Student drumline beats up the beat

If you were anywhere near New North on Monday night and couldn’t study, converse, or hear yourself think, then you’re already familiar with the Georgetown Drumline. From 8 to 9 p.m., the group’s 15 members banged out eighth-notes and bashed cymbals together at a deafening volume on the outdoor patio across from the Davis Center, much to the dismay of passing students and faculty.

And why was the Georgetown community treated to this impromptu percussion showcase? Lack of sufficient practice space.

“[Since] we’ve never really had a drumline before, nobody’s really familiar with what it takes to start it up … so they appointed us an area to practice, not realizing that that area would be way too small,” drum captain Michael Carter (COL ’12) said.

As a native of Texas, a state whose obsession with high school football and band is not at all exaggerated in Friday Night Lights, Carter is well-acquainted with what a drumline should be. Carter saw Georgetown’s lack of a drumline as an opportunity, and has been trying to address this deficiency since the beginning of his Georgetown career.

“It was so ingrained in me, it became such a part of me, and I hated letting that go,” Carter said. “[And I was] sure that there were people here just like me.”

After talking to Professor Aaron Broadus, the director of the Pep Band, Carter was able to get the project in motion.
“This is something I’ve wanted to get started for a few years, and [it’s happening] now that we have the personnel and some of the equipment,” Broadus said.

That personnel includes Carter, drum team captains Nate Epstein (COL ’12) and Andrew Carter (COL ’13), and about a dozen other percussionists, some of whom had never picked up a drumstick before tryouts. But under the training of the captains, the group has learned quickly and is ready for its first gig, homecoming. Their performances will soon include football halftime shows and—if all goes well—men’s basketball games.

But before they can start wowing thousands of grey-shirted Hoya fans at the Verizon Center, the program has a few more obstacles to overcome. According to Broadus, drumlines are typically popular at “schools that have major football programs, and schools that have major music programs.” Georgetown notoriously lacks both. Because it’s such unfamiliar territory for the University, the group is also suffering from an insufficient supply of instruments, causing members at Monday’s rehearsal to alternate between playing actual drums and pantomiming on air-drums. But Broadus is confident that with the support of both the music department and the athletic department, the organization will receive enough funding for more instruments, new drumsticks, and even some snazzy GU Drumline t-shirts.

With the latter half of his Georgetown career well underway, Carter is looking towards the future for drumline beyond his graduation.
“I’m teaching everything I know to these people,” Carter said. “So hopefully in my senior year I can finally polish it off a little bit, and then come back as an alum and see it really big and bangin’.”