Percussion Studio
December 2021
When I began researching organizations to join in early August before I came to A&M, I stumbled across Percussion Studio. Percussion Studio is a student-led organization that performs using unconventional instruments at gigs throughout College Station and at a big concert at the end of every semester. I was in drumline in high school, and I wanted to find a creative and fun outlet in college to keep me from spending all of my time in the library. Studio was perfect. It became one of only two organizations I stayed active in throughout all of college and the organization where I made the best of friends and memories.
After speaking to officers at MSC Open House and watching a performance on trash cans in Rudder Plaza, I signed up to audition. I showed up in a blouse and skirt, only to be met with interview questions such as "what is your favorite animal noise?" and "what is your favorite tv show?". I knew immediately that this organization would be more fun and laid-back than high school band.
When I was first accepted into Studio, I had intended only to do two ensembles so that I could focus on my studies and writing for the newspaper. However, I quickly became more passionate about it. I didn't have a car with me in College Station, so I made many friends through carpooling. I attended as many gigs as I could and joined additional ensembles. Gigs and rehearsals became the highlights of my week.
Although I pushed myself to participate in as many things as possible during my freshman year, I never completely broke out of my shell. I saw the times I was invited to go out to eat or play board games with the upperclassmen as a safe haven from doing homework and writing articles for the newspaper. In high school, I did not spend a lot of time outside of school hanging out with my friends. This was the first time in my life I had the freedom to hang out with people as much as I wanted. However, I felt more like a spectator during any social event I attended. I never allowed myself to fully participate because I was scared to be seen as stupid and uninteresting. It did not help that most people I hung out with were three to four years older than me. As a result, I did not become as close to my Studio friends that year as I would have liked to be before they graduated.
I was very excited to become the treasurer for Percussion Studio my sophomore year. I had been treasurer for my dorm community council the year before, but Studio required reimbursing many more purchases in addition to collecting dues and managing concert ticket sales. I also decided to lead my first ensemble that fall. All of the other officers had led one before, so I felt pressured to show that I was just as capable musically.
However, I had overcommitted to many organizations in the fall of my sophomore year, and it did not turn out as well as I hoped it would. It was my first time using score-writing software, and being an ensemble lead required a different set of leadership skills than I was used to. I had always been a "just play what's on the page" musician. I did not know music theory and had never transcribed anything before. Leading an ensemble required making critiques and creative decisions that I did not have the confidence for yet. Things were looking up in the spring once I had one semester of leadership under my belt, but everything turned sour in March 2020 when we had to make the decision to cancel rehearsals and the show.
The most difficult part of my junior year was working with the officer team to adapt all of our events to fit COVID protocols. Official social events were to be held outside, a bigger unit was rented for rehearsals, and the show had to be run in a completely different way. In addition to the show being held a whole month earlier, ticket sales were done through a different program, audience seats were assigned and spaced out, no costume changes were allowed, and members had to sit in the audience in between songs. I am extremely proud of our officer team from that year for communicating well and being flexible.
I also led three more ensembles that went much better than my first. One of them was a boom whacker melody ensemble that required such a high level of organization to arrange that I almost regretted committing to it, but it turned out great. This was also the year that I had felt I was closest to everyone in Studio. I was finally out of my shell and had a lot more free time to get to know everyone. I got to go camping and river floating for the first time with my Studio friends. I was very sad to see many of them graduate in the spring.
My last semester as a senior was rough. I decided I wanted to go out with a bang, so I signed up for seven ensembles, two of which I planned on leading. However, I ended up leading three when someone dropped theirs in the middle of the semester and needed a replacement. This meant I was spending seven hours a week at rehearsals, not counting all of the time I spent transcribing music and figuring out what to do with the ensemble I did not even want to lead. I thought I would have been okay with committing more time to Studio because I was only taking 10 hours of classes that semester. However, I quickly burnt out and started dreading going to rehearsals.
In addition to the constant stress I felt from my ensembles, I felt like I did not really gel with the group anymore. We had admitted a lot of freshman that became cliquey and were not much fun to be around. I was also no longer an officer and had no control over the direction of the organization. This should have been a weight off of my shoulders, but I found myself too often getting mad at the new officers for not doing their jobs as they had been done in the past. It was my last semester in Studio, and I felt like they were running it into the ground. I probably stepped in too many times to do things myself. This semester had reminded me a lot of how I felt during my high school senior year about changing band leadership, so I will need to learn how to deal with my control issues before I encounter a similar situation in the future.
Regardless of the struggles I faced in my last semester, the show turned out well. All of the issues my ensembles had were resolved. I was more stressed out about the show than I was for my finals, so I was very relieved when it was finally over.
I did not expect Percussion Studio to define such a huge part of my college experience. Not only did I get to continue playing music for three more years; I became more confident, creative, and a better leader. I'm so thankful that I had the opportunity to spend three years with such a fun, unique, and close-knit organization.
