From: jerger@d0msu7.fnal.gov
Newsgroups: alt.drumcorps
Subject: Re: Percussion Techniques (was: Re: Original Corps Compositions)
Date: 28 Aug 92 21:58:30 -0600
Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Lab

My own 2 cents added to the various dimensions of this thread:

In article <1992Aug28.183156.6559@beaver.cs.washington.edu>, dci@cs.washington.edu (Donald Chinn) writes:
>> In article <BtpG23.9Gs@wpi.WPI.EDU> ddm@wpi.WPI.EDU (David D Marshall) writes:
>>
>>           (stuff deleted)
>>
>>
>>After marching in Spirit's drumline in '88, I started taking lessons from a
>>great percussionist from ASYO.  The first few months where spent fixing my
>>playing style that I had learned from Spirit.  Playing techniques of drum
>>corps are VERY different from playing orchestral music (for percussion at
>>least).  I would guess then that the reason that drum corps gets knocked is 
>>that it does no good for the "real" styles of playing.  BTW, this guy
>>marched Spirit in '81 so he wasn't hard on corps he was just truthful.
>>

In my own experience:
The difference between what you can (within variations) call "corps style"
drumming and what you might learn as a drumset or orchestral player often
makes for some conflict. I know an extremely good set teacher who goes 
apoplectic when he gets a "corps drummer" in his practice room, and at least
partially for good reason - a lot of marching drummers (particularly
high school players taught by  former high school players taught by corps
players) have been taught a very stiff, wristy, restrictive manner of
playing. So when my friend the set player starts to teach them how to
fully use their arms and fingers, without unnecessary tension, they often
have a lot of bad habits to overcome.
    On the other hand, the marching idiom has a lot of requirements such
as uniformity, visual effect, use of high tension heads, etc., which 
result in certain logical adjustments to the playing style; and IMHO
I don't quite buy the line of my set teacher friend that all such things are
b.s. to be abolished as "impediments to true drumming technique." They're an 
integral part of what makes marching drumlines unique, and I don't think that
playing within certain style restrictions necessarily has to destroy good 
technique. Anyway, enough said on this....

> 
> Some months ago (perhaps it was over a year ago), The Instrumentalist
> magazine had an article on snare techniques.  I wish I had the article
> in front of me ...
> 
> Anyway, one of the things the article talked about was how there are
> two kinds of drum rolls for snare: the concert roll and the military
> roll.  The basic difference is that in a military roll, the stick strikes
> the drum head twice for every stroke, whereas in a concert roll the
> stick strikes the head an indefinite number of times per stroke.  The
> article basically said that percussion instructors usually teach one
> kind of roll or the other, but that the student will only be able to
> do that kind of roll.  The article then went on to suggest a method
> of teaching both kinds of rolls so that students could do both.
> 
> For you drum corps percussionists out there: how difficult was/is it
> for you to learn how to do a concert roll (or, rather, "unlearn" the
> military roll to be able to do a concert roll)?
> 
> I personally would like to hear more concert rolls in drum corps
> performances, even though it would be less impressive visually.
> 

Actually, both types of rolls are used in drum corps. They fill different
roles (pun intended) musically, with the open roll serving as a more textured
sound, and the closed roll as a thicker, smoother sound (the name "buzz" roll 
fits). Open rolls expose the cleanliness of the line more, while closed 
rolls tend to be used more as support/background, but still have to be 
executed smoothly person to person for uniformity. If you want some tasty 
closed rolls, SCV's '84 drum solo springs to mind.
    Visually, they don't look that much different. Actually, that sometimes 
works to your advantage. A couple of years ago, I inherited a H.S. line 
and their snare players were real weak, so I wrote a lot of short buzz 
rolls in place of open rolls (five strokes, if you know what that means),
and also kind of tucked them underneath other voices a bit. Plus the
line had a nice, professional look to them, which helps a lot. So at 
one of the first shows we beat some other lines we probably shouldn't have, 
and when I get the tapes the drum judge is listening to this buzz passage
from up in the box, and when the snares play a few of these a little too
loud he says " Whoa, snares, a little dirty on those five-strokes!"
So looking at the sheets, what we lost in exec. we gained twice over
from him giving us credit for playing fives he couldn't quite hear the
rest of the show! I thought that was hilarious...


                                            Steve Jerger
                                            jerger@msupa.pa.msu.edu



Organization: Junior, Civil Engineering, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA