Gafoo’s Blog

Man this extremely hard to write. I never ever thought in a million years that this
would mean so much to me. It feels good to be a part of something that I know is great.
I want to continue doing it as much you all want to have me stay but I do need to move
on with my life. I am married now, my wife has a career starting and I need to start
one too. Someday down the line, I will be starting a family and I need to focus myself
towards making that happen. Anyway, time to wipe away the tears and remember some more
good times.

4. Bo Felix. That name brings up a lot of feelings for a lot of people. Even those of
you who were never in a drumline with him have some sort of story about him. He might
even pop up on the message boards every now and then. But he wasn’t always the quirky,
out of control, INSANE man you all know him as. I always thought (and still do) that I
have a pretty uncanny sense to be able to tell when someone will be great. I can somehow
tell that someone is going to develop a great skill (in drums anyway). I remember in the
Fall season of 1997/1998 when Bo was a freshman. Will had put him on 3rd Bass drum. I
remember thinking it was a grave injustice since I could see that he had some talent. Sure,
like most incoming freshman, he was a little fuzzy on the details (how to hold traditional
grip, knowledge of the flam rudiments) but at the core was a good player who deserved to
be on snare. Unfortunately, being a high school senior, I didn’t have much say in the
make up of the line. Luckily, he became snare when the snare/tenor fiasco happened in
winter season (see number 2 below). But that is not where the story ends.
Those of you who were in the lines from 98-00 know that Bo was probably the quietest person
in the world. He played the hell out of the drum every chance he got but his personal demeanor
he kept to himself and I often felt that he wasn’t having any fun in drumline. So I made it my
personal mission to get him to have some fun. It was around this time that I started to fuck
with the drumline on the field during practices (something that continues to this day). One of
my favorite things to do (which I stole from Randy) was to count off sections in the strangest way
possible, thus ruining the drumline chances of starting in time or even playing anything right.
Instead of counting off “one two ready go” or “one two three four” I would start things off by
saying “one two three PENIS,” which would immediately ensure that the entire drumline would
fuck up whatever section we were working on cause they were laughing so hard. other things would
pop up as well. These include but weren’t limited to… Calling Will (the old instructor) Mario from
super mario brothers, Telling Aaron Draper to open his eyes or smile so we could find him (all in good
fun but he was a seriously dark black dude). Continually bringing back the old Cowboy phrase:
“Dem bass drums suck.” I even remember a time when I antagonized Bo in the stands of a BC football game.
I was holding the cymbals for the snares and was yelling at him to play louder, implying that he was
playing like a girl. And wouldn’t you know it? Bo reached out with his stick and smacked me
under the right eye. It swelled up like crazy!!! But that bruise told me one thing: Mission Accomplished!
Bo was having fun!!! As Jared, Alex, Matt, Brandon and any other of the drumline from 2000/2001 can tell
you, Bo was a madman that year. He was living it up and I am proud to think that I at least had something
to do with it.

5. A big part of what I do at drumline, which wasn’t always true, is figuring out what makes a kid tick
so that I can better teach them. Everyone learns differently. Hell, everyone is different and it makes
my job both very hard and very rewarding. Often times there are a few types of kids in drumline that I find
myself working with. The first type is the type that doesn’t need me. They are the ones that are so
talented that they really don’t need anything except to be pointed in the right direction and to be honest,
just about anyone can point these kids in the right direction. The second type of kid is maybe a little
interested in drumline. They are ok musicians. Not great but not terrible but they know that they want to do
well. This is where a majority of my work occurrs and I have to find a way to reach these kids. Some of these
kids need to be yelled at. That’s just how there mind works and if you do that, they get it. Some of these
kids just need reassurance that they are doing Ok (even if they aren’t) because that’s what works for them.
The other type of kid that I get (and I do seek them out) is the kind of kid that doesn’t even care that
they are in band or drumline. They don’t care what it is they are doing as long as they feel like they are
a part of something. I have had several of these kids and they run the gamut, sometimes they are super talented
and sometimes they just plain suck but regardless, that sort of thing doesn’t matter to them cause all they want
is to be a part of something. To feel like they belong. I had never learned this until the year I took over
as full instructor, instead of assistant.
I had one particular student (whose name I will omit to prevent any emmbarassment) who had only one friend in
drumline. He knew of only one person from his old school when he joined and so he clung to that kid. They both
were on Cymbals their freshman year and they really spent most of there time together. Well, like high school
usually goes, The friend of this kid grew up, started hanging out with other people, and basically grew apart from
this kid. I saw it happen and I felt very bad for the kid. He wasn’t very social. On top of that, I was in the
phase of my teaching where I was very harsh, yelling about discipline, push ups for mistakes in the music, generally
being a drill sargent which was how I was being treated at Vanguard at the time. I realized that my teaching that year
was affecting his self esteem. He didn’t need to hear that he sucked and that he was messing up the music. That
sort of thing didn’t matter to him. He lost his friend. The very next year I decided to turn it around for him
and the entire drumline. I started the approach that I basically use today with drumline. I started to work
with him: grabbing a pair of cymbals and standing along side and showing him how it was done. Looking through the
music and helping him with the counting of the notes and at the same time, keeping his mind off of it at times by
asking him how things were going in his life, asking how his classes were going, asking him what he was going to do
after high school. I became his friend and showed that I had an interest in him. And I did!!! I still think about
him, and wonder how he is doing. I get updates on him life every so often from him. Consequently, he after that
he started doing better in drumline. He moved off the cymbals and eventually settled on bass drum. He was never as
flashy as those playing snare but he was one of my most solid and dependable bass drummers ever! But remember that
this didn’t matter to him. He just wanted to belong. I used to think that you couldn’t do well if you didn’t have
everyone on the same page musically. That everyone had to be “The Best” but he helped me learn that it isn’t always
the case. We still did well with him and he became a part of “The Group.” I will forever be proud of kids like that.

more to come…