By Lyndy berryhill

NATCHEZ — Jordan Hamilton never guessed playing on his grandmother’s cooking pots would lead to being selected as one of the best drummers in Mississippi.

The senior was selected last week as the first Natchez High School student chosen to play in the top band of the Mississippi Bandmaster’s Association State Band Clinic, which took place in Natchez.

Mississippi high school students have been competing to be the best in state since 1937. Each year, MBA only selects two students from each school to audition. The bands are divided up by the colors red, blue and white. Students strive to make first band otherwise known as “red” band, which is the highest place they can receive. More than 360 students out of 146 schools participated in the state clinic.

Hamilton, 18, said his drumming career started when he was 5 with a pair of wooden spoons and pots in his grandmother’s kitchen.

“Eventually the spoons turned into drum sticks and the pots turned into drums,” Hamilton said.

He joined band in the fifth grade  — the earliest he could join — and has not looked back.

“It’s really changed me a lot,” Hamilton said about his time in band. “It’s really pushed me forward … It has given me discipline.”

Once he saw the movie “Drumline,” a 2002 film about college marching band competition, the Natchez senior knew he wanted to play snare drum.

“It’s pretty hard,” Hamilton said. “You just can’t learn it in a couple of months.”

Hamilton can be seen at football games and parades in his blue and yellow band uniform. He is the drum section leader, which is one of the most important positions because it keeps the entire band playing at the right speed.

“That’s what I’m passionate about,” he said.

Hamilton said band shaped how he has spent his high schools years, and it is now helping shape his college choices.

“I want to play drums (in college), and I really want to go somewhere where I am used to the style,” he said. “I either want to go to Alcorn (State) or Mississippi State.”

Although he knows he will continue to play drums, Hamilton said he does not want to major in music.

“I see myself doing something in engineering or something in the medical field. I want to make at least six figures a year, that’s where I’m trying to be,” Hamilton said with a laugh.

MBA President Lane Thompson said it takes great skill in musical performance to make it as far Hamilton.

“All of our students, regardless of the band placement, spend countless hours learning to play their instrument alone and with others,” Thompson said. “Band is the greatest form of delayed gratification that we provide for our students today.”

NHS Band Director Marcus Washington only uses one word to describe Hamilton as a student — extraordinary.

“His strength is that he is able to guide and lead without talking,” he said.

Washington has been band director for the past four years. He was previously a band director in Columbus. Hamilton is Washington’s first student to be selected to the top band.

“It feels great,” Washington said of Hamilton’s success. “I really appreciate his effort.”

Washington said Hamilton has a great deal of self-discipline that shows in the band hall as well as in the audition room.

Hamilton, along with the rest of first band, performed Saturday in the Natchez Convention Center in front of every band director in the MBA.

Sophomore Cameron Shropshire was selected for the third band as first chair tuba, which is the seat reserved for best in the band section.

Additionally, the NHS band’s percussion section received a superior rating this year from the Mississippi High School Activities Association for the first time in five years.

“I just want to congratulate these guys on doing a great job and their effort,” Washington said.

Natchez High School Principal Tony Fields said Hamilton is dedicated to his classwork and the band, so he knows the sky is the limit for him.

Fields said Hamilton’s parents, Bonita and Wendell Hamilton, are actively involved in his education.

“I’m very, very proud of him,” Fields said. “He represents what we want all of our students to represent, and that’s excellence.”