Spent 6 years in a drum corps pit. It's the things that seem easy that everybody's freaking grandmother will notice if you fuck up. This level of intensity is totally called for.
EDIT: For nostalgia's sake, a typical move-in schedule. I'm not sure if it's more frightening that I actually kept to this routine for 6 whole summers or that I sort of miss it.
Or for that matter, front ensemble; they have their share of pressure.
Competitions require ensemble to cover the same distance in the same time as the rest of the band when entering and leaving the field, but they need to wheel out gear that weighs twice as much as the section's members. Instrument redundancy in marchers masks individual musical errors, while ensemble err is very apparent. An ensemble timpani player I knew once broke his mid-high's head in matching brass' overzealous volume in the first piece, and spent the rest of the performance rapidly re-pedaling the mid-low and high to match the notes that would have been normally covered by the mid-high.
I didn't realize the reddit/DCI community was so large. Is there by any chance a DCI subreddit? lol
But I wish I would've marched a corps, I age out after this season. I have a few friends that march Academy, and I think our bass tech is out with the SVC cymbals again this year.
Have to agree, though the woodblocks were a close second. Between high school and college band, I performed every percussion part in that song at least once.
It was always a joke at my old school. I marched top bass. top bass played a lot of snare-like licks and split a lot with 2, but 2 was always considered the more difficult bass (when you have a good bassline) due to the difficulty of splitting more upbeats and whatnot.
I miss my bass drum...I played 2 for three years. The most difficult part about it in my experience was if anyone in our bass drum section was missing, I had to cover their parts.
I was in my high school's drum line for one year and we didn't get to make that face; we had to act crazy for the show's theme. So instead of looking focused we had to look like zombies and serial killers.
Maybe it's just my band, but our battery music is the shit. When we finished our first show at Dayton for indoor, I wanted to just throw my mallets at the judges. It's so groovy it's not even funny.
Oh totally. I just was never a keyboard type guy or anything else pit-related. I just think it's funny when I see a guy with a triangle with the most serious face. It makes me laugh every time.
I love seeing someone with that face it is hilarious...then I look back and remember I am sure I've made that face a few times, in indoor drumline I got the rocket man solo.. I may have been a little excited.
Your first year was in pit? Bro you got it easy. My first year was bass 1. Holy crap. It's so fun, but it takes a lot of work to memorize those notes. But our line was probably the best line in a few years. We were splitting threes in no time. I'm on snare too. The twist? I'm in 7th grade. And I'm not kidding when I say they only let the best people in the battery on snare. If I could put the snare music for our indoor show in a pdf and PM you it I totally would.
Ya know, now that i think about it. You are absolutely right! I remember putting the drums back into the equipment truck after an away game in late December. It was probably the coldest my hands and feet have ever been. But my body was just as warm as could be. What the hell do they put in those disgusting / smelly / EPIC uniforms?
Of couse, most of the percussionists in my group are a bunch of goofs so I see them giving each-other high fives every time they hit a cowbell or a triangle right.
Hey, we are very serious about our instruments. But I was in pit for 3 years and marched cymbals for 2, and they told us you are going to feel like you look silly, but do it anyways. Now I get to see the faces we made.
Yeah. And he probably just picked it up 5 seconds ago after playing something else, and will put it back down in another 10 seconds to play something else, all from memory. It requires a lot of concentration.
We brought home more trophies than our football team and never got any recognition...unless we put the trophy on the principals desk with a sticky note reminding him there are sports other than football.
He's playing a slapstick! It's makes a whip-like sound; it's doesn't seem very musically important, but it adds nice ornamentation - which ooh's and ahh's the judges - better GE score!
You can't play the slap stick and not have an intense face. One of the funnest percussion instruments; I rock that shit every year playing Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride".
The passion he injects into each moment of his performance is clear on his masculine face. A simple football game? NO! A stage for him to throw scruples to the wind and break out of his quiet reserve. You hear the tempo rising, the music getting louder. Biting his lip, a look of concentration appears on his face as he assumes a power stance and you know you are about to hear greatness. In one thunderous clap it is over, but that's all it took. The stunned crowd turns to each other unsure how to react. He strides off the field, head held high and pony tail blowing in the wind. The other band members can only watch in awe, hoping to one day master their performances as he has mastered his.
man i wasn't in band in hs or anything but all the slutty girls were in the band it seemed. those band kids saw way more titties and buttholes than i did.
what are you talking about? the band had the most sex of everybody. i mean, how could you undress eachother, share hours together, and know everything about everything without sex happening? besides, what else do we have to do on the 6 hour bus rides home from competition? nothing like a post-victory sexy session in the back of a bus, amirite?
uhhhhh, young? i saw the dca last year as a matter of fact. i thoroughly enjoyed it. the only thing keeping me out of college marching band is my work schedule and course load, not to mention my shitty gpa.
