Some advice, please

[CrunchyTenor]

I am in an incredible position. I started working with a rebuilding high school band program in Las Vegas last year. It's a school that has had some great programs in the past but had fallen on hard times...until a new director came in last year. He hired me to teach a small drumline (3S, 1T, 3B, 0C, 3P) and we definitely made some progress after breaking a few bad habits. The total size of winds and percussion was about 35, and 1 guard member.

We just got our numbers for the fall semester. We currently have 120 winds, 27 percussion and 37 guard signed up. We will have a huge freshman class. This is where you might be able to help me.

I've downloaded a bunch of audition and warm-up/etude stuff fram various drum corps, and still have all my exercises from SF Renegades in 2004. Obviously, this stuff is pretty advanced. What kind of things would you recommend for a line with lots of novice drummers that won't bore the couple of seniors and juniors I have?

Thanks,

Garry in Vegas

[drumcorpbc]

You can't go wrong with the basics.

Since it is a younger group, keep it simple with 8's, a double beat exercise, a two height exercise and a roll exercise. Yes, the seniors might get bored, but if you give them individual responsibilities to help the freshman, they may just latch on to it.

[jonnyboy]

Hard to do in a drumline, as we all play unison (snares, tenors). How about letting the better players do some riffing during warmups? Kinda like SCV Double Beat where it says "tenor over the top" at the end.....and one or two tenors jam too the end.

Also, can you be creative in the field show and maybe show case the more talented/skilled players some how? I've seen plenty of bands do this. One in particular had a 17 year old snare drummer who marched a top DCI drumline since he was 14. The kid was heads and tales above his classmates and even place high at snare individuals in DCI. He liked band and like playing in the line to teach the other kids. The tech also taught his corps line and let him SOLO (true solo, whole band and drumline stood still and didn't play) during the drum solo. He got about 20 seconds to show off and it was pretty cool, and gave him much deserved credit and time to really work out something cool.

Good luck, there is always a way to work problems like this out. Like another poster said, maybe some off field responsibilites might help out too, like writing a street beat or maintaining the drums.

[CrunchyTenor]

Good ideas, guys. Gives me some food for thought.

Garry in Vegas

[Chat_Capone]

the 15 basics. timing (16ths, triplets) as a huge brand new section means: a lot of rookies and learning a lot of new stuff.

flams and grace notes, dont even bother, 1.) they arent read that well and really with the line that big, it will only thicken the book. 2.)Clarity and uniformity is the name of the game. the book should be readible, not individually or linear written.

keyboard parts should be somewhat filling, but not simply doubling the melody or woodwinds, as this opens up exposure to front-back timing/interpretation and masking issues. Write intelligently, not for corps, regardless of the size. Think Tom Hannum: colors, timbres, juicy textures, lots of cymbal and gongs. Reef up any exposed solos and practice the heck out of them. stay away from any fast 16th pulsed open rolls...if they are playing diddles/rolls slowly, keep triplet pulsed rolls in the show, and practice the heck out of them.

Tracking....marking time....field rehearsals. the sooner they get used to moving and playing, the better. Anyone can sound great in the Arc, but its not the playing environment.

Dynamics and musicality: concentrate on this, supporting the winds and making a total ensemble, not a drumline + winds. water parts if necessary for the overall good of the ensemble. THINK ensemble and use a lot of time in stands, press box or instruction tower to listen overall. keep a pad, make notes.

Try to write intelligently off the bat, due to many changes will completely keep the performers confused and due to much shorter season, practice session than corps, it wont gel as quickly.

[Lglaser]

I am in an incredible position. I started working with a rebuilding high school band program in Las Vegas last year. It's a school that has had some great programs in the past but had fallen on hard times...until a new director came in last year. He hired me to teach a small drumline (3S, 1T, 3B, 0C, 3P) and we definitely made some progress after breaking a few bad habits. The total size of winds and percussion was about 35, and 1 guard member.

We just got our numbers for the fall semester. We currently have 120 winds, 27 percussion and 37 guard signed up. We will have a huge freshman class. This is where you might be able to help me.

