Elective classes are often a way for students to have fun and alleviate stress from some of the harder classes they are taking. One elective class offered at Freedom High School is band.

However, band is more than just a class where students play an instrument. There are a variety of instruments to choose from and they are organized into four classes: brass, woodwinds, percussion, and pit. These various instruments provide many ways for students to express themselves. Band members attempt to make the most out of their fifty-minute class periods.

“We begin with a warm up and then begin to go over the song that we are working on. Later we move on to the marching aspect and at the end we put it all together,” said Senior Band Captain Ryan Borso.

Joining the band requires students to put in hard work; band members practice between three and four hours every day.

“We fine tune our marching and musical talents,” added Senior Officer Ben Bryant.

Band students put in a lot of work to improve themselves, but all that effort doesn’t go towards nothing. The students in the Freedom High School Band play at football games as well as train for competitions.

“We perform what we’ve been working on all year and get critiqued by professional judges,” said Bryant when describing the competitions.

Competitions tend to be extremely competitive and band members strive to play their best and perform as well as they can sotheir hard work doesn’t go unnoticed.

In addition to placement, performance also determines their grades.

“The last competition that we go to is for a grade,” said Senior Jack Edwards.

Despite the pressure of the hard work and competition, band members seem to really enjoy what they do.

“Oh yeah it’s super fun,” said Band Officer David Jones.

“It’s awesome seeing the end product of what we created from scratch through hard work, it’s amazing,” Captain Borso added.

In the end, the students in the Freedom High School Band recommend this class for anyone, so those with an empty elective spot should keep band in mind.