Jokingly, band is often described as a cult, strictly referring to the time commitment that is needed to fully participate. But for the Drumline, that’s not the case. Drumline is more than just 14 guys playing cool things to impress a crowd. There is a sense of family outside of the band portion.

This is my third year on the snare line. I’ve been all around the country, from performing in Indianapolis in November of 2016, to winning State in San Antonio in 2017. Drumline is definitely a cool thing to be a part of, but winning different competitions along your best friends makes it that much better.

Being in Drumline is a combination of body-wrenching soreness and chills down your spine as your name gets called to receive the top spot at competitions. The pain is definitely something that sets me back, because when I arrive home after rehearsal, all I want to do is sleep and not worry about anything, but sadly, that’s not an option. Having to worry about other school work is a big part of being on the line, and balancing school and band is a skill that not a lot of people can do very well.

The crowd factor is a whole separate aspect of Drumline. The effect that the crowd has on our program is almost like a math equation. The more people in the audience, the better we perform. The louder the audience claps for us, the better we perform. Performing in front of a crowd like the student section at football games is something that not many people get to experience. We get to hype people up, and it’s eye-opening to see the reaction that the crowd gets when there’s a cool stick trick or beat that they enjoy.

The drumline community is a very small place; everybody knows everybody, and it’s a big family. The cool thing is that if you know somebody from another area and they come to watch you perform, it means a lot more than you may think.

Everybody treats their surrounding performers as more than just friends. Over time, those friendships become a family. When you’re walking down the halls and you see two guys doing a cool handshake, it’s probably the Drumline guys. We love hugs. We even have Drumline parties on our open weekends during the season. You can’t find that in any other place than in the Cedar Park Drumline. 

When a drumline is good, like we are, there’s a sense of wanting to perform well for the audience. However, over all else, we want to perform for each other, we want to perform together–that is what makes our brotherhood so special.

At the end of the day, we clean up well. We perform our butts off, all while having lots of fun with it. We love what we do, and we love each other. If you have an opportunity, even to just be in a club or a new group of friends, treat each other as a family. I can speak for the whole Drumline in saying that a family of friends is a better name for us than the Cedar Park Drumline.