Rebecca Neumann

Staff Writer

If you are planning to stay at school for a while after school today, you might want to think again. By five-o-clock, band students from all around the metroplex are going to be flooding Coppell High School to compete in one of the most important competitions of the year: All-Region Band tryouts.

While you might think to yourself, ‘I thought the band had been marching all year. When did they have time to learn tons of music?’ that is exactly what you should be asking.

Few people outside of band know that along with all of the marching music the band members have to learn, they also must master three etudes of difficult music that they perform in the All-Region and Orchestra competitions.

Tonight, small sections such as the saxophones and oboes will perform their pieces, while the instruments that a large number of students play, like the trumpets and flutes, are playing tomorrow.

The process is stressful. All of the tubas go into one room and take turns playing their music for a panel of judges, hidden behind a piece of butcher paper or other such thing so as to not show bias. This is the same with every instrument, however, some of the instruments with the most people competing, like the clarinet section, have to go through two rounds of playing.

So if you have noticed that the band members have been a bit on edge this week, show them some compassion. They’ve had a tough first semester.

For information about the band, visit: http://chsbandboosters.com/