Marching to the Cardinal Beat

DT band marches at Harvest of Harmony and Fall Festival

By: Benjamin VanDiest 

The DT marching band kicked off their performance season by marching in the Harvest of Harmony Parade and the Doniphan Fall Festival.

To prep for marching first have to learn your songs. This year band director Mr. Jess Watson wrote the cadence for the drumline and he named it the “Cardinal Cadence.” The point of the cadence is to fill space while marching and to carry the tempo of the song throughout the parade.

The drumline consists of 9 percussionists, all underclassmen. Community member Mr. Mike Hollister assisted Watson in helping the drumline sharpen their drumming skills before the parade.

“I thought that we did really well; the cadence sounded great, and the whole band played exceptionally well,” said sophomore percussionist Chase Groff. 

The song DT played while marching was called Bravada. The song is an uptempo song with some slower parts in it.

“I am very pleased with the marching band’s hard work this year. Last year we were not able to participate in parades due to Covid, and it felt pretty good to get back out marching,” said Watson. 

DT finished 18th out of 27 Class C bands at Harvest of Harmony. 94 total bands competed in this year’s parade. 

This year’s band consists of 34 high school members and the band majorette this year is junior Bree Donahue.  

“It took a lot of practicing to prep us for our first parade, but with all that practice, our first performance went pretty well,” said Donohue. 

After just a few hours, the DT marching band turned around and marched in the Fall Festival parade. The people of Doniphan lined Plum Street to support their hometown marching band. 

“It was neat to see community members come out and support us, but it was also a little nerve-racking because I knew a lot of the people who were watching us,” said sophomore percussionist Jaden Williams.