What Does a Drum Major Do?

This is a co-written column by Synesthesian and Verisimilitude_andthensome about their marching band! –Sparkitors

Hello! Marie, aka Synesthesian, here.

Considering we will be taking you through our whole season with one group of people, we feel that a few preliminary introductions are necessary. Of course, others will be introduced as the season goes on, but here we have a few main players in our band experience.

We'll start with The Director.

The Director teaches both band and orchestra at one of the local high schools, and probably could teach choir if he wanted to due to his phenomenal tenor voice. In addition to teaching, our Director spends quite a bit of time playing in professional music groups on various brassy instruments (trumpet, piccolo trumpet, trombone, etc). He has been marching since his Junior High years in New Orleans, where he grew up. Our Director is mellow, witty, and a fantastic instructor, in addition to being one of the cutest dads you will ever see. Oh, and he can hold a handstand for a good five minutes.
Awesome.

Drum Majors As presented by Kaitlin, aka Verisimilitude_AndThenSome.

The Senior Field Major, or SFM as we will refer to him, is next in line in our list of marching band authority. The SFM helps teach music and marching, conducts the band and basically is the man in charge when The Director is not there. He calls the band to attention and dismissal, makes the usual "hilarious" teenaged boy comments and is very committed to making marching band a great experience for everyone.

The next Drum Major on our list is an absolutely fantastic girl who we shall call Rose. She, like the SFM, was a Drum Major last year and a darn good one at that! Rose has that we-can-do-it-even-if-others-think-we-can't attitude that you very rarely find in the world today. I've never seen anyone love marching band more than she, and you can see it in the way she's committed to love everyone and help everyone find a reason to love marching band.

Our next Drum Major is sweet and soft spoken so we've dubbed her Sugar. Sugar is an absolutely fantastic flute/piccolo player. She's been doing Marching Band for years and you can tell she loves it. Being the only Junior Drum Major she will take SFM's place next season as the Senior Field Major. A challenge which she will rise up to, meet, and conquer I am sure.

The last Drum Major loves Marching Band with her whole soul, plays percussion, and is generally thought of as a nice person...the last Drum Major is me! Verisimilitude_AndThenSome, or you can just call me Kaitlin if you'd like. I'm in a strange sort of circumstance this year as I will both be playing in Pit (if you don't know what that is please refer to our last post) and conducting as a Drum Major. I am grateful for it, though, because I shall get the best of both worlds! Victory!

Marie here again.

So far we've survived one parade without any fatalities, one week in preparation for said parade, and the start of another week, as well as receiving one of the movements* of our show music, with much excitement from the band.

With intros taken care of, next week we'll get into the secret** life of marching band!

*Any one marching show is typically divided into three movements, First (the opener),
Second (the ballad), and third (the closer). Traditionally, first and third are the "fast" movements, while second is "slow" movement. There are often "transitions" in between any two given movements, to keep the show feeling cohesive and unified.

**It's not really all that secret.

Until then, dear readers!

What are your drum majors like?

Related Post: Blogging Marching Band