An Inside Look at the Ferndale High School Golden Eagle Marching Band

Hello fellow Ferndale Patch readers!

I hope to bring you, from now until November, and inside look at Ferndale High School’s award-winning Ferndale Golden Eagle Marching Band. As we enter into the 2011 season, I will be teaching my 10th season with the band. But the most interesting perspective I have is my relationship with the band director Elon Jamison – he’s my husband. So not only do we love, care, and work for the band and the students of the band, it is our way of life. 

Each year at the beginning of the school year, there are many activities and sports that start up along with the school year. Marching band historically has been an accompaniment to the football season, but has become its own sport. The Ferndale Golden Eagle Marching Band competes in the Michigan Competing Band Association (MCBA), which is a competitive band circuit for participating bands in Michigan. Bands are grouped into four “flights” (divisions) based on school size, and Ferndale competes in Flight III. Competitions, or “shows," occur every week at schools throughout the state, and bands are free to enter any of them, but are required to compete in at least two shows to be eligible for state finals. The twelve bands from each flight with the highest average score from these shows compete in state finals at Ford Field. In the last seven years, Ferndale has won the state final competition in Flight III six times. This year Ferndale will also compete in a Bands of America (BOA) show, in which they will compete against different bands from what we normally see in MCBA.

Members of the color guard (flags and rifles) and the pit (instruments on the sideline that includes marimbas, xylophones, and other stationary instruments) and drum line have been rehearsing since May, while the rest of the band started in June. We rehearse regularly on Monday and Wednesday evenings. Once school starts, Fridays are dedicated to home football games, and Saturdays are rehearsal and show days. In a few weeks, we will be spending a week at Interlochen Fine Arts Camp, the band’s 58th year to have camp there. At camp we learn the majority of our show.

As opposed to "football only marching bands," competitive marching bands have a show made of music, marching, and visual work by the color guard. Competitive bands tend to have much more intricate music and design in their shows than football only bands. These shows usually have a theme and can last from seven to ten minutes.

Members of the band staff started meeting in January to design the theme for the show this year. This year’s the marching band show is called (No) Strings Attached. The premise is that the music in the show goes from very classical orchestral music to modern wind ensemble literature. In a visual sense, we will be showing a conflict of being “attached” by strings but breaking free from those ties by the end of the show. The music will include excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Barber’s Adagio for Strings, McTee’s Soundings – Transmission, and Lortz’s Mixed Signals. All of the music will come together with drill formations and color guard movements to make cohesive show based on our theme. Elon arranges all of the music to fit together with the theme. Jason McIntosh, a Pleasant Ridge resident, creates the drill formations and the work of the color guard. Others play large roles by writing the pit music, the drum line music, and teaching. Many of our teaching staff members are alumni of the band.

Being a part of this organization has changed my life in so many ways. I can’t imagine not having this large family to share this with every year, and I’m excited to bring my infant son into this life. Throughout this season, I will be bringing you updates, pictures, and fun stories about the band so you may experience it in a special way like I do. Don’t worry; I will include pictures of my house when the kids “decorate” it before state finals!

Welcome to my crazy world of competitive marching band with the Ferndale Golden Eagles!