Every Section Has a Coach. Except Your Drum Majors.

We cover the fundamentals: posture, hand position, a clear ictus, and patterns for different meters, including several 4/4 options depending on the music. The goal is crystal clear communication of the tempo across the field. You get a breakdown of how each drum major is doing in these areas; they get exercises they can run during tomorrow's sectionals to improve.

Clapping technique, vocal projection, and the non-verbal check-ins that let a drum major team call commands together. We go outside and actually do it, with exercises to help them sound confident, project clearly, and protect their voice.

I teach the timeline method: chunking the score into sections and marking the cues, cutoffs, dynamics, and measure numbers that matter. We do it with the actual scores they're working on at band camp so they can apply it this week.

Score study and memorization go hand in hand. Once the score is broken into a clear timeline, your drum majors can memorize what matters — measure numbers, cutoffs, entrances, meter changes — and get their eyes up off the page.

We drill the start of each tempo change to help them nail tempos each count off. I teach tricks to ground them in their show tempos and give them the tech to practice on their own.

We move past the end-of-song cutoff into what's more helpful for the band: mid-song releases, cueing the group back in, and transitioning between tempos. They'll conduct a series of exercises I bring plus music from your show.

I record each drum major conducting the exercises and part of the season's music, so we have real footage to analyze.

We pull the footage into my editing software and watch it in slow motion, checking hand position, matching ictus in both hands, finger position, and pattern size. Your drum majors learn to break down and correct their own conducting.

Each drum major takes a research-based personality assessment, and we use the results to apply it to their drum major team: where each person's strengths and weaknesses sit, and how to delegate the right job to the right person.

We work through a drum major contract: who owns the logistics, what the backup plan is when somebody's absent, and which issues to solve on your own and which to bring to the band director. We also cover handling conflict inside the drum major team, so they're ready for it before there is any.

The real stuff: the disrespectful senior, giving your friends feedback now that you're a DM, helping an unmotivated freshman, making new people feel welcome, and what to do with the rest of their sectional time at band camp. We take inventory on what your team needs most and focus there.