We have recently began a High School drumline. There are about 9 students, with an awesome selection of drums. I ( don't )*know how the school got these!?!?!
We have great equipment, but the students have basically little to no experience. What they have been taught is just street beats "making up a beat" which can be good...but at this moment a disaster.

(I'm)* curious on approaches to building the line and keeping them interested. No one can read music, beside me (the Director).
(I'm)* thinking about:

I see them 3 hrs.. 2 days a week.

--Doing basic warm-ups that teach 8ths, accents..then moving to 16ths.

--Starting with basic rhythm reading and having everyone "play snare" so that we get some reading ability and basic techniques.

I feel that the bare basics is what we need...(I )* just want to make sure that we are going to have FUN!!!!
I know ( it'll )* get better with high standards.

Has anyone else been in the situation with students who are fascinated with "Drumline" but can play 16th notes!?!
What did you do?

we have 4 snare drums and basses. 2 tenors. 2 cymbals.

I not even thinking about traditional grip at the moment. Should I be.

The very best advice that can be given to you in this situation is hire an experienced instructor, pay them respectfully, listen to them and facilitate the things that the students need - the instructor will be able to tell you what these things are. You can expect extra rehearsal to be the number one thing on their list.

Is there a marching band or is there just a drumline at your school? Can you give us some more details?

Its just a drumline. An after school program. Im the person hired to lead the line. Im a current percussion major and ive been studied west African percussion for three years. High school drumline (2002) and jazz bands here and there.
I have a pretty good musicianship and ive taught west african classes. This is my first time leading a drumline.
If it were W.A. I would just cycle thru basic rhythms, but there is a melody there..

It sounds like you are doing a lot of good stuff so far. I would throw in teaching some cadence/groove kind of stuff, either by rote or reading, so that the group develops a repertoire of fun music that keeps them interested and provides a foundation for performance opportunities.

Take things one day at a time. Things aren't going to magically get 1000x better in one year. You are right about the bare basics; there are so many percussion sections out there right now that are dirty because they do not have a good fundamental grasp on the basics. What do I mean by basics? I mean:

How to hold the sticks
How to strike the drum
Playing zones
Reading
Set position
Sticks in/out
and most importantly: playing 8's in time.

Personally, I would start by teaching them how to read, since they have little to no experience. Not all of them will pick up on reading, and that is okay. No high school line has 100% members that can read. Then, let them pick up the sticks. Make them apply reading to playing. That is one of the crucial things that separates "okay" from "good".

There' s lots more, but I'll leave it for someone else.

Hey man,

This is my word of advice because when I first started high school band, the band director was new along with myself. I can relate to this post pretty well. The other responses are informative. What I have done in this case was the following.



1) Steve Weiss, Rowloff Percussion, or VicFirth

-There are books and videos that you can purchase that teach you fundamentals on teaching or playing that cover this exact topic(if not close).

2) Get to know fellow percussion from surrounding counties or for example DLO peers.

3) Time management. You have said you only see them three hours for two days. Plan out the time you have with them. We know that basics are a MUST for any percussionist. Eight On A Hand, Bucks, 16th note timing at a slow tempo ( if needed ), A triple pattern of some sort. I know you have already have mentioned starting with bare basics and all.

-I have some exercises I will let you see for this sort of stuff. I can write some for you if you need? I have a few exercises that works on basics but has accent patterns to which all the sections individually play separate accent patterns. This makes it fun because it works on basics and works on technique.
inappropriate


4) I would take them to conventions that are solely based on drumming. Such as: PASIC, PAS Drum Day, Colleges have percussion ensemble concerts. I mean give the kids a role model or example of a successful percussionist that they can look up to so that they can get hyped up. I do not know if it is a possibility but It would be astounding to let them see the whole world of drumming that is out there.

I hope your plans succeed and I hope you build these kids up as musician!


Sincerely,
Chase A.

Disregard the word inappropriate located under the second paragraph on number three. It is meaningless to the reply.

teach them warm ups... like double beat and sixteen on a hand.

first off you want an identity as a line. Do you want to be more choppy, groovy, visual, etc? i'm guessing this is a corp style line.. but you gotta have an idea what yall wanna practice... "perform what you practice" NO IMPROVISING!!!! IMPROVISING LEADS TO DIRTYNESS, PURE POPCORN, NOOOO!!1!!!11



KEYS FOR STARTING OFF YOUR DRUMLINE:

step 1) MARK TIME
step 2) play warm ups at different tempo... WHILE MARKING TIME (ITS GONNA BE HARD, I KNO, ITS HIGH SCHOOL THO)
step 3) get some easy butt cadences...


after structure and everyones chops build up, start implementing dynamics; if everyones diddles not clean you need to dumb down the part (16th notes?) till everyone realizes the real choppy showboating stuff comes later when everyone puts in the work.

oh yeah and get the snare players on tradition grip ASAP, make sure everyone has similar form... if everyone can play 16th notes (1e&a) clean with traditional then keep it... like I said wait for everyone to get their chops before you start throwing in flam taps and double ratamacues lol
for the visuals... i march blaster at a hbcu. for bass drums lets just talk about wave effects!!!

edit: ALSO, WRITE OUT THE CADENCES; ESPECIALLY THE CHOPPY PUNCHES!!!

Speaking from experience (trying to lead a college line with members who can't read music), it would be best if you teach them to read first. As an instructor it's frustrating to sing everyone's part, try to get them play it right, and then have to re-translate what they play back to what they are seeing on a page (it makes sheet music irrelevant). Because they can't read they don't know what 1&2&... means. For me at least, it didn't work at all; everyone got frustrated and we accomplished nothing.

Start from the ground up: simple time signatures, basic subdivisions of notes, measures, accents, basic dynamics, etc. Then work on counting out loud and clapping rhythms. I wouldn't have them touch the drums at all for the first day. It'll be slow at first but the foundation needs to be laid. Maybe once they learn to read some simple rhythms, you can make an exercise and let them play it on the drums. Enforce technique early, don't get complicated but makes sure they hold the sticks/mallets correct.

There's more I could add I guess, but mainly start slow and keep it simple. Try to have fun, it makes the time pass quicker and things less frustrating.