With every new marching band season comes a new head drum major. Junior Bria Taylor prepares to go into the new season as head drum major. She said being a drum major is like being an assistant to the director.

“You answer questions before others go to the directors, you make sure everything is in order, you make sure band camp goes smoothly, you make sure competition go smoothly, you have to learn all of the parts, cue all of the solos,” Taylor said. “There’s a bunch of different components.”

After the 2020 school year, Taylor said the community of the band changed. She said she hopes to improve the band community.

“[My] goal for this year is to reincorporate the familial aspect to marching band,” Taylor said. “I think [it is important to] incorporate different friend groups and different sections of the band into each other just to create a tighter community.”

During the summer, the marching band has a camp in which members of the band learn the basic marching fundamentals. Following band camp, Taylor said the practice schedule is pretty intense.

“We have 7 a.m. rehearsals every morning, except we get our late starts on Thursdays, and we have a 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. rehearsal on Thursday,” Taylor said. “During rehearsal we warm up our bodies and our instruments a little bit and we run drill, and we do that every day until the end of the [marching band season].”

In order to become drum major, Taylor said there was a long audition process required by the directors.

“The directors send out a leadership application in March of every year and you fill it out, then you sign up for an interview with the directors,” Taylor said. “Then you conduct the National Anthem in front of the wind ensemble and you conduct a selected excerpt that [the directors] choose. Then, about a month later, the results come out.”

Taylor said she loved the leadership her freshman year of marching band. She said they are the people who inspired her to be a drum major.

“The drum major my freshman year, her name was Logan Brucker, she was my favorite head drum major that we’ve ever had. She was always really sweet to me and she told me that I would do really great things with the band,” Taylor said. “So my sophomore year, I auditioned for drum major because of her.”