Drumline Tryouts: 1980 memories is a song by Ken Hada from the series of songs called March. I wrote this series of songs about my time in the drumline at Kennedy. and this song is about my first encounters with the drumline. The pictures and film clips are from the drum lines between 1980 and 1982. Again the song is about the 1980 Drumline. You can hear any of the songs I wrote on all streaming apps as well as YouTube.
The drumline was my first real taste of what felt like a 1980’s male bonding and almost frat house experience. The relentless rehearsals, the inside jokes, the late-night hangouts, and the unspoken competition created an environment that was both intense and incredibly formative. This rite of passage was not just about mastering the paradiddles and flams, but about finding my place in a community that valued precision, passion, and a bit of playful chaos.
Drumline Tryouts: 1980 memories
“Drumline Tryouts” stands as a tribute to those formative years. The song is part of a larger collection I began writing in the 1990s called March. I wrote the chords and arrangement for this and the rest of the songs in the collection back then. Revisiting these old compositions and breathing new life into them has been a journey in itself. Although I wrote the music in the 1990s, I didn’t know what stories these songs would eventually contain.
While I played drums, arranged, and recorded most of the tracks, I was fortunate to collaborate with Joey Grijalva, who brought his guitar expertise to the table, and Don Duckworth, whose bass lines added depth to the composition. Their contributions helped shape the sound of “Drumline Tryouts,” but the essence of the song remains deeply personal. Every beat, every chord progression, and every lyric is infused with the memories of my high school days, capturing the essence of that unforgettable rite of passage.