Ben Velaythong and Tyler Raiman work nearly all school year and into the summer to perfect their musical craft through their work with the Bearden High School band.
This summer, they decided they wanted more.
Both students chose to march for the prestigious Drum Corps International program over the summer with other high school and college students.
Drum Corps International is an organization that provides opportunities for musical development and competition to student musicians interested in bettering themselves as performers.
Velaythong discovered DCI during the 2020-2021 marching season, when the Bearden band was limited in their performance capacity by the effects of Covid-19.
“It was a two-minute long show, so I was like, ‘Hey, I’ll look up some more shows,’” Velaythong said. “I saw a video of 2017 and I thought it was really cool. It was just like a camp video, and I really wanted to do that.”
Students that participate in DCI go through an intensive 30-day spring training with constant rehearsal in preparation for a nearly 13-minute show. After this period, they move into 50 days of performance. This process proved to be a significant step up in physical and mental vigor for Velaythong and Raiman.
“It was really all up in your head, so you’re like mentally, ‘I just gotta push through this mental block and then I’ll have lunch,’” Velaythong said. “You just do that over and over.
“After you’ve been doing that for 50 days, you get into a routine and kind of don’t really think about it.”
However, both students found that the musical growth far exceeded the mental challenges. The more professional level of marching allowed them to gain vast experience in addition to new skills to further their craft.
“In terms of growth musically, I excelled,” Raiman said. “Every single day, you’re playing an instrument for a long time, like seven hours.”
Raiman and Velaythong hope to use their outside experience to help the Bearden band grow and improve.
“Bearden isn’t as mentally and physically demanding as that, but I learned a lot in terms of being able to help people and teach them, especially as a section leader,” Raiman said. “It’s really nice to be able to know those skills and then apply them and help people get better.”