The 2019 marching season brought forth a new approach for the Band of Pirates, volunteer band. The band performed their show tHe CoDe Of SoUnD, which is about the programming of computers.

“I think it’s been awesome all the way around. I think the folks that want to be there are having a good time,” band director Sean Bippen said. “I love the fact that we came to concert band on the first day and started looking at music for festival and winter concert. I think it’s worked out great.”

Not only did Bippen introduce a new way of handling the season, he also added in a tarp. In all the years Bippen has been a band director here, he has never used a tarp before. The tarp helps the marchers visually by having decorative lines that they can follow.

“I don’t think it influences them tons on their playing. I think it helps their marching and lining up formations and that type of thing,” Bippen said. “I think that once they get more comfortable with it, since we’re just now getting them on it, it’ll be even more beneficial. I think it’s going to be something that helps us more visually.”

Every competition is different than others, especially when comparing the first competitions.

“I think a lot of people put in more effort than we did the last time considering we have it volunteer now,” senior Emily Stephens said. “I think the people that actually want to be there are putting in a lot more effort so it impacted how we looked a lot.”

While the performance felt great for the performers, there is always room for improvement.

“First movement looked pretty good but still continue to work on music, second movement we could probably work harder on memorizing our spots in the music,” junior Colin Harris said. “Keep doing what we’re doing, keep practicing.”

Freshman Edward Page agreed with Harris.

“As a band we could probably improve on where we’re stepping and our techniques,” Page said.

There may be a chance that future marching band participants can also experience a tarp.

“It has been a learning experience, we’ll see how the rest of the season goes since we’ve only used it once,” Bippen said. “We’re still learning how to use it efficiently and that type of thing. We’ll see, I’ll leave that up in the air.”