All band camps have much more to do with making music than they do with the more colorful activities that the popular American Pie movies allude to. In fact, you might be surprised at what exactly happens during a typical band camp in the United States.
The Most Common Type of Band Camp
Most band camps in the United States tend to last for 1 or 2 weeks. The time is used to teach and perfect both the music and the marching band drill for the coming marching band season. Depending on the area of the country and the competitive nature of the school, different bands will use the band camp time in different ways.
Some will spread the time out throughout the summer, spending 1 day or 1 evening each week to rehearse and memorize the marching band show music. These weekly rehearsals are often capped off with a week-long band camp where the musicians take this memorized music and begin to put it together with specific individual movements on the football field to produce the final show.
Taking It Up a Notch: Residential Band Camps
Despite the term,"band camp," most schools do not structure the rehearsals in a camp-style format. In other words, the students will go home each night and return the following morning for more work and rehearsal.
More competitive marching bands may actually hold a residential camp where members stay overnight, often at a facility away from their normal practice field. Bands using this format will often make arrangements with colleges or universities to stay in the dorms for a week during the summer while also being allowed access to their more professional practice fields and facilities.
Aside from the grind of the music and marching rehearsals, good directors will often schedule additional activities into the daily plan. Leadership and team building activities are often included to help build the band's spirit and camaraderie between members.
Entering The Big Leagues: Band Camps That Never End
Some bands take the idea of band camp to another level entirely. Bands that are members of Drum Corps International (DCI) for example, practice year-round, usually 1 or 2 weekends each month, only to come together as soon as school lets out in the spring for 2 straight months of daily rehearsal and competition.
These DCI marching bands are not affiliated with individual schools, rather they draw their members from the area surrounding their host community as well as from around the world.
In this ultimate band camp, musicians get up around 9 in the morning, practice until 4pm, put on their uniforms, do 1 or more performances of their show, then sleep on the floor of a gymnasium, only to repeat the same process each day throughout the entire summer.
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