Marching Drums: A Different Kind Of Drumming

Learning to play on marching drums will only help your drum set playing!

Every once in a while I reminisce about my days in drum line.  I used to compete on marching drums when I was younger for solo competitions and group competitions with my school.  I have a lot of great memories from drum line, but I also have a lot of rudiment chops from drum line.  Being a drummer in a marching band taught me about precision drumming and all the different rudiments for drums too.  All of these rudiments and drumming techniques can be applied to the drum set as well.  In fact, I often teach drum rudiments as a way to maneuver around fills much easier than playing everything with single strokes.  For your enjoyment, I pulled together three videos that feature marching drum solos for snare drum, tenor drums, and even a bass drum ensemble.  It’s pretty amazing what these guys can do with a pair of sticks!

You might recognize the first drummer from an older post I made on Play Drums By Ear.  Jeff Queen is a master marching band drummer and teacher.  Check him out his solo when he was marching for the Blues Knights Drum Corps in 1994 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pQEL1NAeGs&feature=related.

I’ll skip ahead a few years to a tenor drums competition in 2011.  Matt Penland, from Santa Clara Vanguard Drum Corps, won the competition that year with this performance at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQNRHSbXSHE&feature=related.

The last video I’ll leave you with features the bass drum ensemble from the Blue Knights 2010 competition.  These guys are not only great drummers, but put on a fun show too.  Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAnhi-Jwhqo&feature=related.

Whether you are playing in drum line, playing a drum set, or an African Djembe, all drumming skills impact each other.  You are doing yourself a favor by getting into as many different styles of drumming as you can!

Thanks,

Chris