FRONT ENSEMBLE

AUDITION PACKET

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HISTORY
The Cadets Drum Corps was founded in Garfield, NJ as The Holy Name Cadets in 1934 and is currently
headquartered in Allentown, PA. With 10 American Legion National Championships and 10 Drum Corps
International World Championships, our corps is one of the winningest drum corps in history.

PHILOSOPHY
We are focused on the educational development of today’s students into tomorrow’s leaders, providing
interactive learning and achievement in the pursuit of excellence.

GOALS
Create a safe and nurturing environment for all students

Provide exceptional education of music, movement, guard choreography and performance training

Teach students life lessons of teamwork, discipline, dedication, commitment, and integrity

Provide students with instructional support, perseverance and commitment to excellence

Promote innovation, creativity, and growth for all students

AUDITION PACKET
A LETTER FROM YOUR
CAPTION MANAGER
WELCOME!
Your desire to become a part of this percussion section is reflective of the success attained by The Cadets as
a competitive drum corps over the past several years. This success did not happen by accident. Rather, it is
the result of a great deal of hard work and dedication by every member who has come before you. You are
attempting to fill some very big shoes! The opportunity to walk in those shoes is not a right, but a privilege.

To become a successful member of The Cadets Percussion Ensemble yourself, a very strict adherence to the
following program will be expected of you at all times.

OUR MISSION STATEMENT

“The goal of the 2023 Cadets Percussion Ensemble is to be the best that we can possibly be!”

Understanding our mission statement will be of the utmost importance to the success of The Cadets for the
upcoming season. Learn it and live by it! It will be the credo by which we live throughout every single
minute of rehearsal and performance over the next several months. Remember, actions always speak
louder than words! We will transform our promise to be the best that we can be into reality. This will mean
making time when there is none. Together, we will come through rehearsal after rehearsal focused on the
ultimate goal. Competition — especially in terms of placement — will be of secondary concern to us.

THE THREE AʼS

ATTENDANCE Your Attendance at all rehearsals will maximize your potential for improvement and for
reaching the goal of being the best that you can possibly be.
ATTITUDE When your Attitude is completely positive and you are eager to learn despite the challenges,
you can — and will — achieve all of the goals you set for yourself!
ABILITY In the end, your Ability is the direct result of the level of your commitment to the above two A’s.
Your ability improves parallel to your Attendance and your Attitude.
As a member of The Cadets Percussion Section, you will be held to the Three A’s. They are the standard by
which all of your success will be measured by.

FRONT ENSEMBLEAUDITION
Thank you for your interest in The Cadets Front Ensemble for the 2023 season! This packet contains
information on audition and membership requirements, technique guidelines, and the foundation of our
exercise program. Exercise materials will evolve during the course of the season, but the enclosed examples
will allow us to work on several stroke types while developing musicianship. All of this material will be
reviewed during the audition process and performed at tempos that will allow for accuracy and technical
reinforcement. We are extremely excited to work with you and guide you through the audition process!
Sincerely,
The 2023 CPit Staff
Anthony Gilleland, Front Ensemble Caption Manager
Andrew Monteiro, Front Ensemble Arranger and Soundscape Designer

FRONT ENSEMBLEAUDITION
AUDITION OVERVIEW
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION…

Marching in a top DCI group is a big commitment. We are looking for students who can commit to
preparing all music assignments, commit to completing all video assignments, meet all financial
obligations, and maintain a great attitude. We will provide our members an outlet to develop their musical
skills, a broader community of like-minded individuals, and an excellent experience no matter what the
obstacles may be.

Ask yourself if you are ready for this!

School, work, family life, social events, and the unexpected happenings that make up our life will all be
things that you will need to balance on top of developing your playing ability. This juggling of the various
circumstances is no easy feat, and we encourage you to plot out how much time you will realistically be
able to commit to this. Once you know what you can give to this task, it would be wise to formulate some
form of a schedule to help better frame your short- and long-term checkpoints and goals.

AUDITION FORMAT
The audition camps will consist of the following types of evaluations of your playing ability, mental focus,
and attitude:
1. Virtual Audition: If you are preparing a virtual audition, we will be reviewing videos provided by
you of the required material (posted below). From there, you will receive feedback from a front
ensemble staff member.

2. The Group Setting: We will rehearse exercises and music as an ensemble while evaluating
individual skills. During this phase of auditions, it is important to see how you react to instruction
and how well you sync with the ensemble.

3. Individual Audition: Each performer will receive an opportunity to display their abilities in a 10-15

AUDITION PACKET
minute individual audition. This audition will be in front of one of the arrangers/instructors at some
point during the camp. We are looking to see your best playing, so prepare yourself for the
experience by running down your solo and exercises in a mock audition setting. Beyond the playing,
we will also sit down and speak with each member about their previous playing experiences and
their current percussive situation (college, high school, drum corps, etc.)
SOLO LITERATURE
We ask that all applicants prepare a selection from a piece of solo literature for our consideration. We
would prefer these selections be in the 2-5 minute range. Rack applicants should prepare 1-2 pages of a
concert snare solo/etude (Cirone, Delecluse, Firth, etc.). We have some recommended repertoire for you to
consider, but feel free to submit any piece that shows off your musicality, personality, and overall technical
ability.

