You…you know about the Crossmen? I was thinking about joining the Blue Devils, and I have a friend in The Academy right now. How do you know so much about Drum Corps? I thought I was the only band nerd on this website O.o

edit: Just kidding, I read the first paragraph this time. Hey wow! That's awesome! Congrats on making the Crossmen! What instrument do you play? :D

Oh, I didn't make it to Crossmen – I didn't even audition. I wish, though! I play low brass; baritone/euphonium, or contra. I can also march cymbals, and am going to take mallet lessons next semester. Last season I was with Music City, but my arm was broken and I couldn't hold my instrument so I moved to kitchen staff and that was fine for a few days but I had to go home because of family issues. Needless to say this is my age-out season and I won't be marching so I've completely missed my chance. At least there's DCA [:P].

My advice to you is if you want to join a corps, start with an open class corps or lower world class because they will teach you what you don't know, and are more family-oriented. World class is fast and mostly expects you to know what you're doing when you start. If you live around the California area, I recommend Velvet Knights, or Mandarins. Hell, even Blue Devils B (much better than A corps in my opinion).

I loved that last video. =D

I love the precision and complexity of the drums, and I could listen to to it for hours (after which I would have to go listen to something else for a little while, of course). I don't really like the brass instruments though, as it seems to take emphasis away from the awesomeness that is the drumming. (I don't mean that in a mean way, but the drumming is the part that I like about it).

I guess that's not really a comment about drum corps itself, just a statement of what I like to hear, haha.

I noticed in the video of the current(?) crossmen, they're all wearing a wrist band thingy. Is it supposed to be for anything special? Or is it kind of like the one basketball players wear?

Rudimental drumming is sex. I kid you not. Most percussionists wear wrist bands to keep sweat off of the arms because they rehearse about 19 hours a day so they sweat a lot. Some wrist bands also have that "natural metal" in it that's suppose to "increase energy". Drew Guy is the best example of wrist bands. lol

Some of the best names in the world drum corps percussion:

Aged-out: Thom Hannum (former drumline arranger/instructor of Star of Indiana, the greatest drum corps to exist) Scott "ScoJo" Johnson (percussion caption head of Blue Devils), Murrey Gusseck (percussion caption head of The Academy), Nick Werth (Phantom Regiment age-out), Paul Rennick (percussion caption head of Santa Clara Vanguard), Casey Brohard (Blue Devils age-out), Tim Jackson (Blue Devils age-out), Drew Guy (Bluecoats age-out), Ralph Hardimon (retired instructor), Mike McIntosh (percussion arranger for the Cavaliers), Bill Bachman (A.K.A, "The Quad God" see it to believe it).

In corps: Keelan Tobia (snare in Blue Devils), etc. (can't think of anyone else).

I couldn't agree more.

Also, natural metal giving you energy is a load of shit. :(

Thanks for all the links, haha. I enjoyed them, and were pretty interestingb (the Nick Werth one was cheesy as hell, I loved it XD). And yes, I've spent the last three hours watching them all (and some related videos).

I can tell brass would definately be the hardest, but I just don't enjoy it as much.

Okay, I have a few quesitons. Let me start off by saying a play a drum kit, and have for the past three years. My drum teacher is really good, and is well trained, but I explained to him that I don't really want to get good at drums, I just want to be able to play well enough to relax and enjoy it, so he only teaches me rudiments from time to time…And it's made slower by my lack of practicing them every week, so he keeps having to have me revisit them.

1) Why is it called a corps? I had always thought that a corps was a military division, or something like that.

2) Is it required that you use traditional grip, or is matched grip accepted? (I assume it wouldn't be used, unless the whole line uses it, or you'd look out of place and lose points though)

And how hard is it to use matched grip? I know traditional was made "traditional" because it was easier to handle with a marching snare (I don't know if that's the right name, but I'll probably be making up a lot of vocabulary as I go. =P).

2) Other than the showmanship stuff (tricks and twirls and all that), as well as, of course, memorizing the book and choreography, is there a lot more that you need to practice?

I play on a drum kit, and I don't really practice a whole lot, and I'm just bad with drums in general, but I can do a basic double stroke roll, am fairly comfortable with accenting any note with either hand, and can do triplets and stuff like that. To me, watching these videos is just a blur, and I'm not really following what they're doing (I haven't done any seocnd watch-throughs to analyze it or anything…Not that I'd pickup much anyway), but it seems like it's just a lot of buzzing and quick strokes (and sustaining it), rim shots, accents, sticking patterns, power control (volume?) and hitting the head at different places. I'm sure there's all sorts of tuplets too.

So I guess question 2 is "what's involved in snare drumming"? I don't at all mean to imply "it looks simple, even I could do it". I just mean that what I picked up looks simple, but I'm sure I'm missing a ton (especially after seeing videos like that scojo one)

3) Kinda carried on from 2 (and kinda retarded): how much of the practice time is the stick control stuff, and how much of it is practicing the tricks and stuff (like getting faster with backsticking and stuff)? I guess it depends on each person, but I would imagine that by the time a lot of people get to DCI level, their stick control is pretty good, and they'd work more on the flashy stuff.

4) What does "age-out" mean? Just got too old?

5) I noticed a lot of the drummers are wearing overalls. Is that to assist/pad when caring the drums? Or is there something more?

6) Is there a lot of power in the playing? A lot of the fast stuff looks like buzz rolls and stuff (I basically know a single stroke roll, and double stroke roll, and a buzz roll, haha).

