SPRINGDALE, Ark. — It doesn’t look or sound like it used to, but many high school marching bands are practicing while following the COVID-19 safety guidelines put in place by Governor Asa Hutchinson.
The Van Buren High School Marching Band practices every morning to an audio track since they aren’t allowed to play the wind instruments per the guidelines.
Marching band director Ron Smith says the audio track helps them get their fingers and feet synchronized for when they can play.
“We try to instill in our students that there are no obstacles, there are no challenges, you can’t let a restriction limit your success. Not only in music education but in life,” he said.
Smith says whatever challenges they face they will provide solutions. He says they have been practicing since late June and meeting in-person and via video conference, so they can play their instruments at home. He says it’s not as productive as face-to-face instruction though.
“It’s definitely better than doing nothing and like I said we didn’t really have to reinvent the wheel when we found out we were going to have these restrictions because we already had the system in place to work with them virtually online,” Smith said.
Har-Ber High School in Springdale will have its first official practice outside Tuesday (Aug. 4) morning. All 240 students will meet for three hours without playing and just march and learn the footwork.
Unlike last summer’s practices, they’ll get to go home after that until there is more guidance from the governor’s office.
Har-Ber Band Director Jeremy Ford says they don’t know what halftime will look like once high school football kicks off later this month.
“I do know that we can get students out on the field with social distance and we can play great music like we always do and also observing those same social distance rules for students,” he said.
Ford says so far, they’ve had 100% mask compliance from every student who has come to school for tryouts or for student leader positions.
“They’ve all been prepared, and they are just grateful to be able to participate in some way and see their friends and that’s been great, we haven’t really had to…we’ve seen appreciation instead of the guidelines that are there,” he said.
The governor and the Arkansas Department of Health are expected to soon be releasing new guidelines for marching bands, but we don’t know an exact date.