The biggest challenge for Vilynn Decker was learning how to spin the mace.
“We had little batons in high school, but we never spun or tossed them,” she said.
The mace is the big baton drum majors carry when marching. Decker gets to wield one as one of four drum majors for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln marching band.
“I had to learn to be comfortable, to be OK with dropping it or being hit by it,” she said.
Decker is a trumpet player and played trumpet in the band at Seward High.
“I knew I wanted to study music,” the UNL junior said. “I picked UNL because of the marching band.”
She said marching band is much different at the college level. In high school, the band learns one show for the entire marching season. In college, the shows change every home game.
“There’s a lot of new stuff to learn. It keeps you going,” Decker said.
The complexity of the show depends on the time the band has to learn it. On Oct. 19, the band had had three weeks since the last home game, so the show for Oct. 21 featured harder music and more complex drill or marching formations.
Then for Oct. 28, the band will have just one week to prepare, Decker said.
Decker started out as an A rank trumpet player her freshman year. In the spring, she auditioned for the leadership team and was selected to the team as a sophomore. She was an A rank leader, which means she was in charge of 10 people.
The spring of her sophomore year, she decided to try something new and tried out for drum major. She said the tryout included both an interview and a conducting audition. She also had to learn both the fast and slow struts the drum majors use in the pregame show.
The band leadership releases the names of the drum majors via an app.
“We make bets on when it comes out,” Decker said with a laugh.
When she saw her name, she was extremely excited, she said. She is one of four drum majors, each of whom is in charge of about 75 people in the band. One of their primary duties, in addition to conducting the music, is teaching the UNL style of marching.
UNL uses a roll step, which is similar to the marching style Seward High uses, Decker said.
Band camp starts the season with 13-hour days where the band learns marching skills and the pregame music.
“The pregame you should have memorized before school starts,” Decker said.
The band then meets for practice every day at 7 a.m. from then to about 8:20, they are able to work on either music or the drill.
“We get to be in the stadium every day, and that makes it so much easier,” she said.
On Tuesdays, sectionals start at 6:30 a.m. Band members may also come in early to do memory checks on the music. All the music is memorized, Decker said.
“You memorize as much as you can,” she said.
Many of the sections set up optional evening rehearsals, too, to work on the music.
Drum majors can try to influence the director’s choice for marching shows, she said. The quartet made a list of songs they wanted to give to Professor Anthony M. Falcone, Associate Director of Bands at UNL.
One of the shows was a divas show, which included music by Tina Turner, Beyonce and Taylor Swift.
Decker said one of the highlights has been the pregame concert before the band goes to Memorial Stadium on game day. They play in the garden space at the Sheldon Museum of Art.
“There’s usually people there who come just to watch us,” she said. “It’s nice to be around people that want to experience music hands-on.”
Marching band is just a fall activity, Decker said. The band at volleyball and basketball is a different group called the Big Red Express.
The marching band does provide pep band music during football games. The repertoire includes music from previous shows and from the pregame show.
The pregame playlist is the same for every game and includes “There Is No Place Like Nebraska,” “Mr. Touchdown,” “March Grandioso,” “March of the Cornhuskers,” the National Anthem, the opposing team’s fight song and “Hail Varsity.”
“We do a weird mix of conducting and spinning our maces,” Decker said.
The drum majors split duties during the game. Two are on the podiums directing the band, and one has a headset connected to those to play the prerecorded music at the game.
“You have to be ready,” Decker said. “I was never much of a football watcher, so I’ve had to learn what everything means.”
She said getting used to a completely different position has been a challenge.
“I spent two years as a trumpet,” she said. “I was in the same spot both years, so I could be on autopilot. Now, everything’s different.”
She plans to try out for drum major again next year. She said she’d recommend giving band a try to anyone.
“It’s such a nice community to be in,” she said.
Decker is a music performance major with a trumpet emphasis and is minoring in psychology. She’s also in the Nebraska National Guard and part of the 43rd Army Band.
The 2023 marching band season will end with a winter concert at the Lied Center in Lincoln that will feature songs from the season, Decker said.
The concert is set for Thursday, Dec. 7, at 7:30 p.m.
