Most Influential Instructor

[danguernsey]

For me it was Tom Float. Truly, I learned just about everything I know from Tom, marching in 80 and 81 Spirit of Atlanta.

Tom is a demanding teacher, there's no doubt, but the results he gets are incredible. Just being exposed to the way he thinks is an education! :)

The "west coast" drumming style he brought to Atlanta permeated the region and lives on as the prominent drumming style in the Southeast even today as those of us who were taught by him, or taught by others that he taught went out and taught even still others his way of playing. I'm proud that his style is today the basis of the CorpsVets Sr. line.

Fred Sanford developed the "west coast style" in 1970-71 with SCV, particularly the interpretation of double-stroke rolls and drags. It spread quickly among west coast corps from 1972-75, including the Kingsmen, the corps that Float and Hardimon marched in. Float took it with him to Oakland Crusaders in 1975 and, as you know, Spirit in the late 70s/early 80s. Sanford brought it to us (Scouts) in 1976 when he wrote and instructed us that year.

Dan Guernsey

Madison Scouts, 1970-77

Oh! By the way, did you ever see Scott Pearson (Scouts) perform in tenor individuals in 1980-83?

[RobH]

After seeing Tom Sorensen play with the Junior Kilties from 65-69, and having him instruct in the snares in 70, it was impressive to discover that he is even today instructing the Senior Kilties - you don't find dedication like that any more!

I especially recall when the 69 Kilts were winning EVERYTHING that year, I caught the show at the WI State Fair, there was Sorny right before the Auld Lang Syne Bugle Call doing his snare solo - playing his heart out, red faced, exhausted, but after 33 years I've never forgotten it.

Sorny has my vote for most influential instructor!

[Tripdid]

I marched one year under Ralph Hardimon. Although he wasn't the biggest influence in my career, he had by far the most ominous presence of anyone i had played under. It was really funny how quickly the 10 snares cleaned up when Ralph showed up on the scene. If a blind person was sitting in front of us you could tell when Ralph walked up and when he left. Just something about him brought out the best in all of us.

[CVsnare]

Dan,

I never got to see Scott Pearson play in individuals, but it seems to me that I remember the name.

Thanks for the info on the origins of the west-coast style. Float certainly did have some incredible lines with Oakland Crusaders before coming to Atlanta.

[danguernsey]

Dan,

I never got to see Scott Pearson play in individuals, but it seems to me that I remember the name.

Thanks for the info on the origins of the west-coast style. Float certainly did have some incredible lines with Oakland Crusaders before coming to Atlanta.

Hey Jeff,

Boy, he sure did and you guys smoked also!

Dan Guernsey

Madison Scouts, 1970-77

[danguernsey]

Dan,

I never got to see Scott Pearson play in individuals, but it seems to me that I remember the name.

Thanks for the info on the origins of the west-coast style. Float certainly did have some incredible lines with Oakland Crusaders before coming to Atlanta.

Oh! Jeff, I forgot to ask in my previous post. Did you know Dwayne Lewis and Steffanie Niehoff? If I recall, they worked with Spirit's drum line in 79/80 under Float. Dwayne marched under Float with Oakland in 75' and 76' and Steffanie I knew going back to the early 70s when she marched with the all-girl corps in Madison, the Capitalaires. I ask because they were good friends of mine when they lived in Madison in the mid-late 80s. I've been out of touch with them for awhile. Thanks.

Dan Guernsey

Madison Scouts, 1970-77

[sarnia sam]

quote]

Fred Sanford developed the "west coast style" in 1970-71 with SCV, particularly the interpretation of double-stroke rolls and drags. It spread quickly among west coast corps from 1972-75, including the Kingsmen, the corps that Float and Hardimon marched in. Float took it with him to Oakland Crusaders in 1975 and, as you know, Spirit in the late 70s/early 80s. Sanford brought it to us (Scouts) in 1976 when he wrote and instructed us that year.

