‘You get that feeling in your heart and your body.’ This summer Philly drumline program gives kids a gateway to music and pays them for it.

The first notes of a drumline always felt like magic to Mahjoi Thomas: the crisp, staccato beats played in unison, the drummers’ sharp look, the sense of occasion they instantly stirred.

“A drumline would come to our school, and the feeling of the drums, the music — it just attached to me,” said Thomas, 15. “You get that feeling in your heart and your body, you feel the vibration.”

Thomas and dozens of teenagers across the city are making their own magic this summer as part of the Philadelphia School District’s Summer Drumline program, a first-of-its-kind session. For five weeks, students spend five hours a day learning percussion techniques and other music fundamentals.

The pandemic and a year-plus of virtual schooling meant that many schools that had music programs had to start from scratch when students came back to buildings in 2021. For Jesse Mell, drumline is a part of a plan to revive them.

“We wanted to give the kids an instant access point to instrumental music,” said Mell, the district’s citywide drumline coordinator. Drumlines were a culturally responsive way to do that, with their call-and-response cadence, the way students can feel the beat and play music that’s familiar to them.

“Everybody vibes with it,” said Mell, who dreams of a drumline at every Philadelphia school.

Under Mell’s leadership, there are now about 20 programs in district schools. The first-ever Drumline Expo happened at Girls’ High last spring, with more to come.

The summer program is an important piece of the puzzle, said Mell, advancing drumming skills for both students with experience and first-time drummers. (Some students also play other instruments — piano, guitar, bass, horns — as part of a “modern band” group.)

Altogether, 70 students are enrolled at three schools — West Philadelphia, Fels, and Kensington High School for the Creative and Performing Arts — and partnerships with the Philadelphia Youth Network and Urban Affairs Coalition mean students who attend receive work-study paychecks.

Paying students is key, said Brian VanHook, a West Philadelphia music teacher who built a music program from scratch at the school when he arrived five years ago, then rebuilt it with drumlines post-pandemic.

“A program like this, where the kids can get paid, it’s a game changer,” said VanHook, whose students often must work to help support their families. “It provides students with an outlet to do something positive, and it gives them the opportunity to use this for college, to get scholarships.”

Summer drumline students spend their mornings in drumline classes, and their afternoons learning beat-making and other music skills.

On Thursday morning, Deja Kilgore, a teaching artist with Musicopia who’s supporting the Philadelphia program, ran a group of students through routines — samples from songs by Wu-Tang Clan and Michael Jackson.

“Put that jawn all the way on your back, man,” Kilgore said to a student strapping on a heavy drum. (Some drums can weigh almost 30 pounds, with harnesses included.)

Then Thomas, who’s about to enter her sophomore year at Dobbins High School in North Philadelphia, ran over choreography quietly to herself.

“Up, then left, then bob your head, then up,” she said, while Kilgore counted off time with a wooden tempo block.

Thomas, who picked up a drum for the first time when she entered Dobbins as a ninth grader, said she’s growing as a drummer.

“I’m still not good with doubles on my left hand — I want to learn how to do that,” Thomas said. “But I’m learning a lot.”

Kilgore provides an object lesson in where drumline can take people. He grew up in Philadelphia and Harrisburg, moved around a lot, but knew he wanted to drum the first time he saw a drumline perform in Southwest Philly. It took him four months to fundraise for his first drum, and he never looked back.

“There wasn’t nothing else to do positive — messed-up neighborhoods, messed-up people,” said Kilgore, who now performs with the 76ers drumline, West Powelton Steppers and Drum Squad, in addition to his teaching work. “Drumline took me everywhere; I have never met anybody that can do the things I do, but I’m just a guy who practiced a lot.”

Watching students like Thomas soar as drummers is inspiring, said Kilgore. People drummed before they could speak.

“People couldn’t talk and they were doing this; this is how they spoke,” Kilgore said. “When I see kids pick up a drum and make a beat, it’s an initiation into that village. I don’t want this to ... go away.”

Khalil Jackson, a rising sophomore at Bartram, has been playing drums since he was 11. He heard about the summer drumline program and was fascinated.

“Now I can do what I like, and get paid for it,” Jackson said. “We can get out of our comfort zone and try something new — it’s needed.”

Jackson and Messiah Outterbridge, a rising sophomore at Boys’ Latin of Philadelphia, sat at a table in the West Philadelphia cafeteria and listened to their beats they had recorded as part of the program, layering sounds on top of each other and perfecting their sounds.

At another table, Alexander Jarrells, a Boys’ Latin 10th grader, and Ryian Green, a 10th grader at West Philadelphia, said they were going to get summer jobs but jumped at the chance to play music and earn a paycheck.

“It’s a good learning opportunity for kids, and it’s good to get kids away from the streets,” said Jarrells, 14.