Okay, as the title says my line is going to suck next year.
We are losing one snare, one tenor, and (maybe) one bass player (if I can convince her to stay). Plus, our band director for some reason is buying another snare (I guess to let someone else play snare or something) which means we will have to put another person from the bass line on snare, leaving us only 2 veteran bassline players!(we usually have five, but one says she is quiting, another has to go on tenors, and another is going to tenors) Now, we are only getting one new freshmen and I am afraid that he too will have to march snare. This is definitly not what I had dreamed my senior year as the drum captain to be. As they say you are only as good as your weakest player and this is why I have a problem. The ONLY section that I and not worried about is the tenor line, but man I have to do something about my bassline! If this has ever happened to you or you have any, ANY advice please post it.

if you have had 5 veteran bass drum players in the last few years then that means they started when they were either freshman or sophomores at the latest. So, that means that this has happened before at your school....it just might not have been while you were around. That also means that having freshman in the bass line is not necessarily a bad thing. Also, having musicians that are not "percussionists" is not necessarily a bad thing either. If you work with them, it can turn out just fine. The key is not to get discouraged, and always think positively....oh, and the "my line is going to suck" thing doesnt help. IF you want your line not to suck...then do something about it....extra rehearsals...work during the summer. Work with them individually. Do whatever it takes.

I dont know man my lines growing a bit next year but the bass line cant play we might have 3 or 4 this year and thats the biggest its been in a long time from the years I have marched the numbers have been 2 1 2 so we never really have a big bass line but they are really tight together so it evens out I guess but my advice would be have a lot of sectionals with the bass line to get them really tight and you shouldnt have a problem enless they are going to be like my line and cant to a paradiddle above 60 bpm and it still confuse them

No I think you misread my post. I said that we will only have 2 bass players. The freshman will have to go on snare.
My BD wants it that way. And as for extra rehearsals I am not too sure that I can do that because some of the drummers in the line have summerschool to go to which comepletely sucks too. I am ready to do whatever it takes to make this a great line but I do not believe that it will happen with only 2 basses (which are 3rd and 5th bass).
I really feel sorry for the line when my class leaves because basically the whole line is juniors now. Three snares, two tenors, and one bass and they we will all graduate next year.

you said you were going to have 2 veteran bass drum players...you never said that were going to be the only ones and all you said was that the BD wanted an extra snare drummer.

Anyway, I take it you do not have a drum instructor...because no instructor I know of would be extremely happy about an unbalanced line like what you mentioned. There is absolutely no way I would march only 2 bass drums...especially since you mentioned having at least 3 snares and 2 tenors.

That equals NOT GOOD! Sorry mods... anyway, only 2 basses with 3 snares and 2 tenors? Imbalance is the right thing to say (though another not so clean saying would be appropriate), now a good balanced line would have 2 snares, 1 tenor and 4 bass, this way you can place the more inexperienced players onto bass and the more experienced on Snare and Tenors and it would allow for some killer sounding licks without the worry of Popcorn (or uncleanliness). The director should consult you, since you are the Section Leader to be, and find out what the line should be. It has to do with what you have to work with and what's good for the band, not what he wants. My suggestion to you is this: go to his office and request a meeting between him and you in concern about the drumline next year, this will show leadership and an ability to stand up for what you believe in, chances are he'll listen to your concerns and re-think the structure of the line.

people's talents are not static. this amazing thing happens sometimes, i like to call it getting better. i'm sure you were no jeff queens when you started out in your line, and whether you are or not right now is irrelevant. when people start out, they're bound to be a little worse than everyone else because they haven't been exposed. the way to keep your line from "sucking" as you so elegantly put it, is to give them goals and a successful way to obtain these goals. IE pick a cadence that isn't too hard for them, and then help them to learn it.

also, 2 vets on bass is VERY good. in my school people switch off of bass after a year, so we hardly ever have any vets. those 2 vets will be great, and if you can pull in from another section, 2 or 3 people, you can definitely have a rockin line in no time. those vets can probly whip a few people into shape pretty quick. i would consider that section to be a concern.

your tenor line is good you said... make sure they dont know that. they hafta know that they need to work as much as any other section even if they DO have the advantage in the naturalability department.

freshmen on the snareline... who cares? this is high school. the biggest age difference is like 3 or 4 years. think about that. are you really going to regard someone as being THAT bad just because you're 17 and theyre 14? they're obviously there because they want to play, so if you're so worried about it, teach them. offer private lessons over the winter before it starts up. even that head start will give them a heads up as to what to expect and it will also give your snare line a lot of unity from the get go, which is what you need.

don't see your members as pawns. see them as people. remember, they all want the same thing you do. if you have a positive outlook on all this (not saying that youre destined to suck no matter what) then things will happen and it'll turn out well.

My first year instructing, followed my last year in high school. Sadly when I left, so did all the other bass drummers. When I was with the other instructors in the summer they told me we had no returning bass drummers. we get to band camp I have one person that played tuba, and couldn’t march, had one of the snare players from the last season, he couldn't cut it on snare, a dude that had never been in a school band before, he played bass guitar and a little bit of drums and had a really good talent for music, he also marched in ROTC so I wasn’t worried about him, and another girl that though drums were cool but had no musical ability what so ever. Needless to say it took me 3 months, pretty much the entire season to get them into shape. And wouldn’t you know two of them graduated. Leaving me to piece the bass line back together this past year. I actually had to put back together the entire line. Only two people from the drumline in 2002, returned for the 2003 season. What I did was have the bass drummers come in an hour earlier to every practice to work on things. This gave them time away from the entire line and allowed them to focus better. Since I’ve played bass drum for years, and have read a lot of books on drum technique I was able to slowly teach these people. The biggest problem was getting them to want to get better.

hey your line isn't so bad the line i'm on only has six guys now and we have already lost one sane and next year we are losing all our bass line and a tenor so other than me and the other sanre the whole line will be freshmen who can hardly play so compared to my line you got it good man

wait let me fix my last statementthe whole line won't be fresmen b/c of me and the other guy on sanre but my bd is putting me on bass to help the 2 freshmen basses and my friend is covering the 1 snare coming up and we both ar helping with the 2 tenor drummers b/c they need more work than anyone

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.)