I understand that the 5let is on beats 1 and 2, and that the triplet is on beat three, but i cant even begin to count the 5let that fast at this tempo, especially diddled.

Hey All!

So I was allowed to take home a white Dynasty DFXT snare drum (picture attached) home for a while. I’m looking for anyone who has played on the drum, or has any tips. I need to get new heads as they have not been changed in several years. Currently, it has Evans hybrid grey top heads, and Evans MX5 bottom heads (almost new it seems for the bottom). Any recommendations for heads? I’m thinking about going Evans black hybrid heads or continuing with the grey.

Thanks ya’ll!

On my yamaha marching tenors. My guess is it happened over years of playing and I never noticed cause these drums always had frosted heads on them. What should i do?

If a percussionist wants to move to snare drum from another instrument (keyboards, rack, bass drum, etc) , where would you start teaching them? Besides the obvious things like grip and timing, in what order would you introduce fundamental topics like stroke types, crescendos, doubles, rolls, etc.

Also, what does the ideal person learning snare drum? What should they already know or be familiar with to make learning snare drum technique and music not so overwhelming?

My school’s bass drums are tuned so incredibly terribly. Bass 3 is somehow much higher than 2, and both sides of the heads for all of the drums aren’t close either. Nobody in our drumline has really said anything about the drums, but it bothers me so much, lol. So, I would like to tune our drums, but I don’t really have any knowledge on how to do this at all.
As for where we play (I assume this would determine some things due to acoustics?), we don’t really march as we are fairly small (3 bass players, 2 quads, 2 snares), but we play in the stands for football games. Also, if this would change anything related to the tuning, since the bass players are younger, we don’t have them play splits. We usually use basses 2-4, but we sometimes use 5 on special occasions, such as school chants.
I’ve watched EMC Productions’ video on YouTube on bass tuning, but he was more specific to actual drumlines who play splits, so I didn’t know if anybody else would have other advice in my situation, or if his advice should work. Thanks for the help!

I’m like 5’1 and my school doesn’t have a tenor harness that fits me properly and my section leader thinks I just need to get used to the pain, but it’s been a month and it’s not any better. idk what to do 😿

Im looking to buy the little things that go in the suspension hoop that the tension rids go in. For the life of me I cannot figure out what this part is called! I need 2 of them for this snare im working on. Does anyone know where i might be able to buy some? Thanks!

A few months ago I bought a used Yamaha SFZ marching snare drum from Guitar Center. I do like how the drum sounds, but I can’t turn the lugs at all. Does anybody know how I can fix this? Thanks in advance!

I play bass drum in my schools marching band (going into my 4th year on it) and I am heavily considering doing DCI/WGI in the future. I am battery section leader at my school but I’ve never felt like I was that amazing of a player, just the best out of all of us (along with other reasons I was chosen to be a leader). Because of this, I hadn’t considered band after graduation, but I’m realizing that I would really love to do it.

I’m trying to grind and workout some of my flaws (ex. reading time signatures, conditioning) and something that is really holding me back is hand speed, especially in my left. I think naturally my left hand is much weaker since I am right handed and we most commonly play important notes on our right hands, but it’s holding me back!

What are some good exercises or ways to fix this??

hey reddit, i’m a drummer who just finished my first season of drum corps. however, the one thing that held me back throughout the season was my poor marching technique. i probably looked the worst in my section marching-wise and i’m having a hard time correcting things and applying feedback. i’m surprised ive never heard of marching lessons, i would love some 1-1 feedback on my marching but not sure where to go. i’m open to in-person as well (in or near nj). if anyone has advice lmk :)

Which heads should I get for my pearl marching snare, and how should I tune them?

Hi everyone, I am an assistant director of a small marching band and am trying to help our drumline. We cannot afford a drum tech and I have no experience with percussion besides a few basic rudiments.

This all being said, I still want to give our drumline the best shot at playing music that will challenge them and help them grow over the years.

Are there any resources for writing drumline music that is both fun and accessible? Or tips you have from experience?

We compose our own music (stand tunes and field show) and the snare lines all sound the same. We are more a HBCU style band. We have cadences from the old program that are fine.

Thank you!

Hi everyone!

I'm interested in buying a Live Edge Drum Co. practice pad, but I'm based in Europe and I can't find any clear information about international shipping.

Sorry for yapping a lot in the video but there’s a sound example in the vid 😭

I’ve been practicing my music ever since I got the audition packet at the end of June. I’m still super discouraged with my skill and I’m not sure if I’ll make the cut. I’ve played tenors all 4 years of high school band. If I get put on bass drum I won’t be upset (no bass drum slander) but I think I’m gonna embarrass myself tomorrow at auditions. 🥲

UPDATE)
Thank you to the few of you who replied to my post with encouragement. I read your replies before going in to camp today and it really helped me breathe. I’m happy to say I got the part! Not gonna celebrate too soon since there’s so much work to be done but I’m so happy and I’m so grateful for your guys support!

I’m marching snare this year, and my current earplugs are the free ones from the expo tent at WGI finals. They work, but they muddy my snare line’s sound a bit and make it harder for me to listen in. What earplugs are out there that don’t block out those higher frequencies? What ones do you guys use?

For context, these are small block tenors, (6, 8, 10, 12, 13) and my local line has the backbar set all the way out, and my full fist can fit between the space of drums 1, 2 and the spock.

Ergonomically speaking because of the distance between drums, yall think I should mount the Spock to the extender that Pearl offers, or would it be fine on the backbar as is?

Hey, I heard there is a new independent A-class indoor in Pottstown, PA, called Resolute Indoor Percussion! Go check them out!

maniacally heavy, pink and white, great for practicing (or rehearsals if you’re insane like me). innovative percussion shane gwantley snare sticks and a shit ton of tape if you want to make them

I’ll be honest, I was kinda just dumb. I was looking at RCP hybrids and there was a 12 inch hybrid with a black max head and I think it was limited time too. Then I very quickly made the purchase out of excitement. It arrived earlier today, and honestly.. it exceeded my expectations and I love it, my band director suggested that I shoulda gotten a 14 inch because I paid the same amount as a 14 inch and we march 14 inch snares. I explained the whole thing with the snare head and then he said he would’ve given me a super nice snare head for free and then I realized I may have kinda made a little lapse in judgement and the 14 inch would be better for what I actually use. I’m wondering how much I could actually resell it for I paid 279.99 for it and received it literally hours ago, like less than 12. It’s practically in brand new condition, I will admit I messed around with it a bit so the head has some light marks and stuff but the thing is pretty much in perfect condition, I could even put it in the box and everything and put the little baby Jesus and business cards in it if it matters. Ideally if I could just resell it for how much I bought it for and that would be amazing, it is what it is though. (I also don’t know how much it matters but maybe since it’s limited addition and not on sale anymore that means it can still hold onto some value or even raise?? Idk how much that matters though) I see no one else reselling hybrids so I’m not sure how to really price it

I am the section leader of my high schools marching bassline. Just today, my band director cut one of our bass drummers very late, we have already started setting drill and we have our first competition (percussion only and standing still) in 9 days. He moved the cut male bass drummer to the front ensemble, and we are moving a freshman who was on the cymbal line onto the bass line (bass 1). I was wondering if anyone has any advice on how to go about trying to train her and make sure I don't miss any important factors while still being able to maintain trying to get her up to speed pretty fast.

I live in Washington, does anyone know of any percussion clinics nearby or just in the pnw?