So I'm going into my second full season as the percussion instructor at a local high school, and I'm trying to set the battery section for the year.

First, a little background. Last year my battery section consisted of 1 tenor (sophmore), 2 snares (1 junior, 1 freshman), and 3 basses (3 freshmen). Two of the freshmen who played bass are not returning, and I have 3 incoming freshmen. Of the three incoming freshman, one is very good, and the other two are piano players who have never played a drum in their life, but appear to have a good sense of timing.

I have come up with three viable options for how to set the battery:
Option 1: 1 tenor, 3 snares (best freshman on the 3rd snare), and 3 basses
Option 2: 2 tenors, 2 snares, and 3 basses
Option 3: 1 tenor, 2 snares, 4 basses

The consenus on here seems to be that most people march at least 4 if not 5 basses. Obviously I can't march 5 so it's either going to be 3 or 4. I'm leaning towards option 1, because I want to groom a new snare for next year when the senior has left, and I also think his chops are too good to put him on bass. Also, although I'm teaching the basses how to play splits, our show music usually has very little, if any sixteenth, sextuplet, etc. runs for the basses. It's normally just quarter notes, eighth notes, etc. (and currently I'm not allowed to rewrite more complex parts).

I guess what I'm asking is, how do you think judges would react at competitions if I go with option 1? What are your opinions regarding the other two options? Any advice would be appreciated!

It all depends on the judge.

In my experience, it will be either one of two things: a band director who knows nothing of the inner workings of our section but knows what he wants out of his drumline to make the ensemble better, or it will be a drum instructor.

If it is a band director, he/she will most likely say that your snares need to clean up there playing, and that the bass drums are overpowering.

If it is a drum instructor, he/she will most likely ask why you only have three bass drums when you have three snare players.

Bottom line here: Don't do something to appeal to the judges, do what you think is best for the music and for the group. While the judges do determine the success of the season, they don't determine the success of your individual players, and they know nothing about your group (most of the time). If you have three basses and your battery has enough power behind it, then by all means have three basses, and train a snare player. If it doesn't, I would suggest going with 2-1-4. I have heard of many lines having success with this instrumentation, including my own.
Obviously, you can't put everyone on one instrument, but I don't see why marching three basses is terrible IF YOU HAVE THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF UMPH IN YOUR BATTERY.



Take the judges out of it, and do what is best for YOUR group.
Hope to help,

Thanks for the response.

I guess I should also add that the reason that I originally set the line the way I did was because one of my snares from last year was not going to return, so it would've been 1 tenor, 2 snares (with one of the incoming freshmen), and 3 basses. This is how we had been practicing for about two months this spring (so the basses are well on their way to memorizing everything for 3 basses and the freshman snare is doing the same for snare). Then my senior snare player decided to come back, so he was added as the third snare, and this really only became an issue once he returned.

I know a lot of people will be concerned with clarity issues from 3 snares, but the two returning snares play cleaner together than I've ever heard a high school line (as does the tenor player), and the freshman has the potential to do this as well.

In my humble opinion... Don't worry about what the judges are going to think about your section numbers. In my experience, they're going to care a lot more about how you play than whether or not you've got ideal ratios from section to section.

With that in mind, just do what YOU think would make for the best line. If it was my line, the two things I'd use as a guide are:

• Group players by ability. Strongest players together in a section, probably on snare. Intermediate players together, probably on tenors. The remainder on bass. This way, you can write parts for each section to make the most of the players' ability levels. If you group players whose abilities are too different, the good players will get bored and/or the lesser players will be overwhelmed.
• Make sure you've got at least three basses. Three is pretty much the minimum for anything resembling a melodic line. If you can go four, it opens up a lot more possibilities for tonal arrangement, but the difference from four to five (or more) is a lot less pronounced.

As for CarrollDrummer's comment about "UMPH"... Three basses can provide plenty for an average-sized band. Don't use drums that are too small, particularly for the bottom drum, which should be at least 26". Tune your drums well. Get each player to play in the center of the head with good technique and confidence.

...and for the record, the line I taught this past winter season was two snares, two tenors, three basses. It took some creative arranging to write interesting tonal lines for the basses, but it turned out to be the best bass line I've had in years.

Thanks guys. I appreciate the responses!

I'm with Skydog in that you need to group players by ability, however, I believe I have a different approach to the instrumentation.

I'm a big fan of having at least two players on each instrument. For a high school line, this does three things. It forces the section to play together as if you had one player and a mistake is made, it's much harder to tell that they aren't faking their part. Second, it provides a chance for a younger student to be a foundation in preparation for the next year. Third, it is an insurance policy in case one of the students gets sick, moves away, whatever. Therefor, with what you are looking to do, I would go 2 snare, 2 tenor 2 bass and place the extra student as an additional snare or bass, so option 2.

