wow i cant even imagine that.we marched 180 last year.Way to stick it out though
EDIT: here is an HBCU style show we did last year. we only did it once and on our last game and we kinda sucked it up but hey..it was fun.. fast fowerd to 6:51 for the good stuff

There's one thing the snare's and tenors can do to not sound as loud. I marched at a small school for the first two years, and I taught our snares this technique:

Use a tighter grip with more fingers around the stick. instead of your hand loosening up at full extension, keep more hand on the stick. This will limit your maximum stick heights to about two inches less than normal (and help the newer guys keep hold of the stick).

It worked for us. I personally don't prefer it but hey, if that's what we had to do to be quiet, we did it. (not considering cleanliness), 3 Snares playing with lower heights is a better number than 2 playing at wild full extensions.

it would be a better idea to maintain correct technique while simply playing lower heights.

Changing implements is another way to reduce volume. Using a slightly shorter & lighter stick (like the typical indoor model) will reduce your sound while allowing you to keep a normal approach to the drum.

Holy wow. 11 people. Man that's ridiculous. Thank you for that post, now I definitely don't feel as bad.

I strongly disagree. Two guys throwing down is always better than three who don't play squat. Besides, clean matters, not how many people you have. It's easy to get caught up in the bigger is better hype.



Agreed.

There is also weight on the arranger to write appropriately for the both the music and the ensemble.

everyone's said the things u need to do. get out there w/ the future marching band members and encourage them to stick to band and not quit etc.

2/3 years ago when my current director first took up the job at our school we had less than 50 total people in band total (including percusion DM guard and everything!) im not sure how many people we had these last two years but it couldn't have been over 60 as a whole. id say thats a rough max it could've been. though i do know this past year we had less than 15 rookies total.

thats us at a competition either the year before my current director came...or the exact year he came..can't remember which, i wasn't on the line back then but w/e

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=10624067

this upcoming year we're goin to have over 50 wind players alone. all together i think we're gonna be around 82 members alone. big increase from two years ago when my BD first came to this school. then my junior year we'll be over 100 people as long as a massive number of people quit or get kicked out (the being kicked out thing has happened). so be patient and the size of ur band will grow.



also again quality over quanity i was discussing this w/ an old drummer of ours the other day. u can be one of the smallest yet pwn the biggest.

I'm not sure if someone said this or not, but you could also try elementary schools. We have a day each year that the entire band goes on tour to several elementary schools and middle schools.

Kids at that age are more open minded than teenagers. And its easier to impress them and get them interested. (that sounds slightly manipulative, but i don't mean it will brain wash them into being in band.)

This may not work immeaditaly, but hopefully your future band members can work in a larger band. (Small bands still rule though)

I agree. The main reason I joined band was I remembered them visiting and playing for us every year when I was in elementary. Thats also what got me to sign up for percussion. The percussion ensemble came around and had a separate concert for us in which they let us try out some of the instruments.

same with me.