Turning Up The Heat at Carolina Crown

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There’s more to marching bands than meets the eye. In this series, Jason Wicks of Morristown High School ‘09 & Appalachia State University will take us behind the scenes as he participates in a top 12 World CLass Drum and Bugle Corps in his quest for marching and musical perfection. –Doug Rutan, Morristown High School Music Department

By Jason Wicks

I can guarantee you that if you ask any member of any drum corps what the hardest part of drum corps is, nine out of ten will say waking up in the morning. For me, if I go through a normal day at home without exercising intensely, falling asleep that night takes a lot longer than if I don’t exercise. Well, at drum corps, you are outside in the hot sun, unless it rains like it has almost every other day here, for about 12 hours, so you can imagine how easy falling asleep is. Waking up is the hardest part. The last thing you want to hear at 7 am during the summer is your alarm going off!

On another note, the past few days have been pretty hectic. We had a dance instructor come in Monday and take different sections of the horn line, like trumpets or tubas, out at different times until he left today. I don’t want to give away any of the show before you get to see it, but I have to say it is looking pretty awesome with the new dance moves, even though they make your body more sore than you could ever imagine. The trumpets got a nice little break this morning as we were the last section to be pulled out for dance moves. We all were lying on the gym floor waiting for the dance instructor and I’m pretty sure almost all of us fell asleep. It’s been a very tiresome time here, but the show is finally coming together with only one more song to put on the field with drill and body movements.

The weather is finally becoming drum corps weather, as in no lower than 90 degrees everyday with no clouds in the sky and hardly any breeze. We drink tons of water during breaks and powerade during lunch to ensure we have enough of the necessary nutrients and whatnot for our body. We were lucky and finished rehearsal an hour early tonight, giving us time to do laundry, go swimming in the pool here, or do what I’m going to do and go to sleep early!

Anyways, all is still going very well here. Our brass caption head came in last night after finishing work at his high school, along with the brass music writer/arranger. it’s nice to have them both here because they know how to do everything in drum corps better than anyone else, and it can only make us better!

So while I finish this update, I suggest all of you reading this take a moment to appreciate the amount of sleep you can get every night because I sure don’t have that right now! But I love it here so it’s defiintely worth it!

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