This article is directed at anyone looking to teach a drumline for the first time. Maybe you are a band director and are looking for guidance, or perhaps you are the section leader of your drumline and have been tasked with teaching your peers. Hopefully this article can give you some tips to get started with your season and hold successful auditions. If you have questions after reading this, feel free to leave a comment below or reach out!
Getting Started
A marching band performs during pre-game (photo credit: Frankie Lopez)
Before your season begins, you need to take stock of your equipment and available personnel. How many serviceable drums do you own? What repairs, drum heads, sticks, carriers, and other pieces do you need to order? Are you just fielding a drumline, or will you have a front ensemble as well? Take care of business and get those items in stock. However many working instruments you own will dictate how many performers you can have on each instrument. Another consideration is to not use every single instrument you own (so you have a backup or two); or, if budget allows, consider buying extra instruments ahead of the season in time for workshops/auditions.
What about staff? Are you the only percussion instructor, or is there room in the budget to hire more staff? Maybe you can afford to have extra percussion staff at auditions and band camp, but not for the rest of the season. Or maybe your budget allows you to have a technician in front of every subsection for every rehearsal of the season! Whatever your budget allows for, I wholeheartedly recommend getting good staff members that are knowledgeable and care about your members’ education. Once you find those people, pay them well, communicate with them well, and they will stay with your program for multiple seasons and help you build your program up for the long-term. If it’s only you, consider adding car washes or other fundraisers to the season schedule to build up the budget for staffing next year!
Next, you need to think about your goals for the season. How many members do you expect to have this year? What is the current skill level of your performers? What do you hope to accomplish musically this season? What techniques and exercises do you need to focus on to achieve those goals?
If you aren’t sure what a good goal for your drumline might be, a solid understanding of tempo control and the 40 standard rudiments is a good place to start. If you are fielding a front ensemble, developing 4-mallet technique and learning all major and minor scales would build a solid foundation.
You will need a comprehensive exercise packet. Depending on the group, you may also need to purchase some drum cadences or stand jams. Finally, you need to consider who is writing the percussion music for your show, and get the writing process started!
Once you have those things ironed out, you can move on to the next step.
PLANNING WORKSHOPS & AUDITIONS
Workshops give your students a chance to try out new instruments in a stress-free environment. (Photo credit: Lone Star)
Give your potential members at least several weeks notice before holding drumline workshops. You should also make the exercises available to everyone early so they have time to learn the materials beforehand. Make it clear that the workshops are NOT auditions, and that prospective members are free to try out any instrument and even rotate instruments during the workshop! This can be a fun way to get students engaged and encourage more people to show up, especially for a younger group.
These clinics also allow you to see how each member might perform in each section. If you have members that are clearly more suited for one instrument than another, this is your chance to let them try other things out, but then help guide them towards their best fit. I’ve found that holding three workshops and three auditions back-to-back seems to be just the right amount of time to make important placement decisions. Here is a template for a potential workshop/audition schedule:
Monday, May 1, 6:00-8:00pm - Workshop #1
Wednesday, May 3 - 6:00-8:00pm - Workshop #2
Monday, May 8 - 6:00-8:00pm - Workshop #3
Wednesday, May 10 - 6:00-8:30pm - AUDITION #1
Monday, May 15 - 6:00-8:30pm - AUDITION #2
Wednesday, May 17 - 6:00-8:30pm - AUDITION #3
Once you have your exercises handed out and workshop/audition dates announced, one final consideration is to secure your rehearsal spaces. If you have enough staff to split up into all subsections (snare, tenor, bass, cymbals, front ensemble), then you will need that many separate rooms to rehearse in. Ideally, all of these rooms will have mirrors, but if only one room has mirrors, give it to the cymbal line. If you are short on spaces or staff members, you can keep the snares/tenors together and sub everyone else out. Or if you only have two staff members, put the entire drumline together, and the front ensemble in a separate room. If everyone needs to all be in the same room because it’s just you teaching, make sure your exercise packet is written to accommodate keyboards and drums playing together.
