Sophomore Adam Warner marched in the 88th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, playing five-part tenor drums alongside 249 other high school band members who were carefully selected from across the country.

To make it to the iconic parade, Warner had to pass several levels of auditions, including a video entry in which he played several rudiments, or small pieces, usually about two measures long,  and one solo.

“It took about three or four takes to get the best video,” Warner said,  “and when I felt it was ready, I sent it in.” Warner sent the video to a specific Macy’s Day Parade website about two months before the deadline.  He received a letter in June telling him he had been selected.

Warner said he watches the parade every year, and when he found out that junior Brian McKillip played the trombone in last year’s parade, he decided he wanted to play in the parade, too. No other students from the Mill auditioned for the parade this year.

“I’ve been playing in band since fifth grade,” Warner said. “When I was in first grade, my parents bought me a toy drum. I loved it, and it all just took off from there.”  Warner normally practices an hour or two a day  and doubles that time on the weekends.  “My family has gotten used to how loud percussion can be from years of me practicing at home,” he said. Other than tenor, Warner plays  mallet instruments and all of the different drums.

His journey to New York City began with a 14-hour car ride from Georgia on the Friday before Thanksgiving with his mother, sister, aunt and uncle. He stayed in the Hilton at Woodcliff Lake in New Jersey with his fellow parade band members. On the Monday before the parade, Warner and his newly befriended band mates started practicing at the Teaneck Soccer Coliseum.  “It was the biggest band I’ve ever practiced with,” Warner said.  They played warm-ups and practiced their songs repeatedly to make sure they were ready to perform them perfectly.

When a tourist visits New York, he or she can expect to see some unusual spectacles. One day on the way to practice, Warner said he encountered a protest that was a direct result of the grand jury ruling in the recent shooting in Ferguson, Mo., that acquitted a police officer of any wrongdoing after shooting an 18-year-old unarmed black teenager.  Warner saw the protest from the safety of a bus and avoided most of the crowds. His family stayed in a different hotel in New York City just outside Times Square, and they did not meet up with Warner until after the parade on Thursday.

Not every band member made it to the parade. “There were supposed to be four other tenors, but one of the players broke his arm a week before the parade,” Warner said.  Warner played in a section of about 23 people.  The day of the parade, Warner had to wake up at 1 a.m. to get ready. That morning, the whole band made a reservation at the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square for breakfast at 5 a.m. The breakfast was as a small celebration for the band’s hard work. When the parade was about to commence, the band arranged itself in a formation called a “block” and readied its instruments. When their band director Dr. Doug Rosner, who is from Auburn University, gave the command, they began to march on 77th Street at Central Park West.

“It was kind of crazy,” Warner said. “There were people everywhere I looked and music all around me. It was very exciting.” NBC televised the parade on the Today Show and featured some members of the band. Warner auditioned to appear in the Today Show’s broadcast, but “only seniors could appear,” Warner said. The show wanted to give that honor to older band members because it was their last time playing in the parade.  The Great American Band played several songs during their two-hour march that took them down Broadway past the fabled Macy’s Department Store at 34th Street.  The songs included  Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off,” Bruno Mars’ “Locked Out of Heaven” and a piece called “Street Beat” that was written by their instructor.

Warner said that any tenor drummers who plan to audition for next year’s parade  “should really focus on their dynamics and accents because the instructor  is very strict.” Dynamics are movements, such as a change in how high the drummer raises the drumsticks and accents include actions like drumming harder to make a different sound.

After the parade,  the band loaded the bus and returned to the hotel. When packing up, “the drum line stopped to play in the snow,” Warner said. Most of the band split up after the parade and checked out with their families. His family stayed for one more night to go sightseeing on Friday. Warner visited Macy’s, Toys R Us and Rockefeller Center where he went to the “Top of the Rock”.

“This experience was really fun,” Warner said in fond memory of the parade. “It makes me want to pursue a career in percussion outside of high school.” Warner plans to join Drum Corps International next year, an organization for budding musicians who are 21 years and younger.

Warner plans to march in the parade again next year.  “They sent me a letter thanking me for my performance and asked me to play again next year. I will not need to audition next year,” Warner said.