portion?’, she continued.

Excitement was in the air as she held up an award.

‘All three judges gave us 1s!’, she exclaimed.  

‘Ones across the board!’, she continued. It was well deserved.

At this point, everyone was ready to get back on the bus. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, we had to wait an hour and a half outside. The rain having been replaced with the intensity of the sun.

For a part of that time, we all filed into the auditorium to watch another high school band perform. The challenge of this being that all of the students from my son’s middle school had to take their instruments with them and remain quiet. After the three songs were completed, we all returned to the shade of the overhang by the entrance before climbing back on the bus and returning to the middle school.

The experience of seeing a group of 7th and 8th graders at the UIL performance, playing their best, was worth waking up at stupid o’clock.