John Mashburn Quotations

If a baseball player strikes out two times, but hits the ball on the third try every time he goes up to bat, he's still a great baseball player. But hitting the mark 33 percent of the time isn't good enough for band. In band you have hit the mark every time you step up.

It involves a large amounts of both small and large motor skills. It's hard. It takes a lot of coordination, mental focus and toughness. After a two-hour rehearsal, these kids are beat. They have to work really hard.

Marching band today isn't your grandmother or grandfather's marching band where the band walked out onto the field, stopped and played a couple of songs and walked off the field. These students are moving thousands of steps at high tempos all the while playing an instrument or using a piece of color guard equipment during one show.

Primarily we hope to increase their enjoyment of art and music. Music is essential to quality of life and we hope to make these students lifelong consumers of music.