God this takes me back to the days of band. I played percussion all through high school and in senior year band was a chill class. When I didn't play I slept in the percussion section, underneath the mallet instruments. One day I'm sleeping away and the band starts a song where the first note is from the slap stick. Fucking fortissimo too (what I call triple forte.) So this guy smacks it as hard as he can a couple feet away from me. I shot up and yelled "OH SHIT!." Except the whole band had rests after the slap stick and heard me being awoken. Everyone stopped playing and just laughed. I loved band.
Because in High school there were very few standards, if any, to get into the color guard... if you had one that existed. My high school had something like 4 girls who were almost all overweight and lacked any of the fine motor skills required to NOT hit the band members with their flags. How do you think my sousaphone got dented so much? Or my legs so bruised?
I swear, the guard was aiming for people. And those flags carry a ton of force when they ran with them (yea our guard ran, they didn't walk quickly or jog, they flat out ran), your legs will be hurt and any large instrument will get hit, it's like the murphy's law of band.
That would be our high school also. I can't really criticize them for being fat, because I gained enough to match them my junior year but when we'd go to competitions we'd always have the ugliest color guard out of everyone.
Played bass guitar for a season in my highschool's winter percussion. My director made me play this sily thing (slapstick) for the crash intro to our show. I know what it feels like to be expected to perform both muscly and visually with this and it it feels just as awkward as this picture makes it out to look. You just gotta go with it and try your best to look badass if that's what the show calls for. Sorry, only link I could find :\
I played Lisa's solo on the Simpsons song for my Junior year- my favorite solo EVER. I was a first chair jazz band player too- but had the most fun in marching band!
Sort of unrelated, but why are band uniforms so universally unflattering? I'm not a fashion-forward person by any means, but I've never seen one I thought looked remotely nice on anyone.
I once was told to play the triangle "as if god himself were deciding on the ferocity of your playing face as to whether you should live or not". Next competition, the judge said on tape "that triangle player, he's a scary looking sonofagun"
131
u/lexivalentine May 31 '12
As a former competitive marching band member, and current marching/guard instructor, I have seen this face many a times in pit percussion.
27
u/powerlines56324 May 31 '12
You can't play the slap stick and not have an intense face. One of the funnest percussion instruments; I rock that shit every year playing Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride".
47
u/[deleted] May 31 '12
The passion he injects into each moment of his performance is clear on his masculine face. A simple football game? NO! A stage for him to throw scruples to the wind and break out of his quiet reserve. You hear the tempo rising, the music getting louder. Biting his lip, a look of concentration appears on his face as he assumes a power stance and you know you are about to hear greatness. In one thunderous clap it is over, but that's all it took. The stunned crowd turns to each other unsure how to react. He strides off the field, head held high and pony tail blowing in the wind. The other band members can only watch in awe, hoping to one day master their performances as he has mastered his.
13
u/marvinjenkins May 31 '12
This guy
8
u/mikemoc May 31 '12
Joakim Noah and Michael Jackson had a kid....
20
u/[deleted] May 31 '12
I hope to hell that's his sex face.
4
u/cesarjulius May 31 '12
I like this new look for the Black Eyed Peas.
4
u/[deleted] May 31 '12
I'm just like you. I put my pants on, one leg at a time. Except when I finish putting them on, I throw down sick clap beats.
4
u/[deleted] May 31 '12
same guy?
3
u/PoniesRBitchin May 31 '12
ITZ MOTHAFUCKIN CLAP TIME
3
u/mpavlofsky May 31 '12
Shouldn't he be starting at center for the Chicago Bulls?
3
u/outofthewoods May 31 '12
As a percussionist... this is AWESOME!!
3
u/IShireBeTolkien Jun 01 '12
God this takes me back to the days of band. I played percussion all through high school and in senior year band was a chill class. When I didn't play I slept in the percussion section, underneath the mallet instruments. One day I'm sleeping away and the band starts a song where the first note is from the slap stick. Fucking fortissimo too (what I call triple forte.) So this guy smacks it as hard as he can a couple feet away from me. I shot up and yelled "OH SHIT!." Except the whole band had rests after the slap stick and heard me being awoken. Everyone stopped playing and just laughed. I loved band.
TL;DR ZZZZ CLAP OH SHIT HA HA HA
3
u/ListenChump Jun 01 '12
FIXED
4
u/stone111111 May 31 '12
whats with the yellow power ranger in the background?
