Q for drum crops people.

Odd-Arne Oseberg

Platinum Member
So having not played drums for too long and having ben a drum instructor almost since the get go, there are some experiences I haven't really had.

There isn't much of a drum corps tradition being kept alive here anyway, and very few hobbyists in the small towns go into the rudimental stuff that much.

I'm just sort of generally curious about people's experiences learning and rehearsing things.

I'm sure there are also collections of good progressive material.

What does a rehearsal look like?

How do you warm up? Is that like 8 on a hand for half an hour?

What is a usual time frame to learn something by heart and how is it done?.


Is there any general material, not just books, but DVD's to check out?
 
Traditionally the first warm up exercise is accented triplets, single-handed. Other exercises include 16th note timing, doubles (often some form of Fred Sanford's well known exercise) paradiddles, rolls, triplet rolls, attacks, sixtuplets/singles. Probably others that I'm forgetting. Exercises have gotten pretty involved since I was in corps 30 years ago-- they're like mini-compositions now.

Usually from winter through spring there are weekly rehearsals, and occasional drill camps-- weekend-long retreats with rehearsal from 9-9. During the summer the usual thing for groups I was in was rehearsals every day from 9-9, local shows, maybe a 7-14 day regional tour, and a national tour of 4-6 weeks.

I like Matt Savage's rudimental book. I'm sure there are others, but I haven't had any part of the corps world since ~1989.
 
Thanks.

16th note timing, like hitting individual notes in time?

attacks?


Seems Fred wrote a chapter in Master Technique Builders for Snare Drum.

The single/double beat control and double beat syncopation exercises are the same Ms. Capplette showed on her site.

I'm ordering a new batch from Amazon soon, so I guess I can throw Matt's book in there.
 
Here's a set of old videos from the 70s that McCormick's put out on developing the drumline, featuring the Santa Clara Vanguard percussion line. Very cool, although it's from the 70s, a lot of the same principles apply. If you watch all of them, they even do a feature on Rob Carson, who was the DCI champion solo snare drummer back then too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdUDsV-NuIw
 
16th note timing, like hitting individual notes in time?

attacks?


Seems Fred wrote a chapter in Master Technique Builders for Snare Drum.

16th note timing exercise would go something like this. When we worked on attacks we'd just play 1e&a2/rest. The purpose was to work on starting cleanly-- you'd lift each stick an 8th note before it was supposed to play-- the RH on the & before the 1, the LH on the 'a'. A bunch of Sanford's exercises in MTBs are familiar-- we used to play those exercises or something similar.
 
Here's a set of old videos from the 70s that McCormick's put out on developing the drumline, featuring the Santa Clara Vanguard percussion line. Very cool, although it's from the 70s, a lot of the same principles apply. If you watch all of them, they even do a feature on Rob Carson, who was the DCI champion solo snare drummer back then too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdUDsV-NuIw

And how cool at the 40 second mark in the beginning the snare drums sound like snare drums and not todays granite blocks.
 
Here's a set of old videos from the 70s that McCormick's put out on developing the drumline, featuring the Santa Clara Vanguard percussion line. Very cool, although it's from the 70s, a lot of the same principles apply. If you watch all of them, they even do a feature on Rob Carson, who was the DCI champion solo snare drummer back then too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdUDsV-NuIw

"Low and flow" was the name of the game then-- the theory was that the less distance the stick travels, the less opportunity for inaccuracy. They play a lot higher now, I guess to have some hope of projecting with those awful kevlar heads. It doesn't really work.
 
And how cool at the 40 second mark in the beginning the snare drums sound like snare drums and not todays granite blocks.

I miss those days of the ol' gut snares and black dots. But I can't say I miss using a strap and a leg rest!
 
I only used a strap and leg rest one day. For practice for US Army Basic training. I was not happy.
 
Haha, you all crack me up with the kevlar hate! It's not all that bad... Although I was a tenor guy, so cranked up pinstripes were the way.
 
Haha, you all crack me up with the kevlar hate! It's not all that bad... Although I was a tenor guy, so cranked up pinstripes were the way.

No, it isn't all bad, definitely a different feel that I suppose you get used to - and it did solve a lot of durability problems for the corps folks. My thing is just my age. When I marched, pinstripes were just becoming the new in-thing for snare drums, and I remember having many a pinstripe pull out of the collars when trying to crank them high enough.

So I don't hate kevlar, it's just different, and I no longer march. But I do know what I like when I go to see a drum corps show, and kevlar is just not high on my list.
 
Haha, you all crack me up with the kevlar hate! It's not all that bad... Although I was a tenor guy, so cranked up pinstripes were the way.

It's pretty bad. The old cranked sound was extreme, but it still was a musical sound, and would project and have some impact. And it still occupied the frequency range where the snare drum is supposed to live. With the current sound, from the stands, it just sounds like the snare section has been eliminated and replaced by static. There's a big hole in the ensemble sound where the snares used to live. And the drums individually just sound horrible-- it's not remotely a musical sound.
 
I liked the sound of 'modern' marching snares, but we're talking high school level in 2002. We still used Black Max kevlar heads, but probably tuned lower than DCI does these days.
 
It's pretty bad. The old cranked sound was extreme, but it still was a musical sound, and would project and have some impact. And it still occupied the frequency range where the snare drum is supposed to live. With the current sound, from the stands, it just sounds like the snare section has been eliminated and replaced by static. There's a big hole in the ensemble sound where the snares used to live. And the drums individually just sound horrible-- it's not remotely a musical sound.


It's even higher pitched in Pipe Band and lately, even higher still. Plus, they have a strainer under the top head to help give that unique, rich buzz roll sound. Except that when you get to open work and accents, the dynamic range has suffered. Corps have doubled in size over the last 20 plus years, they're more precise and yet with some notable exceptions, generally not that exciting. They're trying to match a continually rising pitch of Bagpipes during competition sets, since they count for most of the score in a contest. Most of the advancement has been in the midsection, (tuned tenors) both in compositions and visually (flourishing). This is one of the reasons we've done a 180° and gone to '50's style, Mylar headed, rod tensioned snares. A single gut strainer under the bottom head and about 1/2 the weight of an Andante. 1/3 the weight of a Pearl or Premier. No buzz rolls or dead sticking; just open rolls, Swiss rudiments, etc. We're going to take a hit in the competition World but have more fun doing it!
 
It's pretty bad. The old cranked sound was extreme, but it still was a musical sound, and would project and have some impact. And it still occupied the frequency range where the snare drum is supposed to live. With the current sound, from the stands, it just sounds like the snare section has been eliminated and replaced by static. There's a big hole in the ensemble sound where the snares used to live. And the drums individually just sound horrible-- it's not remotely a musical sound.

The new drums with those Kevlar heads explode really well too. At A DCI show, I saw a kid put his snare by our equipment truck in '07 and our driver rolled over it. The resulting explosion was impressive ;)
 
Back
Top