Zachary Naughton (left), Jon Waters and Ryan Barta, of the OSU Marching Band, coach the Lake Travis High School marching band in Austin, Texas.
Credit: Screenshot of segment on ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’
When six high school sousaphone players fell down on top of each other during a halftime show in Texas, video footage of the pileup went viral.
The collision happened in September, but ABC’s “Good Morning America” invited Ohio State’s Marching Band director, Jon Waters, to help the Lake Travis High School marching band try again on national television Monday.
“Good Morning America” paid for Waters and two student band members, Ryan Barta and Zachary Naughton, to travel to the Austin, Texas, area to work with the band.
The Lake Travis High School marching band performed a one-minute spot live on “Good Morning America” Monday. The routine featured the band creating the “Good Morning America” logo and the tuba section of the band “duplicating the move that resulted in the pileup,” Waters said.
Waters, Naughton and Barta worked with the band Saturday and Sunday before its Monday appearance.
“It’s been cool to help them out,” said Barta, a fourth-year in business and trumpet player. “You can tell they look up to (the OSU Marching Band).”
Naughton and Barta brought along the iPads to help teach the high school band members in Texas.
Recently, the OSU Marching Band appeared in an Apple iPad Air commercial, featured for its use of iPads to create a season of halftime shows that regularly received millions of views online.
The Lake Travis band has received comparable attention for its mistake — but Waters said the band shouldn’t be discouraged.
“It’s a very fine band we’re working with,” he said.
Naughton, a fourth-year in electrical engineering and sousaphone player, said he was impressed by the band’s attitude.
“They’re a bunch of good kids,” he said. “They’re eager to learn. There are no negative attitudes.”
While travel and hotel expenses were covered for Waters, Barta and Naughton, they were not additionally compensated for their time in Texas, Waters said.
Though it isn’t every day he’s contacted by “Good Morning America,” this isn’t the first high school band Waters has helped. Waters regularly works with local marching and concert bands when he’s not busy working with OSU, he said.
The Lake Travis band “really embraced” the pileup and saw the humor in it, Barta said. The tuba players involved made T-shirts with a picture of the pileup on them, he said.
“In the marching band world, this is a really scary reality,” Naughton said. “It only takes one person. It wasn’t even a mess up, someone tripped.”
Waters agreed.
“(Mistakes) can happen to anyone,” Waters said. “There are Olympic figure skaters who fall on the ice. We all mess up. We all make mistakes.”
