Reedy Band has had to make many changes this school year due to COVID-19 and the mix of virtual and face-to-face students. Due to the social distancing and safety precautions that have to be followed, students are not allowed to do all of the activities and events they participated in during previous years. 

“One major difference before COVID-19 and after is that a lot of our normal band activities have been canceled or altered,” sophomore band student Crystelle Lee said. “Our marching competitions, some of our marching season, our summer band camps, and other social events that would normally happen have been canceled.” 

Safety precautions resulted in season and competition changes.

Our marching season was pushed further back,” Lee said. “Region auditions, UIL, and other concerts were all virtual this year. Most of all, everyone is more “isolated” but this doesn’t stop the band from making the most out of the year.”

Some of the band students are virtual students and others are face-to-face students, affecting the music of the band.

 “Due to health/safety concerns, numerous members of the band chose to remain virtual this year. This greatly impacted our numbers and the overall composition of the band,” sophomore band student Priya Ramotar said.  “Because we are often so far apart when playing our sound is often distorted. Despite all this, we are able to play and make music together which is ultimately the goal.”

The band takes extensive safety measures to stay safe from COVID-19.

“During marching season, we had further safety protocols, such as spreading out in the buses and opening windows to let air flow. We also had band masks that had openings to play our instrument so we wouldn’t have to fully take off our mask,” Lee said. “During football games, we were very spread apart and were also very spread apart while on the marching field as well.”

The social distancing measures have affected the band’s music, but they still make it work. 

“Although the pandemic obviously affected some parts of our marching music because the shorter season led to more cuts in the music, the music we played was still very close to the original planned music and allowed students to grow their music skills,” Lee said. “For concert season, all three bands played very high-level music that still challenged all the members of the band. Nothing in that aspect changed and students’ knowledge of music grew.”