Pep Band Club brings music to HVCC
By: Nikita Padunin
Jr. Managing Editor
Do you have a passion for music? You can fulfill your soul with those soundwaves that you and other students will try to create at Pep Band Club.
“I expect that students will come and make music and we will do our best so that they can become a musician,” said Mary Ann Gulyas, the advisor of Pep Band Club, on the importance it can have on Hudson Valley Community College students.
The whole point of Pep Band Club is to get closer to music and get a better understanding of the instruments that students are interested in.
“The teacher showed me some proper techniques on guitar and now it sounds much better,” Quentin LaGrande, a mortuary science student, said.
Students not only learn how to master their instruments, but they also get support from the club if they cannot own an instrument that they have passion for. The club gets $500 each semester for their expenses.
“We have a lot of instruments donated to us and we are getting ukuleles for this semester and all of us are going to be learning how to play them.” said Jack Gartner, a computer science student and the club president.
The club ordered five soprano ukuleles which will cost them $299.
“This club was gracious enough to purchase the upright bass for club purposes” added Jarred Fink, an adolescent education student. “I was coming to [the] club every day [and] I knew if I came to the club that they would take care of me and they did.”
After searching for a long time, the club was able to find an upright bass, which cost them their whole budget of $500.
In Pep Band Club not everyone is proficient at their instruments. The club ranges from enthusiasts to novices. Some people know the whole theory of music and some are there because they have learned how to play their instruments from watching YouTube.
“It’s a very casual place to be [where] you don’t have to [be able to] read music,” Stanley Billmeyer, a language studies major, said. “You don’t need to be a virtuoso,” Billmeyer continued. “If you have a passion to play with others than this is the place to be in.”
Pep Band Club is not about competition. It’s not about being better or worse. If you like music and you want to create music than you should think of checking out the club.
The Pep Band Club meetings are every Monday at 3 p.m. at BTC Auditorium.