Every Thursday after school in the month of May, all the band students participate  by marching for the Maritime Parade. This takes place on the first Saturday, which is the 4th of June this year. The first day of practice, Mr. Swanson taught those that haven’t been in marching band before, how to march the correct way and what code words he uses to guide all of the students. Some of the uses of the code words would be for when students start, stop, stand at attention and play their instruments.

The second day is the day students get out their instruments. Swanson does this so all the marching band students can get comfortable with handling their instruments while keeping up with the rhythm of the marching. He also does this so students can learn when to start, which the drumline queues for us by drumming. That day Mr. Swanson only had students play the beginning note to fine-tune their timing with the marching foot work.

The rest of the other days that students practice will just be consisting of improving on marching and timing. The main song for the parade will be from Pirates Of The Caribbean. There was only one instance where students had to miss one of the practices for the reason that the weather was so bad that there was going to be thunder and lighting.

But aside from that, students of the marching band look forward to performing at Maritime Parade and expect to play in front of all of the Gig Harbor community.