It’s inevitable that some people march to the beat of their own drums, however, one group of students manages to do this with precise skill surpassing all of the rest.
The Lancer Regiment was able to secure a first place finish in its class at the Monzingo Drumline Competition on Aug. 28.
This first place finish came after battling 36 other drumlines and along with the win came a sixth place finish in the overall competition.
Junior Lucas Shapland described the competition itself as a lot of fun, but a lot of work.
He said, “We only really have one drum line competition and that is the Monzingo Drumline Competition. We basically just take the front ensemble as well as the battery and we practice different segments of the show and then we play up to a certain spot in the competition with everyone.”
Shapland said, “It sounds a little weird because the band is not playing behind us for some of the good kicks, but for the most part it is just the battery playing with the front ensemble and the drum major just playing their separate part.”
Junior Ryan Beike also described the duty of the drumline. He said, The main thing that the battery’s job is, is we keep the overall tempo for the whole band. We are supposed to be more in sync with the drum major than the rest of the band is because if we are off with the drum major then the whole band is going to be off, so that is really our most important job of all.”
The drumline was graded in a variety of areas, each important to succeeding in that “important job.” Shapland said, “We are graded on sticking, like when everyone has the same timing with their sticks, the front ensemble and how they play, the battery, if everyone is together or not and there is just a wide variety but when we are in the actual competitions with the band, it is all of that plus they see if you are in time with the drum major or not, if your feet are all stepping the same and a lot more.”
Both Beike and Shapland considered the competition to be a great way to kick off the band season. Beike said, “It was just a lot of fun. Its not necessarily the biggest competition, it just gives us a good kick start to our actual band season with the show that we put on. The show that is written is for the marching band, not necessarily for the whole drum line, so it just gets us going for the season.”
Shapland concluded, “But, winning it was just the icing on the cake.”
