On Feb. 2, AHS’ World Line Percussion performed at Damien High School for their first Southern California Percussion Association (SCPA) competition of the year. Arcadia’s percussion groups perform in Winter Guard International (WGI) and SCPA shows throughout their indoor season in order to prepare for the final championship event, but for this particular week, only World Line competed.

The percussionists at AHS are separated into three separate ensembles for the indoor season: A Line, O Line, and World Line; A Line is usually classified as the beginning program, O the intermediate, and World the advanced. These ensembles are further split into two groups—the battery, which is composed of instruments like the snare and tenor, and the front ensemble, which includes instruments like the marimba and xylophone. The battery and front ensemble work together to put on a show for competitions, and this year, World Line’s show, One of Us, ended up scoring 79 points after the performers presented it in front of multiple judges for the first time. Earning such a high score on the first competitive performance of the season definitely resulted from their hard work and practices. The committed World Line performers attend practices multiple times a week, and occasionally have full-day rehearsals on weekends, while some members even take extra time out during lunch to individually play and enhance their skills.                                                                    

Junior Justin Sun, who is part of World Line’s front ensemble, reveals that the team had “a decent amount of the show done for the performance, which pleased the judges since they normally do not expect so much during the early stages of the season.” However, he believes that the rainy weather and melancholy atmosphere “brought the performers’ mood down and ended up hindering [their] ability to perform at the fullest potential.” However, it is still the beginning of the season, so Justin feels confident that they will improve a lot in the upcoming weeks and is sure that they can do so by “staying more connected to the beat of the music, listening to the rest of the ensemble, and maintaining focus on the show.”

Percussionists from all three ensembles will have their schedules packed with practices and competitions for the upcoming months, so we wish them the best of luck for the rest of their season!