r/drumline

Last year I was in snare and had a pretty good season, we broke district records and overall just did great. This season I got put on tenors and I'm a section leader. I'm F16 5'1 and I'm very concerned about being able to carry them. I've done some conditioning with the tenors at my house but I can only carry for around 12 minutes before I start shaking. I really don't want to let my section down as I am a section leader. Please help idk what to do. Band camp starts on the 14th of this month.

I want to buy a practice pad stand that can last forever, needs to be able to get tall enough for standing practice, can hold any pad, can tilt, very sturdy, please someone give me a good recommendation I’m so tired of buying bad stands :(

How do I get one of my members to care?

I am the section leader of my HS Marching Bands Bassline and one of our members simply does not care. He has showed up to only 2 rehersals, and missing multiple required events. Our Percussion teacher has not cut him but he simply doesn't care. Does anyone have any ways on how I can try and appeal to him and make him want to give an effort? I like this kid and think he could for sure do it, he is on bass 5 and his part is not crazy difficult at all.

I just got my first gig ever teaching a high school cymbal line. They’re all brand new at cymbals so it’ll be teaching from the ground up. Anyone have any tips as to how to approach this? I’ve got my own plan but I’m looking to get more ideas to formulate the best course of action. Thank you.

Little background my son currently plays snare at his middle school and plays drumset and gets drumset lessons outside of school. He loves drums and now has his sights set on the marching tenors when he gets to high school and was relentless. He was trying to make his own with goodwill bongos and started working out his core and back more to make sure he can carry them with good posture because he is set on playing them come freshamn year.

So, trying to be supportive mom, I kept an eye on secondhand sites and started saving up. When I saw decent looking marching tenors (5 drums) that seemed like a steal (don't really know enough to really know), I bought them. He obsessed and has played them hours everyday since getting them a couple weeks ago. Money well spent since he is insanely appreciative . But, I started to realize I was in over my head...

If you have any tips for my many oversights let me know...

1. They came with a harness, didn't even think of a stand, and later found out that a stand is insanely expensive.

2. I went to the local music store to see if they have anyone who can give him a couple of lessons to get him started and make sure they were set at the correct height and stuff... no one, not even an idea of where I could go to find someone.

3. He watches youtube to try to learn cadences (I think thats what they are called). Does anyone have any recommendation on where to find that kind of stuff like written down/typed (so he doesnt have to watch viedos over and over)? Is there a good youtube channel for technique tips and stuff like that? Are there candences or jigs that pretty much everyone plays that he should work on?

4. The drums have some minor wear because they are used. There are little scuffs inbetween the two middle drums (of the bigger 4). Should I try to clear coat the scuffed areas or something? Also, the bottom rubber on the bottom of one of the shells is kind of peeled out like not sticking to the shell anymore. Should I glue it? The music store guy said super glue should work but not so sure if I should use super glue.

5. Is there a right way for them to be positioned when not playing them. The slanted bottoms have me puzzled on how to store them when not in use.

Would literally be appreciative of any help with things like what you wish you knew when you started or any resources that are helpful.

Hello everyone,

I just got into a collegiate drumline! I'm really excited - but I did get dropped from snare drum to cymbals, and I've discovered that cymbal playing uses very different muscle groups than I'm used to.

I have pretty good core, ankle, and wrist strength from marching on snare. However, I need to work on my leg strength (snares can roll step, while cymbals have to do a high step/chair step) and especially my arm strength. I've done a bit of conditioning in the past for drum majoring, but our band hasn't marched in two years (we had an unfortunate combination of weather hazards and schedule conflicts) and I can't remember much of the specifics. Does anyone have exercise and exercise-adjacent advice (things like diets, routines, and safety tips) to help me get into shape for September?

Thank you!

I am bored. Therefore I am going to write a quad lick using everything in the comments and then I will make a video of me playing it.

Hi all! I’m looking for a new pad.
I’m a percussion caption head so it’s just for my playing around at home. Doesn’t have to travel much and lives on a stand. Maybe in a bag for rehearsal but that’s not needed too much.
My current one is that orange tapspace offworld pad. The small oval of off world material has just about disintegrated and has actually come out but the rest of the playing area is gum rubber. Still great and rim in tact. Wonderful pad really. I’d highly recommend if you’re looking for a gum rubber pad.
I want to try a newer design of pad from RCP, Salyers or something.
Looking for something articulate but feels good. Wasn’t ever a fan of xymox (I know they’re gone or something but just as comparison). Might do more videos of drumming.
Considering I haven’t shopped for pads for over a decade would love some recommendations. I mostly care about durability and I don’t really have a reason to go out and buy the most expensive pad on the market. So if any of you have gotten pads from multiple companies in the past year or two, I would love to hear what you think.
Been eye balling the watermelon rcp pad.
What do yall think?

When I google it I get more modern drums, but also I get the model, no white hardware. Google doesnt seem to understand my question, is there anywhere I can find this?

Hey! I’ve been told many times (and know it to be true) to quit squeezing with my left. I feel like it’s really engrained in me unless i’m playing like 8s, but the second i actually play music sometimes im white knuckling my left. I’ve trained myself to relax when playing flam taps, but in any other context i totally lose control of the stick if i try to relax! I can’t even imagine what some rudiments feel like without squeezing my left to death, but of course if i let my left relax i can’t control the rebound. I’ve been playing for coming up on 5 years, still feeling the horrors of self taught traditional

I’m brand new at tenor drumming, which in a bagpipe band is a lot of flourishing, and I need advice on working with shoulder and neck pain that I’ve had loooong before this. Am I in right place?

The drum that was issued to me is 10.6 pounds. I weigh 117 pounds. The harness goes over one shoulder, plus a waist belt for extra support.

Any advice on how to better distribute weight? Are there any harnesses under 150 dollars that have 2 shoulders? And would you recommend getting a lighter, but really cheap tenor drum since sound doesn’t matter too much for my part? I’ve seen really cheap tenor drums for $100 that weight 7 pounds. Would these be terrible?

Any advice is welcome - thanks!

I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt, so I ordered some stuff 2 months ago. I was told the order was done and ready to ship June 3rd. After some back and forth they apologized and said they'd throw in a pair of sticks as an apology.

And what do you know, I get a notification that the package is delivered. Let me tell you, that excitement didn't last long. All that arrived was a small box with a single pair of sticks in it. No tenor pad, no bass pads, just a single pair of sticks. I'm beyond livid. I wanted to trust them, I really did, but fuck man, I'm pissed.

I have been burned by them before, but when I ordered stuff from their clearance that came in no problem, so I was pretty confident in this order. Not only were they very professional in correspondence up to this point, but they also replied in a very timely manor. But fuck, they still manage to be shitty to the bitter end. I'd cancel your order and do a charge back on your account. FUCK THEM.

TLDR: I ordered $850 in stuff from xymox and after 2 months the only thing they sent me was a pair of sticks I didn't order.

What size bass drums have yall run/do you recommend running for a 3 man bass line?

How do I not feel terrible after playing bass drum
I gotta play tomorrow and I need to not feel like this ASAP

(Edit) Thanks for the support everyone I will add all this to my daily routine

Does anyone have any reasonably cheap ideas for lowering the volume of my drumline while indoors? I am a director at a small, rural school (aka lower funds) and have 2 quint Toms, 4 Snares, 4 bass drums, and 4 cymbals. I've only been teaching for 2 years, and both of those years by students played regular battery percussion indoors during rehearsals (we are only outside 3/5 days a week) and it gets very loud. I don't have hundreds of dollars to spend, but I wold like to do something to lower the volume for my 70 other students (and myself) while we work on music inside. Thanks!!