Design Questions

[woodchuck]

I am a long time drum corps fan who has managed to acquire almost no knowlege of drumline design or judging. I have two questions, and would appreciate any help.

1. Why don't corps feature drumlines as in late 70's- early 80's( read Bridgemen. Crossmen,27)

2. Who decided that 5 is the perfect number for bass drums. Cavies were the only corps I saw all year who "violated" this rule.

Thanks for any help.

[DCI Stalker]

I cant help you with your first question but as for the second one I can. It all has to do with bass splits really. If you do a bass split in the down and back up order (1,2,3,4,5,4,3,2) thats 8 counts of playing, it basically comes down to writing music thats even. I think the reasons Cavies march 6 is just for the extra dimension of sound, yes it does add some to the line but its not a huge difference from a 5 bass line and a lot of the times theyll have the top bass play basically the snare part to give it some extra depth.

[MelloHorn13]

Cavies Marched 6 basses because 5 were ageouts and they wanted to avoid an all rookie bassline in 2013. So they added a 6th to get a new sectional leaders trained.

[pearlsnaredrummer77]

There was a lot of experimentation over the years before 5 became standard. About the second part of your question, are you referring to specific percussion section features vs the modern percussion licks in the context of the larger show?

[jonnyboy]

Cavies Marched 6 basses because 5 were ageouts and they wanted to avoid an all rookie bassline in 2013. So they added a 6th to get a new sectional leaders trained.

Do you know this as fact? Seems an odd reason to me.

As far as the OP's questions go:

I think when talking drumline features, the drill of today doesn't support a drumline "arcing up" and drumming for a minute or two. You gotta keep moving. Just like a whole corps standing still for a concert number, the demand isn't there.

Five basses just works. You can play a lick with four drums and resolve it on #1 or #5. Five drums looks good, and it seems to be easier to spot spacing issues with more basses. Four just doesn't have the voice options, and six drums is massive. The Crossmen used to have six basses and the arranger said he liked having the option of the extra voicing when writing parts. But IMO, five just seems to work the best.

[Cadet311]

Cavies Marched 6 basses because 5 were ageouts and they wanted to avoid an all rookie bassline in 2013. So they added a 6th to get a new sectional leaders trained.

I've been told that this decision was primarily visual as you can split 6 visually better than you can 5.

[pearlsnaredrummer77]

I think when talking drumline features, the drill of today doesn't support a drumline "arcing up" and drumming for a minute or two. You gotta keep moving. Just like a whole corps standing still for a concert number, the demand isn't there.

Unfortunately, that is true in the opinions of the judges or staff. But back in the day, there was nothing better than sitting down front and watching lines play their licks. It was a guilty pleasure for a drummer,lol.