Well first of all you should not say your line is going to suck next year. You already convinced yourself and maybe others that you do not have a chance.You're the drum captain so hey think about it you can make it all happen. You may want to balance your section even if it means people getting mad at you. You are doing the best for the drumline not them. Your band director getting a new drum does not mean a thing. Maybe he or she wants a spare snare around. How about getting people who want to be in drumline and see if the have what it takes and teach them things that they need to learn. Having extra practices,camps, sectionals in the summer or even start doing those now is not a bad idea after all. Give lessons or guide new people to drum lessons at a local music store or private teachers around your area. For this kind of situation you may want to start putting people on the line for next year right now. Go to the middle schools and encourage upcoming freshman to join the line. Freshman in the line is not bad at all. It's actually good since you will build the line from scratch. That way it looks good in your part and the band director may be impressed with you and hire you as a drum instructor when you graduate. If you have any more questions you are free to email me orPM me anytime.

Good Luck and get working.

guys, read his second post again....he isnt saying that his line will suck because of the incoming people or anything like that. He is saying it will suck because his band director only wants to march two basses with a line of at least 3 snares and 2 tenors. BHS drummer understood it and got it right, the rest of you have not offered advice to his problem...you have told him what to do to fix not having veterans in the line, not what to do when your BD is going to march an extremely unbalanced drumline.

i have one word for you- RECRUIT. get eighth graders, woodwinds, anyone you can get. bass drum is the easiest marching drum, and a LOT of woodwind players i know play bass. go for flutes and clarinets, they're useless on the field [i can say this cuz i marched flute two years, so i'm not just bashin here] and go to the middle school and get eighth graders to march. a good way to get people, especially middle schoolers, is to go in and play a cadence for them. most middle schoolers havent really heard them, and they think it is SO COOL. get that bassline FILLED!

good luck!!

Well there isn't really anything that I can do right now because I do not have any other people's telephone #'s and it is the Christmas holidays. I seriously do not know what I am going to do with the line for next year. I have been writing a whole crap load of cadences for five basses, but I guess I will have to suck it up and re-write them. I am upset because this is not what I planned my senior year to be. I WILL MAKE IT AN AWSOME LINE! Thanks guys/girls!

"How about getting people who want to be in drumline and see if the have what it takes and teach them things that they need to learn."

Stating this in a more depth would mean that he needs to recruit people. It really does not matter if he gets more people in the drumline. The band director will think is a great idea.

"That way it looks good in your part and the band director may be impressed with you and hire you as a drum instructor when you graduate."

this quote in more depth, If AsianTenorGuy shows his band director that he wants his drumline to succeed no matter how many people are in the drumline then he may get a good teraching job after high school.

All i can say is, i feel your pain.

Dudes, There isn't much lower you can go than what we have at my school. 3 people. Myself, a tenor, and a bass. no pit. we have to use normal band members or the colorguard to do pit if really needed. and if it wasn't for me, we wouldn't even have a drumline in our school. When our previous band director came here, he screwed up everything. our membership as a whole went from like 70, to 30 in 2 years. I was treated like trash. i had bruises almost everyday from drumsticks getting chunked at me my rookie year. then, the year it ended (the next) and i was suppose to start enjoying it, they all leave. so all i could do was watch and learn. no practice pad, no mentor, no real instruction, and still i learned every note on every instrument on every song. i can still do show music from 4 years ago that i never even played. so i had a knack for it. but i need help. i want to join the blue devils once i graduate, but i need instruction and group experience. i have found instruction, but the group experience is coming slow. how do i make people want to join the drumline? (btw, our football team sux too. 2-11 i believe was our record, so it's not the jocks putting down the band here. we actually won our competitions.)