Starting Marching band next year...w00T!

Yeah, that' s right. And now i' m faced with a life-changing decision:

Snare Drum or Quads?

So hard to choose just one instrument! Ah!

any opinions?

EDIT- fixed spellings

-Monkey

Congrats dude... Marching is pretty cool.. Did it all throughout high school but decided not to here at college..

I played tenors my first year and snare my last 2 years.. Snare was by far the best to play just because of the type of playing we did.. I guess I just like the precision and flare of the snare line..

\m/\m/

personally I would think they' d start u on bassline first year........thats usually what they do in my band........did they give you the option snare or tenors?

You gotta go with the snare. I marched all four years and was head snare from my sophomore year on. 4 straight years of Superior 1 ratings at OMEA state marching band finals at Cooper Stadium in Columbus (it' s so cool to march on turf after grass football fields every friday night) You get to lead the band on and off the field, call out cadences verbally (if you' re lucky) have bad ass solos during b-ball games you have to play the pep band in, the list goes on. If you can join the snare line, you' ll never regret it. And snares have sweet visuals too!

The snares are deffinetly the LEADER of the battery and in some ways more difficult than tenors, especially when it comes to " cleaning up " the parts, I played snare my frosh and sophmore year...and could have been center (head) snare my junior year....but elected to decline and play tenors.....I guess it' s prolly cuz I just wanted to have fun.....tenors IMO are more fun....easier to get a clean sound from less players....and after learning allot of the flam and drag based rudiments on snare I was able to work ALLOT more on my diddle type stuff on tenors.....so if ya wanna be a leader go for the snare.....if ya just wantr to have fun do which ever you thk you will enjoy more

Oh God no. Stay out of marching Band...Well atleast my school' s marching band. My school has one of the worst marching bands. I mean, we really suck. The only reason I came to my highschool was for the marching band. You should pick up snare. They probably will just start you off on Bass. That' s what they do in my highschool. I hate those bass drums, they' re Pearls, and they' re so freaking heavy. I don' t play percussion while marching, I play clarinet, but I know a few things about percusion, being that I practically live in the percussion section, and that I do play drums in concert band. Try to get up to snare by next year, really, try as hard as you can, you don' t wanna stay on bass and all.

Whatever they put you on! Either bass or cymbals would be what you' d get here.

Actully, I played snare my this year (I' m a freshman) thats where I should be staying next year, and prolly quads my last two years.

The snare line is great, but it' s a lot of pressure. Whatever you do, match how they play, and become one with the snare line.

And this one time at band camp!





Sorry couldnt' help it! :) I' ve been forever damaged by this movie. heh

Here' s the official site of this very serious camp. heh

http://www.yarza.us/thisonetimeatbandcamp.htm

If it is your first year then I would try out for snare. I played the tenors in HS but I started out in the pit my first year due to the fact that I played football. Then I moved up to bass, should have been on snare, teacher made a bad call in try outs. She even told me to my face later on when she found out that the other person couldn' t do a clean roll with the rest of the snare line. (man was I pissed when I found out i had to play bass. I sucked it up and did my part) Then I ended up playing the tenors my last 2 years. I also played snare on some occassions, and it helped with the tenors. I would try snare first. Tenors add a lot to the drumline ass well as the other percussive instruments. You get to play the melodies,a nd you haveeither 4, 5, or 6 different sound sources, and I think the visuals on the tenors are cool as hell. I loved playing them out on the field, but I enjoyed messing around on the snare drums in the stands at the games. we would trade on and off, so it was cool. Good Luck

thanks for the input.

and since the school system in my town is old-school (literally, we have k-6, then 7-9, then 10-12 grades, so i can only start marching in 10th grade next year), they aren' t going to necessarily start me on bass-line if i' m good enough.

see the thing is, both of the quads players are graduating this year(they' re both seniors). so they wont have any quads. i personally like the idea of playing quads more, but snare is what i' m better at.

any more opinions would be helpful, as i will be trying out this summer and i' d like to prepare more for either instrument before then to make sure i get to play it

EDIT- side-note: i just remembered that i have to go through the drumline initiation next year as well. according to a trumpetist friend of mine, the initiations get banned each year (thus, they have to think of something worse and worse each year)... so i think my instrument choice may affect that initiation as well...
heh... oh well.

-Monkey

next year i get to be on a college drumline! i' ve been waiting 4 years for this, because my highschool marching band isn' t that great. im good friends with the section leader at the school im going to, and he said i probably could choose what i want to play, because he' s seen me play and knows im good enough for both. but i don' t know what to choose. i' ve played snare all 4 years of highschool, and i like it, but i like the tenors and they seem challenging and i want to be challenged. but the snares we had in highschool sound terrible, and i love the sound of a good snaredrum on a good drumline, so that makes me want to play snare. its a tough choice. idon' t know what to do.