Brendan O’Neal

The past two years I marched in a drum corps called the Hawthorne Caballeros from

Hawthorne New Jersey. Having marched there for so long, and spending every weekend from

May-August with him for the past two years, I’d have to say my most influential teacher is Mark

Monaghan, the percussion caption head for the Caballeros.

Besides the obvious amount of time learning from Mark, I think I was most influenced by

him because of my upmost respect for him. The fact that he has an absurd amount of world class

experience performing and is only 5 years older than me led to a higher understanding and

connection on both sides. Throughout my time being taught by him, I learned many

performance, teaching, and professional skills and virtues that I will use for the rest of my life

and career.

In my first year, there was one Sunday rehearsal towards the end of the season where

some members were showing up late to the morning block. It had been established from the

beginning that it was unacceptable for anyone to be even a minute late, because we started

rehearsal promptly at 9am. As the drumline stood there waiting, we saw one of the drummers

walking to where we were, at least 15 minutes late. When the man finally got set up, Mark was

literally shaking with anger. He then turns to us and goes on a quick rant about how if you give

someone your word, you have to follow through. The next rep we did was the cleanest thing

we’d played all season. We may have been fearing for our lives, but needless to say, I haven’t

been late for an important obligation since.

My second year with the corps, the drumline was about to start rehearsing before our

preliminary show at championships. I was clearly nervous, and Mark could tell. Before we start

playing, he goes to my drum and starts tuning it. He then tells me, “Trust yourself, trust the
people around you. You’re going to do great.” We proceed to have our best show of the season, a

flawless run as a section and we place third. Mark taught me that confidence in yourself is

extremely important as a performer, and people need a little help with that on occasion.