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What is Ideal Instrumentation and section size?


Chat_Capone

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This is purely hypothetical, but Im a newbie and I want to dig in and talk percussion turkey:

could be marching band or corps.

hypothetically for a open class corps:

50 horns

Trumps: 16

Mids: 10

Baris/Euphs: 16

Tubas: 8

I would say

28 perc.

7 snares, 4 tenors, 5 bass, no plates

8 keys, 1 timp, 3 aux/keys

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This is purely hypothetical, but Im a newbie and I want to dig in and talk percussion turkey:

could be marching band or corps.

hypothetically for a open class corps:

50 horns

Trumps: 16

Mids: 10

Baris/Euphs: 16

Tubas: 8

I would say

28 perc.

7 snares, 4 tenors, 5 bass, no plates

8 keys, 1 timp, 3 aux/keys

What I'm hoping we achieve in a couple years or sooner:

36 Brass

Sops: 12

Mids:6

Baris:12

Contra:6 note: these buggers are expensive.

16 percussion

Battery:

Snare:5

Tenor:2

Bass:5

Pit:

Mallet/Keys: 3

Accessories/Toys:1

On the subjest of percussion, my opinion is to have 1/2 on the ratio of tenors to snares.

We plan on buiding our line with Snares and Bass sections 1st and adding Tenors last.

Edited by Kansan
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8 SNARES

5 TENORS

5 BASS

6 PLATES

10 KEYS

3 AUX

1 TIMP

All depends on the number of horns.

Kilts have 50 horns and Percussion shakes out like this

8 SNARES

4 TENORS

5 BASS

6 PLATES

8 KEYS

2 AUX

1 TIMP

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8 SNARES

5 TENORS

5 BASS

6 PLATES

10 KEYS

3 AUX

1 TIMP

All depends on the number of horns.

Kilts have 50 horns and Percussion shakes out like this

8 SNARES

4 TENORS

5 BASS

6 PLATES

8 KEYS

2 AUX

1 TIMP

Lots of fundraisers for all those Mallet instruments.

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  • 4 weeks later...
On the subjest of percussion, my opinion is to have 1/2 on the ratio of tenors to snares.

We plan on buiding our line with Snares and Bass sections 1st and adding Tenors last.

:thumbup: Thats such and old school opinion. If your quads are to loud then ask them to play a bit lower.

Im planning on going 4s 4q 4b 4c this fall with my line. Mmmm perfect box. :thumbup:

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The answer's going to be different depending on whether we're talking about a marching band or drum corps. A drum corps horn line with 50 players is going to be a LOT louder than a marching band with 20 or so flutes & clarinets.

For a drum corps, I'd probably like 7-8 snares, 4 tenors, and 5 basses to balance a 50-person horn line. For a marching band with 50 winds, I might reduce that to 4/3/5.

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:thumbup: Thats such and old school opinion. If your quads are to loud then ask them to play a bit lower.

Im planning on going 4s 4q 4b 4c this fall with my line. Mmmm perfect box. :smile:

the perfect box would be having 2 elements of 4, the other 2 elements of 3....wouldnt it? 4² makes a rectangle.

or

the perfect box would be the hot new colorguard instructor :smile:

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:tongue: Thats such and old school opinion. If your quads are to loud then ask them to play a bit lower.

Im planning on going 4s 4q 4b 4c this fall with my line. Mmmm perfect box. :grouphug:

You guessed it, we are following the "Old School" ways Grass Hopper.

2 valve G Bugles, Snares with mylar heads etc....

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What I'm hoping we achieve in a couple years or sooner:

36 Brass

Sops: 12

Mids:6

Baris:12

Contra:6 note: these buggers are expensive.

I'd like to see it as:

Sop: 9

Mello: 6

Bari: 9

Euph: 6

Contra: 6

Give me fat-bottomed girls and fat-bottomed hornline sounds!

16 percussion

Battery:

Snare:5

Tenor:2

Bass:5

Pit:

Mallet/Keys: 3

Accessories/Toys:1

On the subjest of percussion, my opinion is to have 1/2 on the ratio of tenors to snares.

We plan on buiding our line with Snares and Bass sections 1st and adding Tenors last.

And this:

Snare: 6

Bass: 5

Tenor: 3

Pit: 4

So...you left out a snare and tenor. That's OK, you horn player, you.

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:doh: Thats such and old school opinion. If your quads are to loud then ask them to play a bit lower.

Nah, one good tenor player is worth at least two snares....heck, I balanced five snares one season by myself (and that was with mylar heads).

And generally there aren't enough good players to fill out a large tenor line--got to keep the lightweights in the snare line, ya know! :laughing:

Edit: And, yeah, I guess I can be described as an old school guy. Kansan and I are brothers from different mothers on most of this drum corps stuff, though I'm a bit too Bridgemen at times for him.

Edited by TAFL
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