Containment - My Audition Story

I walked into my Varsity Drumline audition with sticks, nerves, and something nobody else had: an original piece I wrote myself.

The piece is called “Containment,” and even though it is a drumline audition piece, it became way more personal than I expected. I did not just want to write something that sounded cool. I wanted to write something that felt honest. It pushed me to think like a composer, a performer, and a person trying to explain something hard without using words.

Composing “Containment” did not happen in one perfect moment. It was a lot of trying things, playing them, hating them, changing them, then suddenly finding one measure that made me smile.

I started with rhythms before anything else. Since this was for drumline, the groove had to matter. I wanted the piece to feel playable, not just interesting on paper. Some rhythms looked cool when I wrote them down, but once I tried playing them, they felt awkward or did not fit the mood.

So I kept testing everything.

I would write a phrase, tap it out, play it on a pad, then ask myself if it sounded like the feeling I was trying to show. If it felt too random, I simplified it. If it felt too easy, I added more movement. If it sounded cool but did not mean anything, I cut it.

That was a big lesson for me. Composing is not just adding notes. It is choosing the right notes and being brave enough to remove the ones that do not belong.

There were also moments where I had to think like an audition candidate. I wanted the piece to show my ability, but I did not want it to sound like I was showing off just to show off. The music still needed a purpose.

That made me focus on clarity. I wanted the judges to hear the story, even if they did not know every detail behind it.

Being the only candidate with an original piece meant a lot

One of the coolest parts of this whole experience was realizing that I was the only candidate to compose an original work for the Varsity Drumline audition.

The score is attached at the end

The full score for “Containment” will be attached at the end of this post, and I hope you take a look at it. Even if you do not read percussion music every day, I think the page still shows the journey: the repetition, the tension, the release, and the care that went into every measure.

This piece started as an audition project, but it turned into something much bigger for me. It reminded me that the things we struggle with can still become art. It reminded me that music can turn pressure into motion. Most of all, it reminded me that being brave enough to create something original is already something to be proud of.

Containment - Harry Taylor.

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