I'm just wondering why everyone who is in pit is in pit. I know some schools whose people who don't make the line get stuck in pit, but I also know a few people who have chosen pit because it develops more mallet skills. What's the reason behind your pit-playing?

This probably isn't the sort of answer you're looking for, but my band isn't fielding a drumline this year. So everyone is in pit, like it or not. I fall under the second category.

Some people just don't want to bother with marching though, or they are much better at mallets. And then there are the people who would like to be on drumline but don't have the skill.

I said that id rather do pit than play bass or cymbals. Bass drum is ok i just dont get along well with the drum captain and if i played bass hed just get mad at me all the time haha.

I don't play pit, but I would have to say people play pit because....they want to? Lol, yes, there are people who want to play pit because they think it's fun, a good developmental-skill-building experience, etc.

I played in several sections in high school (a semester of bass drum, a semester of pit, then a year of snare drum, then two more years of pit), and I decided to spend the majority of time in pit because I felt that my experience in the pit had more relevance and applicable qualities to a long-term career in music (an experience playing in pit has loads of applications to playing in an orchestra, playing chamber music, playing in a pit for a musical, playing solo percussion music, etc.), whereas playing on a tenor line or bass line has less direct percussive applications.

Additionally, my year of playing on kevlar heads gave me tendonitis.

Well My School does not Feild a Drumline either so last year i was forced to do it until latter in the season I figured having no drumline raises your band score and well I love PIT LOL

Honestly, I do not appreciate hearing people say how others get "stuck in the pit" when they are cut from the high school drumline. Not only does it give the pit/front ensemble a bad reputation as been "inferior" to the drumline, but it also reflects a pessimistic view of percussionists that take this essential section of the marching band for granted.

To use my own old high school as an example, we have had--and continue to have--a mix of young percussionists honing their craft on mallet, timpani and auxiliary instruments alongside their guitar and orchestral counterparts. It's a great challenge for everyone, as the percussionists are challenged to read music better while the string players learn the two-mallet and four-mallet techniques necessary for playing the vibes, marimba, xylophone and glockenspiel.

Everyone has their personal motivation to be a part of the Pit: some use it as a "stepping-stone" to becoming part of the drumline while others join it to present themselves new and exciting challenges that they can apply to ensembles they participate in after the Fall marching season is officially over.

I personally tried out for my high school drumline during the summer of what was going to be my sophomore year at Broadneck. I decided that tenors would be a nice challenge since the snare and basslines were pretty much set with junior and senior members of our band. I had the chopes to play on the quadline, but I failed to sit at home and practice on the actual sweep and crossover techniques that the tenor tech went over with each of us. It came down to me and a friend of mine and needless to say, the decision to cut me was in the best interest of everyone. Why, do you ask? It's because I still was able to go back to playing in the Pit as a auxiliary percussionist and learn how NOT to take my opportunities for granted. And my friend? Well, he ended up chopping some serious wood on those quads of his for the remaining two years of high school.

To make a long story short, I used the summer going into my junior year at high school to prepare myself on a consistent basis to play timpani for the pit. The funny thing is that I kept getting asked by the drumline members to re-audition for them that same summer (and the following). Needless to say, I politely declined since I felt that the pit needed to keep its tradition of retaining quality players and senior leadership for those years and beyond.

Nowadays, I look on those years of Pit as a blessing since I learned how to read treble and bass-clef music and to play major, minor, and chromatic scales--something you don't have the luxury (or the time) to do while in the drumline. Even when I wasn't playing on the competitive drumline, I STILL learned to march and play snare, tenors, cymbals and bass for parades that our school participated in around the greater Annapolis area. It's all about what you decided to do for yourself.

So to answer your question, everyone has a story about why they decided to play (and stay) in the pit and to say that being in the pit is a bad thing is ludicrous!

"Optimism is key to anything you do in life."

I myself don't want to be in pit. But I have snugglebunny of respect for the people who do it. Pit people are always getting called lazy and stuff but I disagree. At least in our schools pit, they have some of the hardest things to play outta the whole band. But I myself am a tenor drummer so me being in pit probably wont be happening.

It is really important for a serious drummer to have good everything skills so I think some should consider the mallet route in high school, but often the school can't afford good enough pit equipment to put out more than a tambourine and two sets of clanky bells, but ultimately its up to the band director, what happens to the pit. most competitive schools will have a very good drumline and a very good pit each with its own staff.

I'm in it by choice really. I did not enjoy band class last year and I dropped it this year but continued to do marching band and was told if I didn't take the class it would be hard for me to do anything higher than bass on battery and i didnt want to play bass so I chose to do pit. I see it as an opportunity to improve my mallet skills so that i can make it into our schools top band next year.