This year the band is performing its 2016-2017 show titled “What Dreams Are Made Of…Chasing, Longing and Flying” at the upcoming region UIL competition this Saturday, Oct. 22. Band members started working on their music and drill in the summer, and when school started they began practicing four days a week in preparation to make sure they nail every note and every body movement.

“The saxophone section started as one of the strongest sections during band camp, but each section has risen to their level,” band director Christopher Agwu said. “This has helped improve the band as a whole.”

The show consists of a preshow and four parts. The preshow opens with a flute lullaby while the rest of the band has planned choreography to show the beginning stages of falling asleep. They then transition into pretending to be sleeping on the field as part one starts. Part one illustrates the beginning stage of dreaming with peaceful movements and soothing music, however, not everyone dreams peacefully at night.

Part two is nothing short of a nightmare with frantic and fast sounding music. The woodwinds have fast moving notes that go head to head with the loud accented notes coming from the low brass. Both melodies clash together to create an overall frantic piece that describes a nightmare a person may be having as the color guard soloist, senior Yaritzza Avila, portrays by tumbling across the field.

“Part two is my favorite part because we get to interact with the color guard and create the tension that this part is trying to portray by chasing them around the field,” band member Jessica Brewer said. “This is exciting because this is the first year where we actually get to interact with the color guard.”

Part three returns back to the lullaby stage from part one, only this time the entire band fills the field with inspiring music as band members harmonize together. It’s a piece showing how someone overcomes the nightmare and dreams of something bigger and better.

“The reason we have four drum majors this year instead of three is because our show this year is very spread out,” junior drum major Allison Operzia said. “There are people from the 10 to the 10 across the football field that need to see at least one of us to keep in time with the rest of the band.”

Some might compare this year’s show to the 2013 show “The Hope.” The two shows share similar themes with part one being soft and sweet only to explode into chaos, and then falling into a depression state only to explode again.

“The biggest difference from last year to this year is experience,” Agwu said. “Over the five years I have been here, I have asked more and more from the kids. So it isn’t that this band is stronger or weaker than the bands in the past. This band just has more experience with the level we are asking them to reach.”