Drum Major Tryouts

Ryan had drum major clinic and audition this week with the instructor Ed Lizardo. He was the band director Mr. Riggle's first drum major when he first started teaching in California and has trained and chosen all of the school's drum majors for 30 years.

Monday through Wednesday, the kids learned about marching, calling out directions/voice projection, conducting, mace work and using the whistle. Thursday was the audition in front of Mr. Lizardo, the current band directors, and the current drum major Brock. Brock lent his whistle and mace (named "Morgan" for some reason) to Ryan to practice and audition with. Ryan's been bugging Brock all year to teach him mace work and Ryan has practiced at home with a "mace" he made himself with a cut-off broomstick that has a water bottle filled with candy taped to the end. This week he had Brock's mace so he practiced at home with the real thing, marching up and down the street.

This is what Ryan had to say about this: "The drum major experience for me was a very long and stressful process because the entire time you are trying to learn but trying not to look foolish at the same time. I felt I got a lot out of it because it made me reexamine myself as a person and someone in a leadership position. I know that part helped me more than if I were to get drum major."

I'm proud of how he has handled himself during the experience. When his fellow drum major candidiates talked about dropping out, he encouraged them to continue. And he was the only one who never even considered dropping out. He said the training was humbling because he went in thinking he knew a lot, but found out he still had lots to learn.

Unfortunately, we won't find out for a couple more weeks whether he made it or not. After telling the kids that they would know this week, after auditions, they decided to postpone and wait to announce the outcome at the end of year Band Banquet on May 21. He was upset, but he dealt with it pretty maturely after all, and keeps practicing and studying by watching old videos of the past field shows on YouTube.