I'm just wondering why everyone who is in pit is in pit. I know some schools whose people who don't make the line get stuck in pit, but I also know a few people who have chosen pit because it develops more mallet skills. What's the reason behind your pit-playing?

This probably isn't the sort of answer you're looking for, but my band isn't fielding a drumline this year. So everyone is in pit, like it or not. I fall under the second category.

Some people just don't want to bother with marching though, or they are much better at mallets. And then there are the people who would like to be on drumline but don't have the skill.

I said that id rather do pit than play bass or cymbals. Bass drum is ok i just dont get along well with the drum captain and if i played bass hed just get mad at me all the time haha.

I don't play pit, but I would have to say people play pit because....they want to? Lol, yes, there are people who want to play pit because they think it's fun, a good developmental-skill-building experience, etc.

I played in several sections in high school (a semester of bass drum, a semester of pit, then a year of snare drum, then two more years of pit), and I decided to spend the majority of time in pit because I felt that my experience in the pit had more relevance and applicable qualities to a long-term career in music (an experience playing in pit has loads of applications to playing in an orchestra, playing chamber music, playing in a pit for a musical, playing solo percussion music, etc.), whereas playing on a tenor line or bass line has less direct percussive applications.

Additionally, my year of playing on KevlarŪ heads gave me tendonitis.

Well My School does not Feild a Drumline either so last year i was forced to do it until latter in the season I figured having no drumline raises your band score and well I love PIT LOL

Honestly, I do not appreciate hearing people say how others get "stuck in the pit" when they are cut from the high school drumline. Not only does it give the pit/front ensemble a bad reputation as been "inferior" to the drumline, but it also reflects a pessimistic view of percussionists that take this essential section of the marching band for granted.

To use my own old high school as an example, we have had--and continue to have--a mix of young percussionists honing their craft on mallet, timpani and auxiliary instruments alongside their guitar and orchestral counterparts. It's a great challenge for everyone, as the percussionists are challenged to read music better while the string players learn the two-mallet and four-mallet techniques necessary for playing the vibes, marimba, xylophone and glockenspiel.

Everyone has their personal motivation to be a part of the Pit: some use it as a "stepping-stone" to becoming part of the drumline while others join it to present themselves new and exciting challenges that they can apply to ensembles they participate in after the Fall marching season is officially over.

I personally tried out for my high school drumline during the summer of what was going to be my sophomore year at Broadneck. I decided that tenors would be a nice challenge since the snare and basslines were pretty much set with junior and senior members of our band. I had the chopes to play on the quadline, but I failed to sit at home and practice on the actual sweep and crossover techniques that the tenor tech went over with each of us. It came down to me and a friend of mine and needless to say, the decision to cut me was in the best interest of everyone. Why, do you ask? It's because I still was able to go back to playing in the Pit as a auxiliary percussionist and learn how NOT to take my opportunities for granted. And my friend? Well, he ended up chopping some serious wood on those quads of his for the remaining two years of high school.

To make a long story short, I used the summer going into my junior year at high school to prepare myself on a consistent basis to play timpani for the pit. The funny thing is that I kept getting asked by the drumline members to re-audition for them that same summer (and the following). Needless to say, I politely declined since I felt that the pit needed to keep its tradition of retaining quality players and senior leadership for those years and beyond.

Nowadays, I look on those years of Pit as a blessing since I learned how to read treble and bass-clef music and to play major, minor, and chromatic scales--something you don't have the luxury (or the time) to do while in the drumline. Even when I wasn't playing on the competitive drumline, I STILL learned to march and play snare, tenors, cymbals and bass for parades that our school participated in around the greater Annapolis area. It's all about what you decided to do for yourself.

So to answer your question, everyone has a story about why they decided to play (and stay) in the pit and to say that being in the pit is a bad thing is ludicrous!

"Optimism is key to anything you do in life."

I myself don't want to be in pit. But I have snugglebunny of respect for the people who do it. Pit people are always getting called lazy and stuff but I disagree. At least in our schools pit, they have some of the hardest things to play outta the whole band. But I myself am a tenor drummer so me being in pit probably wont be happening.

It is really important for a serious drummer to have good everything skills so I think some should consider the mallet route in high school, but often the school can't afford good enough pit equipment to put out more than a tambourine and two sets of clanky bells, but ultimately its up to the band director, what happens to the pit. most competitive schools will have a very good drumline and a very good pit each with its own staff.

I'm in it by choice really. I did not enjoy band class last year and I dropped it this year but continued to do marching band and was told if I didn't take the class it would be hard for me to do anything higher than bass on battery and i didnt want to play bass so I chose to do pit. I see it as an opportunity to improve my mallet skills so that i can make it into our schools top band next year.

I chose to be in pit, as it seems many did. unfortunately, it is considered the 'pit' of the band, as in most bands, I dispize the word pit, its front ensemble, saying pit degrades it, and a lot of members in the band really do think the front ensemblests are inferior to them, simply because they don't march, yet I can promise you that my part in our season that just ended is harder than most parts in the entire band to learn.

