Well, they will once they've had a bit of practice. The Battle Ground Community Band held its first rehearsal of the year on Jan. 7, marking the start of the band's 12th season.

As more than 30 musicians played through songs they'd never seen before, beats were dropped and notes were missed, but the potential was there.

Retired Battle Ground School District band director Glen Hansen was the first to see it. He put ads in the newspaper in 1993 asking for musicians, and conducted the band until 2001.

That first rehearsal, of the 15 musicians who showed up, six had degrees in music.

Hansen has moved to Ilwaco and another retired Battle Ground band director, Jim Detchman, is conducting the band.

Now, about 50 musicians, give or take, attend rehearsals from 7:30 to 8:45 p.m. every Tuesday night at Lewisville Middle School. Anybody who wants to can join. There's no auditioning.

"It makes me pretty proud," Hansen said. "I think it fills a real need, a big need in the community. Those people have nowhere to play and they've spent years training and this gives them an outlet."

Ages range from about 12 to about 80.

"What's really fun is watching the young kids that come in, sixth grade or so, and how they're really shy when they first come," said Laura Dean, who plays trumpet. "It's a light-hearted group enough that they seem to fit in, seem to blossom a bit."

The band plays at community festivals, Amboy Territorial Days, Battle Ground's Harvest Days and others. It also performs at the Clark County Fair and at an event for Northwest bands at the state fairgrounds in Puyallup.

Regular engagements at retirement homes, senior centers and churches keep the band busy.

"Sometimes we have 100 people at a concert and sometimes we have eight," said Dean. "You always like to have to practice for a reason."

The band has provided a reason for many in the group to keep their instruments from gathering dust.

"It's fun. I'm not very good, but it doesn't matter," said Amy Williams, a Battle Ground resident who played trombone in the band in high school, then came back after college. "I love the music and the people are fun and they don't care if I mess up often, which I do."

There's fellowship with the music.

Every practice, they stop halfway for Dean Vilander's joke. "I don't know how it started, but several years ago I told a joke and they started expecting one every week," said Vilander, who plays baritone horn. "Sometimes I have to scramble to find one."

It's not always easy putting on a show.

One of Hansen's favorite stories about the band concerns a concert, maybe five years ago, at the Clark County Fair.

The band was playing the theme from the movie, "Dances with Wolves." During the score from the movie's buffalo hunt -- no kidding -- a team of draft horses from the nearby arena broke loose and began heading straight for the band.

Only Hansen could see the horses. Everyone else had his or her back to the team, which was dragging part of a harness.

"The band couldn't figure out why the audience was running," Hansen said. "I really wasn't doing much conducting anymore."