You’re at a football game, it’s after halftime, the drums start playing. The roar of the student section suddenly hits back on you. The vigorous energy of the students heightens. Soon enough, the sound of cymbals and drums gets louder and louder. Everybody’s voices and cheers waving in the air. The excitement is notable. It doesn’t matter if we’re winning or losing, spirits are high. Who is this group that makes the games and assemblies seem so worth it and fun? It’s the Drumline.
Drumline is an important part of Shorewood High School. The group of 22 students is always present at assemblies and games making sure the energy stays high. Drumline starts off with the cymbals. In this case, you’d normally see Freshman playing this particular instrument. And three different drums: snares, basses, and quads.
Games tend to be the crowd-pleaser for Shorewood, and many drumline students enjoy them too. “I like to play games because we get to show off our hard work, but also be professional and look cool,” says Monaka Kakuta, junior and one of the drumline captains.
Kakuta first joined drumline halfway through her Freshman year, dropping the Spanish elective, after being invited to join and thinking percussion was interesting. “If I want to eventually focus on music,” says Kakuta, “ why not start now.”
Kakuta enjoys the teamwork and community within drumline, but also the fun chaotic vibe that they have. Having people hyped up and excited for both assemblies and games tends to be a key thing throughout the group.
“My favorite thing about drumline is performing in front of people at football games,” says Akira Green, sophomore and snare player. Green also adds that this is because of the environment around him, how people are jumping around and having fun. This is one of the best experiences through drumline. Green first joined drumline his Freshman year and he said that it’s been one of the best choices he’s made academically.
Drumline is built around community. Matthew Yang, junior and quad player, says that his favorite thing about drumline is the community that’s built. “It’s okay to mess up, nobody is there to sit there and judge you,” says Yang.
Once Yang got into drumline his Freshman year, he soon realized that the stress was off because everyone around you is typically doing the same thing. “So if you look like you’re having fun, the pressure’s kind of off,” says Yang. Sometimes when playing in front of large crowds, the drumline can feel the stress, but once they get into the music, everything just kind of goes away.
Rehearsals for drumline normally consist of going out with the whole band and practicing on the field. They go through their cadences and occasionally have their drumline coach Storm come in to help with technique and polish things up. Storm and their teacher Dan Baker also tend to help them with choreography and how to make it look better. But most of the time, it normally consists of what previous seniors have come up with or sometimes they come up with something completely new if they feel like it.
Drumline has many different cadences, a lot of them having really intriguing names, like Cadence Sequence, Dirty Dog, and Tequila. Most drumline students enjoy Cadence Sequence. It’s a very technical piece but its also really fun to do. This song is something that they always play, and it was the first thing that they learn at the beginning of the year. “So that’s a staple in our books,” says Kakuta.
Dirty Dog is also an enjoyment for drumline, while also being a crowd pleaser. Drumline ends their shows with this song and the cymbals get to show off their really cool routine. It is just a big hype crowd song. Everybody enjoys it. “Dirty Dog is always fun,” says Julia Schielke, freshman and cymbal player.
As a Freshman, and this being her first year on drumline, Schielke enjoys how much energy there is when they play. “Everybody is so supportive and everyone gets so jazzed,” says Schielke. One of the big things that Schielke is looking forward to this upcoming year is parades and gigs. For example the Strawberry Festival. The Festival gives drumline a bigger opportunity to showcase their cadences since they don’t get a ton of opportunities to do that. “Drumline’s great,” says Schielke.
This year drumline seems to be doing well. Kakuta, one of drumline captions, said that initially she thought it wasn’t going as well as it is, but instead that they’re doing a lot better than last year because everybody seems to be so intrigued with practicing and learning their parts, and just overall connecting as a drumline. “Its a new drumline because we lost all our seniors and upperclassmen,” says Kakuta “But were building up from scratch and doing pretty good as a new drumline” Everything is progressing at a really fast pace right now and Kakuta is really excited to see how drumline will be at the end of the year.
Drumline is trying to do new things like in the recent year they tried lights on drums for football games. But along with that they’re trying to create more traditions and fun activities within the group. “Kind of bring back what we had before Covid,” says Kakuta.
“So yeah, there’s a lot going on and we’re excited to share that with Shorewood,” says Kakuta.
