Get a head start on the season

(originally posted on DRUM LIFE: November 12th, 2009)

There are many band organizations around the US that compete year-round; summer parades bleed into fall field shows and finally move indoors for winter drumline.  At Sauk Rapids-Rice-Sartell Drumline (henceforth referred to as SRRS) the members only compete for two seasons a year (parade band and indoor drumline), but for the staff, the season never ends...

SRRS is notorious for starting "early" on our winter/indoor show and season preparations.  Most indoor lines in MPA (that don't compete during the fall field show season) finish up the summer Marching Band season in late July or early August and wait until mid-October to get the staff together and brainstorm for the coming season.  I can see the logic behind this approach; everyone has a chance to have some "me" time, clear their palettes from the previous season and start fresh in the fall.

But having a clean break at the end of the Marching Band season has one major drawback: LOSS OF MOMENTUM

Four years ago when I started teaching at SRRS (it was just SRR then) we had a group of 14 students that were essentially paying an activity fee to socialize 12 hours a week and maybe learn to drum a little through osmosis.  The line I fondly remembered having 40+ members every season from '98-'01 was left decimated by staff turnover.

Since then our numbers have been extremely healthy (33, 25, and 31 students respectively since '06) and we have climbed from dead last in Scholastic A (14 out of 14) to 4th out of 7 groups last year in Scholastic Open (being promoted the second week of the competitive season).  That kind of explosive progression is rare to see in the WGI realm (Pacifica H.S. is the most recent I can think of) and even less in MPA.  Yet, I'm willing to bet that analyzed the success of those organizations there would be three constants: early preparation & constant analysis, minimal staff turnover, and of course: members that are willing to push themselves beyond their comfort zone.  I tell my students all the time, "drumline isn't magic... its a science."