At 8 a.m., the sun was already beating down on the group of high school kids gathering in the large grass lot next to the Fine Arts Building at McLoud High School on July 24.
Despite it already being fairly hot and near the end of band camp, the teens were in good spirits, laughing and joking around with each other.
More than that, they were focused on Band Director Cody Tollison.
“You have to be putting that extra effort. Saving the effort is not going to do you any good. If you’re not putting in 100 percent effort now, you’re going to be behind later, right?” he said from the top of a stand.
This is Tollison’s second year as director at McLoud, and he’s stepping things up. The band’s program centers around the changing seasons and has a bit more movement and drama than last year.
“Last year, we added visuals at the very end, and so then when we got to competitions, they didn’t stick. So that’s why we’re adding visuals at the beginning now, because then through all of our competitions, they’re gonna stick,” Tollison said.
He said he went through a few hundred shows before settling on this one, which he selected because it was a cohesive program based on Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.
The enthusiasm has spread to the students.
“We get to dance, we get to do all these visuals and stuff, and we get to play and make beautiful music and do a bunch of flips and stuff, it’s cool,” said senior Landon Keith Roberts, the trumpet section leader.
He added that while things were a bit rough last year, he feels like the band is going to do much better at competition this year.
Colorguard leader Braydon Whitesaidhewasboth excited and nervous. He went from being the only member to having eight this year.
“I’ve never been in charge of that many people to teach them all that, but it’s going to be really fun,” he said, adding that he’s looking forward to having a more overall effect visually.
“There’s a larger group, and last year was really hard to have that impact by myself, you know. But now there’s a whole group of us, and it will have more pizazz to the entire performance.”
On the outskirts of Shawnee, the North Rock Creek Marching Band lined up on a cloudy Friday morning to work through marching drills with husband-wife director duo David and Heather Bellows. This is also their second year leading the NRC marching band.
This year’s program is called “Into the Light,” and is about entering into challenging aspects of life and coming out on the other side where there’s light and joy, the Bellows said. They said the show was inspired by life.
“We encounter times of darkness and uncertainty. Through faith and perseverance, the darkness can be lifted, and our paths made clearer,” they said. “We bounce ideas off of each other. We found some music that was very interesting and had a dark, mysteriousness to it, and thought about how cool it would be to bring a message of conquering the darkness and stepping into the light.”
The music has some more technical challenges to it, the directors added. Though the real challenge is making sure the audience understands the message.
“It’s our job to be as expressive as possible and bring a clear message through our musical and visual performance,” they said.
Crowds can expect the same quality NRC band that they’re used to, the Bellows said, including great music and a talented colorguard, along with some cool props.
Students are equally as enthusiastic about this year’s show.
“I’m really excited about all of the different components that hopefully we can bring together into a meaningful and powerful show,” said colorguard Evie Busler, adding that her favorite are the powerful moments in the colorguard work.
Trumpet player Cooper Lincoln said the high notes andtimesignaturechanges are proving challenging, yet “I hope to accomplish a superior at contest.”
McLoud’s first home football game is on Sep. 19 against Tecumseh. North Rock Creek’s first home game is also on Sep. 19 against Holdenville.
We’re writing a series of articles about area high school bands.
Next week: Stroud and Meeker are in the spotlight.