Do something as an EC because you love it. Not because you think it will help an app.
I can promise you this. No college will look at an 2 identical applicants and think oh yeah, the one who stuck with marching band is the one we should take.
The same thing holds true for concert band.
What it far more important is that you are doing things you enjoy and doing them well and consistently as it shows commitment. It doesn’t much matter what it is really. We have music kids and 2 of them love it enough to do the required matching though it’s their least favorite thing. If you are in any band at their HS you must do pep and marching starting sophomore year. If you want to do jazz you must first be in one of the concert bands. For them, it’s worth it. But it’s a ton of time, 2 full classes and one that is before school, zero period. Many many kids drop out as it goes on or drop down to one band. It’s normal, interests evolve.
Another one of our kids stopped all HS music classes after sophomore year. He graduated from college not too long ago as a music technology major. He found ways to participate outside of school. The other one sang thru her junior year. Amazingly colleges didn’t penalize her for taking yoga instead her senior year. She’s a happy junior at a fabulous school.
My point is simply this. Do what you love and stop overthinking.
OP- notice the common thread in all of the responses so far? Hope our combined efforts have helped. Enjoy your teen years, they are not just preparing for college/the adult world. They are a part of your life. Sometimes you need to “think in the moment” and enjoy what you do. College admissions will take care of themselves- you will end up where you are meant to be. Plus you will enjoy the process of getting there much more.
My example. We have a gifted kid, now in his mid-late twenties. Looking back I see where he managed to perform well enough to be satisfied intellectually but not end up in a pressure cooker, always gunning for the top/elite… Likewise you are figuring out where you want to be in life. There is nothing wrong with not being at the topmost college or always doing as much as possible. There is everything right with also enjoying the journey. Band, of any kind, may or may not be part of your picture.
@dragon1128, I’m getting to this at the tail end of the discussion, but just wanted to say that I know a professional trombonist who teaches at a flagship university, who didn’t allow his daughter to be in marching band ( she plays her instruments in concert /jazz band.) He thinks that marching band dulls and distracts a person’s attunement to the finer subtleties of playing music. I’m saying this as the parent of a student who loves band and will be in marching band next year (she loves the social aspect of it.) Just saying that there are plusses and minuses to any EC…and reaffirming to you that it’s OK to go with your own priorities.
I don’t think it was ever said openly to the band director…just one parent to another (I know the professional trombonist’s wife.) In my area, students may play in the concert band and jazz band year-round as classes, without participating in marching band (which is an EC.) People make their choices for various personal reasons, which do not have to be stated or defended in front of the teacher. I just passed that tidbit along to let the OP know that foregoing marching band is not necessarily showing a lack of commitment to music.
Personally, I love marching band in our area, and am thrilled that my daughter wants to do it. However, I see marching band as being at least as much about the theatrics, coordination and choreography as it is about the music. Those are different things entirely, and often suit different kinds of people.
I laughed reading post #23. DS loved marching band and even took it noncredit when the class conflicted with IB Physics. He still went on to be one of the top jazz musicians in the district.
I hear what you are saying in #23 about marching band… sometimes it is accurate. But a good program with a good staff will give consistent music instruction. You can’t watch this (it’s a drum and bugle corps): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4l7pW6oOQY and say they don’t have musical subtlety
Yep, I’m with you two, ( and having lived in New Orleans, I can attest to the power of a good brass section.) I just passed that on as an alternate opinion of marching band so that OP would know not everyone considers it essential to music education or proof of dedication…maybe this man (I know him, but didn’t ask) was referring to the average, run-of- the-mill high school band, or his daughter’s band in particular.
Personally, I love marching band and my daughter is all in. If she’s happy, I’m happy, and I think there are many benefits for those who want to participate. Whether or not the above is true, I think there’s a place in the world for fine-tuned people who feel every nuance as instrumentalists, ballet dancers opera singers and poets…and there’s also a place for everyone who wants to dance and sing and make music for the jolly fun of it. A school marching band will include a range of skills and motivations, and I think all students deserve opportunities to explore what kind of people they are, and what they can do, however imperfectly they may perform.
