The life and times of a drum corps alternate
by Jeff Rainwater, special to DCW
Editor's Note: Jeff Rainwater auditioned and rehearsed this winter with the Seattle Cascades, a division I DCI drum and bugle corps, and shares his experiences with DCW.
Today was my fourth and final camp with the Seattle Cascades. As exciting new career opportunities have opened up for me, I was forced to give up my position as a bass line alternate. Trying hard not to turn back, I forced my sore, exhausted body into my car for my short drive home as I weighed out what wonderful opportunities I am passing up and what I am passing them up for.
The reality of the situation is that I would not want to go on tour as an alternate anyway, even if my career and college were not an issue. "Hey water boy, go help the pit unload!" is not my idea of a good time. The best part about being in drum corps is the performances. If I just wanted a stern workout, mystery food and an uncomfortable bed, I'd join the army.
"This being my first time trying out for drum corps, I learned a lot," said Brian Leaf, one of the snare line alternates. "Even though I didn't make the main line, I made alternate. I can go home and apply a lot of what I have learned."
Jeff Rainwater's goal was to become part of the Seattle Cascades Bass Line,
shown here in 2001. (Photo by Dan Scafidi)
A typical day at camp begins at 7:00 AM sharp. We sleep in the gym on the floor. Our drum majors, Larry and Jeff, turn the lights on to wake us, soon followed by some ever so friendly yelling about how slow everyone is. At this point, we have five minutes to be outside at the cook shack, which I heard we got second-hand from the Star of Indiana. Keep in mind that western Washington is not the warmest place to be when you're outside in your pajamas at 7:05 AM.
The drum majors then lead us on a brisk jog. We have from the end of the jog until 8:00 to shower, eat, move our things to the sides of the gym and be in our sectionals. From that point, the drum line usually spends several hours on warm-ups and fundamentals before jumping into the music. We always have two breaks. The lunch break is one hour and the dinner break is an hour and a half. Most of the drum line tends to spend the later half of the breaks in the band room memorizing the music. Between lunch and dinner is generally when we have visual ensemble. This is the time when we shuttle over to Mariner Stadium and learn the drill. We start with some rigorous stretches, then a few laps around the track in lines while the horns practice controlled breathing, and then on to the field.
To learn the drill, we all conveniently got copies of the drill sheets. Mine are almost unreadable because the rain made the ink run. Since we are in the Seattle area it rains a lot so we can't wait for good weather to practice. We march in all conditions.
If you have ever used the phrase "You think you know, but you have no idea," then you will understand why I cannot stress enough that corps is NOT like a high school marching band. High school bands do not march backwards at these ungodly tempos at a 3:5 steps-to-yards ratio. The only reason I got to march at the last camp was because our regular "bass number two" guy was gone. The days usually end with music ensemble, which is when everyone meets in the gym and we go over what we have learned musically. The camps always end with the traditional corps song, Imagine, and an informational pep talk by the corps director, Sal Leone.
The corps has awesome potential this year...
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