With their masks in place, high school musicians at Northwestern Lehigh sought shade under leafy green trees as band camp convened in the high school parking lot a few days before the start of the new school year.

Putting their best feet forward, the marching band is hoping to perform at home football games.

In addition to accommodations forced by the coronavirus pandemic, several other changes are marking this season.

The first is the show itself.

“We’re not doing a theme show this year,” Gavin Kline said. “After a week of band camp, once we play, we just put it down.”

One of the three pieces that will be performed is by Metallica.

“It’s a fun show with a mix of songs,” Nashandi Caravallo said, who described the music as pop rock.

Seventh grader Kairi Charles is excited to be included in the practices.

“There’s an elite group in the middle school that gets invited to join marching band,” she said, clutching her saxophone.

She was ready to practice the other two selections, “High Hopes” and “Light ’Em Up.”

The color guard, which will be performing with the band, is also dealing with changes.

Group members, who have been practicing without an instructor this year, are reveling in their freedom.

“This year we have more freedom in creating a lot of our routines,” said Ali Saylor, who is co-captain along with Maddie Cannon,

“And, we have a lot more equipment.”

“It’s going pretty well even though we have no instructor,” Misha Jabed said. “I did not expect to be captain but actually our band director selected me. The three of us really show leadership.”

“We mold our routine on things we find online,” Cannon said.

“We mostly go off YouTube. We’re just by ourselves, trying to make it all work without an instructor.”

Marching band is taking it all in stride, though.

“We have some really cool songs this year,” Cannon added. “It will be really cool once we pull it all out.”