Dan Guernsey

Madison Scouts, 1970-77

Oh! By the way, did you ever see Scott Pearson (Scouts) perform in tenor individuals in 1980-83?

Dan:

Tom was with Freelancers in 75.

I find this format hard to trace replys on. It's more time consuming than the other two forums, so I'm going to add a note to you from another thread.

Re: the carriers. I haven't had a chance to get into my squirrled away stuff. I'll buy SCV & Devs in 79.

As to your reply to my note. I have so little time to flesh out what I'm thinking lately, but you interpreted what I meant perfectly (playing Stone Ground Seven, etc.). It would be good to hear a line that had someone writing like that again. I wish I had an outlet up here, or I'd be doing it myself.

On to this thread.

My first instructor was Norm Campbell, father of Steven and assorted other Campbell brothers. He taught everyone together, by himself, on boards in the winter. It was breakdown one rudiment after another, plus some scottish stuff. But the best thing he did was take the corps to Marion, Butler, and Toledo to see the open class corps. He figured we would soak up what lines like Anahiem, SCV, and Bridgemen were doing and it would transfer to our work ethic. It did.

Tom Float was a real eye opener. There isn't anyone better on the planet to learn how to get clean from. Even though he was gone to Atlanta in 78, we carried on with what we learned from him. It wasn't just about doing it over and over again. He had a way of findig the little things that made a difference. Everything he did with us was too logical, from seeing the one guy who was lifting a bit too high, or one note in the basses that was causing a tick in the next bar.

He was also the first drum instructor I had that paid as much attention to what the horns were doing, especially when what they did had a bearing on how we listened to each other. I never heard a guy rag on the horns for things like dragging, or hanging over on a release, or not counting rests properly like he did. I could go on and on about the things Tom did that were new to learn, yet made such perfect sense, but that could turn into a book.

Sam Kayes, who marched Anahiem with Tom, Ralph, and Al Murray (who by the way was in Toronto in 75 and 76), wrote some of the most interesting stuff I've played. Check out Oaklands from 78 and Optimists from 75 through 77.

I never had Fred Sanford as an instructor, but I learned one #### of a lot about arranging from listening carefully to the stuff he wrote.

Regards,

John Swartz

[danguernsey]

quote]

Fred Sanford developed the "west coast style" in 1970-71 with SCV, particularly the interpretation of double-stroke rolls and drags. It spread quickly among west coast corps from 1972-75, including the Kingsmen, the corps that Float and Hardimon marched in. Float took it with him to Oakland Crusaders in 1975 and, as you know, Spirit in the late 70s/early 80s. Sanford brought it to us (Scouts) in 1976 when he wrote and instructed us that year.

Dan Guernsey

Madison Scouts, 1970-77

Oh! By the way, did you ever see Scott Pearson (Scouts) perform in tenor individuals in 1980-83?

Dan:

Tom was with Freelancers in 75.

As to your reply to my note. I have so little time to flesh out what I'm thinking lately, but you interpreted what I meant perfectly (playing Stone Ground Seven, etc.). It would be good to hear a line that had someone writing like that again. I wish I had an outlet up here, or I'd be doing it myself.

On to this thread.

My first instructor was Norm Campbell, father of Steven and assorted other Campbell brothers. He taught everyone together, by himself, on boards in the winter. It was breakdown one rudiment after another, plus some scottish stuff. But the best thing he did was take the corps to Marion, Butler, and Toledo to see the open class corps. He figured we would soak up what lines like Anahiem, SCV, and Bridgemen were doing and it would transfer to our work ethic. It did.

Tom Float was a real eye opener. There isn't anyone better on the planet to learn how to get clean from. Even though he was gone to Atlanta in 78, we carried on with what we learned from him. It wasn't just about doing it over and over again. He had a way of findig the little things that made a difference. Everything he did with us was too logical, from seeing the one guy who was lifting a bit too high, or one note in the basses that was causing a tick in the next bar.

