1 - The performance anxiety rollercoaster is real. This is a longer post waiting to happen, but I’ve had two public performances this year, and they both resulted in different types of pre-performance anticipation. This one, while of the negative sort, was more of a kiddie ride than a full blown thriller.

2 - The students who arrived before (gasp!) or at call time: mainly 9th graders. The students who mainly arrived in school colors, including a few with blue lines of face paint under their eyes: 9th graders. The students genuinely excited to sit for over two hours in brisk October air: unless they were doing a good job of faking it…9th graders.

Cynicism runs rampant within the typical American public high school. It’s easy to downplay the importance of this kind of activity - to say it just doesn’t matter, or to dwell on the feeling of subservience to the school’s athletic crowd. Either way, the most vital students within a Covid-area instrumental music program were also the most excited about playing “The Hey Song” multiple times in one sitting. I can’t overstate how helpful it is to have this kind of confirmation for my convictions.

3 - Pep band is a fully engaged musical activity, combining focused concert precision with an element of variance. It has few peers. I barely saw a cell phone the entire evening. There could be many reasons for this. Students may have hidden them well (at my previous school, the students were not so sneaky about this). A month of stricter expectations about cell phone use may have carried over into this graded class activity. All I can tell you is that when I turned around to give directions or start a tune, I saw a lot of eyes for used forward on me or on the field. There are few other settings where I can get that level of focus and attention.

4 - Playing at a football game is most definitely not my favorite thing either, but even as a kid I noticed the electric atmosphere to which the band is the ultimate compliment, cynicism be damned. You can pump “Hey Ya!” As loud as you want from the PA system - it hits different when live musicians crackle it into the crisp air.

5 - On a personal note, I had a number of positive interactions with students, parents, and other adults that rivals the total number I have from my first three years in this position. This is not to say that folks have not been kind. But between a heartfelt thanks for a graduate’s letter of recommendation, to my homeroom students who went out of their way to say hello, and every compliment in between, it was the best professional night I’ve had in some time.