Pride of the West marching band ready for marching contests

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  • Pride of the West marching band members (l-r) Bailey Faulkenbery, Georgiana Crist, Nathaniel Salinas, Jaklyn Ramiro, Eli McClain, Morgan Chapman, Caelan Nicholson and Desire Malmsten rehearsed their show Dia de los Muertos for the upcoming band contests.
    Pride of the West marching band members (l-r) Bailey Faulkenbery, Georgiana Crist, Nathaniel Salinas, Jaklyn Ramiro, Eli McClain, Morgan Chapman, Caelan Nicholson and Desire Malmsten rehearsed their show Dia de los Muertos for the upcoming band contests.
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Every year, Latin American countries honor their deceased on Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Bringing this celebration to life is Snyder High School’s Pride of the West marching band, which will perform its show titled Dia de los Muertos at marching contest.

“We attend two marching contests during the course of our fall marching season,” Snyder High School (SHS) band director Jeremiah McCurdy said. “The first is the Big Country Marching Festival. This contest provides a practice opportunity for our band to perform and receive critiques from experienced band masters.”

The marching festival will be held at Wylie High School Monday and gives the band an opportunity to make adjustments before the University Interscholastic League (UIL) contest the following week.

“We will take the comments from the adjudicators of the Oct. 16 contest and use them to further refine our performance in preparation for the UIL Marching Contest on the following Monday,” McCurdy said.

From the district UIL contest, bands have the opportunity to advance to regional and state UIL competitions every other year. This is not an advancing year for Snyder High School.

McCurdy said contest preparation comes down to rehearsals.

“The individual elements of marching and music and for the color guard are combined to produce the end effect of the show,” he said. “It is a constant process of putting pieces of a large puzzle together. We take small pieces at a time and refine them until they are ready to put tougher for the larger picture.”

According to McCurdy, the band is prepared to perform well musically, however, “the complexity and duration of the marching drill make this year’s show a challenge.”

“From start to finish, each performer will take 668 steps in the drill,” he said. “During those steps, 40 specific locations (or sets) will be hit in order to form the shapes seen during the show. Every step and every set must be struck with millimeter accuracy, perfectly in time with the beat. This presents a daunting task for even seasoned performers.”

Although the show presents its challenges, McCurdy feels the band will be successful at the marching contests.

“I am confident in the efforts of our students and their desire to perform at their best,” he said. “I look forward to seeing their success at marching contest both on Oct. 16 and Oct. 23.”