Keeping the band in time and on top: A peek into the responsibilities of the four drum majors

Courtesy of Isabelle Gecils

Junior Nathan Lee, senior Gabe Shyh, junior Aiden Chen and senior Cameron Nguyen lead the school’s Marching Band and Color Guard to the football field on Sept. 1, where they performed during halftime.

As the 6-9 p.m. marching band rehearsal ended on Aug. 17, drum majors Gabriel Shyh and Cameron Nguyen, both seniors, along with drum majors Aiden Chen and Nathan Lee, both juniors, stood by band director Jason Shiuan as he gave out final announcements and reminders to the rest of the band. 

Only a few months prior, the four had received the news that they would be the drum majors for the 2023 season, the highest student leadership position in the marching band. As drum majors, they conduct rehearsals and lead the band throughout the season, often arriving early to practices, staying late and dedicating a huge portion of their time to the program.

“I was really excited because it’s a huge position,” Nguyen said. “It’s very honorable to even be considered.” 

The extensive, months-long application process for choosing this year’s drum majors began in April, with a pool of fifteen applicants applying. The biggest step was creating a service project dedicated to improving the marching band or another program on campus — for Lee, it was compiling the most effective warm-ups and fundamental exercises for brass players into a book. Besides that, written responses to questions, a conducting audition and interviews with the music staff all contributed to the final decisions.

When he found out he had been picked, Lee said, “It took a long time for it to sink in because before, I didn’t have any leadership position, so it was quite a leap transitioning from being a regular member of the trumpet section to running the marching band every day.”

On typical days, drum majors conduct the band from podiums and ensure that rehearsals run smoothly, whether it be by raising energy levels during warm -ups or making sure that band members are staying on task during practice. Working alongside the drum majors, staff members also sit in the bleachers or work with students on the field as they clean their field show, providing feedback and instructions.

“The idea is that you don’t really want any mistakes to be noticed,” Chen said. “You’re really just there to assist the directors, but it’s also about having a strong voice and being there if anyone needs you.”

Making the job especially challenging is that there are 200 members in the band and Color Guard this year, many of them inexperienced freshmen. 

But besides keeping members on task, drum majors must also worry about conducting in such a way that they consistently stay on tempo without relying on a metronome. Otherwise, the band would quickly fall apart as it would be impossible to coordinate with each other while facing different directions all across the field.

Although conducting is their main official responsibility, being the face of the music program comes with other duties as well. The most important one, Nguyen said, is that each drum major must serve as a role model for other band members. 

Nguyen describes this facet of his role as being a “liaison for the students.” As actual students who know more about the school environment and are more directly involved with peers, the drum majors can guide other newer members in ways that the music directors might have trouble doing — such as by having conversations with them during water breaks to talk about the show or their lives to help develop a mutual understanding of each other’s goals. For Shyh, that peer-to-peer connection can make all the difference in how a member feels about their marching band experience. 

Still, Shyh says leading such a large group is rarely easy.

“Sometimes it’s hard to motivate a group that’s 200-plus people through the thick and thin of the season, especially with Saratoga’s difficult  classes and academics,” Shyh said.

In particular, as competition season goes into full swing and members have long, exhausting rehearsals in the heat of the day, usually on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to the late afternoon, the focus of the group can easily collapse. These situations require the drum majors to project their determination toward the rest of the group by continuing to conduct and energize the group. Shyh said he and the other drum majors often have to step in and provide that extra motivation to push the band forward.

In the end, the drum major experience boils down to the character of the individuals who hold the position, not just their ability to execute, Lee said. That means each candidate must display discipline, passion and decisiveness in order to earn the trust of those around them.

“A big part of the job is being able to gain the respect of everyone, because respect is not something that comes with the title [of drum major],” Lee said. “Having confidence and believing that the band members will do what you say and that the decisions you make are right is really the most important.”

While all of these challenges make the position a tough one, the drum majors said that seeing the band succeed is equally rewarding for everyone involved. So far, their experience has shown them what a group this big and with so much potential is capable of, having already showcased multiple impressive performances of their 2023 show, “Call of the Unknown” at football games and showcases, as well as the Cupertino Tournament of Bands on Oct. 14, where they placed third overall in their division and won Best Percussion.

 They will be performing again in competition on Oct. 28 at the Foothill Band Review and on Nov. 4-5 at the Folsom Fall Festival. However, Shyh emphasizes that winning isn’t the end goal for marching band.

“Our main goal for this season is that we’re trying to step out of our comfort zone and not necessarily doing everything that’s super comfortable,” Shyh said. “Winning a couple competitions is a byproduct of those efforts, but the true goal is to improve ourselves and our entire group as a whole, not compare ourselves to other bands.”.