I've downloaded a bunch of audition and warm-up/etude stuff fram various drum corps, and still have all my exercises from SF Renegades in 2004. Obviously, this stuff is pretty advanced. What kind of things would you recommend for a line with lots of novice drummers that won't bore the couple of seniors and juniors I have?

Thanks,

Garry in Vegas

Ha I wish that happened to ours

3S 2T 3B 1C 1P

But in 4 years your going to be awesome.

Good luck!

[SkyDog]

I've just completed my third year of basically building a high school drum line from scratch. What I've tried to do is to keep the exercise program simple and focused. Instead of just throwing a big book of exercises at them, I tried to figure out what concepts I wanted the kids to master in the short term and I picked out an exercise or two to reinforce each concept. Once they become proficient at those, we add something to build upon it.

Below is the basic stuff I started with:

• Eight on a Hand for the basic legato stroke, basic listening skills, figuring out what to do with the non-playing hand, marking time, basic bass & tenor splits...
  
• SCV's Thirteen to define tap/accent heights (and to have fun playing something a little funky)
  
• The ol' Sanford Double Beat / Triple Beat to introduce multiple strokes
  
• After they got the hang of double strokes, we added Huggadiggaburr at very-slow-to-moderate tempos so they could figure out how to play a clean roll.
  

...and in case it motivate them a little, I threw Ditty into the exercise packet. We've never really touched it other than a segment or two with a student one-on-one, but I wanted them to know there are things beyond Eight on a Hand that we can get around to playing if/when they learn the basics needed to do it right.

Since then, we've added (and retired) a couple of exercises. Triplet Diddle and Flam Accent Heights have been added to the book and we'll probably play some sort of Shopping Spree this fall. I'd also like to try something along the lines of SCV's (old?) Stick Control. We could probably stand to do more grids, too, especially to work on timing for the feet.

As for fun stuff to play, I tried to take care of that with the show music for the most part.

Edited July 6, 2008 by SkyDog

[charliebucket45]

I am in an incredible position. I started working with a rebuilding high school band program in Las Vegas last year. It's a school that has had some great programs in the past but had fallen on hard times...until a new director came in last year. He hired me to teach a small drumline (3S, 1T, 3B, 0C, 3P) and we definitely made some progress after breaking a few bad habits. The total size of winds and percussion was about 35, and 1 guard member.

We just got our numbers for the fall semester. We currently have 120 winds, 27 percussion and 37 guard signed up. We will have a huge freshman class. This is where you might be able to help me.

I've downloaded a bunch of audition and warm-up/etude stuff fram various drum corps, and still have all my exercises from SF Renegades in 2004. Obviously, this stuff is pretty advanced. What kind of things would you recommend for a line with lots of novice drummers that won't bore the couple of seniors and juniors I have?

Thanks,

Garry in Vegas

Well see... this stuff is great but.. you might wanna try to get involved with some elephant creatures along the way if you wanna take scott johnson's job of

teaching the blue devils.

[gafoo]

I work with the basics, (standard 8-8-16, Sanford Double/Triple beat, Triplet Diddle, Accent Tap) but I always try to write with a groove. For instance, we play double beat but one section will play a groove check pattern while the other sections play the exercise. So that way the kids are having some fun while they are working fundamentals. Of course, having the seniors running the line (teaching exercises, facing command, discipline) goes a long way towards keeping them engaged and not getting bored. The other thing I do is hand out additional pieces of music for my more advanced players and periodically test them. They like the extra challenge.

[Mikeydubz]

I know this is kind of late, but if the kids are novice, I would just have all the drums you own set up on the very first day and have a bunch of copies of the book, then just let the kids get on a drum and run through an exercise or two, then have them rotate to a different drum. it's kind of letting you see what the kids are best at individually, so later on, you can let them go into subs and teach the desired technique/grip for each section. Obviously teh spots are going to be filled pretty soon and kids are still gonna want to play a specific instrument, so tell them to practice, so when you need a spot when someone leaves you are prepared. sprry if it doesn't make sense, i am in a hurry.

I hope this can help you, mike.