Starting a Middle School Indoor Drumline

A few short years ago, school music programs across the country faced a mountain of unprecedented challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Performances were cancelled and classes were converted to virtual formats. Detailed plans for leadership auditions, end-of-year banquets and summer training camps were thrown out the window. Students and teachers were abruptly separated from music-making environments, and the magic of live music creation disappeared. Anticipating the attrition rates on the horizon, music educators around the world waited with bated breath for in-person instruction to become safe once again.

School districts nationwide had varying responses to COVID-19. I was grateful for the opportunity to resume in-person instruction relatively quickly here in Forney, Texas. The fall 2020 semester looked so different, but it provided a much-needed sense of normalcy as we welcomed many students back into the band hall. While several families made the difficult, yet understandable, choice to remain virtual, a majority of our students couldn’t wait to be back in school — in person — with their friends. With enhanced sanitization procedures, drill-dots strategically placed six feet apart, and hundreds of customized FB (Forney Band) neck-gaiters, the Forney High School Marching Band showed resilience through our appropriately titled 2020 production, “Rise.”

As the anomalous and surprisingly successful 2020 marching season came to a close, I was dismayed with the outlook of the upcoming spring semester, which lacked substantial performance opportunities for our concert band students. I was particularly worried that our youngest students — already navigating complicated and confusing lives as 7th and 8th graders — would fall out of love with the extracurricular activity that they had committed to mere months before the pandemic uprooted their lives. Understanding how crucial these formative years are to the overall development of student musicians, I became skeptical when picturing the uncertain trajectory of our student’s upcoming musical journey. With their future in mind, I frantically brainstormed new ways to provide meaningful musical experiences for middle schoolers in the months ahead.

Outreach to Other Music Educators

Luckily, the music education scene in North Texas is robust with outstanding school music programs and a seemingly endless amount of resources, including educators who are more than willing to share their expertise. Since moving to the area after graduating from college in 2017, I knew that several percussion educators had established percussion clubs at their schools. Through my research, I found Jeff Ausdemore, the Director of Percussion at Colleyville Heritage High School from 2003-2014. He is most often credited for the inception of the percussion club concept as it exists today.

“The Grapevine-Colleyville ISD Percussion Club was founded in 2004 and served all the percussion students from grades 6 through 12 in the district,” Ausdemore says with excitement. “The club’s primary objectives were to foster a deeper love and appreciation for the percussive arts; strengthen student relationships across the district; and provide opportunities for clinicians, mentorship and guest artists to help inspire our young musicians each and every week throughout the year.”

Intrigued by Ausdemore’s format, I continued my quest to come up with a solution that best fit the needs of our middle school students. One of our strongest program attributes at the high school level was our participation in the indoor drumline activity each spring. Commonly referred to as “percussion theater,” indoor drumline productions feature compelling music, movement and an overarching show theme that guides the design of uniforms, props and imagery on a large digitally printed vinyl tarp, on which students perform drill and choreography.

“Indoor Drumline is a great way for students to progress in their mastery of marching and keyboard percussion in the spring semester,” says Shannon Jacobs, the Percussion Specialist at Forney High School since 2006. “Students are separated by ability-based band classes during the day in the spring semester, so they look forward to coming together as a full percussion section before and after school each week to work toward a common goal.”

Laying the Groundwork

The more I reflected on the importance of indoor drumline in our high school program, I felt more confident that I had found the answer to my initial question. With a renewed sense of determination, I began to lay the groundwork for a new ensemble for our middle school percussion students: the Forney ISD Middle School Indoor Drumline.

Like any extracurricular activity during the COVID-era, securing permission to rehearse and travel with students in person came with some additional challenges. Thankfully, our middle school band directors and administrators were excited by the possibility of the new ensemble, and for the opportunities it would provide our students. As long as we agreed to follow all current health guidelines, we had their full support. Additionally, we intentionally created a budget for the program that kept costs as low as possible by utilizing previously used vinyl tarps, arranging classical music already in the public domain, and sourcing uniforms from Amazon.

The structure of the FISD MS Indoor Drumline mirrored the program that existed at Forney High School, which consisted of a marching percussion section (known as the “battery”) and a standstill percussion section (known as the “front ensemble”). I arranged the music for the front ensemble and enlisted Mr. Jacobs, the high school Percussion Specialist, to write the battery music and the drill.

We rehearsed one night a week after school for two and a half hours, and attended four Saturday contests hosted by the North Texas Colorguard Association (NTCA), the local circuit governing all indoor percussion units in North Texas, which currently consists of 40 performing ensembles in various classifications. In January 2021, we hit the ground running with the first Forney ISD Middle School Indoor Drumline production, entitled “The Way of the Warrior.”

Unforeseen Benefits

While my initial motivation to start the FISD MS Indoor Drumline was to address the lack of performance opportunities during the pandemic, several unforeseen benefits revealed themselves to us as we began our journey. Common competition-day tasks like loading the equipment truck safely and efficiently, getting on the bus, warming up outside and behaving as an audience member following a performance were all things I didn’t realize would contribute to the positive experience our middle schoolers were receiving through their participation in the ensemble. In the years that followed, I noticed that because of these seemingly inconsequential experiences, our students were arriving in their first year as a high school band member with a heightened sense of maturity and awareness.

However, the most valuable of these unforeseen benefits was the involvement of our high school students as our volunteer instructional staff for the middle school ensemble. Each week, between six to eight eager high school percussion students attended the middle school indoor rehearsals. They assisted with the setup for rehearsal, the warm-up routine, teaching music and drill to students, and even leading small-group sectionals.

Successfully Bridge the Gap

In the coming weeks and months as we progressed through our inaugural season, I began to realize that we had created something truly magical. During our rehearsals, I noticed our high schoolers gaining confidence in the way they were communicating information to our middle schoolers.

Bella Esquivel, a senior percussionist and Front Ensemble Section Leader at Forney High School, was a member of the middle school drumline and is now one of the high school instructors. “As an original member of the Forney ISD MS Indoor Drumline, serving as an instructor for the ensemble has given me a unique perspective on the challenges faced by music teachers,” she says. “Realizing my ability to help younger players improve musically has instilled a confidence in me that I will take into the next phases of my life. It has been extremely rewarding to see the middle school students I’ve mentored continue on in band at the high school level, where we continue to refine our craft as teammates.”

In conjunction with our high school instructors’ improved teaching abilities, there is a growing sense of trust and admiration displayed by our middle school students toward their high school counterparts. This trust undoubtedly helped pave the way for many of them to continue in band as high schoolers. While most freshmen are nervous about being accepted in a new environment, our freshmen percussionists are welcomed into the Forney High School Band family with open arms by their former instructors-turned-classmates. Today, the Forney ISD Middle School Indoor Drumline has grown to almost 30 middle school performers and 15 volunteer high school instructors.

I understand that starting a middle school indoor drumline may not be the best fit for every program, but for music educators looking for a way to bridge the gap between their middle school and high school programs, I hope this article will inspire you to get creative in how you achieve your goal.