Jim Nevermann

Why 99% of the drum manufacturers continue to make [and corps & bands continue to buy] such ridiculously heavy drums --especially tenors-- is completely beyond me. I hope Al Murray's able to steer Ludwig away from their "us too" heavy-drum design mentality.

??? No comprendo.

A few newbie's problem during their first contest.

I don't know. You or anyone else here ever play Stingray? I'm told the snares & tenors were VERY heavy. Although how much heavier could Stingray tenors have been than most other manufactures today are? To me they're all absurdly heavy.

http://www.ergosonicpercussion.com/index.html

First there was "Wipe Out". Then "We Will Rock You" from Queen. And even "Tubular Bells" from The Exorcist. So you just KNOW that every other drumline will soon be blasting-away at everyone with some version of this [~1:00 in the trailer]... http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-talk/trailer-dark-knight-rises-hits-181716825.html You have been warned.

InspaDave noted that "Shoulder-fired Euphoniums are a common sight here in Japan." So what company, where, makes them? Have any photos?

Which depends, though, on the contemporary definition of "drum corps"... *cough, cough*... which now use trumpets... *cough*... and tubas... *choke*... amplifiers... *cough*... and now freak'n synthesizers!... *gaaag*, *kaaaa-HOOULP*, *ulp*... *gag*... *cough*.

What company, where, makes them? Have any pix?

Now that my mystery horn's been identified [again, for me, *finally* after 40 years!] I assume that when the Air Force D&B was moved from the Washington DC area to the squeaky-clean, new Academy in Colorado Springs, all the instruments went with them, including those odd Holtons. And since Keith Markey became the horn arranger [and instructor?] at some point, I imagine he had the leeway to play one of those Holtons I saw him use in '68. "And now, the rest of the story." Prior to my late 1969 audition with the Academy corps drumline [for which I passed, but had no openings when my draft number came up in early 1970... ARGHHHHHH!!!] I'd met Keith a few times a year earlier when he was brought up to write a couple songs for the east Seattle corps [bellevue "Sentinels"] I marched drumline with. Keith always came across to me as very intense yet, in some ways, "mercurial" [for want of a better descriptor] though I know he was idolized by our hornline, rightly so. Some years later he also wrote a few charts for the Seattle Imperials. Memorably, I saw him conduct their horns at a Christmas concert in Seattle's great St. Mark's Cathedral. I think any brass ensemble worth its salt would sound impressive in there, but a large, finely-honed hornline playing at all dynamic levels... yikes. Do any of you have stories about Keith?

How do you erase/cancel your own, duplicated post? Where's the Delete key??

Thanks to Frank "ironlips" Dorritie for these photos. 1960's euphoniums: standard and "baby contra" shoulder-carried version. The 1958 [pre-Accademy] Air Force D&B corps with what looks like some of those Holton bass baritones closest to the camera.

That's *gotta* be what I saw Keith carrying. Huh, even though I've strictly been a drummer in corps since Day 1, it's funny how a horn I saw only once [and from a distance, at that] at a halftime show over 40 years ago still stuck in my mind all this time! Thanks Ken and Frank!

Madison's tromboniums, 1979, which were indeed shoulder carried. But, yeah, the shouldered euphonium from the decade earlier seems like what I remember & heard of. Frank's eMailing me a pix of one, which I'll also post for comparison with the tromboniums... unless he posts it first! HOW I POSTED THIS PHOTO [all of which was so straight-forward that even *I* figured it out!] -I copied & pasted the trombonium photo from my PC into the free image-hosting site "Photobucket" -Copied the images' URL from Photobucket -Clicked on the "Insert Image" icon [looks like a small framed picture] right above the DCP text box in with the other icons -Pasted the URL [for the trombonium image from Photobucket] into the "Image URL" field, and clicked "Insert Image" -The photo's complete URL immediately appeared in the text box -I added the text above and below the URL.

Speaking of tromboniums: they were short-lived because they didn't sound/project as hoped for, or...?

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Wife & I recently weekend-hosted a fellow PR alum --a '72 contra before he enlisted in the Air Force-- out here in WA. He mentioned that a season or two before my time in PR, he played a shoulder-carried baritone [or bass baritone?]. I'd seen the late horn arranger Keith Markey playing one in the USAF Academy D&B corps back in '68, but must have thought it was something he'd put together. Yet apparently they were indeed manufactured for awhile. Info on them AND can you post pix?

I can just imagine 2012: "Ladies and gentlemen, the Santa Ford Phanguard!" ;-)

I can just imagine 2012: "Ladies and gentlemen, the Santa Ford Phanguard!" ;-)

"old skool drmmr", are those triples yours? They look to be in very good condition... and, best of all, without Slingerland's really *lousy* designed carriers: either version. I've always wondered what non-marching manager at Slingerland approved their manufacture. Oh man... those carriers were AWFUL!

I share this June 2011 letter sent to our church band's director about a snare performance I did during a regular Sunday service: not only as a possible incentive to some of you who've considered doing likewise --though haven't yet-- but also as a look into how one of the "rudimentally uninitiated" [my descriptor] interpret it: ------------------------------------------ "This is a belated thank-you note for part of a service I attended quite some time ago there: it must have been on an occasion of patriotic interest." [probably around Veterans Day] "The gentleman who plays the drums in your church band 'Breaded Fish' came from behind the scenes, playing a small drum..." [my Dynasty 'Wedge' snare] "...of the type we associate with the drummer boys who played for the army of George Washington. He was unaccompanied, and walked slowly out to face the congregation, playing what was obviously a martial rhythm as a stirring solo." [i opened the service with 'The Three Camps'[/i]] "I was surprised to be so thrilled! And so impressed. The drum music was loud, and commanding, and stirring, and somehow it conveyed very clearly how desperate and lonely and determined those men were, in their battle for freedom and independence and the whole American idea." [during the Offering I played a shortened version of 'Connecticut Halftime' which segued into the last third of my old competition snare solo 'Scorched Earth', which has part of an older-yet Boston Crusader solo and a brief run of backsticking] "I didn't have the opportunity to thank the drummer that day, but it has lingered so tenaciously in my mind that, as we approach the 4th of July, I must thank you for that wonderful occasion, and I hope sometime you will arrange it to happen again."

Surely someone in the Chicago/Milwaukee corridor knows, yes?

How/where do you delete what you changed your mind about posting? Where's the "Delete Post" button?

My complaint about drum stands are twofold: 1] They represent additional equipment to purchase, store, transport & replace. Drum Corps isn't expensive enough? 2] Stands for marching drums came into fashionable use because the drums have become absurdly heavy; particularly tenors. Yet, for reasons that completely mystify me, not a one of the drum companies have seen fit to develop light[er] weight composite [not fiberglass or acrylic] shells. Monolith Drums started to, but lapsed back into the drumset market. I looked into Monolith back in 1998 for a start-up sr corps in Seattle, but since their Customer Service/response was terrible, I gave up. They *looked* good online, but....