(We managed to track down another one of our Drum Majors to do a quick blog post for us.  Take it away, Stuart! -The RLs)

WAR EAGLE!!! Hey, just wanted to take a moment to say hi to all of the R.A.T.s out there who are keeping up with this blog (as well as the Vets who wish they had one when they were R.A.T.s). I hope your summer is going as great as mine is down here at Auburn. I am just taking a couple of classes that I honestly just don’t want to take during the fall or spring, and I am also a counselor for a summer program for incoming freshmen just like you!

I came to Auburn as a Mathematics/Pre-Med and Music Education double major, knowing that I would take my first year of college to hopefully find out exactly what I wanted to do with my life. Luckily, it was clear to me after only one semester, as I absolutely loved going to my music classes and not having too much trouble in them. On the other hand, I absolutely dreaded dragging myself to my science classes and labs. I could just feel that it was right for me to pursue a career in music, and I absolutely love still having that energetic drive to learn new things about it every day and be able to pass it along to the students that I teach.

I have been very fortunate to do many, many things during my time here at Auburn. This may take the entire rest of the paragraph, but here are all of the ensembles that I have participated in here at Auburn: Marching Band, Symphonic Band, Concert Band, Jazz Ensemble, Concert Choir, Orchestra, Brass Ensemble, Brass Quintet, Trombone Choir, Tuba/Euphonium Ensemble, Trombone Quartet, and the list goes on. I’m also very involved with Sacred Harp Singing and helped teach a community outreach course about it. I’ve also played intramural sports just about every semester.

I’ve been very fortunate to have been an Auburn fan all my life, as my dad, sister, and brother all have earned degrees from Auburn. I have been coming to Auburn football games since I can remember, and have been to almost every home game since I was in high school. As a high school band… um… jock (less derogatory than nerd), I would watch the band as they played my favorite songs. I can remember intently watching the drum majors from that era as it has been a dream of mine to be able to serve the AUMB as a drum major.

While I don’t have too many “outstanding memories” or “embarrassing moments” within the band, I’ll tell you my very diverse story of my career in marching band. I came into Band Camp a couple of days late my first two years because I spent those summers marching in a drum corps. Therefore, not only did I not know where my spot would be on the field, but I also didn’t know what instrument I was going to be playing. I spent my first two years officially as a member of The Herd, but I went back and forth playing tuba and trombone, sometimes even swapping instruments between pregame, playing in the stands, and halftime. Because of my ability to move around, I learned over a dozen different pregame spots during my R.A.T. year. Even though I never marched some of those spots in a game, I did show my ability to move around and be able to jump into a spot if I was needed. And while most of you R.A.T.s will find your one pregame spot and it will be yours (or you will trade out with another R.A.T.), I hope that if you are an alternate for that week, you are able to jump in to another spot if somebody else in the band is absent for practice or falls ill.

I thought that once I had earned a position as section leader for the trombone section, I would be done swapping back and forth. However, for one week this past season, there weren’t enough tuba players available to march tuba. However, we had an excess of trombone alternates, and so during the week I switched to tuba for one show and another trombone player took my spot. This again brought about another battle in a war that has now lasted for 3 years as to which section I am truly in and which my heart belongs to… and I expect this year to be no different. Who knows, maybe we’ll be short a piccolo player one week this year and I’ll fill that spot… nah.

In closing, I hope you all are able to take some good advice from this post. One of the things that I stress to not just band R.A.T.s, but all Auburn freshmen, is to get out and get involved in as many things that interest you. As you have learned at Camp War Eagle, Auburn has a countless number of organizations and clubs that you can join. Also, I hope that you have learned that being flexible and keeping a good attitude is a very good quality to have in this band. So whenever you hear that there is a hole in pregame for that day of practice, I hope you are the first one running out onto the field to fill it.

So, I’ll see you all in 6 short weeks. Between now and then, have fun, but also keep preparing for band. Keep playing your horn and keep exercising. Practicing just a little bit per week is more than not practicing at all. And in the words of the late Auburn radio announcer Jim Fyffe, “My time is up. I thank you for yours.”