Drumline camp 2016

12th KL Drumline Camp 2016

Written by by Lance Corporal Jayden Tan of squad 3

15th-16th July 2016

On the 15th and 16th (Friday & Saturday), 12th Kuala Lumpur Company held its drumline camp in Wesley Methodist School Kuala Lumpur (International). The aim of this camp is to train members in the drumline for the upcoming performances and drum competitions for example, the World Championship of Marching Show Bands on the 6th of August 2016. The total participants of this camp was 13 while 9 members will be participating in the competition. The instructors were Mr Fadhullah and Mr Wan.

At 3.30 pm on the first day, we kept our luggages to the Dutton Hall. Then, we brought it to 9 Beta as it was our dorm. We changed our school uniform into PE Attire and fall in in the sand pit area. After that, we had maintenance & tuning session, we polished the cymbals with brasso and autosol to make them shiny. Other than that, the snare drums, tenor drums, and base drums were also polished. After that, Mr Fadhullah put small traffic cones around the futsal court and taught us some basic marching techniques like marching forward, sideways and oblique. Mr Fadhullah kept reminding us to march properly like always face the front and straight in posture. Then, he started to teach us the formation of Bicycle Race which made us quite surprised. We kept repeating the same thing to correct our mistakes as we must march and stop according to the cones which made us felt bored and felt like quitting, but under the support of each other, we encouraged ourselves to move forward as a team. From 7.00pm to 8.30pm, we had our dinner break at the canteen and wash up. After that, Mr Wan came so we continued our lesson of learning formation. It rained soon at night, so we stop our training but we practised synchronisation of 8-16 strokes, 16 strokes and diddles at the sheltered area. After the rain stopped, we continued practising formation, but the instructor told us to stop at the last 3rd line of Bicycle Race as we learnt much on the first day. Nevertheless, the instructor kept training us by marching from the top to where we stopped on the first day, he kept teaching us part by part to prevent us from forgetting. In conclusion, it was a repetition. Before we ended the lesson on the first day, we must march with instruments which was heavy and made us exhausted. At the first, many banging sounds can be heard as we were unfamiliar with marching with instruments. But, we managed to do it after repeating it in 1 hour. We ‘survive’ Day 1 as it was quite tough. Before lights out, Mr Andrew had devotion with us, encourage us to persevere as what we learnt will bear a fruit which made us successful in one day. After devotion, lights out was at 11.30 pm and we must have a good night rest as Day 2 will be tougher because Mr Wan informed us to prepare mentally and physically.

At 7.30 am on the second day, 4 campers who are not participating in the competition attended BB Parade while the rest who are participating are exempted from BB Parade. We washed up and had Nasi Lemak as breakfast in the morning. Later, we set up the cones in the basketball court. We had 8-16 and 16 strokes marching as warm up. After the instructors had arrived, we continued bicycle race from the top to where we stopped yesterday with instruments under a hot sun. Then, we proceed to the next few lines to the end. We had few quick breaks in the middle to keep us hydrated. After finishing Bicycle Race Formation we kept repeating part by part and full many times, in order to perfect it. ‘ Practise makes Perfect’, we repeated for almost 2 hours until lunch. Then, we had lunch break from 12.30pm to 2pm. Many of us were drained out and we rested in our dorms for a long time. Then, we walked to the basketball court reluctantly as we were going to learn the second formation - EWF Drum Solo. Apparently, it was shorter than Bicycle Race so we finished it in approximately 2 hours. After that, we practised with instruments. Then, the sky rained again, so we practice synchronisation of EWF and some changes in Bicycle Race at the sheltered area. After that, we had dinner break from 7pm to 8.30 pm, we moved our drums to the dutton hall. Mr Wan and Mr Fadhullah kept correcting and rebuking our mistakes like marching in a wrong way, wrong posture and stop at wrong points. At 9.45 pm, the instructors informed us to practise consistently as the competition is around the corner and practise both with instruments and music. At 10pm, we packed our luggages and we went home happily.