Chapter 3- January Camp

"Flight 524 to Rockford, now boarding at Gate 25" said the airport loud speaker, "alright Andrew, that's us" said Amanda to which Andrew responded with a lets go do this. They quickly made it to the plane and found their seats for their flight. As soon as they were seated they pulled out their music, however it wasn't audition music anymore, it was the opener of the show and when they realized that it was show music they were looking at, they put their arms around each other and Andrew said, "Amanda, this is for real, we're really members of Phantom's drumline and we are really on our way to our first real camp!" "We are" replied Amanda, "I'm so excited, we're gonna kick so much ass!" "We are Amanda" replied Andrew who then asked "Who rocks?" to which Amanda responded by saying "We do!" They then began to review their music which they had each practiced in their dorm rooms at UMass and together when there was time. They had even studied it with Thom Hannum when possible and their private teachers at the school. "Alright, let's take a look at this opener, we can't drum here but we can look and sing the rhythms." Amanda acknowledged and then the two went off into looking at their music. "These parts are really cool, they have a lot of juice in them" said Andrew examining the snare part, "Yea, these bass splits are awesome and so musical, did you hear the recording that Rennick sent us in his email?" "Yea" said Andrew replying to Amanda's question "his writing is so musical, its so cool how he has all these really cool parts that go so well with the brass, I can't wait to hear us play these with the line." "Yea me too" said Amanda who then asked, "what do you think we'll do tonight since it's our first camp?" "Hmm" said Andrew thinking, "We'll probably have a quick meeting with Mr. Valenzuela and then after that we'll break into sections, we'll probably warm up as a line but then go off with our techs into sub-sectionals and learn the opener with our sections snare, tenors, bass." "Yeah, probably, that sounds like what we'll probably do for the night and then tomorrow more of the same and then we'll probably do some marching and learn some visual technique. That'll probably be the only time we wear the drums, we'll probably have them on stands for most of camp, "Yea" replied Andrew.

After a two hour flight from the airport in Massachusetts, the two of them landed in Rockford and before long, they were checking out their luggage at the baggage claim area. They then walked to the pickup area where once again, Jerry Halloran was waiting for them. Soon after some more people arrived for camp and before long, Amanda and Andrew were in their seats next to each other on the bus on their way to Winnebago High School in Winnebago, Illinois: a town 30 miles from Rockford. During the bus ride which lasted about 45 minutes, Amanda and Andrew excitedly looked at their music and each other.

As soon as the bus had pulled into Winnebago High School, Amanda and Andrew leaped out of their seats and got their stuff out from under the bus. They then walked in and made their way to registration and paid their dues for the camp weekend. They then made their way to the auditorium for the corps meeting and found two seats together in the center section. When they sat down, Andrew and Amanda looked around and realized that the people coming into the room were their fellow members and that these people were the drum corps and that for the next several months, these people were their family for the that time especially in the summer while on tour. They had just gotten into that thought when suddenly Rick Valenzuela and the board of directors came forward to the stage and the room went quiet. He smiled and then said "Good Evening Phantom Regiment!" Andrew and Amanda along with the rest of the room all yelled "Good Evening" back excitedly. Rick continued, "Welcome to the first official camp of the season! For the new members: congratulations and welcome to your first camp as members of the corps, for vets: welcome back to another season here, we're really excited about this season." He continued, "Tonight, will be a music emphasis night, you will be working with your sections and learning the music that was sent to you over December, we will be relaxed but at the same time focused, we have a big job ahead of us and our staff here is committed to making sure that you are the best prepared and ready for the season. Anyway, without further delay, lets get to it, horn line is in the gym, battery is here in the auditorium and front ensemble is in the cafeteria, have a great camp everyone and we'll see you at snack after rehearsal." With that everyone started to split up and Andrew and Amanda got up and suddenly heard someone yell for the drummers to come forward to the stage.

