Hello all! My name is Jared Strader, and this will be my first summer with the Regiment, playing snare drum. I am originally from Clarksburg, WV, but I am currently going to school in Springfield, MO at Evangel University; I am a junior majoring in Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering.

The March camp went extremely well, setting us up for great things in the future; we have made a lot of progress since the last camp and we are going to be ready to come out swinging! The weather finally calmed down from the last two camps in January and February, and I believe most all of the members made it to camp safely without too much trouble.

On Friday, the equipment truck was unloaded as usual, and once the camp began, the battery started the night off by splitting into sectionals, snares, tenors, and bass drums all in separate rooms. The snares quickly tuned and changed a few drumheads before beginning rehearsal, and after tuning, we spent the night focusing on exercises and technique while reinforcing everything learned from the previous camps.

On Saturday morning, the full percussion section (battery and pit) and hornline started the day off together with a yoga class. Afterwards, the hornline and battery were together for the very first time in a visual/marching rehearsal. During the afternoon and evening, the battery spent the majority of the time rehearsing the first two movements of the show. Part of this time was spent in sectionals and part in full battery. Towards the end of the evening, the battery and pit got together to rehearse the show music in full percussion ensemble! Also, the hornline had their first public performance Saturday night at the Spring Kickoff, and I heard the turnout was fantastic!

The beginning of Sunday morning is spent in sectionals and full battery, and the later part of the morning is spent in full music ensemble with the entire percussion section and hornline together. During the later part, we did a couple quick run-throughs of the first two movements, and the hornline played through the closer. At this point, we did not spend much time rehearsing; the staff just wanted to get an idea of how every sounded together. This part of the weekend is very exciting because we get an opportunity to put the whole musical package together and play with the extraordinary power of the hornline behind us!

At the end of camp, the school is cleaned, and the equipment truck is loaded as usual, and everyone begins making their way home until next month. To conclude, camp went extremely well; I’m very excited to be a part of such a great organization. I can’t wait to see where we are at next month. The progress we have made this far is great, but we have to work even harder to get to the next level of the place we need to be next month!

Jared