The Bridgeport High School Marching Band is heading into two weeks of band camp in preparation of the upcoming marching season.

 

“This year’s field show is titled ‘Pyramids of Egypt’ and it’s a three-part original composition; one of those pieces that is designed to give you visions of the pyramids being built,” said BHS Band Director Chris Hayslette. “It’s more of a competition type of show than what we’ve done the past couple of years. We took a break from that and did some pop stuff like Elton John and we kind of felt it was time to get back into a competitive-type show.”

 

The band will be working on the high school grounds 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. this week and next week. He’s expecting around 80 marching band members to participate, nearly 20 more than was featured in the 2014-2015 BHS Marching Band, Hayslette said.

 

It looks to be a good year for the band, a season which includes two cavalcade events.

 

“We’re going to host one in October here in Bridgeport and we’ll try to go to at least one other one – maybe in St. Albans,” Hayslette said.

 

 

In addition to cavalcades and football field shows, the band will also participate in a number of area parades and there’s even a Disney performance planned for December.

 

“The band has been accepted to come and march. Our jazz band has been accepted too and the show choir will be going with us as well,” Hayslette said.

 

The next couple of weeks will be instrumental in preparing the band for all of those upcoming appearances. The BHS percussion section got a jumpstart on the season by participating in its own pre-season camp, held this past week at BHS.

 

Hayslette describes the dozen and a half drum line members who participated last week as enthusiastic.

 

“They seemed to love it and most of them haven’t seen each other for a while so they were ready to get back at it,” he said.

 

Like the band as a whole, the percussion unit is larger this year, which will make for a very nice sound.

 

Again this year, Josh Chiado is serving as percussion coordinator with former BHS student teacher Matt Wood and alumni drummer Michael Burge serving as volunteer assistants.

 

“It’s a good group and it works out well to have so many instructors. Especially we break apart to work on technique, it’s nice to have that personal attention,” Burge said. “I’ve been working with the snare line, Matt with the tenors and Josh with the pitt and bass drums.”

 

The line is looking and sounding good, Burge said.

 

“We couldn’t be more pleased with the way things are coming along,” he said. “We have a lot of repeat students so that’s been very helpful. I think it’s going to be a very good season with a lot of very good potential. They are picking things up very quickly and are in that serious frame of mind to really make this one of the best seasons we’ve had in a good while.”

 

The drum line has grown from last year.

 

“We won’t know for sure until band camp what the final number will be, but we know we’re going to have a good diverse group of instruments from mallet instruments to drums to auxiliary percussion,” Burge said.

 

It’s beneficial, he said, for members of the drum line to have a week’s practice under their belts before joining in with the remainder of the marching band.

 

“There are a lot of additional things that the percussion section does,” he said. “We warm up kind of differently than the rest of the band does and there’s a lot of basic rudiments and fundamentals we have to instill so they can perform well. Also, the cadences are a big thing and once the band starts focusing mostly on show tunes and drills, there’s no opportunity to work so much with cadences.”

 

The line worked on two cadences last week.

 

“We’re playing the X1 which is a shorter cadence and Josh has written a new one called ‘Energizer’ which has some really cool rhythms and beats. That’s going to be our main parade cadence this year,” Burge said.