The tic of the metronome and the bang of drumline can be heard throughout much of the town of Oak Park as they practice after school.

Drumline is a part of marching band, but has a separate winter season to compete. Marching band season ended prior to the rally and drumline does not officially start until January when school starts up again after winter break.

“We have practice every week and we go all the way until April. We learn drill and the music as we go. So, we’ll add on more stuff as the weeks go by and by the end of the season we’ll have our finished product,” junior and drum captain Angus Hsieh said. “Our end of year goal is to have our show complete and do the best we can at our competitions.”

Hsieh, who started playing in the high school drumline when he was in eighth grade at Medea Creek Middle School, wrote and choreographed the drill that was performed at the rally Friday Dec. 1.

“The inspiration came about a year ago when I saw on YouTube a performance of West Carolina University’s marching band and they had the drumline do a little drum solo. I thought that was super cool and I just wished our drumline could do something like that someday,” Hsieh said. “Over the break I mixed together these two soundtracks, wrote the drum music that goes with it [and] designed the drill, or the choreography [that goes with the music.]”

According to senior Justin Cole, the exposure of the drumline, to the students and faculty from the rally performance encourages much needed funding and encouragement for the band program.

“Most of what band does, people don’t see,” Cole said. “But marching band and drumline are the parts of band that people tend to enjoy the most. So, the more publicity they get, the better it is for the whole program.”

Typically, most of the audience members at a band concert are friends and family, rather than the entire student body.

“Most people in our school will never watch our show, unless they see it on YouTube, but it’s a shame because we put so much work into it and we have so much passion and dedicate so many hours a week for this production,” Hsieh said.

Drumline started as a way to learn the basics, according to instrumental music teacher Zachary Borquez.

“Officially, [drumline] started in the spring of 2015 just as a cadence line [that was] basically just learning from scratch how to be a drumline with different drums involved,” Borquez said. “Last year was their first competitive season as just a winter drumline.”

An assumption about drumline is that they are just making noise, according to Hsieh.

“[A misconception is] that we’re not actual musicians, that we just bang stuff, and just hit it as hard as we can,” Hsieh said. “But, we’re all musicians and it takes a lot of musical skill and technicality to be good at drumline and the instruments you’re playing on.”

According to drumline coach Brian Hou, drumline success comes from committed members and hard work and their performances are different than those of marching band.

“Drumline is given a unique opportunity apart from the rest of the band to showcase their musical abilities,” Hou wrote. “Shows are performed right next to the audience, where everyone’s talents are highlighted, and shows can be more intimate than other kinds of musical performances.”

There are some similarities between drumline and marching band.

“It involves playing and marching at the same time, but there are no brass or woodwinds, it’s just battery, which is the drums with the harnesses, and the ensemble at the front which doesn’t march,” Cole said. “It’s a lot more abstract; there’s a lot more choreography and dance involved.”

Drumline practices weekly in order to prepare for competitions and performances.

“While our time together is strict, regimented, and productive, we look forwards to every practice because it means spending time with our best friends doing what we love,” Hou said.

Drumline practices to perform for crowds and, according to Hsieh, as long as the audience is happy, drumline members are happy.

“I’m glad that we’re getting some exposure and recognition [from the rally performance] because all these people in drumline put their heart and soul into it and they’re super passionate about what they do,” Hsieh said. “We’re super happy to perform in front of people.”