The Edmond Memorial Band is starting to ease its way back to normal compared to last year during the A/B hybrid schedule. There’s still difficulties for band, such as social distancing and quarantines; however, it is inching closer to what it used to be this school year.

“Last year we lost a lot of the social aspects of band, and that is a really large loss,” band student Michael Glenn said.

Band is an important part of these students’ social lives. Last year, when social distancing was more strict, it was harder for students to make connections with their fellow band students, especially since everyone had to wear masks.

“While necessary to prevent the spread of COVID-19, masks sometimes made it difficult to connect on a personal level with others,” band student David Jernigan said.

Another big difficulty was trying to hear the other instruments while keeping six feet apart. It’s critical to hear the other players’ parts while practicing for a performance. 

Quarantine is yet another obstacle that the band has to deal with this year. When someone is quarantined, the other students have to keep in mind that there is someone in the gap. To fill the gap they wait for the person to come back from quarantining before performing; however, if they can’t wait they use an alternate player for the performance. 

“Most of the time if someone is quarantined you just have to deal with it,” Glenn said.  

This year the band is back to competing against other schools, which the program has been excited for since the fall 2019 season. 

“We have an excellent show, and I cannot wait to present it to viewers and judges,” Jernigan said.

Although still not back to normal, band is beginning to look how it did before the COVID pandemic. Hopefully by the end of the year the band can be 100% back to the way it was. 

Contact Lathan at [email protected]