If you look at a lot of metal drummers playing blast beats, like Mauro Mercurio or Jazz (and stuff) drummers like Jojo Mayer (skip to 1:0), they can play extremely fast and precise (well, fast enough to be musical within their genre), but the sound also caries really well. You don't really see a lot of drumline-style snare solos in popular music - is it just because it doesn't fit with many other styles of music, or is it just not easy to get that kind of speed and tehcnicality loud enough from a single snare?

Umm…I might have more later, but I'm all drummed out after watching all these videos.

To your statement about your drumming, I recommend you get a drum pad and a set of 5A sticks from your favorite company. I also recommend the HQ pad because it has a rubber side for chop building and a hard side for resistance and rebound. Also, I do recommend learning traditional because it comes in handy with jazz and rudimental snare — even on the set.

1) The word “corpsâ€? is derived from the French word “corpsâ€?, which is “bodyâ€?. So, it describes the ‘body’ as a whole, as one large, functioning group. Drum corps is based off of the old drum and fife modal that marched into the battlefield and later evolved into tattoo and the US Naval/Marine Drum Corps. Such organizations inspired drum corps.

2) Traditional grip is required, but from time-to-time some group will daringly use matched grip (Santa Clara Vanguard 2005 (matched) compared to Santa Clara Vanguard 2007 (traditional)). I know of one school program that uses matched grip and always has: Dartmouth HS (the video is from their indoor performance warmup — indoor percussion is just percussion marching and is very popular amongst percussionists; watch Pulse's 2010 show… so beautiful, or Timber Creek’s amazing 2009 show).

Traditional grip was originally invented to make it easier to play the rope drum, which has a slight tilt, but over the years marching drums got rid of the tilt, but kept the traditional grip because “it’s traditionâ€?.

3) Yes; aside from the book, ALL lines start their regimen with a good ol’ dose of the basics. Warmups build around stick control, accent taps and patterns, diddles, triplets and triplet diddles, flams, legatos, etc. are all practiced before anything is worked on or learned. Everyone has to be on the same level of consistency and perfection, as well as play perfectly in time as each individual section for the drumline to work and be clean. Dirt during practice is normal, and is very frowned upon, and any sign of it will be immediately worked out by continuous reps until it’s gone.

There is a lot of work involved in snare drumming. While segments can be very rhythmically complex and very challenging, others can be simple “eights on a handâ€? (so to speak; a classic exercise that practices legato eight notes on one hand, alternating each measure). The site mentioned on “8 on a Handâ€? is an excellent resource to learning. The snarescience community (found in the forums; which I am a member of, also) is full of experienced percussionists, as well as beginners, and most all are friendly (every community has a few of those people) and willing to help. Drumming in general requires basics first, control second, and timing overall — but none more important than the other.

4) Stick control requires patience and you have to have it. Finding a met online or if you have an Android phone, download “Mobile Metronomeâ€?, grab a practice pad, and start working. One always has to work with a metronome to acquire the ability to stay on time and that’s obviously true for any instrumentalist. DCI-level percussionists mostly start in elementary or middle school with practice pads, sticks, and an instructor, and work on the same thing every day. They learn exactly what everyone else learns with a pad and sticks (rudiments, timing, stick control). When they get to high school, most will end up marching and they’ll learn to play as a whole line if they’re instructed correctly (which is not always the case). Then if they want to make it into DCI, they have to work really hard and most don’t make the cut; DCI is very selective and only takes the best of the best. Even when they get into drum corps, they’ll still be practicing stick control. Simply put, if you learn it correctly, you’ll always need to practice it because just like anything else, what is learned can be lost (because there’s so much to learn overall for that activity).

If you want to play set, your instructor knows what you need to learn, but it’s up to you to keep practicing. The best part about having a pad and sticks is you can play on it at any time.

5) Age-out is like a “coming of ageâ€? moment for members. When you turn 21, your body has passed the physical peak the activity demands, and otherwise your life in the outside world really comes together, so members are always aged-out at 21, but that’s only DCI. DCA is all-age, and weekend-only practices are required.

6) The overalls are suspenders and part of the uniform. The uniform is composed of a shirt with optional pants (you don’t want to wear them because you’re going to be really fucking hot… I promise), the suspenders, marching shoes, and a thick uniform.

7) There is a lot of power in playing, but if you put one snare on a field you can hardly hear it — hence why multiple snares, and multiple instruments are marched. Since all snares generally play the same thing, this rule applies: “The more of one instrument, the larger the voice.â€? Drumline snare solos don’t fit well into popular music on drum set because they may be of the same family, but not of the same playability. While you can play drum set like a set of tenor drums, it’s just generally accepted to play it as it’s always been played over the years.

A wonderful example about how music is separated throughout the battery, this is a bass drum sectional of The Cadets:

A lot of people make the mistake of saying bass drum is easy, or don’t work as hard as the rest of the section but on the contrary they have the most challenging music. They literally split rhythms and notes that snares and quads play, as well as what they don’t, and to me, I have to give massive, massive props to these guys. Each space on a staff is for one bass drum — normally 4 − 6 in each line but usually 5. It requires perfect timing and cannot be a split second off. An example of bass drum music, and the music being played.

Geez, another half hour of watching videos, haha. But thanks for answering the questions.

I've actually got an HQ pad (a few actually, 'cause I throw one in a backpack, assume I've lost it, and buy a new one). Why the 5A sticks?

I also have a couple metronomes (for the same reason), and an electronic drum kit with both a metronome, and a scope screen, that really helps.

I hate to see such a long post and reply with such a short one, but you did answer my questions, and I've learned a lot about this stuff in the past two days thanks to you and auxiliary videos. =)

5As are small, thin, and light, thus if you can learn to control the annoying free-flying bounciness of it you might as well be able to control anything. xD Just my generalization of it.

If you have any more, feel free to ask! It seems someone else benefited from the questions as well.