In all fairness, we have to start somewhere with our drumming. Let your basses know that you have to start at the bottom and move up based on a teamwork system. even though the movie drumline was based on a snare player - he learned that it wasn't all about himself and his ability, rather his commitment to work within the team of his line and to work as a group rather than promoting self.

make them play it on the bigest drum

I would say just stop handing it to them. Make them see that it is a privilege to march a drum their freshman year. Maybe up the difficulty of the parts. Have some upperclassmen on the bass line. Something to make them want to strive to make the bass line... Because the typical JR. High school thinking is that "If you play a bass drum, you must suck." When really, the bass line is one of the most difficult things to play mentally. You always have to be in-sync with the rest of the bass line. You are relying on every one of them to get their parts right. If one person screws up, judges credit the whole bass line for messing up. Bass lines are just as important as snares or tenors. It takes a whole different kind of chop to play bass.

Have them try doing a dance routine while playing splits. That might show them how hard splits can be.

And yes, we do that in my show. At the end of the drum break, we're at a hold and we do leg movements while we play. The basses just happen to be splitting, which makes the leg movement part really hard.

I would rather play bass drum than snare, but that's because i would be the only person playing my part and i wouldn't have to be EXACTLY uniform...somewhat, yes, but not exact, because the hands aren't always moving at EXACTLY the same time


but i'm a tenor player, so it's ok

Bass is cool because at my school we were the ones dropping all the beats making everyone's head rock to the beat because that's how we do.No one has a problem playing it.Some would rather play quints(tenors) or snare we haven't had anyone quit because they made bass at tryouts.It seems bad at first to me then I started to like it.I wouldn't mind playing it another year.

Yea man bass players throw it down! I don't play bass my self im a tenor guy but i dont think it would be bad to play bass at all. Our show last year the basses had some sweet splits to play

I played bass my sophomore year and it has to have been the most fun I've had on a drum. Junior and senior years, and freshman college, I was on snare. Snare is cool and all, and it is intense, but it really isn't as fun (but you do get that fighter pilot attitude high). You have to worry about all kinds of minute details and being super clean. Bass drums just get to rock out and have fun! Then when those crazy splits come, it really gets fun and interesting! So tell them bass is more fun anyways with less pressure, and even if you want to play snare or tenors, you have to start on an instrument that tends to require less experience and technique.

sixtuplets & thirty second splits up & down the line

As soon as they hear this done right, they will get the bass drum line fever. You can actually teach them to do this in a 30 minute sectional. Start with an eight note grid & replace with sixes or 32nds. It will blow their minds. Best wishes..