Reconnect: The Story of an old flame

Part 9: Meetings and First Impressions

June 2002

The first week of drum camp went by quickly. Almost too quickly but by the time it was over, we'd already made it so far.

We hardly even felt the weight of the cymbals anymore- seriously. They felt so light and lithe in comparison to that first day and we felt much less clumsy when we handled them. The week was a blur because we were just so busy. There was a lot to learn, a lot to master before drum camp was over. We still hadn't started flipping our cymbals and I hadn't been able to duplicate my results from the first day. Vino focused his time on teaching us the different positions, how to break them into counts that would work as we marched, how to transition from one to the other, etc. We went over the cadence, making it more evenly matched and coming up with new ways to make it more visually effective. As a rule, we were not allowed to look at the show music yet and so instead we just focused on looking good.

The second day had been strange- the techs didn't join us in the individual rooms right away and so for several minutes we stood around, not sure what to do. When I felt like enough idle time had passed by, I did the only thing I could think of. I got us started by stretching our arms, doing a few push ups... anything that might help us build that upper arm strength. We even did a few exercises holding the cymbals in hopes that would would grow used to their weight quickly.

When that was done, and Vino still hadn't appeared, I decided we needed a warm up routine also. We picked at the different warm up exercises that the drummers played and began to come up with different things we could do in unison. By the time we knew it, we had an established routine we were using in the mornings.

And we were progressing quickly, Amy, Gaby and I were so in sync- it looked great. I wish I could say the same for Tanya. The problem was that Tanya was never there when we were with Vino and there wasn't enough time at lunch to put her up to speed. Twice that week she'd been pretty late so it was no surprise that she stuck out like a sore thumb. I tried, I really did, to help her but it wasn't going to work unless she could be there more often. This is why come Friday, I was in such a great mood. After all, starting on Monday, Tanya would be there from the morning and catching up would be a breeze... or so I thought.

"I'm so bad." Tanya said in a whiny voice as she missed the last crash, coming in a half a beat behind us.

We only had a few more minutes before we had to meet in the main hall with the drumline.

"No, you're not bad. You just haven't had as much practice. It's fine. Just mark time..." I said, showing her how I moved my feet. "it helps keep you in rhythm."

"I'll try." She said with a sigh as we began to move towards the big room.

"I'm sure you'll get better once you start joining us all day next week." Gaby said, trying to cheer her up but we all froze when we saw her face.

"What?" I asked.

"I'm not going to be able to join from the mornings." She said.

"Why?" I asked, my voice a bit more high. If Tanya was going to keep being late, she'd never be up to date before band camp and it would be so much harder to catch up once we started marching and learning show music. I was nervous- I really wanted us to be a good cymbal line, god knows why! But I was suddenly feeling very invested in it.

"Just personal problems with my family." She said.

My face softened and I felt guilty. Of course, she's not doing this on purpose. Don't be so hard on her.