For Bass tonal parts, 5 is of course recommended, but 4 is perfectly okay, especially for a smaller line. 3 becomes a little awkward but completely doable.

Have you considered not marching any tenors and going 3 snare 4 bass? The big advantage there is that you only have to focus on two sections, the disadvantage is you are missing your middle voice.

Another idea is that you also could potentially switch things up during the show. If a song is more unison parts for the bass line, pull the top bass and throw them on tenors, then switch back by the end. If there are "important" parts, make sure that is covered.

It seems like you are in a limited situation, but really, it is limitless. Just use creativity and have some fun.

Tan

I do agree with not arranging your players for the judges..

but I have a different take on it.

I would go with option 3. IMO having a solid bass line will can anchor the band a lot more then having more upper battery.
From an arranging stand point, 3 is funtionable, but having four just supports the drumline, and over all band better.. Its very difficult to make three work.. I found myself avoiding runs and writing lots of unisons.. and the battery came off thin.

Having 1 snare 1 tenor still gives the flavor of an upper battery..or even go with 2 snares no tenor.. one line I taught went with one song having two snares and in the ballad I switched him to tenors..

If you have a student you want to develop on snare put him on bass one.. and double up some key snare parts on it.. it will get his hands together as well as making the drumline sound fuller..

I mean this is all just opinion.. there is many different ways to go.. but I just know having a good solid bass line goes farther then having a strong snare line and a weaker bass line..

good luck

Agreed. It's hard to write for three drums.

I started the winter season with five. We lost a student, so I rewrote for four. No big deal. Then we lost another, so I rewrote for three and man, was that a challenge. At times, I used unisons and partial unisons almost as a fourth voice, sort of a pseudo-bottom, even placing some unisons in the middle of runs to keep tonal patterns from repeating.

There's more than one right answer to this whole situation, each with its own pros and cons.

I don't suppose you could recruit another player from somewhere -- even a non-percussionist -- to play bass? If your band is like a lot of others, you probably have a herd of flute & clarinet players. Or maybe a student whose primary instrument doesn't work well outdoors, like a bass clarinet or bassoon. Can you talk your band director into letting one of them play bass? Does your school have a choir or orchestra? (Other potential sources for recruits who can read music.)

I personally would go with the second option, yet in a different manner... the upcoming frosh would be snare and you move the younger of the returning snares to tenors I think this will balance sound, experience and skill throughout the line

As much as I wish I could, unfortunately, I doubt I can recruit anyone else into the battery. The band is relatively small (around 45ish including guard) so the director won't devote anymore to the drumline. Two of my freshman drummers are actually piano players and had never picked up a drum until a couple months ago. Band's not a huge priority at this school, so until I can get some more exposure for the drumline I don't think any outside people will be wanting to join this year.

I think I would be more amenable to going with 4 basses if I could convince the director to let me write the parts (unfortunately I really have no power, I'm just a volunteer), but she's an old-school director who just buys the stock shows and doesn't want to change anything, which is quite annoying (needless to say this program has been shrinking over the past several years). As an example, I think the bass music in last year's show had one sixteenth note run in one measure out of all four songs they played. Their most basic warmups that I've written are harder than that, but if all they're playing in the show is quarters and eighths, it just seems like kind of a waste until I can get control of writing the drumline's parts for the show. Again, if I could just throw the freshman snare onto bass 1 and have him play some more difficult parts that would be great, but it's not going to happen with the music this director selects, and although he'd get challenged in our warmups and stand tunes stuff that I've written, I think he'd be pretty bored/mad playing a quarter note every couple of measures in the show.

I appreciate everyone's perspectives on this issue. There are definitely pros and cons to each. I think I'm going to sit down with the director again and try to persuade her to let me do a re-write of the show music (I actually haven't seen it yet, but based on what she's always done I have no doubt it will be any different this year).

I had flirted with, but never seriously considered the two tenors, two snares, 3 basses option, but I'm starting to like that idea. As SnareTan suggested, I think it would be beneficial to have two people on each part, and I think it adds a certain visual flare with multiple people in a section playing in unison.

Thanks again for the comments.

MO_Drummer,

Have you talked to the band directors about goals for the next few years with the band programs in general?

It's a tough conversation to have, but some directors (and it sounds like this one) don't really care about the marching program. Although I'm not a fan of directors like this, it is completely understandable as it take a lot of personal time away from the director. I think it is okay to not devote time to marching band as long as she did devote time to concert band or jazz band. She simply might not be comfortable marching. If this is the case, she probably really appreciates all that you do and wants you to help with everything that you can.

Tan

How many basses are said stock parts written for. If 4, it will sound the best played as it is written. If 3, it will sound OK but not great. If 5, then it will sound much better modified for 4 then for 3.

4 also opens up more possibilities phrase wise in writing for cadences and warm ups, but again, 3 can be OK.

Personally I'd say 4, but it's really a call based on the exact demands of the situation.