Kylan Bigby and stepping out of your comfort zone

Published 3:00 pm Wednesday, January 18, 2023

East Limestone alumnus Kylan Bigby could have never imagined he would find himself in California at the national championship with the University of Georgia.

“I had the opportunity this year to work with the Redcoat Marching Band with their front ensemble,” Bigby said. “I didn’t think that I would ever get this far into the art and teaching at the highest level. I feel like, now that I’m doing it, I could never imagine not doing it.”

Bigby is a product of East Limestone’s band program.

“What got me into marching band was honestly my music teacher [Jennifer Janzen] at East Limestone,” Bigby said. “She made me kind of fall in love with marching band and gave me the opportunity to perform for people.”

Bigby said stepping out of his comfort zone in front of other people is something that he really enjoyed during his time with Janzen and something he still enjoys now.

He knew early on that he wanted to be involved in music for the rest of his life, but he wasn’t exactly sure what that looked like.

“I always knew from the time I started band that it was something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” he said. “Through education, what I wanted got refined, and I found exactly what I like to do.”

After graduating from East Limestone in 2016, Bigby went to Auburn University where he studied percussion performance and then to UGA for a masters in music performance.

At UGA, Bigby is a graduate teaching assistant at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music teaching a percussion methods class, and he is the front ensemble tech for the marching band.

While Bigby was with the band throughout the season, being on the west coast for the championship was a new experience for him.

“It took a couple of days for it to feel real, like I was actually there,” Bigby said. “It was pretty neat to be in a new space.”

The championship game day was, “getting to the stadium, getting equipment ready for halftime, and then we just kind of hang out until it’s time for the rest of the band to go down for pregame,” Bigby explained.

“It was surreal,” he said.

While Bigby’s time at UGA is coming to a close and he is pursuing a doctoral program, his involvement in marching band will continue.

“The good thing about my career path is that doing things with the marching band world will always be available,” Bigby said. “I’ll probably always be involved with a marching band.”

For students who plan to pursue music in college, Bigby says to stick with it.

“It’s going to be very difficult. It’s one of the most difficult and time consuming majors on campus,” he warned. “The backside of your degree is a lot more enjoyable than the stress of the frontside, so just stick with it.”

“Right away freshman year you have to kind of figure out how to manage a practice schedule and mix that in with your core courses,” he said. “Time management is something that you have to really have down in high school before you even step on your campus.”

For those entering the audition process for music school, “don’t get stressed out about the thing, just be who you are. Teachers want to see if they’re able to help you grow in the course of four years.”