Last week was the first performance for the marching band season for the Greene County High School band program.

Director Wes Anderson was excited for how well the 36-student ensemble did at the first home football game of the season, playing Taylor Swift songs. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio there is mostly two different types of marching band shows, one is more artistic and has lots of components, and others are picking songs to play loudly, which he believes they are more into the “play it loudly” camp.

 “That’s kind of the spirit that I feel like our kids kind of jive with more and I believe our community jives with a lot more. I think the first time that I noticed it to be true was when we played a Queen show maybe five or six years ago. One of my co-directors, Bob Palmer, mentioned to me after the performance he said, ‘I don’t know if you noticed but the entire crowd was singing along with you guys on that last number.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, you’re right that was really cool and we should do more of that.’”   

Anderson shares his thoughts about the students wanting to go to lots of marching band competitions.

“They want to win things. That’s not necessarily where I think educationally it’s valuable to beat other schools at stuff. I mean it’s valuable to learn how to play your music well, as well as you possibly can, educationally. But there is something to be said for wanting to go out there and show that, ‘Hey we stack up against other schools. We play just as well as they do, maybe even better.” 

Anderson adds that they will be a part of the parade marching band contest at Carroll Band Day later this fall.