As you enter this vast domain of the cult-like world of quad drumming you are encountered with a collective that has sacrificed blood, sweat and tears to elevate the art year after year. A special breed of drummers that have just the right temperament to carve out this remarkable area of drumming largely unexplored the rest of the drumming community. Here we have young drummers as young as 15 doing astounding feats of technique across multiple surfaces resulting in righteously novel sounds and motions. We have examples of synchrony so complex that it would be undoubtedly beneficial to science to study the neural processes going on during our quad ramming.
This world of the quad is an entrance to the infinite realm of music itself, where technique becomes secondary and inspiration dominates. Where "it doesn't matter how many notes you play...just that you play the right ones", as the maestro Miles Davis reminded us. Who wants to hear a lot of crappy notes? While there is credit given for attempting the more difficult figures and phrases, this is always balanced with an actual statement behind driving it. Clean is not everything but intention is, make sure that you're always saying something. A super clean line can bore me at times as much as a dirty one, something almost sterile about it. Disinfected of it's needed funk.
Too many musicians today are lost in the form and not on the actual energy of the music, resulting in weak sounding notes. My favorite quad drummers always played with exceptional technique and ability backed by a clear communication of the heart and soul. I could feel where they were coming from and could relate to it. Some of them showed me higher states of being and inspired me to become like them. I worked my butt off and adopted their discipline, followed their demeanor. Through this I actually found my own way as I became oriented in the artform and strove to be the best at me that I could. Even in the activity that is based on uniformity this is possible and may actually result in necessary evolution of the overall activity.
While innovation is a key player, there is a matter of tradition, which can serve as the needed balance to our innovative push. We always draw from the greats in our eyes and formulate our own distinctive recipe to suite our aspirations. The traditions that attracted me where the ones that aided in keeping the work ethic high as well and the enjoyment factor. It was a motto when I was marching BK that our section had the most fun while working the hardest. We sometimes had short lunches on tour and ran phrases that need attention. It was our way of taking care of business and doing it better than anybody. You encourage the collective work ethic and everyone wants it together, this is a supremely powerful tool in any situation and a very important lesson to learn in life.
Many of you will not go onto to march drumcorps. and will choose to leave your musical experience behind you in highschool, but there are some that will persevere. For those that make it to the next levels there is a connection that is found that can hardly be found anywhere else be it business, academia...whatever. Here is a community and a discipline that shows you such a degree of excellence and dedication that it's almost difficult to recreate in other areas of your life. But some of us do and for us the horizons are endless.
So when you step up to the quads show some respect and realize that we are all on shoulders of giants that through the years contributed to the knowledge that we graciously receive to help us on our path to the freedom to throwdown whatever we want at any given time. Show some pride and play your best every time you approach this great instrument. Show some dignity and inspire your line to higher states of being. This brotherhood of the Q is just a doorway to the big picture of life, but it lets all who genuinely want it, in.
Crow

whoa.

My friend, you are the Kierkegaard of quad literature. Very good read. It's amazing to me how physiologically connected quad drummers (and drummers as a whole, for that matter) can be to their activity. Stuff like this should be published as a preface to Quad Logic or similar books.

WoW. This post really made my day. =) Post like this really keep me motivated to keep up with my passion for drumming. Drumming isn't just an activity we do, It's a way of life. I am going to add this to the front of my warm up folder, so everyday when I pick up a pair of sticks, I can be reminded to show some respect to every drummer that contributed to the knowledge that I have graciously received to help me on my path to the freedom to throwdown whatever I want at any given time.I will show some pride and play my best every time I approach any instrument.

Thank you so much for this great post! I really appreciate a post like this =)

glad to share knowledge, hope it helps somebody see through some of the nonsense. will post more soonish

Feel the quads. Own the quads. Be the quads.

you are the master. if it is ok with you i think i might show this to a couple of people on my line because this is awesome. great piece of writing like always.

Crow you are an inspiration to the youth of the activity... I only wish you had come to us a little stronger in 94, I would have really enjoyed having you in my section...

I am 37 years old and I still have my quads setup on the stand right next to my kit (With a little blue and white Spock drum...) and I can tell any and all that it is still a joy to pick up mallets and throw down some notes today as much as it was 20 years ago...

As Crow says, and yes he learned it in the same corps as I did, work ethic is the heart of a great line. No matter how many notes or scrapes or crosses or flams you have in your book, if you work hard to know every note intimately and where you will hit each head every time and where your free hand always is, and you do it the same as your Q brothers, you will be great...

I encourage anyone who finds joy in playing Quads to take it to the drum corps level, it is the epitomy of success and fulfillment in this instrument. I also encourage you all to take care of your body while playing this instrument, mine took quite a beating and I still feel it everyday. These drums are heavy... so prepare yourself for it.

And most importantly, BE CREATIVE! Always try to find a new pattern for that old Eight-on-a-hand exercise, try to scrape more rolls, play on the drum of the guy next to you ormove your grace notes to the spock drum for a cool effect... Continue to innovate and this activity will live forever.

My daughter will be a Blue Knight tenor player in 2022 if I have anything to do with it... 30 years after her old man... She is already moving 8's around the drums at 8 years old...

I'm really glad I found this site, I look forward to contributing.

I'd just like to say Chronic_Quad. Your post has really inspired me to step my game up in the art of tenor playing. I don't think you, or anyone else for that matter, could've said it any better.

Who knows, she might be ripping through 9-lets by the time she's 9.