Tilley Dombroski Photos
Many organizations arrived to campus early to prepare for the upcoming school year, including Troy University’s marching band, the Sound of the South.
This upcoming semester will mark my third year with the Sound of the South, and my seventh year of marching band overall.
This year, I’m on the social media team for the Sound of the South. I work alongside with three other band members to run all of the social media pages, take photos of the band and promote our performances to the wider public.
Being on the social media team means that I am a part of the band council, where our job is to help the band run smoothly and successfully; some of my closest friends are also band council members this year.
While most members are only at camp for five days, some of the band council and myself were here for ten. The first day consisted of a leadership workshop led by Dr. Walker, the band director.
The next two days were dedicated to percussion and the auxiliaries, since they had much more to practice than the average wind player. I went out and took some photos of each group practicing and posted them on our social medias.
Rookie camp is when things start to speed up. First-year marchers, no matter their classification, have to attend rookie camp to learn the basics of marching with the Sound of the South; many of our techniques are different from what many of us learned in high school and some of our members have never marched before.
On the first day for many, but the fifth day for me, register, and we begin working. The first few days are dedicated to relearning the basics of marching and music.
Every morning, we were expected to be out on the field bright and early to get some early marching done. Our schedule is intentionally designed for us to avoid being out in the sun during the hottest parts of the day, though I still ended up with a nasty sunburn.
One part of my social media job is knowing what to prioritize, since I have to balance between taking photos and working on the show.
I’ve had the music for pregame memorized since freshman year, so I tend to step out when we’re working on that. If we’re setting drill or working on the halftime show, I focus on that.
This year was extremely productive in terms of our marching shows; we have the entirety of Pregame done, as well as the first song of the halftime show and half of the second song. Dr. Walker rewarded us by ending the day early or letting us start at a later time the next morning.
By the end of band camp, everyone is exhausted and a little bit sick of each other. This year in particular was incredibly rough for me in terms of burnout thanks to having to be there for double the time.
At times, I wondered if I could handle everything I had to do. But even though band camp is an exhausting experience, I still love what I do.
I’ve made countless friends during my time in the Sound of the South and I have the privilege of working with the best band council I could ask for. I’m incredibly excited for what this year has to offer and the opportunities I’ve been so graciously given.
I hope you’ll come to the football games and stick around for our halftime show this year. As always, BLOW SOTS.
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