Josie Calzonetti
Sugar Beet Staff Reporter
April Fools
Every Friday night whether it’s the football team playing during the fall, the basketball team’s playing in the winter, or during all of the school assembly’s, all of these events have one thing in common. The band is always there performing, cheering and creating the best sound for our athletes, students and community to enjoy.
The board of education recently announced the removal of all current band instruments due to budget cuts, replacing these instruments will be used kazoos and recorders for everyone in the band to enjoy. The band is directed by Lyle Sobba, and is made up of almost 200 students.
“As an educator, cuts to funding are never a positive thing. However I’m excited about the opportunities that moving to a kazoo based ensemble will afford our kids,” Sobba said. “This will allow for so many more kids to step in and become part of the Marching Stampede, while this is a current trend within in bands, the kazoo is the way of the future.”
These students spend a large amount of time perfecting their sound during class, before school starts in the morning and during the summers.
“I feel that the music department is filled with such great instructors that they will be able to make any adjustment that we throw at them,” Head Principle Steve Nordby said. “Kazoos and recorders are fundamental instruments, we are going to strip it down and take it back to the basics.”
Because of this solution it will take some getting used too, the sound of the band will need more practice to get used to the new beat that the recorders and kazoos produce. “I feel like having cuts in the band would be unfair because everyone should be able to do what they love to do,” Taylor Terpstra, health and trade academy junior, said. “The new instruments would definitely create a new and unique sound that you’re not used to hearing from a band, but it would be fun.”
The band will also need to reorganize their music style due to only having two types of instruments for each student to chose from. On the bright side, teaching the students how to play a kazoo and recorder will be much more simplistic because of the fewer options of instruments. Also, the recorders and kazoos can come in different colors to add some unique color to our band club when performing.
Josie Calzonetti is a arts and communications senior. You can contact her at calzonettij@student.gckschools.com.
Garden City High School 