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One thing I was thinking about the difference between old and new school drumming is time. The new school is all about playing with the metronome and the players are much better at playing in time then some of the old school guys. Sure there were individuals or even full lines back in the day that could play in time but not nearly as consistent as what's currently happening. As it turns out, the west coast style of drumming was notorious for playing out of time but what was cool is it was on purpose AND it was clean. What always amazed me too was a line would hang a phrase or add gaps before singles, yet it would all line up with the corps. I guess when you practice being out of time enough everyone goes with the flow.

I started my drum corps career almost exactly when use of a met became common practice. As much as the chirp of a Dr. Beat makes me cringe to this day, it definitely separated the men from the boys. While my sense of time is not perfect it did hone it enough to better hear not only when the line was out of time, but also when individually I was pushing or pulling. Let me tell you, this also helps tremendously in teaching so you can tell your students more accurately what they need to do to play clean with the line.

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I remember Blue Devils used to hang phrases a lot and they did it clean. That always impressed me when a line could pull it off. I remember falling asleep on a gym floor with that incessant beep from Dr. Beat stuck in my head.

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Float was the "master" of that action. Even in VK he did that alot a lot with our lines. Rob can clarify more on this Im sure. Although I don't remember him being big on the met or Dr. Beat as much. Same with Paul Rennick when he taught us with Float in 94. Stick clicks from Float or Rennick seemed to rule the day back then from what I recall. Heck, you can see in the PR videos from this year Rennick clicking sticks rather than a Dr. Beat through a Long Ranger coming from behind the line. That's old school!


Another thing that I just thought about that is definately "old school" is playing everything(including the drum book) off the left hand. That is, playing what you play starting off the right hand, but starting it off the left hand. Now I don't know if that was just a Tom Float thing, or if alot a lot of lines back in the day did that as well. However, I can't really say that I know if lines do that these days or not. Maybe someone can confirm or deny that.