The air filled with tension as the four marching band drum majors — seniors Joshua Yoon, Alex Mah, Sean Ryan and junior Isaac Sun — walked onto the Cupertino High football field on Oct. 12 and lined up side by side. They waited for the emcee to announce the winning band after nearly eight hours of watching bands competing for the top prize. 

The verdict at the Cupertino Tournament of Bands: Saratoga snagged first place at their first competition of the year, getting 92.14 points and just barely beating Homestead,. The crowd erupted into cheers. 

This result did not come without dozens of hours of hard work by both the drum majors and the 135 members of band and 30 members of the color guard. 

Since August, the marching band has practiced after school every Blue Day, with the exception of permanent Thursday practices from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and no practice on Fridays. In addition to weekdays, the band also practices on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. In total, weekly time commitments range from 13-20 hours. With the start of competition season in October, band members have dedicated even more time over the weekends, often returning home late at night.

For freshman saxophone player Ojas Somani, the high school band’s practice commitment has forced him to improve his time management.

“I like band camp and retreats where we go to places like Saratoga Springs,” Somani said. “The competitions are also a lot of fun, but it’s a lot of time commitment, and the hours I invest into practices and competitions have definitely forced me to put aside other activities until the marching band season ends.” 

For drum majors Yoon, Mah, Ryan and Sun, it’s an even bigger time commitment. On a normal band practice day, the four drum majors arrive 45 minutes before practice begins, making sure that all the instruments are dragged out onto the football field and that the drum major stands are set up before the rest of the band arrives.

“It’s an entirely different type of commitment,” Yoon said. “In freshman year, I could show up on time and that was fine, but now as drum major, instead of just showing up on time, I have to be ready on time.”

This year, the marching band is conveying how music changes through time with their four-movement show, “Timeless.”

The show, which is 8 minutes and 30 seconds long, begins with a piece featuring a string quartet in its first two movements to convey the early popularity of string orchestra and classical music in the 1800s. The quartet includes orchestra members juniors Panithi Kachinthorn, Nikhil Nair and Avyay Koorapaty and sophomore Maddie Jin.

In its third movement, the show highlights the vibrant era of jazz music in the 1920s, transitioning to a jazz piece featuring a saxophone quartet comprised of seniors Matthew Hsieh, Alex Hsieh and drum major Mah and junior Anthony Qin. 

Finally, in its fourth movement, the show moves on to a minimalist rock piece, demonstrating the rock age of the 1960s. Through the progression of the four movements and their connection to changing music style, the show demonstrates how music has changed through the centuries. 

Although the marching band competed in the Oct. 12 Cupertino competition with only three out of four movements completed, the band won second for overall music, first for visual performance and tied for first with Homestead for overall general effect. But since Homestead had an overtime penalty, SHS won first place overall. 

“Even though we’ve only finished three parts in the show (at that point) in preparation for this competition, we tried to make the beginning parts as good as possible,” Yoon said.

Outside of practices, drum majors and others have put in even more time into their practice schedules. 

Qin, one of the four members of the saxophone quartet in this year’s show, has put special emphasis on his musical endeavors. So far, Qin has joined many musical organizations at school, such as jazz band, and has joined multiple honor bands outside of school such as the County Honor Band and all-state band. During school, Qin makes saxophone audition recordings three hours a day, two times a week under the guidance of band director Jason Shiuan. Qin then sends these recordings as audition tapes to honor bands.

“Setting up and doing the recordings takes a lot of time, and I also need to work with Mr. Shiuan to make sure they’re good enough,” Qin said.

For Qin and many others dedicated to band, musical endeavors can impose a huge time constraint on summer activities. For example, Ryan attended a summer drum major camp at Texas A&M, where he learned how to conduct better and improve his leadership.

“I got to meet people with similar interests as me and similar goals. They taught me how to be a better leader for band,” Ryan said. “Every drum major has to go to drum major camp, which is a one-week camp in the middle of summer.”

Band poses an even bigger time constraint on school activities. Both Qin and Yoon note how big of an impact band has on when they do homework. 

On a typical school day, Yoon finds that he often runs short on time when it comes to practicing. 

“When I come home, I do a quick evaluation of what I need to do. If another activity takes too much time, I may decide that I don’t have any time to practice, because I usually try and sleep before 2 a.m.,” Yoon said. “Sleeping earlier allows me to pay more attention in class, and that takes a lot of studying out of the way, so I have more time to practice.”

The need for meticulous time-management is true for Qin, who practices every day during tutorial, as well.

“After school, I just focus on homework, and on weekends, if I get all my homework done at midnight, then I’d continue to practice until 3 a.m. It messes with my schedule on the weekends, but on the other hand, I want to fit in some time to practice,” Qin said. “It all just piles up, though, and even when I’m on top of it, I often have to sacrifice sleep.”

Despite their crazy schedules, both Qin and Yoon said they find that they thrive amid the non-stop work. 

“If I have a lot of free time, I tend to waste a lot of it anyway,” Yoon said. “Being so involved in band has not only improved my musical skills but my time management skills as well.”