The Band Dad

Brass section of a band

How to be a good band dad.

By Mark Harris

It is August, and the beginning of school is around the corner. For those with children in high school, and specifically those whose kids play music, school starts early in the form of marching band camp. Many marching band dads were band players themselves back in the day, but I was not. So, when child 2,3,4 and 5 in my family wanted to join the band, I was in for a shock. At first, since I knew nothing about bands, I kept them at arm’s length. But year by year I did more and learned more. Here are some band lessons learned since I started this gig in 2010.

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Slaves to the Numbers

We are humans, not robots. We have brains and hearts, not computers. Why then do we enslave ourselves to robotic, computer-numerical evaluation of what we do, how our days have gone, and everything else in our lives?

By Mark D. Harris

The topic of our study in the young married adult class at church yesterday was “Leaving a Legacy”. For the first time in years, I did not have to teach and so had the rare privilege of just listening. The teacher was describing the importance of being intentional and taking time to build a legacy with your family. “Life” he said, “is more than just taking your kids from one sports event to another every Saturday.” A woman in the class replied “Yes, but Washington is a competitive place, and I was talking to some friends last week about our coming weekend schedules. Theirs were packed, and ours was lighter. Over the course of the conversation I almost felt guilty that we weren’t doing as much. I hope that we can get support in the church to live our lives with our lighter schedule.”

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