Marching Keyboards

[ajedrummer]

Not as unique as some of these, but in 76, Wausau Story had one chime mounted on each of four tymps - making them even heavier.

It was nice that the chimes were always in tune - the tympani seldom were!!

Edited May 14, 2008 by ajedrummer

[uncle z]

Pretty sure that in Spirit's first year, they had a guy marching a combination vibes and marimba. The keyboard rotated top to bottom, with one set of bars on the bottom and the other on top.

[jdostie]

I can't remember how many corps had these, but we marched with a marimba (with vibes) in '78 or '79, maybe both, my memory is failing on that topic.

Also, of course, were tympany.

Edited May 16, 2008 by jdostie

[Gary Matczak]

I can't remember how many corps had these, but we marched with a marimba (with vibes) in '78 or '79, maybe both, my memory is failing on that topic.

Also, of course, were tympany.

so, this thing rotated on the fly?

[jdostie]

so, this thing rotated on the fly?

No, didn't mean to mislead. I was remarking on marching a marimba with vibes . . .

Seems like it would have been pretty darn heavy. Only brought that up because (I am not a percussionist)

I didn't recognize that a lot of corps marched marimbas (if they did). I would not

have recognized the one shown as I thought the vibes were part and parcel with the marimba . . .

[Jim Clark]

Two other shots of Dan Spalding's 1977 Spirit drumline to go with unclez's.

Another shot of the Septoms.

[DCIHasBeen]

I think they used to call the Spirit thing the xylovibes ... I recall meeting the guy playing them somewhere down South on tour that year (although the bell player was far more interesting to most of the guys) ... Said the thing weighed a frikkin' ton and sounded like crap.

[JimF-LowBari]

In the mid 70's, Matadors carried Steel Drums, If my youthful memory serves me correctly...............I believe there were several guys that made up a section of steel players,.................

1975 Cabs and Matadors both had four guys carrying steel drums. Cabs had singles but Matadors had DOUBLE steel drums using straps. Never forget it as my buddy and I were standing at the front sideline at Mt Carmel exhibition and one of the Matadors crumpled right in front of us. Think he was OK but either he couldn't carry the weight or the straps squirreled up on him. Whole flippin' corps is blasting out the concert number around him and this poor bastich is down on his knees as people are trying to figure out who to get him out of the rig.

1976 Yankee Rebels had bell player with resonators. At Hershey competition both resonators came unhitched at one end and were swinging back and forth the rest of the show. This poor bugger was short and had to march leaning backwards or the resonators would hit the ground and flip him.

[Michael Boo]

I think they used to call the Spirit thing the xylovibes ... I recall meeting the guy playing them somewhere down South on tour that year (although the bell player was far more interesting to most of the guys) ... Said the thing weighed a frikkin' ton and sounded like crap.

Having had a chance to check out the contraption in person, I can tell you it didn't sound all that good, perhaps due to the parallel keyboards allowing for no resonators.

[DCIHasBeen]

Having had a chance to check out the contraption in person, I can tell you it didn't sound all that good, perhaps due to the parallel keyboards allowing for no resonators.

Also probably from using harder mallets to compensate for the lack of projection.