Hey you guys im a new member of the forums...(i joined before but i fergot all my information..)

So this year I am center snare (again) and we are marching two snares. Now im not saying my fellow snare player is bad (i know hes doing his best and he is a good snare player)but he seems to have a hard time cleaning up to me. My instructor told us to have sectionals but im not sure what to do to help him clean up to me, such as excersices, techniques, etc...

It would really help our drumline out.. and it would be really appreciated..

Thanks

Well, these are somethings thats helped my line get a lot cleaner.

1) Practice with a metronome. If he doesn't know the tempo (even though he should be able to keep it without one) then theres no way to stay clean

2) Practice together, often. Like on bass drum. Practicing your part alone can only do so much. You need to practice as a line so you can play together as a line.

3) If you have no metronome, tell him to listen in to you since you are the center and you are "met" when theres no actual one.
I tell one of the snare players to listen to me when hes off cause i know the beat and the tempo.

4) To sort of, restate the theme. Practice, together,
with a met some, without a met some (cause they need to get used to it anyways), and do it often.


Well good luck =]

I think establishing a tempo reference within the drumline for different parts of the music helps a lot. Sometime listening to the center snare doesn't always do it. For instance, in a part where the uppers don't have straight-forward parts but the basses have sixteenth splits listening to the basses would be a good reference for that part of the music.

As well as on the field, if you're right near the tubas and they're subdividing something for you, why not listen there?

The thing about that is not everyone is going to pick the same reference, it's a good idea to say "From measure x to x we all need to be listening down to the basses because they're subdividing for us." If everyone is listening to the same tempo, the only reason for something to not be clean is poor technique.