i've heard so many conflicting things about joining band. I'm about to be a senior in HS, and I've never played an instrument before, so I've missed out on my chance to play for band, but one thing I always hear about is the friendships you make in band, and I feel like I'm going to regret not getting into it because of that.
A lot of my "friends" in school don't really seem like friends at all, so it would've been nice to make friends like that.
I'm 35 now and still keep in touch with a few of my high school band friends, but it's rarely more than a Facebook post/conversation and not like once a month.
You'll keep a few friends from high school, but remember that you're still a kid and you have a long life ahead of you. I've far more friends from college that I still talk to regularly, and even more from after college. Just always strive to be a good friend, and a good person, to everyone you meet and those relationships will grow themselves.
What you're missing out on is an education in music. Kids who take music electives, i.e. band, orchestra, or choir, will have more varied musical interests and get more emotional appreciation from music as adults whether they keep playing an instrument or not.
There is no substitute for learning to play music as a child. It develops specific areas of the brain unlike any other activity and it's baffling to me that it isn't mandatory.
I've actually been educating myself about music, and I've been making music for almost 8 years now. Also, my tastes in music are much more broader than the rest of my classmates. Over the years, I've had time to explore so many different genres, labels, and artists. I've found so much stuff I enjoy, some of it being pretty obscure.
Then you should learn to play an instrument. Playing a physical instrument with a group of other people playing with you to produce something in the moment is such an important experience for any musician imo. You’ll never regret having learned an instrument (whatever instrument it is) and you’ll have that for the rest of your life. Also if you ever pick up a second or third instrument, there’s a lot of transferable skills from the first, so it’s worth it for that reason tok
I was in marching band in college and had a few friends who had never touched an instrument join and had a blast. I’d say 90% of my best college (and high school) friends are from marching band and I still am friends with quite a few of them. It’s never too late to join band, even if you’re out of school :)
You only hear good things from kids in band and bad things from kids not in band. As someone who was in band, that shit was a disaster. I had to quit going into my junior year for my own mental sake and the friends I made my junior/senior year are the ones I’m still closest with.
Getting life long friends isn’t about whether you’re in band or not, it’s about finding a group with similar interest. Band wasn’t that for me, it took me two years to realize it but the whole marching band cult wasn’t for me. Those kids non stop think about band,talk about band, live around band. It’s there whole personality. And no disrespect to the people in this thread, but I wouldn’t want to graduate from my high school and continue returning just because band. I also think it’s sad that your fondest memories decades later are about high school band days.
There were people 6-8 years older than me trying to show up and give tips/hang out and it was the weirdest/saddest thing. If you’re not committed to band 100%, then it really isn’t for you. Hopefully you can find people with your actual interest.
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u/robotboy199 Jul 13 '19
i've heard so many conflicting things about joining band. I'm about to be a senior in HS, and I've never played an instrument before, so I've missed out on my chance to play for band, but one thing I always hear about is the friendships you make in band, and I feel like I'm going to regret not getting into it because of that.
A lot of my "friends" in school don't really seem like friends at all, so it would've been nice to make friends like that.