Iowa, yep. It's a 4-beat triplet accent pattern that is repeated. Each drum enters at a different beat, and top bass solos. It is apparently extremely hard to clap to.
Ok I'll chime in again. I agree with this. That stuff is fine. People just simply not trying and slacking off is not what I was really talking about anyway. My problem was with instructors whose method of teaching was to basically call ticks and then assign push-ups/laps without ever really giving any info on how to actually fix the musical problem. That's just not teaching, and it always seemed to me that it only served to amplify the problem and just get everyone ###### off in the process.
Not trying to be insulting at all. The results speak for themselves, and it obviously different things work just fine for different people. I was speaking from personal experience. I spent a summer in '99 enduring that type of motivation and hated every minute of it because it seemed pointless for us, so perhaps I tend to look back on that style of teaching differently than others.
I don't think I ever ran a lap or did a pushup in my last 2 years marching. We rehearsed like adults and were treated likewise. Human beings tend to make errors, and our instructors identified them and instructed us on how to correct them. What a novel concept.
Are you making the assumption that those with the competitive spirit who want to be champions are not giving every drop of effort that their body has to do so? I tend to think that those who are just there to make friends are the ones not giving their full effort.
I have never understood why the idea of enjoying an activity for the competitive aspect is frowned upon. It certainly isn't that way with mainstream sports, so why is it with drumcorps?
I may be wrong, but I don't think that much, if any of the percussion section was there pre-Cassella, so there isn't anything to get used to - not that it would even be an issue at that level anyway.
Pearl drums...?