I am currently a freshman at a new high school. The school was first founded last year, so they decided to add one grade level for each year. Right now there are only freshmen and sophomore, and we will only have a full class of four grades two years from now.
With that being said, the newness of our school helps a lot with my leadership opportunities (starting new clubs, joining student council without having to compete with juniors and seniors, etc) but there are a lot of problems with not enough classes being available yet.
It is required in my school district that any student who takes marching band must also take another music class, such as band, orchestra, or choir. Marching band fulfilled a semester of PE credit, and I need two full years of PE to graduate, so I was planning to take marching band all four years. However, this forces me to take another music class, which takes up a time slot that I could have been using to take electives more oriented towards my passions.
Am I wasting my time by taking music? Should I just drop marching band and take a full year of PE so I can spend junior and senior year working harder on my academics without being weighed down by two music electives?
I am not especially musically gifted. I play three instruments-- clarinet, tenor saxophone, and oboe. The only benefit I can think of is that because our school is so new, I am one of only three oboes in the entire school, making it easier for me to be section leader.
@MrElonMusk Hi, thank you! The thing about my ability to play three instruments is that except for clarinet, I started both this year. I began clarinet in the fifth grade, but quit during middle school and only picked it back up this year. I still remembered most of my basic fingerings and general music theory, so I played clarinet for marching band and concert band for first semester. Then marching band season ended and turned into jazz band, so I had to switch to tenor saxophone (with very similar fingerings to clarinet, so it wasn’t as difficult) in December. My teacher then told me to also try oboe in concert band because he needed more oboe players, despite my nonexistent skill in it.
If you enjoy marching band then continue with it. It is a nice EC as well as a way to get your PE credit. If marching band feels like a chore then move on to something else.