Photo courtesy of Katie Evans.
Hewitt-Trussville indoor percussion team performs a ghost-themed routine.
Hewitt-Trussville High School’s indoor percussion team has started with a bang.
Formed in 2021, the group has already made a name for itself in the music community and earned a gold medal in the Southern Color Guard Circuit (SCGC) earlier this year.
Their success is a testament to the group's talent and dedication, according to Assistant Band Director A.J. Adair.
“They put in a lot of work, that’s for sure,” said Adair, who also serves as director of percussion for all of Trussville City Schools. He directs the indoor percussion team, which he helped to start during his first year at HTHS with assistance from Shannon Moore (director of bands) and instructors Fleck Sherman, Jennie Tanner and Eddie Capps.
Adair envisioned the group as a way to let band students hone their skills year round. The group of 30 musicians is a combination of traditional marching band drumline instruments — snare drums, tenor drums and bass drums — and a front ensemble that plays mallet instruments including xylophones, marimbas and vibraphones. A drum set player and synthesizer players make up their rhythm section.
Olivia Evans, who plays the snare drum, still remembers her first competition as a freshman. “We got first place,” she said. “That moment felt so amazing, and I feel like it has pushed a lot of us to continue doing indoor.”
Evans said she appreciates the ways the group has helped her to grow and develop valuable teamwork skills. “It has made me not only a better player, but a better person.”
In the 2024 competitive season, the Hewitt-Trussville team was the gold medalist for the Class A division of the Southern Color Guard Circuit Championships, an organization that provides competitive opportunities for color guard, percussion and wind groups.
At competitions, indoor percussion teams perform shows that connect to a specific theme, concept or story, performing in costume and in character.
Last year, Hewitt-Trussville’s show was called “Unchained” and explored the concept of breaking free from the things that bind you.
“It was definitely fun, and the students liked it a lot,” Adair said. “We like to come up with show concepts that the kids themselves can relate to. As teens, they’re a little bit of an angsty bunch, so they enjoy playing that heavy, aggressive type of music. It’s a healthy release of all that built-up angst.”
Adair is proud of the group’s success and awards, but he is even prouder of the people his students are becoming.
“The thing I’m probably the proudest of is how independent they have become,” Adair said. “Picture a big group of high school students running a rehearsal themselves, where everyone is silent and listening to the person giving instructions. Those are the kind of skills, to me, that transcend band. We are teaching them to be good leaders, good followers and problem solvers, and I see them getting better at those things every single day.”
For many students, like Aliza Scott of the front ensemble, the benefits of being in this group reach far beyond the classroom. “It allows me to be a part of something bigger than myself,” she said.
