The commanding voice of the snare drum. The calm melody of the marabo. The endless echoing of the gong. All of these play a role in creating the beats of percussion.

Many instruments, people and extra time go into creating the marching band’s percussion. Percussion consists of the front ensemble and drumline, and play a major role in piecing the band together. Sophomore George Crouch, who has been playing in percussion for four years, is the section leader of front ensemble.

“I love them,” Crouch said. “They’re like my family really. We are a lot closer than anybody really realizes. We are the craziest people in band, but that is a part of what makes it so fun.”

The people in percussion are not the only thing Crouch has a huge passion for. His passion for the keyboard is what led him to do front ensemble instead of march.

“I just loved playing the keyboard,” Crouch said. “I made drum line actually, but I quit because I loved playing keyboard.”

Even those who weren’t originally in front ensemble still loved the experience. Sophomore Ivy Mills plays a variety of instruments in percussion.

“I played bassoon originally so I had to pick a new instrument for marching season,” Mills said. “I didn’t want to do saxophone or anything and I always liked the percussion so I just decided I would do that. It has its downsides, but I think it’s worth not marching because you get to do more things than the other marchers don’t get to do.”

Percussion has about a month of practice before everyone else and two weeks of practice after marching season ends. Extra time can really help to put together a show for a percussion competition. At the Texas Lonestar Classic percussion contest Nov. 9, the group finished 10th.

“We beat a lot of good schools,” Crouch said. “We went in knowing we weren’t going to do that great, but out of 17 think we did pretty well.”

Part of the allure of being in front ensemble and drum line is creating the effects for the audience.

“It can do many feelings,” freshman Austin Danhauser said. “There are so many varieties of instruments in percussion. Like a marabo can give a more calm feeling, while a snare drum, depending on how you use it, but like a marching snare drum can get the crowd to just start dancing out of nowhere.”