The Drumline? Who and what is the drumline? Well, let me tell you about them. Do you ever wonder why there is such a loud noise through the halls while a state sendoff is happening? Yeah, it’s them. From the banging of the drums to the clashing of the cymbals, to them yelling “HOT PATATO!”, I want to present to you the first ever article of the PHS Drumline.
What does the drumline do?
The drumline participates in marching band, pep band, and state sendoffs. You’ll usually see them playing at football and basketball games or even playing through the halls during 1st period, playing for the state sendoffs, and sometimes they perform outside of school at local school events.
Drumline Tryouts
Drumline tryouts happen two times a year, before the marching band season and basketball season. But in this article, I’ll be only talking about the marching band drumline.
Drumline tryouts are a bit different this year for marching band. Instead of hosting auditions at the beginning of June like usual, it’s been hosted this year in August. During the tryouts, you can select three drums to try out: Snare Drum, Tenor Drum, and Bass Drum. Cymbals are also an option, but it is up to the band director (Mr. Cornell) to see if they are allowed. You will be learning a few drum exercises and drum cadences. Also, you will be shown how to carry and march with the drum properly. Once you pass tryouts, you are officially a member of the drumline!
So, what is the most fun about being in the drumline after you pass tryouts? Well, it’s playing your drum at football games and state send-offs!
Football Games
At the football games, the drumline does two things. They play in the stands, playing drum cadences so that they can hype up the crowd, support their team, and play during the halftime show with the rest of the band. We want everyone in the crowd entertained while the football teams are in the locker rooms. Football games are the most fun part of being in the drumline. It’s guaranteed that everyone is always having a good time and having fun.
State Sendoffs
At state sendoffs, the drumline plays drum cadences while marching around the school, and whoever is going to state is behind the drumline. Nothing much to say besides that you can think of it as a mini parade for the people going to State!
Drumline Interviews
In order to know more about the drumline, I interviewed one person from each section (Snare, Tenor, and Bass) and asked them some questions. Since I asked a lot of questions, I’ll be condensing them into one big quote. The questions I asked go as follows: What does it feel like being in the drumline? What can you expect from being in the drumline? How fun is being a part of the drumline? How fun is being a part of the drumline? What are the positives of drumline, and what do you think of state send-offs?
Our first interviewee is Evelin Presas, an 11th-grade snare drummer. “It feels like an achievement, all my hard work and practice went into it, and I got rewarded,” Evelin said. “I can expect great friendships, and it’s pretty fun because I like music and playing it. One of the ups of being in the drumline is getting to play in other places.”
Our second interviewee is Dominick Martinez, a 10th-grade tenor drummer. Dominick said, “What’s fun about it is that you can learn new songs that you possibly already know on the drums, basses, anything. It’s pretty cool, I’ll say. I never regretted it after I joined. It’s pretty fun. What I expect is making friends, playing new songs, especially if they’re hard, you’ll be able to eventually get the hang of it, and it’s pretty cool. The benefits of being in the drumline are, you know, you get to leave class early to play at assemblies, and you get to march down to the football games for free. So, about state sendoffs, they’re really good, it’s just that it gets very tiring after a while because you’ll be marching around the whole school, going upstairs and downstairs. But it’s good because you get to see people’s faces, the teachers, and the teachers are also, you know, smiling and cheering you on.”
Our last interviewee is Karen Valdovinos Sojo, a 10th grade bass drummer, “Being in drumline is pretty cool, you get to meet new people that you to play drums with,” Karen said, “There’s a lot of rhythm making, if you’re not familiar with drums, it might be difficult the first time, but if you don’t make it, we do have a cymbal line. The ups about it would be that you can make friends, have fun, and hang out with them. The state sendoffs, I would say it’s fun, but not that fun because you go up and down the stairs. If you’re wearing a drum, it’s kind of hard, but you have people see your face when you walk around the whole school, so they’ll know you’re the cool kids.”
Conclusion
The drumline is a fun, interesting thing to do, and I encourage more people to join! What do you think of our PHS Drumline? Do you think that you can see yourself in the drumline?
