Can marching bands be saved?

Matt Pearl

I have grown to learn that holding a sense of longing for ‘the way things used to be’ is one of the unfortunate side effects of age.

This truth came to light a couple of weeks back, when my wife, sons and I attended the Homecoming Parade in Maryville for Northwest Missouri State. We had a great time, of course, and I even got to talk to a few folks that I hadn’t seen in quite some time.

But I wanted more bands. I never knew that the presence of marching bands in a parade held such a high priority to me.

I’m certain that the NWMSU Homecoming used to feature more bands from varying sizes of schools, but then again, I’ll bet more schools invested resources and expectations into having marching bands 25 years ago, when my memories of Bearcat Homecoming parades began to form.

I have memories of being a seventh grader, the only trumpet player in the Union Star marching band. I remember playing my heart out to carry the melody, as the trumpet section tends to do. It was tough, but I’m glad I did it.

The golden age of school bands is perhaps something that we will be forced to watch fade into the past, a fact that I would count a bitter shame if it truly occurs. In fact, I don’t intend to turn the tradition loose without a fight.

As you know, I coached basketball once upon a time. Still, I will tell you this in all seriousness: I will never push my kids toward sports, but will support them if they choose to participate in athletics; I will however, force every one of my children to play in the band.

Force them. That’s right: I’m going to make my kids do something they might not like.

Why? Because football and basketball aren’t going anywhere: communities show up by the hundreds to watch sports, and the survival of athletics in our schools is going to happen, whether my kids play or not.

But the arts are in peril. Band participation by students must be dwindling in our schools, judging by what I saw at the NWMSU Homecoming. There is hope for the bands, however, if enough folks make it a priority in their own families.

I saw the Osborn High School band marching in that parade with nine kids. They played hard, and they executed a corner stunt they ran at the parade’s end, turning off of Fourth Street north onto Main. Would that little school rather have 19, 29 or 59 kids playing? Sure. But they took nine, marched with nine, played with nine and impressed me. If you know someone from Osborn, give them your copy of the paper when you’re done.

Every little school used to have a solid marching band, and most little towns used to have a community band that would play on several occasions throughout the year. We think we’re too busy to focus upon such things nowadays, but we’re fooling ourselves.

As a society, we have prioritized our time according to the things we must do, the things we think we must do and the things we want to do. If enough people still wanted community bands, we would certainly have them.

So, my struggle will be an uphill one, but my wife and I place importance upon music and band. Our little towns have lost so many things over the years––businesses, population, opportunities––but marching band seems to be a portion of our culture worth saving.

Maybe I’m too late. Maybe the window is nearly closed on the arts. But if we allow the arts to go silent by our indifference, it will truly be a shame.

Matt Pearl owns and operates newspapers in King City, Albany, and Grant City.