Hey, my bassline is trying to get more ideas for visuals, because we don't have a whole lot going on right now. I was just looking for some feedback about what your bassline does for visual-crowdage stimulation. Thanks much!!!

well one year the bassline was marching on the field and came up to the sideline. They then set down thier drums and leaned them using the harnesses as a kind of stand. they were in a mini arc on the sideline and it looked pretty sweet.

heres a pic.



also there is a visual thats crazy awesome and pretty hard tho.
Its for one person on the bassline. I saw it on a video. I don't remember which one or what drum corps but the bass drummer somehow swung his right arm over the top of the drum and hit the left side drum head wih his right stick.
it was crazy.

heres a link to a video with a pretty sick bass visual doing the stick over the drum and hitting the other side.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRB51hgd_6w
also rhythm X did something similar in 04 for their audio visual show.
oh and how about a suicide stick drop after a solo. thats what my drumline did last year. of course it was for winter drumline so if your doing visuals for marching band it might be hard to see the suicide stick drop

Try doing the thing (word is escaping me) where the first person does something and then the next person does it like an eighth note later and on and on...One you could do is the first person crouches down (not all the way) holds for a beat and comes up, then the next person starts that sequence an eighth note after the first person, and it goes down the line. Do stuff like that, if u do it fast enough its always cool

btw...in that video none of the players are hitting the head on the other side. i would think it would be very impossible to actually hit the other head over the top of the drum

Sweet, thanks for your help guys.

not impossible just amazing. ; ]

I think the video I was talking about was the Cadets bassline. But im not sure.

try some stick tosses to spice up a bass feature or something. Im sure the crowd would love that.

there have been many bass lines to play a behind the back note. cadets in 06, maybe 05, RX03.

Something my bassline did this year that I thought was pretty rad was, during a percussion feature, they did this kind of 360 pivot while playing, starting from the middle bass and fanning out, then from first bass down to third and back. They got dizzy the first few times, but the crowd ate it up.

;D

Hmmm, that sounds pretty good.

we ended up using the visual I said in my earlier post for our show this year. we made it kinda like a wave. bass one takes his left hand over the drum and then I take my left hand over the drum and then vise versa with the other 3 basses down the line at the same time so its like a criss cross thingy. we are just playing 2 unison notes so it looks pretty cool, plus we are marching in double time backwards

one thing I've discovered with bass is that it's hard to do good visuals that will make you guys excited to have just done them and make the crowd excited to see them. a visual that my bassline did is the "jump-lean"(as my bassline called it) when on a unisen hit you kinda lean toward the crowd and half jump(it's hard to exlpain but it looks awesome if done correctly)
of course the suicide drop or reaching overtop(or behind) and playing with both hands on the same side, are a bit more difficult to do but look sick.

RCC's indoor bassline 07 did some crazy stuff. As did Cadets 06. Blue Knights are pretty cray with the visuals too

A good ol' bass flash can do the trick.

youll get arrested.

BD 08. nuff said. Although that stuff doesn't actually happen in real life.

Yea, that trick came from the scotch bands. They only march one bass, and I'm pretty sure its not 14 inches wide, its slim. (I'm pretty sure at least, If this isn't scotch style correct me) And its just like a flourish, except for the bass. The players left hand goes under the bass and hits the right head, and the right hand goes over the top to hit the left head. I'm pretty posative its scotch basses that started that trick, But I don't want to say definatly and get punked later.

check out phantom 08 bass line http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zuzb3WXmMg
they have some subtle but swweett visuals my bass tech marched 06-07 PR and 08 Rythym X

ripple?

i remembered...the concept is a sequential, i don't know if what i described is a ripple or not, i just made it up.

My bass drum line did some cool spins this year. I also tried to convince them to do some mallet drops.

If there is a soft slow part in the music, that is kind of serene, you could pretend to be "birds" and flap you "wings" (mallets). My "crazy" and funny secondary section leader came up with that.

Also, steps outs could be cool...

While in a spot in your drill when you are stationary for a while, you could do a mini-box drill (if you have even # of basses). One judge said my line did a nice "do-si-do". Haha.

the ol' swing and ding