I am a tenor player most of the time because sometimes we do switch around on different drums. However, whenever i see a video of a DCI corps or something like that I can hardly ever hear the tenors and it's always the snares and the basses that stand out. Same thing with whenever I see a show live. This always makes me want to not play tenors and play something where people will actuall be able to hear and appreciate what I practiced countless hours on. It seems to me that no one ever cares about the tenor players (besides the other tenor players). I was just looking to see if anyone could cheer me up and possibly tell me what worth tenor players are to a line.

umm i dont know where your from...but basically around here (south west ct) all anyone cares abou is the tenors (and snares but that cuz there well...snares). If you think your not being head use heaver mallets and increase your heights

Thats because your from the north along with me, I've realised, In highschool, In the north, the big hype is on the tenors, In the south, It's about the snare.

But the tenors job is to not be heard, they just add an extra dimension to the music by playing the tenor voice, adding dimension to the snare voice. Its the nice blending voice, between the soprano (snare) voice and the bass voice.

And if you take a step back, do you really even hear the snares and basses that much? Sure, you do, but the job of the battery is to get up and underneith the band.

Its really not hearing the tenors, or the snares, or the basses, its about hearing the drumline as a whole. Each instrument has its own purpose, and in the music they serve their purpose, yeah I live in the south so the snare is like "ooh ahhh niice" but I love playing the tenors..sure the mediocre football crowd might not be able to tell, but it comes down to the competitions where judges hear the whole line togethor instead of a particular instrument..believe me judges hate it when an instrument sticks out..thats the difference between a Superior and an Excellent.

well spoken. and honestly in really decent lines even the cymbals can have an effect.

Sorry, but I wasn't hauling those heavy-*** drums around the field just to play second fiddle to the snare line. And I can hear the tenor voice just fine, thank you very much.

And that is the worst part about tenors, definatly. I was always taught, as the tenor players job, you don't stick out, you don't lead the battery, you play just under the snares and blend everything in the line.

I'm not saying the tenors are an accesory,(sp sorry) Everyone in the battery is imporant, But if you take the absolute neccisary parts, bass and snare are it. I'm not saying the tenors are un-imporant, I'm just saying (from what I've been taught) they are the blending voice, and the new dimension to the line, not the stand out part.

It's like being a piccolo player in a band. What you do rarely stands out to the audience, next to all the brass and percussion, but does that make the piccolo any less important an instrument? No; the piccolo is still a part of the ensemble, and even gets its chance to shine once in a while.

Just remember that there aren't too many people willing to put up with you have to do as a tenor player. While you may not get so much recognition as the rest of the drumline, take pride in what you do and most of all enjoy it.

Don't ever compare tenors to piccolo again! Go watch any DCI show and tell me you don't hear the tenor line. You may not hear them 100% of the time, but you don't hear everything that any instrument plays. Every instrument has times they play a supporting role and times they play a leading role. Tenors sound awesome the times that they stick out enough to be heard, and the times when they just sort of blend in, like you said, people who like tenors will be watching.

Quads= piccolos...good luck escaping that statement with your life.

Not sure who's listening to what, but if a section is getting lost in the ensemble for an entire show it's usually the result of bad arranging or an arranger hiding a quad section with less than ideal playing ability.

Especially at the HS level, you'll find a lot of teams have a quad book that is simply the snare chart split up over 5-6 drums. So considering that there are usually 2 snares for every quad player and the sound cuts twice as much, you're not going to hear everything they throw down.