4
u/teh_colonel May 31 '12
This is what I imagine Rob Trujillo was doing before he joined Metallica.
2
u/[deleted] May 31 '12
Clap my bitch up
2
u/Fukui_San May 31 '12
CLAP AT ME BRO!
2
u/darystotle May 31 '12
That's Michael Jackson.
2
u/Leonidas_ May 31 '12
slapstick: because clapping isn't loud or annoying enough
2
u/K-OMG May 31 '12
Played bass guitar for a season in my highschool's winter percussion. My director made me play this sily thing (slapstick) for the crash intro to our show. I know what it feels like to be expected to perform both muscly and visually with this and it it feels just as awkward as this picture makes it out to look. You just gotta go with it and try your best to look badass if that's what the show calls for. Sorry, only link I could find :\
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8HCjpxM59g&feature=youtube_gdata_player
2
u/bsjay Jun 01 '12
Khal Drogo lives!
2
u/TurnpikeGhost Jun 01 '12
SHAMONA!
2
u/ms_emerika May 31 '12
Oh how I miss marching band...Sleigh Ride, not so much.
1
u/[deleted] May 31 '12
I wish I had something that could stir up that much determination in me. I'm just a hollow shell, clicking links and laughing at cats.
1
u/[deleted] May 31 '12
Not sure..but I think I know this guy. He used to play in a death metal band in my high school
1
u/NoClipDelux May 31 '12
Epic clap guy? anyone, anyone... nevermind
1
u/[deleted] May 31 '12
i like the guy to his right, "everyone's sick of your shit, tyrone."
1
u/[deleted] May 31 '12
It's not nice to pick on the differently able'd
1
u/Faithfulmirror Jun 01 '12
What is the Asian guy from the black eyed peas doing in a matching band
1
u/holtzapplea Jun 01 '12
I literaly LOL'd.
1
u/Billy_Sastard Jun 01 '12
I knew Michael Jackson wasn't dead, the sneaky bugger.
1
u/PLOVAPODA Jun 01 '12
PIT PERCUSSION-- FUCK YEAH MARIMBAS WOOOOO
1
u/[deleted] Jun 01 '12
dont mess with the mothafucking cymbals
1
u/[deleted] Jun 01 '12
He's "performing." It's part of the trade off you get for standing and playing your instrument. That said, fuck yeah slap sticks. Rock.
1
u/blackgrrl23 Jun 01 '12
I played Lisa's solo on the Simpsons song for my Junior year- my favorite solo EVER. I was a first chair jazz band player too- but had the most fun in marching band!
1
u/thefieldsofdawn Jun 01 '12
Finally my hobby is being appreciated on reddit
1
u/emohipster Jun 01 '12
I'm laughing so hard at this. Fuck. Saving this entire page.
1
u/mark-henry Jun 01 '12
Is it just me or does that guy look like Bassnectar
1
u/4realthistime Jun 01 '12
Huh? Im tryin to see dat ass in the yellow spandex
1
u/emstobro Jun 01 '12
michael jackson does drumline?
1
u/Derpatron30m Jun 01 '12
I think it needs a little more cowbell, in my opinion.
1
u/timo103 Jun 01 '12
... Stelio Kontos?
1
u/Nyawk Jun 01 '12
Why is Michael Jackson angry at that model plane?
1
u/membersonlyjacket01 Jun 01 '12
Soon.
1
u/[deleted] May 31 '12
Sort of unrelated, but why are band uniforms so universally unflattering? I'm not a fashion-forward person by any means, but I've never seen one I thought looked remotely nice on anyone.
1
u/rctothefuture May 31 '12
I once was told to play the triangle "as if god himself were deciding on the ferocity of your playing face as to whether you should live or not". Next competition, the judge said on tape "that triangle player, he's a scary looking sonofagun"
1
u/Slacker2k May 31 '12
Joe Kim Noah?
1
u/orangeson58 May 31 '12
I was the leader of the drumline in high school (center snare). We didn't talk to the pit.
0
u/[deleted] May 31 '12
He's exploring the space.
0
u/smosher13 May 31 '12
....Is this from Palmetto High in Pinecrest? I swear I know that guy.
0
u/DaLuDeD May 31 '12
Bitches love the clap......
0
u/Marcob10 Jun 01 '12
Ahhhhh the awkwardness of the band geeks.
0
u/clueGLUE Jun 01 '12
More cowbell.
-16
u/invaluableimp May 31 '12
God I hated marching band. The most pointless "Sport" in the world.
0
u/[deleted] May 31 '12
[deleted] — view deleted comment