After all that planning, you will finally be ready for the next step.
RUNNING THE WORKSHOP
Give students lots of opportunities to ask questions during workshops. (Photo credit: Manuel Nägeli)
You’ve purchased the equipment, handed out the exercises, and scheduled the rehearsals… now it’s time for your first workshop!
How you proceed will depend on your available staff. Ideally you will have at least one staff member per subsection: 1 snare, 1 tenor, 1 bass, 1 cymbal, 1 front ensemble, and YOU moving around. Having the flexibility to move between rooms and take notes on how everything is going can really help you stay organized with a large percussion section. If it is just you on staff, you will have to take those notes and teach at the same time.
You need to plan each workshop ahead of time. Giving your staff members a breakdown of the schedule will help everyone stay on track and accomplish your goals… or if it’s just you, it will help you stay on track. Here is an example of a workshop schedule for a drumline:
5:45 - Members arrive, set up instruments
6:00 - Full percussion section meeting, introductions, give out name tags, talk about plan for the night
6:15 - Sectional rehearsals, teach how to hold sticks/mallets, work on “8 on a hand” and the four stroke types.
6:45 - Rotate instruments, teach how to play “Double Beat” and work on double stroke technique.
7:15 - Rotate, review the four stroke types, focus on accent tap (downstrokes and upstrokes)
7:45 - Full ensemble meeting, talk about how the night went, describe expectations for future workshops/auditions, answer questions, clean up
8:00 - Depart
This is just an example for a full drumline workshop rehearsal. For individual sectionals, it would be helpful to give your staff members a loose outline of what you want them to cover with their sections. Giving your staff enough leeway to make decisions (but also some structure to keep them on track) is a balancing act that is different for each staff member. As you get experienced with your people, you will learn what works and who needs more or less guidance.
Running the Audition
(Photo credit: Cleveland Browns)
As stated above, in the best case scenario you will have enough staff members to have someone running each sectional, leaving you available to float between rooms and take notes. This also frees you up to have individual conversations out in the hallway with prospective members while the group still rehearses. There will likely be a lot of individuals shifting around, so having yourself available to escort members between sections and introduce them to the new group can help make the transition smooth.
If someone isn’t working out on a particular instrument, don’t hesitate to let them know individually. If you have a balanced approach to building your percussion section, you will be able to explain the value of performing on another instrument. Remind your students that all percussion is connected, and time spent on one instrument can truly help someone prepare for other instruments. While a few students might be disappointed that they didn’t get their first choice, your honest explanation and pep talk towards trying a new instrument will go a long way. It’s worth remembering that some prospective members will quit if they don’t get what they want. Honestly, that’s ok. If someone isn’t willing to play as part of a team, they might not be the best fit for your team in the first place.
As far as running the auditions themselves, you should treat them very much like the workshops. The setting is basically like a normal rehearsal. Individual, one-on-one auditions can be a useful tool, but they tend to introduce a lot of stress to the prospective member. For a younger, less experienced group, I recommend sticking with the group audition format. You can still have individuals play 1-2 reps at a time in front of everyone (just like you might do in a rehearsal), but avoiding the “prepared solo” in a separate room by themselves is smart for a young group. For an older or more advanced group, or one with many auditionees for only a few spots, it absolutely makes sense to turn the pressure on and utilize individual auditions to get a feel for how that person performs. The situation will dictate which format is best; these are just ideas to consider and adapt to your own situation.
The last thing I would re-emphasize would be to run the audition like you will run a rehearsal. If your approach during the season will be very regimented and disciplined, help your prospective members understand what that will feel like from day one. If your style is more laid back, be consistent with that approach! Remember, your prospective members are auditioning you as well, deciding if they want to spend the next season working for you. Your preparation and dedication to the group will be apparent to each of them. Do your homework and be ready to teach, and they will appreciate you even more for it.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to respond below or reach out. Thanks for reading!