When all the drum line had assembled, the staff invited everyone on to the stage and told them to sit down on the floor. When everyone was seated, Paul Rennick came forward and said, "alright everyone, welcome to our first camp of the season, you all look excited to get started, if you've forgotten I'm Paul Rennick and I am your caption head and I will reintroduce the staff for you." He then went on to introduce each member of the staff. When he was finished he continued by saying, "here is our schedule for the night: when were done here, we are going to go to the truck and unload the drums with stands and carriers. We will set up here on stage and we will warm up as a line. We'll do that for about 30 to 45 minutes and we'll go over the exercise packet. After that, we are going to split into sections and learn this opener, locations for sectionals will be determined by your techs. We'll stay in sectionals for most of the night and then we will come back together and take it with the full line before snack. That's pretty much it." He paused for a second and then continued, "before we go, lets get to know each other a little bit, lets go around, everyone introduce themselves, say where your from, where you go to school, your section and anything else you want us to know about you. We're all on the same team here so let's get to know our teammates in this." One by one, each member of the drum line introduced themselves, pretty much all of them were college aged and most hailed from the Midwest or the South and most were music majors at their schools, a few of them were vets and some of the rookies had previous marching experience. When it came time for Andrew to speak, he spoke confidently and said, "Hi I'm Andrew Hoffberg, I'm from Oak Ridge, New York and I'm on the snare line. I'm currently a freshman political science and percussion performance double major at UMass Amherst. I play snare on the UMass Drumline and this is my second year in the drum corps activity, last year I marched snare with Jersey Surf." Following that it was Amanda's turn to speak and in a clear voice she said, "Hey everyone, I'm Amanda Weisman and I'm Bass 1, I go to school with Andrew and I am a freshman music education major at UMass Amherst. I am top bass on the UMass Drumline and I also marched Jersey Surf last year as top bass." This continued with everyone and soon enough everyone was walking outside to unload the truck.

Out at the truck, Amanda and Andrew had some time to meet their fellow drumline members. Andrew went over to one kid named Chris Rogers, a kid from Ohio who now was a freshman at the University of Illinois who he remembered from auditions; Chris had also made the snareline so Andrew immediately went up to him and said "hey bro, congrats!" "Thanks man, you too" said Chris in return who subsequently asked, "How did you make out with the opener?" "Not that bad," replied Andrew "however there are some phrases in there that are just killing me, little musical things." "Yea" replied Chris, "Like that one phrase at measure 29 where we have those crazy rolls, that was nuts" Amanda also did a little socializing of her own as she said hello to her fellow bass drummers including her bass 2 Matt. Matt was a veteran of the corps and a native of Texas who had marched the 06 line and was a DCI percussion champion. She shook his hand and said, "Hi, I'm Amanda and I'm going to be bass 1 this year, nice to meet you Matt. "Nice to meet you too, looking forward to marching with you" "thanks said Amanda. They talked about the music for a few minutes and then Amanda went back to join Andrew as the first drums were being removed from the truck. Amanda then said to Andrew, "this is so awesome! Can you believe were here?" "Yeah" said Andrew, "This drumline is so awesome, can't wait to start playing in a few!"

The drums one by one were unloaded and handed to their players. Soon enough Andrew was handed his drum, a very well maintained Pearl 14 x 12 FFX marching snare with what seemed to be a brand new Remo Black Max head on it. He was also given a carrier and stand along with the drum, he watched as Amanda was handed her drum, an 18" Pearl marching bass along with a carrier and stand. He then put his drum on and so did Amanda and together they walked back into the school with looks of extreme satisfaction on their faces. "What do you think?" asked Andrew as they walked to the auditorium. "This is awesome!" said Amanda "I already love my drum, these carriers are awesome and already really comfy, imagine how comfy they'll be when we adjust them to our bodies and this drum probably sounds so awesome, can't wait to play it along with this kick ass bass drum line." "Yeah, me too with the snares" said Andrew.

The drumline set up in the auditorium on the stage in a big arc. There were 9 snares, 5 tenors and 5 basses. They placed their carriers on the floor and then set up their drums on stands. Andrew after adjusting his stand went over and helped Amanda adjust hers and made sure her drum was level for her to play. When everyone was set up, Rennick and his staff walked back in and called for everyone to get behind there drums. At this moment, Andrew and Amanda got excited as it was finally the moment they had been waiting for, they were going to drum with the most awesome drumline they would ever be on. "Alright" said the snare tech, "lets begin with Legatos, remember good solid attack, even strokes and good technique, here we go. Set!" The drumline immediately came to attention, and the large room fell silent. The silence was then suddenly broken by the shrieking click of the Dr. Beat which clicked out 130 beats per minute. Then Rennick pointed at the center snare who was clicking his sticks together with the 8th note subdivision. He then began to tap it off and 8 counts later the drumline came alive. Andrew made sure that he nailed the opening attack and focused but at the same time the thought came to him that he was living his dream. Amanda felt the same as she dove into the first part of the exercise. The line did four reps of the exercise before the tempo was sped up, this time to 170 bpms. The center snare tapped it off and the drumline came back in but on the first stroke, the snare tech cut it off and said, "Come on, don't blow the attack." He then pointed back to the center snare and he tapped it off again, 8 counts later the line was back in action. After four more reps and another tempo change, the exercise sequence for legatos finished and the line clicked their sticks in. After a few seconds of standing at attention, the snare tech then said "relax" and the line came out of attention and shook out their hands. The exercise sequence continued and the line played through the entire packet. After about an hour the line was done warming up and Rennick came back to the stage and said, "alright, its time to learn the opener, you guys ready?" "YEAH!!!" yelled the line. "Excellent" said Rennick, "everyone go with your techs bring your stands and music with you." With that the drumline packed up and began to leave by section.

