Early-morning tempo: vivace, lively and fast

It is 6 a.m. on Friday, and most UW students are in deep slumber, not to rise from their beds for another two or three hours. Instead of sleeping in, like so many who have been worn out from a week’s worth of classes, Mike Siedlik is on the Burke-Gilman Trail, running.

Unlike most of the other early-morning joggers, Siedlik is without his iPod, instead exercising to the music of the Burke-Gilman Trail, he jokes.

Siedlik isn’t finishing up a leisurely work-out routine prior to his first class of the day; instead, the UW junior is warming up for a weekend of action on the field.

He will be in formation with the UW’s Husky Marching Band, helping rally the crowd with the smooth sound of his tenor saxophone.

Mid-morning tempo: andante, a walking pace

When 9:30 a.m. rolls around, Siedlik is in his physical chemistry class. As a chemical engineering major, he must juggle a demanding course load with marching band every fall, and since he recently began research with one of his department’s professors this quarter, his schedule is even tighter.

“It can be really difficult [for students] because we have practice four nights a week for two hours each night,” says Brad McDavid, the Husky Marching Band director. “But what students have told me is that they actually do the best [academically] and have the most fun [when they’re a part of marching band] because they’ve had to really manage their time.”

Siedlik seems to fall in line with McDavid’s thought.

“I got into a pretty good band-school rhythm,” Siedlik says. “I didn’t really have a choice.”

On some Fridays after his first class, Siedlik meets up with the approximately 25 other UW chapter members of Kappa Kappa Psi (KKPsi), a national band fraternity that serves college and university bands across the country. Siedlik, now treasurer of the UW’s chapter of KKPsi, has been part of the organization since his freshman year.

Despite the tight scheduling and all of the memorization that’s necessary, Siedlik enjoys going to rehearsal, even after the toughest of school days.

“Band usually cheers me up,” he says. “Being with my friends, playing the fight song: It gives me energy. That’s what the Husky Marching Band is about: energy.”

Late-afternoon tempo: allegro, fast and bright, or “march” tempo

Outside the Dempsey Indoor Stadium, where the marching band rehearses, two tenor saxophone players spout the chromatic scales as other band members stream into the stadium, chatting excitedly with one another.

Within 10 minutes, after the flood of warm-up noise has dissipated, all 250 members of the Husky Marching Band are in the stadium, waiting for McDavid’s instruction.

“Let’s play our fight song for the nation’s top women’s cross-country team,” he shouts, kicking off the rehearsal.

Some students whoop with excitement, and immediately the stadium is filled with the spirited sounds of the brass, woodwind and percussion sections mingling with one another. The marchers rhythmically sway their instruments back and forth to the beat as they stand in their tight formations.

“Since I was a little kid, I always wanted to go to the UW, so I hold it in high esteem,” Siedlik says. “Whenever I play the fight song, it’s just special.”

For the next two hours, the band perfects their half-time shows and drills, forms the familiar “W,” and all while marches in the band’s physically rigorous and traditional chair-step and toe-up style.

Rehearsal is physically demanding, and Siedlik can easily recall his first week of Husky Marching Band during his freshman year, when he could barely lift his legs at the end of the day.

“You get in shape really quickly,” Brad Carl, another saxophone player, said. “The ‘freshman 15?’ You lose 15 pounds, if anything.”

Late-evening tempo:

back to vivace

At 9 p.m., band members meet up for the rally that they march in on the Friday nights before home games. They march around campus and Greek row, marking their presence with their trumpets and piccolos as they spread school spirit.

Siedlik’s night ends around 11:30 p.m. when he heads to bed early; since the next day is game day, he’ll have to wake up early to be at the stadium at 8 a.m. for rehearsal.

Although it takes a lot of hard work and dedication, for many of the band members, being a part of the Husky Marching Band has been an important part of their lives.

“I got an e-mail the other day from this man from Notre Dame,” McDavid says proudly, “and it said that this man thought that, out of any other band that had come to the stadium, it was our students that seemed to enjoy just being out there with each other, performing for the public no matter what the score.”

Siedlik would have to agree.

“During game day, it might be all about pageantry and music,” he says. “But deep down, we are just all loyal Husky fans who are trying to support the university in any way we can.”

Reach contributing writer Kat Chow at development@dailyuw.com.