Drumline FAQ

How you can be involved with band depends on your level of commitment, as well as your skill level for some of the groups.  There are six ways to be involved with high school percussion.

1. Field Show/Competition Band: This extra-curricular band is the heart of the Marching Indians.  We do all of the marching arts; football games (pep band), halftime shows, competitions, festivals, pep rallies, and parades!  You can be a member regardless of your skill level.  This is the very best way to experience high school band, and also requires the greatest commitment to after-school/evening practices and events.  If you are not enrolled in Band as an elective class, this is the only level of involvement open to you.

2. Pep Band/Parades: As part of our grades in Band class, you must perform at all pep rallies, football games, and parades.  

3. Concert Bands: Once marching season winds down, we spend our Band class days preparing for our Winter Pops and Spring Formal concerts.  You must be enrolled in the Band class elective to be in the Concert Bands, unless the directors feel you have enough skill and willingness to come to lunchtime lessons.

4. Maroon Fusion: Our extra-curricular jazz band is a competition-level band; because of this, we usually only take the top two drummers who audition.  More information is available on the Maroon Fusion webpage.

5. Percussion Ensemble: When there is enough interest and availability, we run a small ensemble devoted to percussion.  Skill level is not a concern with the Percussion Ensemble, as long as you practice at home and attend our rehearsals!  We normally practice after school once a week, with the goal of performing in the Small Ensemble Concert in late spring.

6. Pit Orchestra: Mr. Test hand-selects students to participate in the pit orchestra that plays for the high school musical each year.  Members of the pit use the same professional music as those on Broadway, so only those with the highest degree of skill and dedication are chosen.

Note that we do not offer a concert-only option, because our Band class is co-curricular.  This means you that at a minimum, you must participate in mandatory practices (including August Mini-Camp), football games, and parades as part of the band class grade.  You can find more details about co-curricular Band Class at our Band Class FAQ.

Yes, drummers have extra time commitments compared to wind players.  In addition to learning our show and pep music, drummers must learn our cadences (drum-only songs we use when we march) and our drum cheers for football games and pep rallies.  These require extra rehearsals, mostly in the summer.

Auditions are Tuesday, June 13, 2023, 4:30-5:30 PM in the Band Room.

The words “battery/non-pitched/line” all refer to standard percussion, the instruments that actively march in the field show. These are snare drum, quint toms, bass drums, and cymbals. “Mallets/pitched/pit” refer to the mainly tone-bar percussion (bells, marimba, vibraphone, xylophone) that stand still on the front sideline (knows as the “pit”) to play for the field show.

You do not have to audition, but if you do not, the staff will place you on the marching instrument of our choice for the school year. If you do not want to get “stuck” somewhere, you should at least try your best to audition.

There will be a marching snare, mounted on a stand, for your audition. You must play from a standing position if you are physically able. If you are auditioning specifically for snare drum, you must play using traditional grip.  For drumline, we judge marching (foot fall) as well as hand technique; you mark time as you play. For more specifics, see the instructions in the audition packet.

There is no audition for mallets/pitched percussion this year.  You're in!

If you are willing to practice at home, and come to all of our rehearsals and performance events, then you're in regardless of how you feel your audition went!  The audition materials are purposefully not easy! We have to sort out the “best of the best” so the material is deliberately advanced and hard to master. Simply do your best and stay positive!

The answer is "yes, and no." Depending on how auditions go, we will assign students different instruments for the field show versus pep and parade events.  If you're still stuck, and you're in Band class, there's good news!  We hold separate auditions in September for concert band placements, and we try to spread the percussionists across all different parts for concert band songs.

Please feel free to contact Mr. Test at ctest@trschools.com with any questions or issues you may encounter!