Getting out of the car before school, students can hear the boom of drums coming from the east parking lot. As they walk closer to the school, the sound of the music band members have been working on for the past month intensifies.

The band performed the last two movements of their show at the football game against Borger last Friday, Aug. 29. The show is an adaption of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, and consists of six parts, “Promenade,” “ Ballet of Unhatched Chicks,” “The Old Castle,” “Catacombs,” “Baba Yaga: The Hut on Fowl’s Legs” and “The Great Gate of Kiev.”

“The show is supposed to depict someone walking into an exhibit or walking between the pictures at an exhibition,” head band director Mike Sheffield said. “The mood changes based on what the viewer is seeing or what the viewer is about to see.”

The band begins with a slow-paced pre-show as band members march to their spot. “Ballet of Unhatched Chicks” starts the show with a whimsical melody,then transforms into “The Old Castle” with darker sounds.

“’Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks’ is a picture of little chicks with their wings, legs and head sticking out but the shell is still on,” Sheffield said. “’The Old Castle’ is foggy, a place you’d want to live but it doesn’t look like a happy picture. It looks very mossy and abandoned. “

Sheffield said “Catacombs” and “Baba Yaga” add darkness with edgy and intense sounds to the show.

“’Catacombs’ depicts a cave with a lot of darkness, blackness and unknown,” Sheffield said. “ I think it represents the fear and hesitation that we all have when we are on the starting line or starting to do something, we all have that doubt in our head. ‘Baba Yaga: The Hut on Fowl’s Legs’ is really a strange picture, but the music itself is scary, like running from something.”

Sheffield said the last movement, “Great Gate of Kiev,” is majestic and a great way to end the show.

“It is upbeat and big just like the great Gate of Kiev,” Sheffield said. “It is a welcoming and happy moment, moving from one thing on to the next.”

Sheffield chose to teach the show backwards, starting with the harder parts of the show and ending with the easier pre-show.

“The marching is much more difficult at the end and we also want the effect at the end to be something that really stands out,” Sheffield said. “The show starts from a point and builds, not necessarily linearly, all the way to the end.”

The band will compete in three contests this year: the High Plains Marching Festival, the UIL Region Marching Contest in Amarillo and the Zia Marching Band Fiesta in Albuquerque, NM.

“High Plains is important because we are returning champions and I think there is a level of pride returning to that,” Sheffield said. “UIL is important because it is the one that is for the community, and Zia is important because the band is returning to a contest after two years that we scored very high but didn’t quite make finals and missed it by a hair. There is something to prove.”