Most members of pit really do get thrown in there because they aren't good enough for the drumline, or because they are from a wind instrument and they can't march, for whatever reason. It really is sad, and it degrades the ensemble. I remember, about a month ago, I was practicing my part during jazz band, and 3 of the drumline members were in the percussion room tuning snare heads for the game that night, and I had just finished a run and the bass player said to me 'Paul, your an amazing pittest'... things like that annoy me, I am not a 'pittest' I am a percussionist...

at first i wanted to be in the drumline, I tried out for bass drum my first year and i didn't make it. So I was put in pit and i didn't really know what to expect. But now I'm really happy that I'm in the pit. this year i was the pit section leader and I'm in the pit in the Empire Statesmen and I hope to try out for a DCI corps when i go to college

I had done pit at first cause it was something I'd never done before. And I grew into loving it. I don't love it more than marching, just the same. I started out in drum corps, and just as how I like marching big drums, I like pulling the heaviest equiptment: the timpani cart. I got new caluses, which I strangely ebjoy sometimes, and several pit techniques actually help with my drumming. One thing I like about being a drummer is that there's always something cool to learn, and there is in pit to. And it works your chops better than marching in my opinion. There isn't much rebound at all. It's awesome, but I still love marching.

Like a lot of people i did'nt want to be in pit at first because of how much less cool it sounded when compared to drumline but thats just because i was in eigth grade and didnt know any better but now that ive been in it for a while, i dont like to brag but Im easily the best their and although i think i would be neat to be on the drumline i'm probably not good enough and why bother when was already good enough in pit. Im sure there are a million good reasons to try drumline but Im more than happy with where i am.

I love pit

I'm doing the front ensemble this indoor season at my community college. Lately I've been focusing more and more on my mallets than anything else. Because I'm a music education major, I have to take lessons once a week in percussion. It has been non stop mallets the whole last semester. I figured what better better way than to be in the pit for the indoor season. Now that I'm in it, it is so much fun. I wish I had been doing this all along instead of battery. That's why I'm in pit now.

I'm was in pit this past season because I got my audition packet 5 hours before the actual audition itself. That was a stupid mistake on my part, of course.
Though, I love pit and am definitely doing it again next season.

I just started playing in a front ensemble for a percussion ensemble class at my college. I'm a music major and my primary instrument is the horn but some times I wish it was percussion. But I pretty much realized that I should work on all parts of percussion instead of just marching percussion.

Basically I hope to know about all kinds of percussion and be able to teach it as well as be good at it instead of just having a general knowledge of it

I started in pit because they needed players and I wanted to start marching band without marching. And while I do agree that being in the front ensemble can be challenging at times, ours is rather lazy and I can say from experience at least that it is harder being in OUR battery. However I'm sure that's different for others. Some of the new pit kids don't realize that I was once where they were (at the bottom of the chain as it were) and try to start arguments about how the pit is misunderstood. It's quite the opposite actually, the pit is always looked on as being very intelligent (the geeks/nerds of the drumline if you will) and the best of musicians, I mean, it's pretty dang hard to play four mallets!

I stayed with the pit in high school because I was simply better at mallet percussion as opposed to snare drum and all that. Same thing with college. I did march cymbals for parades and all, but it was mallets all the way.

My senior year of hs I did want to play bass, but I was the only experienced mallet player so they wanted me to be there to teach the various orchestra and double reed players how to play, so I never got to march.

No big deal though, I love pit all way.

My freshman year I was the only person in the pit. My reasoning? I only played piano before then, so it was the only thing I could pull off. It got me in to percussion, though, and this fall I'm starting college for music education.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv6corZGDUk

That's why.

[Also, sorry if I've inadvertently violated an anti-youtube-link-posting policy, please don't ban me]

While I do appreciate sarcasm as much as the next person Derek, I must ask...did you even bother to read the rules? Unless DL has added in a rule lately there is not Youtube rule.

Our section leader chose to do pit because 1.she doesnt wanna march. 2.she thinks snare bass quads and cymbals arent a challenge. 3.she sucks really bad at not mallet things

I am a freshman this year and I am in pit because 1. I am good with mallets, and 2. all the drummers are ridiculously good.

Going for tenor or snare next year since there will be a huge absence of drummers from this year.

I played tenors for band all four of my high school years and two of our school's indoor ensemble. I switched to set the last two years for winter because set was just so much more fun. I never really got the intense attitude thing with our batterie because I'm a rather mellow person and didn't see the attitude getting much done. Playing set made me realize just how much of a pain drill is though. Each section has it's own challenges to say the least. You generally have to be a more musical person if you are in the pit then say a snare player in the batterie. Batterie kids do drill. The debate could go on forever.

Well the reason I ended up in the pit was because I was pretty much late to audition for my marching band's line. It had to do with going to a small private school for middle school, and therefore not being in the loop. I was better at mallets anyways, so I ended up in front ensemble. I'm glad I did. I love being in pit. Though we don't really get a lot of attention at my school. We're pretty much ignored in favor of the battery.

