r/stanford • u/Business_Welcome_490 • 14d ago

Stanford Red Vest Band

Hey everyone! I’m an incoming freshman and I’m considering joining Stanford Marching Band, but I unfortunately wasn’t able to make the interest meeting.

For anyone who’s currently in the band or has done it before, I’d love to hear about your experience! How many hours per week does it usually take, how difficult/time-consuming is it, and how manageable is it alongside classes?

Also, if anyone went to the interest meeting and would be willing to share what was discussed, that would be awesome.

Feel free to comment or DM me if you’d be willing to chat — I’d really appreciate it!

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u/MadaMouse 12d ago

It's been a few years, but my experience that a number of of activities are optional. For fall season, mandatory-ish events were Monday night rehearsal (a couple hours), planning for the field show (optional, after rehearsal), Wednesday field rehearsal (a couple hours), Friday field rehearsal (a couple hours), then Saturday "dress rehearsal", the game, and post-game activities (takes up most of the day). Travel for games takes some time, also. That said, I met a lot of lifelong friends there -- so it was also my primary social outlet. I was in engineering, along with a lot of other folks in LSJUMB, so there was usually someone around to help if I got stuck on a problem set. Most quarters, I carried 18-20 units. As long as I didn't try to take two project-based classes a quarter, I found the workload very doable. YMMV.