All that marching around with a drumset must be a killer, no?
Oh yeah. It sucks. And my back ain't getting any younger!
To further clarify what I said: That laser-like pin-point accuracy I see demonstrated with the modern drum corps players seems alot different than old skool drum corps players, like Steve Gadd. Even when I saw some rudiment demonstrations done by members of the Old Guard, the way they play their Lesson 25's seems much different then how they'd be played by a group like the Garfield Cadets - and there'd even be a difference in the way the Garfield Cadets from the 1980s played them compared to the Garfield Cadets of 2013. Apparently this is an issue of evolution and interpretation.
I was in no way implying that Steve Gadd or Steve Jordan are sloppy players. Perhaps an even better, broader statement would be that, when comparing modern drum corps to drum set players, I see a
different clock ticking. And I'm not saying one is better than the other, they're just different. I enjoy both and am always amazed when I see great performances come from both types of players.
As a side note, I'm a little biased in that I enjoy drum corps from the 70s through the 80s because the snare drums just sounded more like snare drums back then. I can't get my head around what the kids like about these modern kevlar-headed snares - to me they sound atrocious. But, being an old bass drummer, the rudimental bass drums lines of today I wish we could've
approached when I marched! But it's an evolution, I guess.
But perhaps the goal should be the intent. If you know you want to eventually make a living as a drumset player, then why not make that the focus? I know, I'm opening another can of worms, especially since we're all about "doing everything you can do" as a percussionist. But there's nothing wrong with saying "this is what I want to do - so this is what I will do". Hell, it worked for Buddy Rich, didn't it?
And this would explain the amount of incredible drum corps players on the planet. These people have decided that that's what they wanted to do, so they did that. Nothing wrong with that at all. Not all of them will successfully make the transition to in-demand drumset player, and that's ok. Not all drumset players will be able to walk into a drumline and be successful there, either. And isn't that ok?