Human Metronomes: Ole Miss Band announces 2019–2020 Drum Majors
The morning after auditions for the Pride of the South drum major, Dalton Gibson was running on no sleep and restless nerves. Staring at his phone, the sophomore accounting major waited for a 662 area code to flash onto the screen. It was a quiet Saturday for most, but for him, he was waiting on his dream.
Gibson finally got that call from director of athletic bands Randy Dale, who told him that he was selected as one of three students to lead over 300 red-and-navy-clad members of the marching band during football season.
“The judges must have liked you,” Dale told Gibson that morning, “because they want you to be the newest drum major for the Pride of the South.”
Gibson, teary-eyed, quickly ended the conversation with Dale and did what many would do if they got the call that affirmed that years of hard work had paid off. He called his mother.
“I was like, ‘I got it.’ And I was like, ‘It’s not real.’ It was such a surreal feeling,” he said. “It’s because, like I said, I’ve wanted it for so long — like this is my dream, and for it to actually come true is just like, ‘Whoa.’”
He grew up watching Ole Miss football while visiting an older cousin who was attending the university. This was his first exposure to the marching band scene, and since then, he’s “bled red and blue” and wanted to lead Ole Miss’s halftime entertainment. After joining the band at his school in his hometown of Mendenhall, Mississippi, Gibson said music has been one of his passions since he was ten years old.
As drum major, he’ll stand as one of the leaders who keeps the tempo of the music through conducting. The drum majors often hold the responsibility to keep the band organized and structured, especially during halftime performances.
“I like to say we’re like a human metronome,” Gibson said. “That’s the best way to describe it. We’re just there to keep the time and keep everybody together. When it’s such a big band and you stretch from one side of the field to the other, it’s very key to have someone keep time, or the left side is going to be playing in one way and the right side you’d be playing way faster or way slower. Then you’re not going to stay together, and it just all falls apart.”
In high school, he was the drum major for the Mendenhall Tiger Pride Band, where he led a group of around 50 wind players. However, he said one of his biggest challenges as a Pride of the South drum major will be learning to direct a group six times that size.
“I think a challenge will be getting used to the stress (of a college game), and I’m going to have to deal with the fast pace that an SEC game has,” Gibson said. “We have a short, 30-second window that we get to play in. (I will be) making sure I’m right and making sure the band is ready to play and making sure I know what to call — like what songs I’m allowed to play. Just getting used to the logistics of all that is definitely going to be tough.”
However, Gibson said he’s taking the new responsibility in stride. To him, being a drum major provides the personal development he’s been looking for since beginning college.
“I’m really wanting to use (being a drum major) to grow as a person, getting to know more people and just expanding my knowledge (of music),” Gibson said. “I mean, you meet so many different people within the band that you’re bound to learn something new.”
Gibson will share the position with juniors Catherine Adams and returning drum major Noah Blanco. Adams has served as a drum major for four of her past five years studying music, two when she was in high school in Saltillo, Mississippi, and another two at Itawamba Community College. To Adams, getting to give back to a large community of musicians is what keeps her coming back to the leadership position.
“I love getting to work with the directors so close and I love to make more friends and more connections,” she said. “I’m just such a people person, so I just love meeting new people and helping out a lot, too. I love to help people.”
Like Gibson, she was ecstatic to hear the news of her new role in the Pride of the South and being chosen from the 11 who auditioned.
“When got the call, I think my heart stopped. It felt like almost an out of body experience, so I was so thrilled about it. It didn’t seem real I found out over the weekend. And so I didn’t really have anyone to tell. So I was just like cooped up in my apartment like, ‘Is this really happening to me?’ So it was almost a shock because all the people that auditioned were so good, and everyone deserved it. So it was an honor.”
Adams also said that the marching band is a quintessential part of game day that Ole Miss fans get to experience, and getting to lead that experience is something she looks forward to.
“The band brings about spirit into the air. There’s this situation that my dad talks about. He said without the band it would just be a big fight. Like, you just go out there and watching people hit each other. So the band really brings the spirit, and music connects people in ways that’s hard to explain. It brings about fans and the team and all the coordinators that come together.”
In addition to connecting fans during a football game, the music major explained how music has connected her to others, especially as she studies to become a band director.
“I love helping people and music definitely helps a lot of people get through dark things in their lives as it did with me,” she said. “And I wanted to give that opportunity for someone else, for it to help someone else and to touch their heart the way it did mine.”
The third drum major, junior music major Noah Blanco from Jackson, will return to the podium for the second year in a row. After working with outgoing drum majors electrical engineering major Caleb Keathley and business administration major Madison DeMotts, Blanco said he couldn’t wait to work with the new team.
“”I am looking forward to serving the band in this role mostly to continue and build upon the traditions of the Pride of the South,” he said. “The journey so far has been truly humbling, and I can’t wait to see how the band grows from here.”
Blanco also served as conductor for the Drum Corps International powerhouse group Phantom Regiment back in 2017.
As this school year winds down, the Ole Miss band program is gearing up for this fall’s band camp, set during the week before classes. During this week, members and drum majors will practice the set-up and movements for the pregame and halftime shows. Their first performance will be Saturday Sept. 7 when the Rebels face the Arkansas Razorbacks.
