Teaching Band in a Small Texas Town
Teresa Archambo
My experience with a A-sized school has been really positive. I have been an assistant director in larger 4-A
schools for 12 years until 05-06. This first year as a head director. I commuted 25 miles each morning to a
spread-out community, where there is only 3 Quick stop stores, one with gasoline. There is one liquor store, one
Catholic Church, two banks, a post office, a butcher, a cheese warehouse, fire station, and scattered "home
businesses."There are no real streets, as most people recognize as streets. The addresses for my band
are PO boxes, Highways, and Roads which are named after the people in the community. The high school has an
enrollment of 150, grades 9-12.
Our marching band will have 73 this year, including 22 8th graders. These band students are miles apart from
the students I have had in 4-A schools in the past. Because almost all of them have been brought up in the
Catholic Church, divorce is uncommon. Most families have both moms and dads, and most families have several
siblings. The community was settled by Germans and those names have stayed for generations. My roll sheet
has at least 5 of the same last names, some unrelated unless it is a distant cousin, and some are all brothers and
sisters.As a teacher, I am able do my job: teach music. The manners, respectful behavior, friendly personalities,
and teamwork are inbred.
Another quality inbred in these kids is competitive edge. The football team wins state, the volleyball team wins
state, the softball and baseball teams do well. Our school has won the 1-A Lonestar cup numerous times.
Almost every child must ride the bus to school, because their house is a few miles away. Practice before school is
mostly impossible because of this. This isn't the only morning problem. Up to a certain age, the students have
mandatory religion class from 7:30-8:00am.After school, athletics meets until 5:00 pm, so the majority of the band
would be absent if I were to call after school rehearsals. Needless to say, I must make take full advatage of my 45
minute class time from 8:00 - 8:45 am. And we do. At the beginning of class, folders are already on the stand
when students arrive, chairs and stands are set up with tuners scattered around, and the order of warm-up
exercises and music is posted.
All music is kept at school in a box in score order, and another set of music is at home at all times to practice with
so no music is left behind and time is not wasted on copying.We meet on Wednesday nights (Catholics don't have
church on those nights) from 6:00 to 8:00 during marching season. Four times I rent the stadium where our
contest will be since it is Astroturf. Our practice parking lot is shared with the church and has both parking slots
and yard lines painted on it. The church is high on a hill, so our kids look like they are marching at a slant. It is
hilarious. Also, the yard lines are only 30 to 30, with a telephone pole right off of the 50 yard line.
Last season we went to the state marching contest and came out 13th, I think. It was a blast, and I know that next
year we will have a fighting spirit to do it again. I only lost one senior and added 22 members. If retainment keeps
up, we will be buying some new uniforms.With such a strong community support, our band parents are able to
really help financially, too. They are paying for each band member to attend the Festival in the Parks in Colorado
this season. About $17,000.00 was raised in the fall with our cheese and meat sales. Later, in the spring, we
raised exactly $15,000.00 by having a raffle for a all-paid-for cruise.