CCHS Marching Band, Autumn 2010

The CCHS Marching Band – In Step Beyond The Music:

Name the activity where over 105 students must spin a flag, play challenging music, march with the proper marching technique, and create formations all at over 170 beats per minute?

Answer: MARCHING BAND!

Some facts about the CCHS Marching Band That You May Not Have Heard:

• We rehearse over 15 hours per week, beginning in June.
• We perform over 20 times in a three month span.
• The music we prepare and rehearse is of a collegiate level.
• We compete annually, and have taken 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place every year, in every competition we have entered since 2002!
• We are performing on television this season in November, this is our third televised performance.
• The values we stress are as follows; teamwork, work-ethic, goal realization, discipline, pride, citizenship, and dedication.
• Our CCHS Marching Band alumni are now marching for (ULCA, Northwestern, Michigan, BYU, CAL, and Arizona State).

Music is rigorous and relevant, here is evidence of how we tie together all of the disciplines taught at CCHS through participation in band:

Students who had played a band instrument for two or more years scored 10 percentile points higher in reading, and 12 percentile points higher in language than did their non-band peers. Students who participated in orchestra for two or more years had reading and
language scores even higher.

Band students score an average of 62 points higher on SAT tests.

It has been shown that high school music students have higher grade point averages than non-music students in the same school.

A ten-year study, tracking more than 25,000 students, shows that music-making improves test scores. Regardless of socioeconomic background, music-making students get higher marks in standardized tests than those who had no music involvement. The test scores studied were not only standardized tests, such as the SAT, but also in reading proficiency exams.
Source: Dr. James Catterall, UCLA, 1997

The world's top academic countries place a high value on music education. Hungary, Netherlands and Japan stand atop worldwide science achievement and have strong commitment to music education. All three countries have required music training at the elementary and middle school levels, both instrumental and vocal, for several decades. The centrality of music education to learning in the top-ranked countries seems to contradict the United States' focus on math, science, vocabulary, and technology.

Researchers find music is a superior way to teach elementary students the concept of fractions. Second and third grade students were taught fractions in an untraditional manner – by teaching them basic music rhythm notation. The group was taught about the relationships between eight, quarter, half, and whole notes. Their peers received traditional fraction instruction. When tested, the students who were exposed to the music-based lessons scored a full 100% higher on fraction tests than those who learned in the conventional manner. – Neurological Research, March 15, 1999.

The Bands Of Cathedral City High School 

– Excellence, Service, Family, Legacy