After packing up, the snare line followed their tech, a man named Jeff Hassan who appeared to be in his early 30s out of the auditorium and down the hall to a classroom. From what Andrew remembered of his bio, Jeff Hassan was a DCI World Champion who had marched with Phantom when it won its only championship in 1996 as well as an I&E snare champion. They entered the classroom and Jeff told them to set up their drums in a circle which the snare line did quickly. Following that they each went to the band room down the hall and got music stands and before long were back and ready to drum. "Alright" said Jeff, "if you've forgotten, I'm Jeff and I'm your snare tech and your other snare tech who will be here in a second is Jeremy Noyes, I'm really looking forward to working with you guys, you have a lot of energy, lets put that into this book. So let's get straight to it. Look at our first entrance at measure 18 and the first phrase up to measure 30 where we have that long rest. Watch those single strokes in measure 21 into 22 and make sure when you play them to use mainly fingers with a tiny bit of wrist but mainly use fingers for those. For shots we use pings here at Phantom so be sure to mark that in your music, hopefully you all brought pencils with you. "Alright let's go and see how we do, let's see how ready you guys are." With that he set the tempo by clicking his sticks together at 184 beats per minute and then he signaled to the center snare and he tapped it off. 8 Counts later the snare line was playing and though it wasn't the cleanest, it was sounding pretty good for a first time Andrew thought as the snare tech looped the phrase several times.

Meanwhile Amanda and the bass line were getting settled into their sectional as well. The bass techs Mike Hodges and Al Dunn started breaking down each measure and the five bass drummers listened intently as they heard all the details of each phrase they would play. Amanda listened especially as Mike talked about the technique, "remember your hand position, we want to knock on the door with our hands, not turn a doorknob, ok, just a solid turn of the wrist, even on phrases where we have 32nds and sixtuples, simple turn of the wrist, lets look now at measures 34 and 35. Bass one has the 8th note diddles for 2 counts and then we have a 16th note run starting on count 3, 3 e and a 4 e and a 1" he said as he pointed to where each bass drummer came in. "We then have the sixtuples on beats 1 and 2 with basses 1 and 2." Here we go." Matt the bass 2 tapped it off on his drum and soon after, the bass line came alive.

Sectionals continued for the rest of the night until about 10 o'clock when the line came back together in the auditorium to play together for the first time. Andrew and Amanda as they set up asked each other how sectionals went and both showed immense signs of satisfaction with their sections. A few minutes later the drum line was alive again playing the book and as this happened, Andrew and Amanda realized hat it was really them playing with the drumline. An hour later time had run out and it was time for snack.

The drumline left the auditorium as a group and headed to snack. Amanda caught up with Andrew as they walked and said, "Oh my God!!! That was awesome!!!" "Yea it was" said Andrew, "we have cleaning to do but we're gonna be awesome and the staff is so good, I've learned so much in one night" "yea me too," said Amanda. As they walked they mingled with the rest of the drumline, Andrew mainly talked with Chris and Amanda with Matt and discussion was mainly about the music. Eventually they came close enough to hear the hornline playing, or at least part of it but not just any part of it, it was the famous baritone line, "the Buicks" as they were called in Phantom Regiment circles for the sound they created. As they heard the incredible sound, Amanda and Andrew smiled at each other as further realization of their dream set in.

