The insight on what it’s like to win a scholarship
By Kiara Cain
Warren Floyd, a Captain Shreve Drummer, was recently awarded with a scholarship to Grambling. Floyd has been dedicated to being a drummer and has worked very hard during his time playing percussive instruments. Some of his major accomplishments include becoming drum captain, receiving his scholarship to march with Grambling, and joining Port City All Star Band
How long have you been in band?
Since the sixth grade, so that’s almost seven years.
Did you originally want to do it?
No, the craziest part about it was I asked my mom to sign me up for engineering in middle school as my elective but they put me in band. Then I just stuck with it ever since. I see that as God telling me the path that I need to go on. Besides that, I wouldn’t have made a great engineer.
Besides drums do you play anything else?
I’m learning to play piano. I really want to learn a string instrument but they’re just so complicated. Mostly I only do percussive instruments but there are a lot, like a piano they’re similar to the marimba.
What made you take interest in attending Grambling?
Alumni, my mom, and with being a band head you just see everybody. Plus Grambling is in such close proximity so it’s like I’m there all the time. When you’re there you just gravitate towards it naturally.
How did you get the opportunity to play for Grambling in their band?
From my mom and my friends sending me different events that they would hold. For example they hold “A Day with The World Famed” where you go with the band for a day and you play for their spring game. And they hold their band camp where you train, learn, and network with other people. So it really came from social media and my close people.
How was band camp?
It was very hot and I barely got any sleep. We would go back to the dorm room around 11pm, then we had to shower so I would really get into bed around 12am. Then I had to call my mom, so I got like three hours of sleep each day because we had to wake back up at four and be out by 5am for parade rest. But it wasn’t all terrible because I met people from Grambling, the band directors, and I put myself out there. It was amazing in the fact that I learned a lot about my craft that I haven’t learned in high school.
What was the experience of getting to play for their band like?
To this day I remember the first time I stepped into the band room and it felt so big. The environment felt huge, like nothing was around me but everything was around me at the same time. It was jarring. But you don’t hear the type of stuff they play in high school. At collegiate level they’re playing songs at levels that I’ve never seen, so for me to even stand beside one of them was enough for me.
Has playing for Grambling changed the way you play at school?
Yes, and that is not special to me, that is just in general. When you’re around folks that are ahead of you and know the game better than you, the more you’re around them the better you’re going to get. They don’t have to teach you anything, you can just see them work and it’ll make you better. So it definitely has changed the way I play, the way I march, the way I direct the drum line here. It’s definitely changed how I see band as a whole.
How did it feel when you got your scholarship?
It felt unreal because I didn’t know how to use it. So I just had this paper that said I got all this money in my hands, and I had no clue what to do with it. I just gave it straight to my mom. But I felt proud of myself because we didn’t know about it at first while at band camp. We ended up being called over by the directors and were told that the whole time we were auditioning. He started handing out papers where our performance had been checked off throughout the entire seven days. It snuck up on me and I’m glad because it’s helping me secure my future.
What do you plan on majoring in, in college? What are your plans after college?
I plan on majoring in business. After college I want to own my own business, I don’t know what I want that to be yet. But, music is my entire existence. Everything I do can be traced back to music. The influence of playing for Grambling and my Port City All Star Band people has made me want to pay it forward. I want to be a music teacher and I want to build up. Starting with the younger kids because my initial introduction to music was in elementary. So I want to start there and continue to move up until I get to collegiate level. One of my biggest gripes with our band is my band director didn’t give us every opportunity to seek out greatness. We just have to build in us, that we wanted to seek out greatness and be the best we can ever be. But our band director never pushed us like that. I want to come back to my city and build up the young musicians so they can be better than the musicians we have now.