Life in college while being a member of the Marching Band might not be as bad as everyone else thought it would be. Both Freddy Schulz and Reeves Higashionna, members of the University of Hawai’i Rainbow Warrior Marching Band, agreed that joining the band and delivering fun has been an awesome part of their lives.

“It was definitely the most rewarding experience so far, I learned a lot about myself, leadership, and passion for music. and my biggest passion in life is conducting music so that’s what it got me to this point, to college,” Higashionna said.

“For me, it really brought out my personality more, it basically gave me a lot of new relationships, and maybe made me more open as a person, and it totally helped me out with confidence issues,” Schulz added.

Higashionna explained that it is super exciting to be in the marching band because of the bonds they make with other members as well as the fact that they represent the state. They go to many different events, not just football games or sporting events. They go to all kinds of gigs such as grand openings at the airport or at Dunkin Donuts.

Schulz also said that they always try to be involved with the community and the response from the audience keeps them going.

“We played at a part of the community and it’s really exciting when we see people all around really excited for us to be there playing whatever it’s that we are playing,” Higashionna added. 

The UH Rainbow Warrior Marching Band is the only university that represents Hawai’i in the world of marching band. Schulz explained that joining the band is not just an extracurricular thing because they actually get credit from it, just like how they earn credit in classes, which goes to their graduation requirements. 

Band members meet three times a week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) for an hour and a half from 3:45 to 5:15 p.m., according to Higashionna.

A lot of people, especially high school students who want to join band in college. wonder how the UH Marching Band members manage to balance studies and band. 

“It’s very doable and manageable as long as you have good time management,” Higashionna said.

“I have a lot of friends that are taking like six classes but they always make time for band so it’s very doable, just like what he (Higashionna) said, you just need to have good time management,” Schulz added.

The UH Marching Band has an attendance policy where the members are expected to be at every rehearsal in order to perform, and in every rehearsal a member misses their grade gets deducted by one percent. 

Not all members can attend every rehearsal.

“We try to accommodate everyone as much as possible,” Higashionna explained.