SkyDog

If your high schoolers are anything like the ones I work with, transitions from move to move might be a bit of an adventure. They're not absolutely confident in what they're doing -- they tend to be passive, afraid to commit and make a mistake, so they watch their peers and try to follow along. (They don't realize this won't work because they'll always be late and LATE IS BAD.) To try to get them to commit on the first beat of a move, I've been doing a "plus one": Do the first move, then plant their lead foot as if they're making the first step in the direction of the next move. This is also handy to address changes in technique when changing directions, like making sure hips rotate correctly for wind players or making sure that hips don't rotate for drummers.

Look at the date on the post we replied to. I don't think we were b****ing about LOS yet in 2005. I think the "Happy Holidays" clip in '05 may have been a camp recording in a gym.

...if you're using Microsoft Internet Explorer. (The web page uses the IE-specific "bgsound" tag to load the MP3 file.) Those of us who don't use IE can hear the file by opening http://www.27thlancers.net/dannyboy.mp3 .

Yeah, what he said. ...although the video clip he saw five years ago was probably from an actual gymnasium and not LOS.

I came across a late 1970s or early 1980s set of Slingerland basses in our school's storage area. The 32" drum from that set is actually lighter than the 28" drum from the same set. The 32" drum has a thinner shell (3-ply versus 6-ply?) with reinforcing rings at the bearing edges. Both are noticeably lighter than the 28" Dynasty we currently use for a bottom bass.

Stripping Yamaha drums is a major pain in the ***. The glue they use is tough. Heat gun, stiff putty knife, and lots of patience.

The Japanese drums (some of which are pretty darn big) are taiko drums. Kodo is a well-known taiko troupe from Japan. As for the old parts "the other Mike" was asking about... There have been a number of different mounting systems, each with different parts holding them together. Some of them had clips on the individual drums that connected them to tabs or rails on a carrier. Some drum setups were bolted together using a "backbar" between the two biggest drums to connect to the carrier. There have been different backbar designs over the years, but the concept is still in use. HERE is a recent type of Pearl backbar on Steve Weiss Music's web site. Some recent backbars, like the linked Pearl backbar made by Randall May, have a hinge built-in. Most older backbars weren't hinged, but used "tilters" as a hinge to connect to carriers' j-bars. A pair of Dynasty snare tilters is pictured HERE (upside-down), again from Steve Weiss' web site.

1991 BD.

A Brazilian surdo is probably the closest thing I can think of size-wise. They can be anywhere from 14" to around 26" across and are typically about 24" deep. I think the Blue Devils may have used surdos at the end of their percussion feature in 1992. Single tenor drums (think snare drums without the snares across the bottom head) typically aren't that large, but I suppose they could be. Pearl's contemporary pipe band tenor drums are 12" deep and up to 18" across. Hosbilt makes tenor sizes up to 18" by 14" deep and they offer a "baritone" drum that's 20" by 14" deep. I think that's pretty close to the size of the drum the Cavaliers used at the beginning of Malcolm Arnold's Cornish Dance (Mvt 4) in 1992.

Don't forget ScoJo. He was involved in all of BD's titles, too. Three times as a member. He also has more percussion titles than the Blue Devils since he picked one up with SCV in 1991.

No, but you might be thinking of a decade earlier when some guys followed him from Spirit to the Blue Devils. 1975 Freelancers 1976-77 Oakland Crusaders 1978-81 Spirit of Atlanta 1982-90 Blue Devils 1992-94 Velvet Knights

When you purchased the CD, you purchased the right to listen to it privately. If the music is to be played in a public venue, broadcast, redistributed, re-arranged, etc., additional licensing is required. The venue should have a blanket license through performing rights organizations like ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC.

They're not generally any harder to tune, but you have to tune them more often as the Mylar stretches. They also tend to wear out quite a bit faster.

They switched to Jupiter brass for the 2009 season, but still play Dynasty drums. The drumline's been pretty successful and influential. LOTS of drum corps and WGI names have come from and gone though that program. {EDIT} I got distracted while typing my post (pretending to work and all), and Euphscott beats me to the punch.

While they're not my favorite, Dynasty drums aren't that bad. I bought a set for my high school line and I'm especially satisfied when I consider that the quotes I received for Pearl drums were almost 1½ times the price I paid for the Dynasty gear.