By: Sean Nguyen
When the band hits the field, there are three very significant people that help the band perform with uniformity: the Drum Majors. Despite their misleading title, Drum Majors actually have nothing to do with the drums. They tower over the band on podiums to conduct in a rhythmic and consistent tempo in order to keep the band in time. If you’ve ever watched the Marching Band perform at a halftime show during football games and wondered if conducting was easy enough for you to do, there is actually a lot more mental and physical preparation that these students pour into their performance than you’d imagine.
Before the season even begins in August, an application is released and the audition process is held around May in order to select three drum majors for the upcoming season, according to Senior Michael Nguyen. Nguyen is currently the Head Drum Major for the 2019 season. “ In addition to that application form that you have to fill out, you have a live audition which is conducting to a piece of music,” Nguyen said. “You have to form a routine and you make it your own to show your creativity and your own sense of style. Then you perform that in front of the other drum major candidates as well as the directors and instructors.
After the drum majors have been selected, the students are given the opportunity to attend a drum major training camp held at UC Santa Cruz over the summer, said Junior Esther Duong. This camp was designed to teach students who are new to the position how to conduct, stylistic techniques, and provided leadership workshops to conduct the band, Duong added.
After attending the drum major camp, Senior Johnny Huang felt more equipped to take on the upcoming season. “I feel like that prepared me the most, because before that I was really afraid to conduct in front of people in general, but after that I felt more comfortable,” Huang said.
Johnny Huang and Esther Duong take their place as the Assistant Drum Majors, conducting alongside the Head Drum Major so the entire band can stay on tempo.
Confidence is a skill that is not genetic, but acquired through experience. Unfortunately, the drum majors learned that the hard way. “Sometimes people are not going to listen to you all the time,” Duong said. “Sometimes you just have got to realize that you have to be tougher on them and that you have to be a lot more confident.”
Given the hardships of the position, it is safe to say that the drum majors have grown immensely since the beginning of the season, adapting traits in leadership and communication through interactions with other students in the Band program. “In order to gain [the band’s] respect and be able to have a good relationship with everyone, just be genuine and form your own leadership style that still has your own sense of identity,” Nguyen said. “People don’t like change and they’re going to see that you’re being fake and they won’t open up to you. They won’t accept you as their leader.” Nguyen added that he found strength in the speeches he gives towards at the end of practice, given that everyone is together and unified.