On Wednesday, September 18th, five of Sahuaro’s band students visited middle schools Gridley, Alice Vail, Secrist, and Magee to discuss the expectations and cool experiences in high school bands. This was a required program because there has been a “lack of participation” throughout many high school bands, senior Joaquin Cota says. But they really just wanted to encourage and give advice to the kids to join and stay in band throughout high school.

Junior Bethany Seal, says seeing the middle schoolers playing gave her “nostalgia” from when she was in band at Gridley. Joaquin Cota, says playing with the students was, “pretty easy because of my experience in advance ensembles, but it was fun playing alongside with the middle schoolers.” Advice Joaquin would like to tell kids planning to play band in high school is, “Don’t give up, the first couple of weeks will be hard just to see out personal boundaries, but it is an experience I will never forget – friendships and knowledge I gained.”

Why is it good to be in a high school band you might ask? Well… it’s a beneficial way of helping students work together and it is said that “it helps students understand that in order to make things work at their best, they have to be productive during work time.” Meaning that it can show what can be accomplished in little as a week with untrained students if everyone participates and works hard.