In the lead-up to their May 8 performances, drum instructor Polar Levine worked the young members of the Battery Drumline until blisters developed on some of their small fingers.

		"We're trying to build up their endurance," he said. Meanwhile, Tom Goodkind, conductor of TriBattery Pops, a gazebo-style brass band, went shopping for straw hats. "We don't want to practice too much," he explained. "The more screwy we are, the more we will be loved." Both grassroots Downtown groups -one earnest, one less so-took to the main stage of the Tribeca Film Festival's giant street fair last month. And both have more appearances to come. "Now that we are getting gigs, we tell [the kids] they are professional musicians and are expected to act like it," Levine, a percussionist and composer, said during a break of one of the drumline's recent rehearsals.

The chairs and music stands in the band room of Borough of Manhattan Community College had been set aside, making room for the group's swivel-hipped young dancers and the percussionists who pounded out infectious samba rhythms on their Brazilian drums. When those rhythms faltered, Levine blew his whistle and went to the chalkboard. "Think of a waltz. 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3," he said, drawing a string of triplets onto the board. "Or, straw-ber-ry, straw-ber-ry, straw-ber-ry," offered a tamborime player in the back row. But in the hands of the ensemble of more than two dozen 11-to-17-year-olds, the sound was anything but delicate. Rim shots rang out, the low toms rumbled, and the tiny

		tamborimes in the hands of the line's youngest members somehow popped the loudest. Finally, a mallet broke and the band took a break. A few members peeled off their batting gloves and compared blisters. "All right. Who's got battle wounds? Let me see them," said instructor Curtis Watts, a studio musician who leads the line with the dry, snapping sound of his snare drum. "Oh, that's a good one right there, through the glove and everything. You're a drummer now." With dancers and drummers, the group now numbers around 30, but Levine hopes it will expand to 50 kids. He said the goal of the free program, started with funds from the Downtown Community Resource Center of New York City, is to foster among the young players a sense of "music as a professional and creative vocation as opposed to simply a vehicle for stardom."
Goodkind, a Battery Park City resident and Community Board 1 member-and an accountant who, in an earlier life, was a member of the folk group Washington Squares-has high hopes for his latest project. "This is a hit. I mean, I can't believe no one has done this down here yet." The brass band, modeled after traditional small-town community bands, is made up of Downtown residents, some of them former new wave, punk and folk rockers. Others had musical careers that peaked with their high-school marching bands. "My mouth hasn't touched a sax in so many years, I wasn't sure I could even make a sound," said Carla Rupp, a Tribeca resident and one of the first to sign up for the band after seeing a newspaper ad seeking members. "But I think we're really cookin' now," she said. From tuba to trumpet, accordion to glockenspiel, the band now boasts 10 members. It rehearses twice a month at Church Street Music School and hopes its future proceeds can benefit the school's programs. Its next gig is set for July 4 at the Washington Market Park gazebo. An album is also in the works. Moments before their debut during the film festival, the band warmed up backstage, bleating through a surprisingly tight rendition of "Stars and Stripes Forever." Goodkind gathered the band around him and passed out the straw hats. "This band is going to last 100 years," he shouted. "This is our first gig. Let's make it good and sloppy and fun-like Downtown." For more information on joining the Battery Drumline, go to www.polarity.com/battery.html1 . For TriBattery Pops, go to www.tribatterypops.com.