At my high school, all percussionists are required to go to two hour long rehearsals from may to the third week of july every Tuesday night.
The whole time, the only thing they teach and the kids learn? Snare warm ups and exercises. The senior drumline members claim their drum on the first night and if they can play all the warm ups, both of our instructors tells our band director that they're good to go. The people who didn't make it..
Well, they're either forced to be in pit or drop out.
We had two drop out.
The rest had to join pit or quit band.
This years pits grades:
3 Seniors
1 Junior
4 Sophmores.
9 Freshman.

Nine people who had never even SEEN or HEARD of a marimba, vibraphone. Let alone played one.

We had two temporary instructors that lasted about a week each, and that was in the beginning. On top of it all, we had a person who didn't even know all his music the day before our state competition.
The pit is constantly bashed by the members of the drumline, and we didn't really work together at all this year.


Needless to say, we got best overall percussion in class 3AA in the state, but tension was really high this year.

Yet I know of at least three freshman that have fallen in love with pit, including me.

My own personal reasons for loving pit is the brotherhood. Even though we dont like each other sometimes, at the end of the day, we still have to stay after and pack up at least 10 minutes after everyone else is gone. And we have to get there at least five minutes early before everyone else does to unpack. It just gives us a feeling of togetherness that nothing can beat.

Oh. And this is really awesome too.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoPi7QYuXIs&feature=related]

in my school you can either choose whether you want to be in the pit or not. it all actually has to do with your audition. In the past few years most people have chosen voluntarily to join pit. this year unfortunately i didnt make it on the line like I had my last two years. I am glad that i was in pit because it helped me see that pit plays an important part in the bands sound.

it's kind of basically, i originally wanted to try for snare, but i knew i wasn't ready at all come summer audits. i had been working with the pit the previous winter. it got cut short unfortunately. but either way, i had developed a recognition with mallets, so i basically just tried my hardest to excel at mallets when auditions came. by winter season, i had fallen in love with pit. I had actually gotten much better and played marimba for our winter show.at that point, i started to remember how much i wanted to play snare or tenors, and so i started losing interest in the pit. i would loe to come back to it, but this season, i'm not doing pit...there's a basically open tenor spot, and i have been working on my tenor stuff a lot (not too great, sweeps and scrapes are kinda weak, but then again, the tenor i'll likely be marching with sucks pretty badly as well), so i'll be trying out for that this season.

so in conclusion (lol at rant) i basically just sucked at battery, and then i got comfortable in the pit.

well first off, we did a winter drumline to set us up for the upcoming season. my freshman year of marching band all the pit people had graduated or filled spots that were needed on the line so we had 6 brand new front ensemble players and not alot of talent collectively. so when winter line came up i was trying out for bassline. he saw my drive in concert band and my skills. he asked if i would be able to do a bigger position and more instruments(rack). he said he hadn't seen somebody just want to play a suspended cymbal that way. and ever since then i was on rack teaching people how to play mallets, being the leader, organizing the trailer, fixing the lines drums, and having fun. to me its more about the fun you have. it also didnt hurt that every year besides one i had broken bones or crutches at some point during the season. and on top of that i used my own instruments since the school couldnt afford them. being in the front ensemble also gave me more freedom with the music to express my views on it and to change it around instead of having to teach other people the same thing

I started doing mallets because of one reason. No one did it. I wanted something original, and to just impress the girl I liked who played Alto Sax at the time. Three years in middle school had definetly taught me a lot. I began to love to play, and I became open about playing it for one reason; I thought it was impressive. I even got a solo my first year ;D

After Middle school, Marching band season was definetly great, until i realized, NO OTHER MALES PLAY. Freshmen marching band season for me was definetly a hectic one. Though, I stilled loved the Instrument I played. Sophmore year came, and I was honestly finished. I became more engrossed in snare drum. Snare was a hit for me, but i chose the wrong route; trying out for Tenor(I lost to three other upper classmen, and slowly realized i should have tried out for snare). Afterwards, I endured another year of Mallet percussion, and once again, I wasn't the most popular with the upper classman. There was a shining light though; I earned Timpani for concert band, Mallet Principle for concert bands, AND Aux. Percussion for Lab and Jazz band.

That leading up till now, I have not entirely let go of Mallet Percussion. I will be switching away from Mallets and going on to tenor drum, Hopefully making section leader this year(lets hope!). Although I love Tenor, I feel like I'm going to be letting the Xylophone go and moving on. I will still be principle and managing their parts, but I will be making a large transition.

Mallet Percussion went from Fun, to Terrible, and then to where i was proud. I went to county band this year, outranking the other upperclass mallet players, and earned my title and one of the best student mallet percusionist in the county.

I don't think i really answered your question, but instead i babbled. But The basis of me talking is, I joined because it was different, Then hated it for no other guys playing it, but then to being proud i did it(as i mentioned in my upper paragraph)

thats it :P