Indoor Percussion has started their season off great with a first place win on February 29th. However, the stress doesn’t stop anytime soon with many competitions coming up over the following weeks. 

Indoor Percussion at Oakdale is starting off with success in the Scholastic Gold division of the Keystone Indoor Drill Association (KIDA) Indoor Percussion competitions. After receiving a second place title February 22nd, a half point improvement allowed the team to grab the top spot at Brunswick High School. 

Senior Ryland Fernandez, a snare drum player, explained their first performance as “rough around the edges.” 

Junior Nate Seligson, one of the tenors,  agreed with Fernandez: “It was pretty good. We could have done better… it needs cleaning.”

Seligson described their second and award winning performance, as “a lot better even though we only had a half point improvement.”

The name of Oakdale’s show is “Mended.” It is accompanied by the quote: “Anything that’s broken can be mended.” This is portrayed throughout, with their gradual addition of color in the performance. Seligson describes the start as, “all grey.” At the end, a heart formation is shown on a prop, with the appearance as if it’s stained glass.

Indoor Percussion is an underappreciated extracurricular and is often confused with the High School Marching Band. There are many things that set it apart. 

Fernandez explained, “It’s a lot more fun and we have a lot more freedom. And we don’t have to focus on everyone else, it’s just percussion.”

The beginning to the road to success is always extensive with Oakdale. It all started with a week-long audition process, viewing the work ethic of the potential team. Day one consists of a two hour practice with the instruments; “Then we come back a week later after the audition day and depending on how much we improve determines how we get our instrument,” Seligson stated. 

After auditions, practices started twice a week for three hours. Fernandez described their  practice layouts, “First half is subsectionals. So that’s when everyone splits up and works with their sections. And then we do a full ensemble. Then we’ll work on drills and that’s basically just marching on the floor.”

Competition days are hard work for the group. Seligson describes them as “tiring.” He continues: “The time of the competition varies. We have two to four hour practice before comp, then we drive to school and perform. After we watch the bands, and then get our scores and placements.”

Although Oakdale Indoor Percussion has had a great start, the season is sadly coming to an end. While competitions were scheduled through March 28, they have mostly been canceled due to the coronavirus. Their last performance is Saturday