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First Audition
To become a member of the drumline, you must go into an audition where you have prepared certain warm up pieces, and are judged on how well you play right then and there. I was able to play well enough to earn my spot playing snare drum, which none of my friends were able to do. -
First Band Camp
Band camp is the time of year when everyone in marching band has to put their nose to the grindstone. Band camp is a week long camp of constant work. The whole band is outside from 8 am to 4 pm Monday through Friday, and the drumline has to work even harder with additional hours of 5 pm to 8 pm every Tuesday and Thursday from the end of May to the end of October. -
First Competition
My first competition was in Mukwonago, Wisconsin. Everyone there looked extremely professional, and I was extremely nervous that we wouldn't do too well. At the end of the competition, the scores were announced, which were out of 100. My band scored about a 55, which isn't bad for a first competition, but it definitely isn't good. -
State Competition
At the State Competition in Whitewater, Wisconsin, there were about 40 marching bands, and all of them had extremely good shows to put on. In the end, my school didn't do to well. We placed 6th out of 7 in our division, and our drumline placed 7th out of 7. -
Second Audition
I felt a lot more confident going into my second audition. I had been through the whole process now. I was trying to become center snare, which is the best snare drum player on the drumline. After my audition, I learned that I was second snare, and didn't make my goal. I was sad, but I made sure that I would try extra hard this year to improve. -
Second Competition
I was feeling a lot better this marching season because I had already gone through the whole process the past year, and was ready to do my best this year. At the competition, we placed first in our division because we were uncontested, and 3rd in percussion out of all 9 bands. -
Second State Competition
At the state competition for my second season, everyone felt that they did really well, and that we would maybe even make a run for top 3 out of all 8 bands in our division that year. Turns out that we got 6th place, and that our percussion got placed 8th out of 8, even though we played a really good show. -
Final Audition
At my final audition, I was feeling extremely confident. I knew that I wasn't going to be able to play during my last season because I would be moving, so I knew that I had to give it my all this time. When the results were being announced for audition, I got center snare out of 5 people, and was told that I played way better than everyone else had. At this point I was very pleased, and was ready to win this season. -
Final Competition
At our first competition, we had a ton of competition. There were a total of 18 bands, and some of the best groups with the best drumlines were there. We all walked in confidently, and were ready to surprise everyone and show them how hard we had been working the whole summer. When they announced awards, our band won our division with 2 other bands, and we won best percussion out of all 18 bands! At this point we knew that we had a real shot at taking home first place at state. -
Final State Competition
This was it. This was my final competition with Columbus. Everything that I had been working for was all for this day. We went out and performed one of the best shows that we ever had. When they were announcing awards, our band got 3rd out of 7! And for the first time in my school's history we had won the best percussion award! The winning group in the years past had won the award for 10 years straight, and I was able to stop their winning streak at my last competition.
