Drum Camp

The twenty marching percussionists met in the band room at 8:00 AM on the first Tuesday in July for their first day of drum camp. Their regular drum coach, Matt, was there along with two other percussion instructors, Dave and Nick. The battery pulled out their drums while the pit got out three marimbas, a xylophone, and a vibraphone. Then Matt called them all to the front of the room.

"Alright guys, this is Dave" Matt indicated the shorter of the other two guys "and this is Nick. We're all going to be helping both the pit and the battery, but for the most part Dave will take care of the pit and Nick and I will help the battery." There was a general murmur of assent throughout the drummers. "The battery will be in the back parking lot and the pit will be in the band room, unless Dave tells you guys otherwise. Cool?" Another murmur of agreement. "Alright. But first we're all going to stretch together, so everyone sit in a circle."

The pit and battery members arranged themselves into a giant ring and stretched as Matt directed. Some of the less flexible guys groaned as they tried to touch their toes. After about ten minutes of stretching, Matt decided it was time to get started. The pitters grabbed their mallets while the battery put on their drums and walked out to the parking lot.

In the parking lot, the battery formed an arc around Matt, Nick, and the metronome to warm up. They played Eights at varying heights for at least an hour. Matt constantly yelled at them to get their feet and hands together with the met, while Nick just insisted that they play together and look together no matter if they were with the met or not. Finally it was time for a water break.

Jessie, Cara, Ally, Phoenix, and Kerri sat on the band room steps to drink their water and talk.

"I'm so sick of Eights," Jessie, who was on first bass, complained. "We haven't even started doing splits yet." She was referring to bass line splits, not gymnastic splits.

"Yeah, I know," said Ally. "But it should get more interesting soon."

"Look on the bright side," Phoenix told Jessie. "At least your drum isn't that heavy. And if you ever want to switch with me, just say the word. Believe me, you can carry my tenors around any time you want." She smiled as Jessie vigorously shook her head.

"So how are you doing with snare?" Cara asked Kerri.

Kerri smiled. "It's good. I really can't complain, other than the fact that Eight on a Hand is the most boring exercise in the world." The other girls nodded their agreement.

All too soon the battery's water break was over and they had to go back onto the baking hot black top to start tracking. Many of the drummers were not happy to begin tracking, the steady marching around the parking lot with no specific destination. They played some more Eights are they marched and finally moved on to Bucks. They were just starting to sound fairly clean on it when it was time to break for lunch.

"Just one more time then we'll go to lunch," Matt said for the third time. "And I really mean it this time." Jason rolled his eyes, but he hoped Matt was telling the truth; fifth bass was not a light instrument.

The battery finally went back to the band room to put away their drums and get their lunches or their money and car keys. When they entered the band room, the pit was still playing Green Scales. The Battery quickly and quietly gathered what they needed, then went to sit on the steps outside to eat or get into their cars to pick up some fast food. Phoenix, the only one of the girls with a license, offered to drive the others to Chick-Fil-A, but they declined. Phoenix merely shrugged and went to see if anyone else needed a ride. She ended up taking Brad and Jason with her.

Fifteen minutes later they came back, each carrying a Chick-Fil-A bag and drink. Phoenix sat down on the steps next to Ally, who immediately started begging for some waffle fries. When Brad heard Ally, he called to her, "You know those aren't fat free, right?"

"Shut up, Brad!" Ally yelled back at him.

Eventually Phoenix broke down and gave Ally some fries, but until then she thoroughly enjoyed taunting her friend by slowly eating them one at a time.

After the girls had finished eating Jessie stood up, stretched, and checked her watch. "We still have half an hour," she said.

"Let's go see what's going on inside," Kerri suggested.

When they walked into the band room, they were greeted by a whirlwind of sound and activity. Someone had put an Usher CD in the band room's stereo system and turned it was up. Jason and Eddy had picked up their basses and were playing along with the CD while Michael and Jack worked on a cadence on their snares. When Jack spotted Kerri, he called over to her, "Kerri! Come drum with us!"

Why not? Kerri thought. "I need to work on that cadence," she told the other girls before walking across the band room and picking up her snare.

The other girls went to investigate a table that about seven or eight people were crowded around. To no one's surprise, they saw it was a game of Texas Hold 'Em that everyone was so enthralled in. When the hand was over, Phoenix and Ally sat down at the table. "Deal us in Dan," Phoenix told her section leader.

Ally looked back at Cara and Jessie. "Do you guys want to play?"

Cara shook her head. "We'll pass," Jessie said.

"Suit yourself," Dan said as he flicked out cards. One of them hit Billy's face by accident.

"Hey, watch it!" he said.

"Sorry, man," Dan said with a laugh. Cara and Jessie giggled along with everyone else then walked back across the band room. Cara dug her own deck of cards out of her bag and she, Jessie, Trey, and two of the freshmen guys in the pit, Mike and Greg, started a game of Egyptian Rat.

At 1:00 their lunch break was over and Matt, Nick, and Dave had returned from getting lunch at Taco Bell. When they walked through the door and yelled for someone to shut the music off, Jeff, the only senior in pit, ejected his CD. Jason, Eddy, Michael, Kerri, and Jack stopped playing and put their drums down while everyone else put away the cards they had been using.

"Battery outside, pit in here," Matt told everyone. The percussionists got their drums or mallets and went back to their separate rehearsal areas. Matt went to help the pit, so Nick brought the met out to the parking lot and directed the battery.

"Alright, we're going to start where we left off before lunch after a little bit of Eights," Nick said. The battery played Eights enough to loosen up their wrists again and refocus. Then Nick asked, "Dan, what tempo were we at for Bucks before lunch?"

"I think it was about 140," Dan answered.

"Okay," Nick said as he punched in the numbers. "First we're going to do Bucks with just marking time, and then we'll start tracking again once you guys are together."

It took the battery about ten minutes of playing Bucks before Nick decided they were ready to start tracking some more. They tracked through the back parking lot, around the school to the front parking lot, up the hill to the juniors parking lot, and then they turning around and tracked back to the band room.

While the battery was outside sweating and tracking, the pit was inside working on Green Scales, Triplets, and War. Dave had drilled them on Green Scales all morning and they were able to play it at 150 beats per minute in the key of B-flat, 140 in the key of E-flat, and 135 in the key of F. However, they could only play Triplets at 120 before lunch, and they were consequently working on that now. Matt and Dave helped the un-experienced freshmen with the Piston Stroke technique; their mallet heights were looking uniform by the end of the day.

At 4:00 the battery headed inside and put their drums away while the pit put away the keyboards. Matt told them that everything had gone well overall for the first day and that they were to report at 8:00 AM again tomorrow. By 4:30 everyone had gone home.

The next two of the three days of drum camp passed in much the same way as the first had. The battery progressed from Bucks to Sixteenth Note Timing and finally to Double Beat on the last day. By the third afternoon, the pit had learned Green scales in all keys, could play Triplets at 135 and War at 126, and had developed a uniform piston stroke. Drum camp had been a success.