Marching to His Own Beat: SDSU Management Major Plays Big Brass with Marching Aztecs

SDSU management freshman plays “the most noticeable instrument on the football field,” along with the bass with a local rock band.

The first time Ben Freeman’s music teacher laid eyes on him, he knew he’d found his next trombone player. 

“My 6th grade band teacher saw my long arms and said the trombone would be the perfect instrument for me,” said Freeman, a freshman management major at San Diego State University’s Fowler College of Business. “He also needed more trombone players at the time.”

Freeman is also one of the newest members of the Marching Aztecs, He recently marched in the band’s halftime show during SDSU’s season opener in the newly completed Snapdragon Stadium. But the opportunity to play his trombone in Division I school sporting events wasn’t the only reason Freeman chose to attend SDSU. “I enrolled at SDSU after doing my research and finding what a good balance in education, social life and music this school had.”

For Freeman, a native San Diegan, choosing which school to attend was much easier than choosing a course of study. “All 18 years leading up to college were spent pondering and changing my thoughts on what my career would be,” he said.

“I went from construction to medicine to dentistry. Finally, I realized that a major in business management would fulfill all those goals in some way. Every industry has some sort of financial or organizational operation, and I found that I really wanted to be part of a team environment all along.”

In addition to the Marching Aztecs, Freeman is part of a second musical team since he is currently the bass player with a band of his high school friends called the White Collars. But bass is not the only instrument he plays with them.

“When my friends wanted to start a rock band, it only made sense for the tubist to play bass,” said Freeman, who also took up the tuba in the 8th grade. “We’ve found our sound with in rock, reggae and ska, and I told my bandmates that I wanted to occasionally throw in some brass into the mix as well.”

While he will undoubtedly have team experiences in the classroom in the near future, he is currently involved with some fairly strenuous team experiences as a member of the Marching Aztecs.  “This band is not for the faint of heart,” said Freeman. “When performing our pregame show at Snapdragon Stadium, we play the SDSU fight song while marching to the high steps you’d typically see during a Pilates class! And the band is just as demanding musically as it is physically, which you hear when the trumpets scream their highest notes and the drums play their fastest cadences!”

“The best part of SDSU is the variety of experiences I’ve participated in since coming here. I’ve already gotten to participate in a number of campus music events, like the Aztec Music Group, who brings musicians together and finds venues for bands — like the White Collars — to play at on and off campus.”

- Ben Freeman, SDSU management student and musician