Smith’s responsibilities as section leader include leading practices for the cymbal players and keeping them on track. He also clarifies questions or confusion among players and helps polish their movements.
“Whenever we’re working on practicing parts and making them clean, I’m the guy who will stand out and watch and tell people what they’re doing well but at the same time what they can improve on,” Smith said.
Anastasia Williams is a senior on the cymbal line, but she played piccolo for the past three years. Because she is a returning member to Marching Hundred she said she sometimes helps Smith manage the section.
“We’ve kind of been working together,” Williams said. “He is the section leader, but I am the one with the experience. It’s been kind of a team effort.”
Williams said their roles in managing the section differ. She said he takes the reigns during practice, making sure they work on what they need to, whereas she works more on the logistics, such as getting everyone to practice on time and making sure their members are in the right place.
Williams said the dynamic of their section differs from others because of the atypical leadership situation and because they are all new to line.
“It’s definitely kind of strange, since everyone is kind of coming from the same place,” Williams said. “I feel like because of that, everybody feels a little more free to give their opinions about different things and work on building the section ... Even though he is the leader, we’re all there working towards the same goal.”
Beginning his musical career in sixth grade, Smith started out on the tenor saxophone. After his first year, he moved to percussion and then began doing drum line in high school. His freshman year of high school he played the bass drum and for the last three years of high school he played the quad tenor drums.
Only when Toby started at IU this fall did he start learning to play the cymbals. He said he enjoys the visual aspect of the cymbals most and the level of performance required because the instruments do not block players’ faces, like trumpets and aren’t attached to their bodies, like drums.
“Visually, we can have a lot more interaction with the audience,” Smith said. “That also means we have to project a lot more ... a cymbal player has to make sure you’re getting into it.”
Toby intends to stay in Marching Hundred next year as a cymbal player and said he thinks he will be section leader again. Although he enjoys marching and music, a part of his enjoyment of Marching Hundred is the social aspect.
“There’s about 250 people in Hundred, so one thing I thought was really cool when I first got into it was that’s automatically 250 people on campus that I knew,” Smith said. “It would be a good way to start a conversation, and they could be another friend I could make.”
