The Kaneland marching band spends a lot of time together. They practice together, perform together, sit together at football games, and improve together. While the band is a whole, there are many different parts that contribute to making the performance happen.

 One of the biggest parts of the band is the drum line. The drum line includes every member of the marching band that carries a drum. An important member of the drum line last year was junior Anders Magnuson.  

“Drum Line is given an additional responsibility other than the regular band members. The Drum line has to make sure the tempo of the band stays consistent but more importantly, correct. Though the Drum Major is also responsible for the tempo, and the drum line and the drum major have to work together in order to maintain a constant tempo for the rest of the band,” Magnuson said. 

Magnuson believes there is a big responsibility when it comes to the Drum Line because they keep the whole band on track, and the drum line is underestimated in most cases.

“The drum line does have more pressure than the rest of the band because, while the rest of the band has to listen back to the drum line and play with them, the drum line just has to play the music at the correct tempo. In other words, the drum line is under more pressure to be correct sooner,” Magnuson said. 

The color guard is another section that some people do not realize is a part of the marching band. The color guard consists of an interpretive style of dance that incorporates props such as flags or, new this year, sabres. A sabre is a type of sword with a blade that curves backwards, so you can imagine the difficulty of adjusting to this new prop. Color guard member, sophomore Josie Fox, voices that the change has been ongoing. 

“Adding sabres has been pretty smooth. Learning new techniques has been slightly challenging, but it is completely worth it,” Fox said. 

With new props comes new coaches. The transition to a new coach for any group of people can take some getting used to. The KHS color guard has experienced this first hand with their new coach, Alex Blanchard. 

“It hasn’t been difficult, but it has definitely caught the girls off guard. Because of the teaching methods used last year, we had all imagined a totally different coach than what we were given. Granted, the way we are being taught work is much better than the past,” Fox said.

With the first competition show approaching on Sep. 28, the Band Assistant and Percussion leader, Tyler Brooks is feeling confident. 

“This is actually the first year that we’ve had the whole show completed before September ends, which is awesome. Everyone is working really hard. This is probably the best work ethic we’ve had in the group so far,” Brooks said. 

Brooks is also appreciative of the hard work that the band members put in each week, whether it is at practice or outside of rehearsals. 

“We rehearse two nights a week, as a full band, for three and a half hours. Then we have a two-hour sectional on Wednesdays. That’s just scratching the surface of what we do,” Brooks said.

Although the band is proceeding well, there have been some minor progression errors due to weather issues, but that hasn’t stopped the rapid progress of the band. 

“We’ve had some rain so we weren’t able to use the stadium. Last week we had that tornado warning, and then they were treating the field, so we weren’t able to get in our field time. Just here and there drills that didn’t go the way I wrote it so we had to take some time, but other than that it has been pretty smooth,” Brooks said.