From time to time, students wandering the musical wing of Ledyard High School stumble upon Thomas Green, music teacher and symphonic band director, plucking a stand-up bass.

Green, who teaches five different classes and also directs two after-school groups — wind orchestra and jazz band — likes to use the spare time he finds to practice. And not just to play music, either, but to really get at the scales, arpeggios and other fundamental drills.

When his students see him, at 51, still covering the basics, he said they realize more than just the importance of practice.

“I think the students respect that when I demand things of them musically, I’m not demanding anything I wouldn’t demand of myself as well,” Green said.

In the instrumental aspect of Ledyard High School’s expansive music program, Green’s two after-school groups, at 19 members each, get a slightly more intimate experience.

On May 15, for example, the two groups — as part of a three-day trip — performed at the Music in the Parks festival in Hershey, Pa. It’s something the symphonic band, which transforms into the marching band each summer, doesn’t get to do.

But for most of the students — including the 50-plus students in the symphonic and marching bands — the music program has been part of their lives since fifth grade.

“My favorite performance has to go way, way back to when I first picked up that instrument and we were all playing Hot Cross Buns,” said junior Catherine Rousseau, an alto saxophone player who’s involved with wind orchestra and the jazz, symphonic and marching bands. “Without that, we wouldn’t have any of the opportunities to perform we have today.”

That first successful song, for many, led to the grind of learning how to march, the development of friendships that could last a lifetime, the drive to take on private lessons and improve every day.

“(Practicing) helps a lot for me when there’s something on my mind,” said junior Lexi Armstrong, a clarinet and tenor saxophone player in wind orchestra, jazz band, symphonic band and marching band. “Some people go for a run — I’ll pick up my instrument.”

And, for Rousseau and junior Eli Uttley-Rosado — a trombone player who leads the school’s brass quartet and is in the symphonic and the two after-school bands — instruments aren’t the only way to perform music. Both are participating in chamber choir next school year.

“In my classes, I just have musicians, because so many of the students here at Ledyard High School think of it as a music program,” Green said. “I don’t differentiate between the band and chorus.”

As Armstong, Rousseau and Uttley-Rosado, all going into their final year, began to reflect, they had one collective piece of advice for middle school students: just give the music program a try.

“I look back at my middle school years and I can honestly say I don’t feel like the same person,” Uttley-Rosado said. “When you join band, you get immersed into the culture of all of the high school. You get seniors, juniors, sophomores and freshmen all in one space. In other places that might not happen.”

And while a couple of the juniors said they want to major in music in college, others simply wanted to be involved in their college’s musical extracurricular activities. But all of them said they can’t imagine life without music.

“I’m not me without it, I guess,” Armstrong said. “Just thinking about this time next year is so scary, just leaving all of this behind. But the friends I’ve made and the things I’ve done, there’s nothing I would ever regret.”

Green, employed at Ledyard High School since 1996, has only one primary hope for his graduating students each year.

“I want them to leave here and think, ‘Wow when I finished that music program at Ledyard High School, I just loved music,’” Green said. “That’s what I want.”

l.boyle@theday.com

Twitter:@LindsayABoyle