March On
By RONNIE FUENTES and NICOLE HERRERA
Tower News
Manteca High’s drum majors Marly Goodwin, Alan Verdin, and Kris Gearhart work alongside director Cody Marchetti to bring the band together.
Marly Goodwin, Alan Verdin and Kris Gearhart are the appointed leaders of the Manteca High School band. The drum majors are pictured here with the band during a football game on Friday, Sept. 9, 2022.
The three drum majors are the leaders of the Manteca High band, guiding the group through rehearsals and performances. Each of them carries out the instructions of the band director. They’re in charge of keeping everyone coordinated and making sure performances portray their true potential. Marchetti states he chose these three specifically because “they’re all seniors, their leadership, and band qualities over the last two years,” he said.
To be a drum major, one must show their capabilities and passion for leading the band. Having the role of a drum major isn’t an easy task. It takes dedication and effort. Goodwin, Verdin, and Gearhart have proven themselves responsible enough to be a drum major. Goodwin states that confidence, social skills, and knowledge are essential for being a drum major.
“You just have to be sociable and get along with people, and you have to be confident enough to get up and tell people what to do. It takes confidence and obviously knowledge on your instrument knowledge about other instruments and music in general,” Goodwin said.
Drum major is an important position, one that people look up to and one that requires a strong self-confidence.
“I feel it’s important people look up to you in a way. It’s an important position, so you must be confident in your ability, and you must know what you’re doing or else you’re not cable of being a drum major,” Verdin said.
Being drum major has a positive impact on the leaders. It has grown their confidence and helped them become more connected with their band members. Goodwin says Manteca High’s band is connected by more than just the music on their sheets.
“Since this is my second year doing it, it's made me more confident,” Goodwin added. “I've definitely been able to connect with more band members since then. I'm just kind of known around because we're like the higher up positions, were generally known, so it kind of helps getting more involved with the people in the band. And makes you a part of the process of bringing up freshman and teaching them how to do stuff like how to be in a band and the expectations.”
The enjoyment of helping others, teaching them things they couldn’t do before, and being a part of their improvement keeps the drums majors passionate about leading the band. They help freshmen and teach them how to be in a band and the expectations. And for the band members, they lean on their wealth of experience and use their knowledge as feedback since everyone respects and understands them.
“I love to help others and teach them new skills and help others improve themselves, and I feel like that's the reason why I like being the leader of the band,” said Gearhart.
Besides leading their peers, Goodwin, Gearhart and Verdin are versatile with many instruments, ranging from percussion, woodwind, string, brass, and keyboards. Some of the many instruments they can play are the tuba, clarinet, flute, saxophone, trumpet, guitar, and ukulele, among others.
Marchetti is proud of how far they’ve come. He states they all have great talents that qualified them to become drum majors.
“They’re all top performers of their own instruments. … (They have) true leadership, advanced musicianship, they’re personable, well respected, friendly, and everything of an open leader,” Marchetti said.
Guadalupe Enriquez contributed to this report.
