I know these first few posts are slightly outdated (by about 2 1/2 weeks), but I feel it's important background knowledge that will help me build on subsequent blog posts. I'll be sure to post quickly to catch up to the current day's adventures.
It was a cool, late summer morning toward the end of orientation week at my university. Throughout the five days of orientation I met a lot of cool people, but one of those people would give me just enough momentum to set my long standing passion of playing the drums into motion. OUr orientation group had just finished the morning's activities and we were splitting up for the afternoon. I happened to be walking next to a guy who mentioned he had just completed marching band camp. Way cool I exclaimed. "I would love to join a college level drum line and play in the marching band." My acquaintance explained that the marching band was short about 50 members and were actively recruiting. He gave me the name of the band director and a room number in a building that I had never been to on campus, but that was enough to send me on my way.
I set off in search of the music building to find the director. I discovered first that the music building is about a quarter mile from the rest of the buildings, at the south end of the campus. I also learned that the music, drama, art and communications departments are all housed in separate, but closely adjacent buildings. After spending 45 minutes walking around in circles locating the correct building I found myself standing inside at an intersection of empty hallways. One would think that in the music department you would either encounter studying musicians, or hear music being played; I found neither. So I then picked a direction and began to look for the room number of the band instructor's office, only to find out that there were no number placards within reach of an outstretched hand; perhaps the room numbers are above the doors? I still don't know. So, with nobody around and no way to locate the correct office I paused my search, I didn't give up, but rather I would be bak tomorrow to try again. I repeated the above mentioned steps for two more days, but I still kept missing the band director. I did manage to locate his office and the main music department office; two very important places to know. Word of my interest in marching band seemed to spread because four days later I received a phone call from the section leader of the drum line who enthusiastically invited me to band practice.
I set my first assignments of the term aside while I hastily began reviewing my drum rudiments. (these are specific patterns played on a drum that make up beats, cadences, and songs. Think of rudiments like letters; when put together they make words and sentences). I had no idea what, if anything I would b expected to play. I once again entered the music building, not knowing where the drum line would be practicing (they move from room to room, or practice outside depending on space availability and the weather). I stopped at the same intersection of hallways and listened, and over the sounds of horns, pianos, marimbas and the chatter of students passing by I heard the drum line. The crack of a high tension snare drum, the thunderous boom of the bass drum, the crash of the cymbals and the high to low pitched tenner marching toms. I followed my ears to the commotion, which took me up a flight of stairs, down a hall way, turned Left, then right down another hall way and finally to an open door where the sound of drum line practice was rushing out like a river through the spillway of a dam.
I listened for the remainder of the practice, observing the precision, the team work and the level each drummer was playing at. After practice I met with the section leader who told me "I don't have any more drums, but I need another crash cymbal player, are you interested? I didn't hesitate and immediately said yes. The section leader then asked me how I planned to read the sheet music. This was the question I had been dreading. I took a deep breath, made sure that I was standing up straight and confidently explained that I learn best using audio recordings and simply following the other drummers during practice, which allows me to build repetition and knowledge about the composition. Then I stopped, expecting to hear something like "oh… I'm not sure if this is going to work; we ask everybody to read sheet music." But, to my surprise the section leader did not say that, he didn't even miss a beat (no pun intended)! He said "that makes sense, what's your email address? I'll send you the recordings of what we are working on." We were in business, or so I thought. The section leader then said "we are in the process of ordering new crash cymbals for the drum line, but they haven't come in yet, so just come to practice and do your best to follow along." This was not ideal, but i had just been given a spot on a college drum line! A 10-year-old goal of mine had just been put into motion.
I showed up to band practice for about a week and spent the time listening and forming cymbal crashes with my hands in an attempt at learning my part. Let me tell you, it's a bit awkward to be the only person on the drum line without a drum or cymbal in hand, but I hung tough. At the end of each practice I asked about the status of the recently ordered cymbals, no order canceled because of a bureaucracy was going to ruin my chance at playing on the drum line. Finally, at warm-ups for our first performance of the season, I found one set of crash cymbals left in the cymbal gig bag. The section leader had kept his word and brought a set of cymbals from his own collection so that everybody on the drum line now had a part to play. . I had cymbals in my hands, I was a part of a college drum line, the weather was great and the band was about to start our performance at the first football game of the season; life was great!
The moral of the story? Starting something new is always a challenge and there is a certain amount of unknown involved. Keep at it long enough and you will either find something better to do or things will fall into place, but never, ever quit at something until you've given it your 150 percent!
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