From: dci@cs.washington.edu (Donald Chinn)
Newsgroups: alt.drumcorps
Subject: Percussion Techniques (was: Re: Original Corps Compositions)
Date: 28 Aug 92 18:31:56 GMT
Organization: Computer Science & Engineering, U. of Washington, Seattle

In article <BtpG23.9Gs@wpi.WPI.EDU> ddm@wpi.WPI.EDU (David D Marshall) writes:
>In article <1992Aug26.181214.628@vela.acs.oakland.edu> bfhalls@vela.acs.oakland.edu (HALLS BRADLEY F) writes:
>>In article <1992Aug26.013447.13553@beaver.cs.washington.edu> dci@cs.washington.edu (Donald Chinn) writes:
>>
>           (stuff deleted)
>
>>>I felt that Prof. Cambell's little introduction to the percussion section
>>>in the PBS broadcast to be very informative and interesting.  I suspect that
>>>drum corps is fairly close to the cutting edge of percussion techniques,
>>>but I could be wrong (drum corps is probably not on the cutting edge when
>>>it comes to keyboard instruments).
>>
>>This is a debatable and fairly controversial subject amoung musicians.
>>Drum corps has long had a reputation as a "bastard" idiom, and not worthy of
>>the respect of "serious" musicians. People like Jim Campbell (Cavaliers,
>>University of Kentucky), Fred Sanford, Tim Salzman (Cavaliers, Univ. of
>>Washington), John Madden (Phantom Regiment, Michigan State University), and
>>many others are working hard to give drum corps the reputation it deserves
>>as a legitimate musical idiom. There are many, though, that would disagree
>>with this. :-( Part of the problem is that Drum Corps percussion sections
>>have a unique approach and instrumentation, and cannot be compared to modern
>>percussion ensembles with any degree of accuracy. (IMHO)!
>
>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.
>

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.

BTW, there were/are plenty of other good articles on percussion in the
Instrumentalist over the last couple years.  There was some article on
the N basic percussion rudiments (trivia quiz for percussionists: what
number is N?)

-- Donald
Newsgroups: alt.drumcorps