I’m an oboe player in my high school band and I am the only freshman in the top band. I really love playing during the concert season but marching season really destroyed me. I had no time for other ECs and I was sleeping at really late times. I’m still struggling a little bit fixing my horrible sleep schedule (as you can see…I’m posting this at 2 AM since I can’t fall asleep). Idk if I should continue with band…if I do I would probably achieve great things (like making area and possible all state and getting a leadership position in the band) but my sleep is definitely going to take a toll as well as my ECs and grades. Idk if I should quit after this year or keep pursuing it.
Could you do concert season but not march? I have a ton of friends who marched, and they couldn’t do anything else…
@awesomepolyglot that’s not an option unfortunately
@Shreyas0718 Well that sucks… I think that it would probably be best to drop band and perhaps pursue the oboe on your own.
I think that this is a prime example of how most band people get overwhelmed bassooner or later.
Yeah, I’d drop it.
Can you audition for your local youth symphony instead of taking band as a class? That shows you’re still committed to your instrument.
I’ve never heard of marching oboe before. Did you play another instrument or were you part of the pit?
@loquatical I played clarinet when I was marching. And unfortunately, my local youth symphony requires that I participate in band at school…so quitting band would probably mean just dropping oboe as a whole (I would have to buy my own oboe and good oboes cost around $7000 which I definitely can’t afford).
Grades are more important that any extracurricular, in my opinion. Find an extracurricular that you can enjoy but still have time to maintain high grades.
My brother, who has since graduated from conservatory, quit band after his freshman year of high school (he was also one of two freshmen in the top band) because of the marching band requirement. It was getting in the way of his practicing, as well as causing him physical problems, and he was already competing at a national/international level. Our local youth orchestra requires school music participation but he just wrote them a letter every year explaining why he wasn’t in band and they gave him an exemption from the requirement. Are you talking about FCPS and AYP? Because that’s what my brother was in. Most youth orchestras will make exceptions to their being in the school program if you have a good reason.
I would say to drop band then. See if there is an after-school or community group that meets at better times. Unless if you plan on majoring in music or have a similar career-path, then this course is not very important for you.