After snack, the corps went to sleep and before long the next morning came. The corps was awoken by the horn sergeant who yelled out "GOOD MORNING PHANTOM REGIMENT" The corps reluctantly but surely woke up from their sleeping bags and got ready for the day. After breakfast, the corps went back to rehearsal. Like normal, the drumline met in the auditorium and Paul Rennick and the staff started the day by introducing the day's schedule, Amanda and Andrew sat next to each other and listened closely. The morning block would include more sectional work and working together as a line. Lunch would come at 12 and then after the lunch hour they would have a two hour marching block that would cover all the basic marching technique needed for the season. Rennick went into much detail on that and he said that they would be tired by the end of it. Following that, they would go back into sectional which would take them to dinner and then finally ensemble work with the pit which would complete the day. He also said that the goal for the day was to finish the opener musically and clean it in time for the full corps ensemble session Sunday afternoon to which everyone nodded in approval of that goal. Following the meeting, the line went off to sectionals and started where they had left off Saturday night. After quick warm-up sessions, each section attacked the book and by the end of the morning block had finished the opener musically. Lunch soon came after and Andrew and Amanda with the rest of the drumline to eat. After getting their lunch from the food truck outside, they found a table to sit at and began to eat. While they ate Andrew struck up a conversation as Amanda sat down next to him. "What do you think of the book this year?" Asked Andrew, across from him, a veteran snare drummer named Mike answered first by saying, "I like it, it's a little different from last year but musical as always." "Yeah!" said Amanda " as a rookie in the corps this year, I can't say much about last year's book or really nothing at all but, I can say I really like this book, it's the most musical book I have ever played. It's a lot better than the book Andrew and I played at Jersey Surf last year." "Yea, definitely" said Andrew "the book is really nicely done." Jeff the center snare then chimed in and said "yea, to agree with Mike, this book is a little different, a little more sensitive, last year it was more aggressive, remember this lick from last year?" He then proceeded to play the famous drumline throw down from the 2006 show and when he finished, he received some applause from everyone at the table. He then spoke and said "see how aggressive that is, I know Paul will definitely throw some of that in later in the show but our opener starts a little differently this year. Like last year, we started with those buzz rolls, this year we start a little mellower, still good. "Yea" replied everyone.

After lunch the drumline proceeded to the small gym of the school for marching, all of them came wearing their drums. When they entered the gym, the visual staff came over and started to explain the technique. They were then placed in a block formation and the first drill was called, forward 8 back 8. The visual tech then pulled out a gock block and began to tap the tempo. The line was given 8 counts and before long was doing the drill. They repeated it 3 more times before the tech sped up the tempo and the drill went again. Eventually the line was told to relax. Then they changed it up and went with different step sizes and started to incorporate the crab step and other steps used in their visual program. It only got harder and harder and eventually it started to take its toll on the drumline and they grew tired especially after the fast tempo drill.

Two hours later it was over, and the drumline relished the opportunity to go back to sectional and put the drums back on stands, they got back into the auditorium and got ready to drum but before they did Rennick had a few words about the marching block. "Alright, the drum staff and I watched the marching block and saw you guys got pretty tired easily, if you think that block was hard, its only gonna get harder and imagine how hard it will be when you have your drum on and were on tour this summer somewhere in the South where its gonna be very hot, imagine how tired you'll be there so your best bet if you were really winded from that block is to get in shape and start training for the summer, go to the gym sometimes, work on your core muscles, do abs work if you have to because blocks are only gonna get harder and in March, get ready, because were going to go to an indoor stadium and are going to start learning drill and it will not be easy, so take all this into consideration. Okay, let's drum." The drumline soon after went back to work and began the challenging process of cleaning the opener and measure by measure, they worked on cleaning every last detail. This was the toughest music rehearsal of the day by far as it really tended to go deep into the chops of every player. "At least were not wearing the drums" thought Andrew as the tiresome rehearsal dragged on. Eventually the line started to come together and phrases became much cleaner. The drum staff eventually became pleased with the process as well.

Eventually it was over and it was time for dinner, the drumline left the auditorium and made their way to the food truck. Amanda and Andrew again walked together and were again very excited about the night ahead of them. "We're getting really good!" said Amanda excitedly, "Yeah definitely, we were having some moments of brilliance in there" said Andrew, to which Amanda responded "yeah, it was sweet!"

