Percussion integration

[mingusmonk]

y'all sleeping on rarick

 

but thats ok

[KVG_DC]

4 hours ago, mingusmonk said:

y'all sleeping on rarick

 

but thats ok

Oh Bloo is another great example of pit/battery integration.  Bloopit has been astounding of late.  I think they sometimes get overlooked, as does Bloo guard, because they make it look so effortless and everything gets SO integrated sometimes, there's no single 'standout' moment where its any one single section prevalent in the music or the visual of the show.  That's one of the amazing things about Bloo's design and instructional teams is they really get the WHOLE corps functioning as a single unit.   

[wolfgang]

Back when Garfield got the perfect 20 in '87, there wasn't a drum feature in that show, at least as it had been presented throughout DCI history to that point.

[perc2100]

4 hours ago, KVG_DC said:

Oh Bloo is another great example of pit/battery integration.  Bloopit has been astounding of late.  I think they sometimes get overlooked, as does Bloo guard, because they make it look so effortless and everything gets SO integrated sometimes, there's no single 'standout' moment where its any one single section prevalent in the music or the visual of the show.  That's one of the amazing things about Bloo's design and instructional teams is they really get the WHOLE corps functioning as a single unit.   

Yeah I 100% agree with this: for quite awhile now it's felt like Bluecoats & SCV were the consistent gold standard.  Cavaliers have had some great years, same with BAC recently, but consistently Bluecoats music design has been absolutely outstanding, where they may feature the snare line, or bass line or whatnot and it rarely feels forced, but organic.  

I discovered drum corps in the early 1990's, and after first seeing a live show (highlighted by SCV '91's brilliant percussion design) I deep-dove into various video tapes and records of the 1980's and 1970's.  Through the 1990's it felt like the "percussion feature" seemed to maybe evolve to be more integrated with the brass (think, say, SCV 1998 and 1999 when the battery features were overlayed on top of brass features; or Crossmen 1996 with a similar design ethos).  IDK if I'd say that was the norm; you still had great percussion programs doing their own 'isolated' thing (and it's been a long time since I've really jumped in and hard corps analyzed stuff).

But yea, Bluecoats & SCV have been the most consistent 'organic' programs featuring percussion.

[Jeff Ream]

On 1/28/2026 at 9:03 AM, mingusmonk said:

y'all sleeping on rarick

 

but thats ok

not at all. one of the best. 

[OldCorpsGuy]

On 1/27/2026 at 5:03 PM, perc2100 said:

I think anyone can pick just about any SCV show from any era to see great integration of a percussion feature that doesn't disrupt the flow.  I still think their 1991 Miss Saigon production is THE gold standard of how to integrate front ensemble percussion into the marching idiom, and Paul & Sandy Rennick to an outstanding job recently with similar concepts (and before SCV they had outstanding percussion writing that didn't bust the flow of a production w/Phantom Regiment)

I think about that Miss Saigon show a lot since I moved right down the road from Ft. Campbell and all the helicopters from the 101st. 🤣

[IllianaLancerContra]

1976 & 86 Blue Devils Channel One Suite. Buddy Rich tune so you know the drum parts will mesh well. 

[Sh0uldN0t]

Is the percussion any different from the rest of modern design? While I agree that the drum "breaks" really do sometimes feel like a break in the show, so does so much of the brass program. Maybe even guard. I'd rather have a less choppy show, for sure. I don't think it's just a percussion issue. 

 

[wolfgang]

I understand why percussion features are not like back in the day, but for example, Black Market Juggler felt like a complete musical thought in and of itself. It didn't need to be augmented by the brass.

Bonus points if you can name the corps and year(s).

[arabica]

6 hours ago, Sh0uldN0t said:

Is the percussion any different from the rest of modern design? While I agree that the drum "breaks" really do sometimes feel like a break in the show, so does so much of the brass program. Maybe even guard. I'd rather have a less choppy show, for sure. I don't think it's just a percussion issue. 

 

Agreed. As a brass player, I would feel a bit slighted these days by how little playing time I had. And even so many of the brass moments are often small ensemble and soloists these days.

The musicianship today is out of this world and I still find the current state to be mostly entertaining, but brass books and the music design overall has become very “vertical” rather than “horizontal”. I’m grateful some corps still buck the trend.