MALLET SOLOS

• Continuum - Daniel Kessner

• Memento - Ivan Trevino
• Three Moves - Paul Lansky
• Three Movements for a Solo Dancer - Eckhard Kopetzki
• Fermo - Michael Burritt
• Velocities - Joseph Schwantner
• Mirage - Yasuo Sueyoshi
• Two Movements - Toshimitsu Tanaka
• Merlin - Andrew Thomas
• Variations on Japanese Children’s Songs - Keiko Abe
• Cameleon - Eric Sammut
• Marimba d’Amore - Keiko Abe

SNARE DRUM ETUDES

• 12 Studies for Snare Drum - Jacques Delecluse

• Hard Times - Mitchell Peters
• Nine French American Rudimental Solos, Vol. 1-3 - Joseph Tompkins

TIMPANI ETUDES

• 30 Studies for Timpani, Vol. 1-3 - Jacques Delecluse

• 20 Studies for Timpani - Jacques Delecluse
• Fundamental Method for Timpani (Etude 55-63) - Mitchell Peters

FRONT ENSEMBLEAUDITION
KEY TECHNICAL TERMS

Legato Stoke: This stroke is named for its smooth, continuous motion. It has a similar speed in the
downstroke and the upstroke.

Downstroke: This stroke starts at an accent level (12” for example) and rebounds to a tap height (usually 3”).

Upstroke: This stroke starts at a tap height (usually 3”) and recovers to the defined accent height
(12” for example).

Piston Stroke: This stroke is similar to the legato stroke, though it has a noticeable pause. The piston
stroke starts at the defined height, rebounds back to the same height then pauses.

Shifting: This is the process of moving from note to note and position to position. Mastering this concept
will greatly improve your accuracy. This shift happens during the upstroke with a smooth arc. While shifting,
large muscle groups move first. Move feet and hips, then elbows and wrists.

Double Vertical Stroke: For four-mallet players, this is playing with both mallets in one hand
simultaneously. This is a relaxed wrist stroke.

Single Independent Stroke: For four-mallet players. This is playing with one of the mallets in your hand
while the other (unused mallet rotates in place. A relaxed hand will act as a shock absorber. This will
smooth out the motion of the rotation mallet. The unused mallets should stay low to the keyboard, while
the playing mallet rotates above.

Single Alternating Stroke: For four-mallet players, this is alternating strokes between the two mallets in
one hand. This is a dependent stroke. The motion of one mallet striking the keyboard helps to push the
unused mallet up to the playing position. The hand will have a slight rocking motion.

Double Lateral Stroke: For four-mallet players, this specialized motion creates the double stroke between
the two mallets in one hand. The mallets are set up on an angle, as the wrist turns down for the stroke it
will also twist in an oval motion. We will review this in detail at the camps.

Independent Rolls: The independent roll is played in one hand at a time and is often used to sustain two
pitches in one hand while the other plays a different skill set. Experimenting with the speed of your roll will
be essential to sustaining an even sound between the two mallets. AUDITION PACKET
Lateral Rolls: The lateral roll is performed with both hands and is often used to sustain chordal passages.
This roll often takes the form of a permutation pattern (4-3-1-2/1-2-3-4/etc.) that is played at faster speeds
while employing a lighter touch in order to get a smoother, more fluid sound of the sustained chord.
Dynamics/Heights: Our exercises and music utilize a height system to define dynamics.
pp = 1.5 inches
p = 3 inches
mp = 6 inches
mf = 9 inches
f = 12 inches
ff =15 inches

Vibraphone Pedaling: Vibe pedaling will be indicated with a pedal mark, a slur, or a tenuto mark
depending on which works best for the musical goal.

WHAT TO BRING

A Good Attitude - We are looking for much more than just great playing ability. We are looking to find
great team members with positive attitudes. A Front Ensemble is a unique collection of people, as they
spend all day together for over 80 days. It’s extremely important that we have members that buy into a
“team” attitude and are able to effectively receive instruction from the admin, staff, and section leaders to
achieve our goals.

Music and Solos - Please bring a copy of all the audition material and your solo material with you to
camp. It is usually best to organize this in a 3-ring binder. Also, please be sure to bring pencils and a
notebook to take notes throughout the camp.

Mallets - For the group portions of the camps, we will be providing mallets to use on the instruments.
If you would like to use other mallets for your solo in your individual audition, please feel free to bring
those as needed.

3-Ring Binder - This should have all of the music, exercises, and technique guidelines organized inside of
page protectors. It would also be a good idea to bring a pencil to mark anything necessary in your music.

IN CONCLUSION…
This program should only be used as a guideline. It is, however, the key to a unified and cohesive
percussion ensemble! Be assured that each and every one of the aforementioned concepts will be
discussed in much greater detail throughout the winter months and over the course of the entire drum
corps season.

FRONT ENSEMBLEAUDITION