At dinner, the drumline all sat together at two tables and Amanda and Andrew again sat next to each other. During the meal, the conversation was about everything from the music to college and all the time Andrew and Amanda enjoyed the conversation with their fellow members. At one point and Andrew and Chris had gotten up to go the truck to get dessert when Chris suddenly asked him, "Hey man, I noticed you and Amanda are close, are you guys together like boyfriend and girlfriend?" "Not really" replied Andrew, "We are very close and we are together a lot so we sort of are together but officially we aren't boyfriend and girlfriend, we are best friends however." "Oh okay," said Chris, "Maybe tour will make you boyfriend and girlfriend, are you guys gonna be bus partners this summer?" "Yeah definitely" answered Andrew. "Yeah," said Chris, "you'll definitely be together by the end of tour." "We'll see" said Andrew.

After dinner the drumline relocated from the auditorium to the Cafeteria where they set up in an arc behind the front ensemble who were already set up. Paul Rennick and his wife Sandi who was the front ensemble's arranger/lead instructor sat at a table in front of all of them. When everyone was set up, Paul called out the chunk of music he wanted them to play and then turned on the Dr. Beat. The center snare tapped off and for the first time, two sections combined and the opener chugged along well. After several chunks, it was time to play the opener all the way through. The drumline and pit together prepared themselves for their first run-through. The Doctor Beat was then set and turned on and the center snare tapped off. The pit started playing first during the opening statement and then the battery came in nailing the attack and playing the book aggressively. Three minutes later it was over and the staff's applause broke the sound of the dying crash cymbals and gongs. "Battery relax" said Rennick. "Good job guys and girls, your opener is complete, obviously we have cleaning to do but this is a great start, be proud of yourselves. We've finished just in time for snack. Get a good nights' sleep tonight, we're gonna need everything for tomorrow, we will have more sectional time, some ensemble time, battery you will be doing some more marching tomorrow and then at the end of the day, we will be working the opener with the brass so get ready. Good job tonight."

After snack the corps went to bed for the night and was awoken again the next morning with the same resulting cry, "GOOD MORNING PHANTOM REGIMENT". The corps awoke and had breakfast. After breakfast, the corps went back into sectionals however the drum staff chose to keep the battery together and work as a full line. The full line was again set up in the auditorium on the stage and the staff sat in the first row of seats. The line went through its warmup routine and then started working on the book again. This took them to lunch. After lunch and another strenuous marching block, the line went back to the auditorium and played a little more. At about 2 o'clock, Rennick said, "Alright, we're going over to play with the brass, be quiet as you enter the gym, their still in rehearsal. " The line packed up and headed for the main gym. When they entered the hornline was still in rehearsal. The drumline set up in the middle of the horn arc and were closest to the tuba and mellophone lines of the brassline, Andrew then looked around counted 73 horns, by far the biggest hornline he had ever played with. Once the drumline and pit had set up, the brass arranger J.D. Shaw then announced the opener, "alright, beginning to measure 60" he yelled and the drum major climbed atop the podium and then yelled "set". The brass and percussion snapped to attention and then the drum major counted off. The corps began the intro and Andrew and Amanda carefully counted the tacets. When it came time to play the snareline excitedly yelled out the four final counts before the entrance with four loud duts and then attacked well on their first entrance as the first big hit of the show came together. After one more rep, another chunk was added and then finally, it was time to play the entire opener through. The corps came to attention and then drum major counted off. The corps started and never stopped, the drumline attacked nicely and took command of the opener and a few minutes later it was over and the only sound that could be heard was the dying sound of cymbals and gongs. The corps then relaxed and listened as Rick Valenzuela wrapped up the camp weekend. "Great job this weekend Phantom, you really had an excellent camp, we got a lot done and we're really excited about this season. Keep going, only good things will happen this summer if you continue like this." He then turned to the drum major and said, "Drum Major, dismiss the corps." The drum major then faced the corps and said "corps dismissed, hornline warm down before leaving." With that the drumline began to breakdown the equipment and made their way out of the gym as the hornline had struck up their first warm down chord. Andrew and Amanda found each other at the door of the gym and Amanda said to Andrew, "Oh my God! That was awesome" "Yeah," replied Andrew, "Our dream has come true, we really are members of the most awesome drumline ever" "Most definitely said Amanda."

After loading the truck and saying goodbye, Andrew and Amanda climbed aboard a corps bus and sat next to each other during their bus ride back to the airport. During the bus ride they talked yet for the most part just leaned back in their seats and smiled at each other for the majority of the bus ride. They suddenly realized where they had been and how awesome it was to achieve a goal together.