He was also the first drum instructor I had that paid as much attention to what the horns were doing, especially when what they did had a bearing on how we listened to each other. I never heard a guy rag on the horns for things like dragging, or hanging over on a release, or not counting rests properly like he did. I could go on and on about the things Tom did that were new to learn, yet made such perfect sense, but that could turn into a book.

Sam Kayes, who marched Anahiem with Tom, Ralph, and Al Murray (who by the way was in Toronto in 75 and 76), wrote some of the most interesting stuff I've played. Check out Oaklands from 78 and Optimists from 75 through 77.

I never had Fred Sanford as an instructor, but I learned one #### of a lot about arranging from listening carefully to the stuff he wrote.

Regards,

John Swartz

John,

"Tom was with Freelancers in 75."

Thanks for the clarification and sharing your experiences with Tom F. He sure was meticulous.

"I have so little time to flesh out what I'm thinking lately, but you interpreted what I meant perfectly (playing Stone Ground Seven, etc.). It would be good to hear a line that had someone writing like that again."

Yes, my statement about recovering in principle what lines did back then was directed to those folks who might think I'm too retro: I should have signed posted my shift in audience from you to them more clearly. I did the same thing in a reply to Mike Davis when I urged him to listen to '66 Cavies (which he obviously knows having marched then). It was directed to the younger guys so that they can get a sense of where drumming was at in the past to understand fully where it is today. I've gotta watch those shifts :-).

"I never had Fred Sanford as an instructor, but I learned one #### of a lot about arranging from listening carefully to the stuff he wrote."

I was so excited to hear that he was coming to us in 1976. Before he arrived, I was already steeped in his approach to tenors and was looking forward to honing those skills further, which I did. The sad thing about 1976 is that Fred was not only drum arranger/instructor, but also program coordinator. He had a strong hand in selecting the music for "Madison Scouts Part I" in '76, which ended up in disaster. Fred was demoted and we scrapped Fred's entire program after our California tour in early July. We pulled out of all of our shows in early-mid July and went into a 2-week marathon camp to learn and clean an entire new show, mostly based on the "glories" of 1975-"Madison Scouts Part II." Fred's music selection in "Scouts-Part I" wasn't right for us, but those drum charts were a blast to play (we were consistently getting 4.8s in drum build up in early-mid June! For the younger guys, that was out of 5 pts.). Even today, I'll pull out some sticks and go through those charts--I still have much of that show memorized (as well as 1975). It was a new venture for Fred, but I think he was in over his head as program coordinator; he should have stuck to what he did best: write and instruct drum lines.

Some fellow Scout buddies and I use to joke that Gail Royer had sent Fred out to us in '76 on a secret sabotage mission as pay back for winning DCI in 1975 :-).

In any event, we redeemed ourselves pretty well taking 2nd at DCI finals, despite the noted horn phasing problems in "MacArthur's Park." We were pushed to the limit, unfortunately. We also won drum execution that night thanks to Fred. So, all wasn't lost for us, nor him :-).

all the best,

Dan Guernsey

Madison Scouts, 1970-77

[dugada]

I'd have to say Jack Mehan with the early 80's Blue Devils.  In 82 he created one of the most awsome and internally cohesive soprano lines I have ever been a part of, and I've been in a few.  He was instrumental in my early education and giving me the opportunity to advance in the BD organization.

Wayne Downey,  Awsome leadership and fantastic arrangements.  He's also gone up in my estimation as you know who doesnt like him very much.

Chris Nalls.  Current Renegade guru.  One of the guy's but still has the leadership and creativity to make a great corps.  Purveyor of loud, inventor of the Infinitrill, keep up the good work.  Were gonna be f@#$ing famous!!

Dugada

BDB and BD 78-85

Renegades 01-02 ]:-)

[Sean1]

For me personnaly, It was Chris Thompson, Dale Adair and Ed Teleky