Mr. Chasteen started teaching at Armuchee at the beginning of the 2024 school year after teaching concert and marching band at a school in Florida for 2 years. So far he has been having so much fun and has loved all the students and teachers here. He said, ¨The biggest difference I noticed was the parent involvement.¨ He said, ¨Coming here I noticed that parents care for what their students are doing so that’s something I’ve noticed going from there to here.¨ He is a very high-energy and productive director for concert and marching band. When faced with a problem, he meets with the color guard and drill instructor to solve it as soon as possible.
Adam Chasteen was also in the marching band from high school through college. He has so much experience in marching band and has seen some crazy things. Mr. Chasteen said, ¨So this was actually the band I taught last year and our marching band was 21 people, We had twelve winds, two guards, one drum major, and six percussionists.¨ Just for reference the marching band we have in Armuchee is around fifty people and sometimes it looks small to other bands. Mr. Chasteen was able to operate a band with only 21 people showing his capability in this field of work.
Adam Chasteen also has many stories from back when he was a high schooler in marching band. Mr. Chasteen said, ¨When I was in college, there was a friend of mine who was in percussion as well. His name was Bo, and he brought a baby doll to marching band. He played tenors, and he would put the baby dolls on his harness and it would march around with him. It was really weird; it didn’t make sense but that’s just what the band was.¨ Mr. Chaste
en has had so many experiences in marching band and he can connect with the kids he’s teaching because of those experiences.
Mr. Chasteen has made some big accomplishments as a director and student in marching band, such as the fact that we are a month into school and he has changed a few practices, increasing the difficulty of warm-ups and challenging band members to learn a piece in a short amount of time. Mr. Chasteen has been teaching marching band for 2 years in a different school. One of his favorite accomplishments is joining the drum core. He said, ¨The first time I saw a drum core I was 15. I saw those performers and I was thinking to myself there’s no way I could possibly ever do this, especially as a percussionist and how cut-throat those auditions are.¨ He had auditioned for the first time for the 2020 season and it was sadly being cut short due to Covid; he didn’t think he was going to have a chance, but in 2021 he was able to march in the front ensemble of the Madison Scouts¨ Mr. Chasteen is someone to tell you to overcome the impossible no matter how long it takes or how hard it is: just overcome, overcome, overcome.
