As a new college student in North Carolina, getting involved in activities is a great way to meet new friends and have a well-rounded campus experience. If you play a marching band instrument and enjoy watching sports, you may be able to take advantage of the benefits of pep band.
Pep band is an ensemble that plays music primarily at sporting events and perhaps other school functions. The purpose is to entertain the crowd, promote school spirit, and help everyone to have fun by playing popular songs and performing choreographed routines. One of the benefits of the pep band is that you have fun while providing enjoyment to others.
However, the pep band can offer many more benefits. Here are some concrete ways that it can enhance your on-campus experience as a North Carolina college student, as well as your life after leaving Barton.
Physical Exercise
As a college student, it is important to keep up regular activity to maintain physical health, energy, and stamina. However, you spend so much time studying that it can be difficult to work exercise into your daily routine. Between practices and performance, the marching band can be a great way to get a regular workout and have fun doing it. Marching alone is an aerobic activity that promotes better cardiovascular health. When you add the instruments into it, that adds muscular development into the mix by lifting and carrying them.
Learn Leadership and Discipline Skills
While any music ensemble has to play in synchronization with one another, a marching band has to be completely in unison. Your bearing, carriage, performance, and style have to be completely uniform with the rest of the musicians. Applying all these skills at the same time requires concentration and discipline that can serve you well throughout your educational track at Barton as well as your later career.
Another of the benefits of pep band is that it can teach you valuable leadership skills that you can apply to future jobs following graduation. There may be opportunities for you to take on responsibility as a drum major or section leader. As you help the band to learn the routine and stay in formation, you can develop and apply the following valuable leadership skills:
- Problem-solving
- Conflict management
- Constructive criticism
- Positive reinforcement
- Effective communication
When you start applying for jobs after graduation, interviewers will often ask you to give examples of your leadership capabilities. Answering these questions can be a challenge when you have little to no experience in the workforce, but talking about the position you held in the marching band can demonstrate to them what they need to know and show you to be a well-rounded person.
Creative & Performance Outlet
Success at a North Carolina college like Barton depends on striking a balance between intellectual pursuits and creative ones. One of the benefits of the pep band is that it lets you exercise your artistic side through both the musical and visual aspects of the performance. The ability to present yourself confidently before a group of people can serve you well during the academic presentations that you make as a student. Furthermore, in your life after school, you will probably be called upon to speak before groups in both your professional and personal life. The performance skills you learn in the pep band can continue to serve you well in these situations.
Friendly Competition
Regardless of who wins the game or match at which you are entertaining, the band always wins. In other words, pep band teaches you to work cooperatively with teammates while also pulling your own weight. These skills become important when you participate with your ensemble in marching band competitions. However, this competition doesn’t involve any head-to-head clashes. Rather, each ensemble gets a turn to go out on the field and perform their routine, which is then measured against a rubric to gain an objective score. Regardless of the final results, you get the opportunity to appreciate what the other bands have accomplished and show them what you can do, which leads to mutual respect.
Travel Opportunities
College may offer you more opportunities to travel than you will ever have again. It offers flexibility that many careers and other life obligations do not. However, travel is expensive and you may not be able to afford it on a student budget. One of the benefits of the pep band is that it offers the opportunity to travel to new and interesting places for sporting events or marching competitions. You may find that it takes you places you never would have visited on your own, in North Carolina and beyond.
Learn Financial & Time Management Skills
While the school may assume some of the cost for the ensemble to travel, you will have to pay for at least a portion on your own. This is often accomplished through fundraising, which has to be organized to be successful. When you travel for competitions, you will have an allotment of funds assigned per day, and you must manage your money carefully to make it last.
Participating in pep band also helps you to budget your time. When traveling, you must follow a set itinerary that may not always give you as much time as you expect to eat, dress, load, warm-up, and practice before performing. While band rehearsals are usually scheduled, you must find time to practice your instrument individually on a daily basis.
Make Long-Lasting Relationships
Sharing a certain interest or passion is an excellent foundation on which to build friendships. Working together for a common goal, while sharing joys and sorrows along the way, helps to form a strong, unbreakable personal bond. The friends you meet in Barton’s pep band are likely people you remain close to for the rest of your life.
Learn To Respect Yourself & Others
For the ensemble to be successful, every individual member has to perform his or her part at the expected time. The pep band is more than the sum of its parts, and every individual role is important. In marching band, you learn to cooperate with others in pursuit of a common goal. You also gain respect for yourself in meeting a challenge and developing physical and musical skills.
Get Involved in Pep Band at Barton
The benefits of playing in pep band in college can continue long after you graduate. Contact us to find out more information about the pep band and other activities at Barton.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Kind of Songs Does the Pep Band Play?
The pep band at Barton plays an eclectic mix of newer songs, such as “All I Do Is Win” or “Seven Nation Army,” and classic oldies, such as “Centerfold” and “Another One Bites the Dust.”
What Instruments Are Included?
We don’t include pit instruments, such as drum sets, guitars, or keyboards, but all marching band instruments are accepted.
What Athletic Games Does the Pep Band Play At?
We play at basketball games on an average of one per week, as well as all home football games.