Personally, I don't have a real opinion when it comes to the amount of basses in a drum line. My high school has a big drum line with 8 snares, 4 tenors, 7 basses, and 8 cymbals. I was just wondering if you think that 7 basses in a bass line it too much for a drum line? And also how many basses your drum line has and how many basses you think should be on a drum line.

Well thats about average size for a world class line as far as snares and tenors goes so I would stick with the standard 5 set bassline. The bass runs wouldnt be as interesting as they would be with 5 anyway because its harder to write runs for more than 5 basses.

Just real quick... what exactly is a bass run? are there snare runs or tenor runs too?


5 basses are very popular because the phrasing can eaisly fit into 4/4 music. thats all. if it were a stand still bass ensemble, id really want upwards of 12, as you could then, concievably, play any melody you could think of.
Having five basses is by no means of a requirement to have interesting music. its all in the writing, and if whoever is wrting cant handle that, you need a new writer. not to mention, if you have 7 you also have 5.
if you want 7, by all means have 7. it wont overbalance the rest of the drumline unless your players beleive that p-ff if about 15"-29"

when I set a line.I set the basses based on the ability of the players. if there are five people that deserve it, i take five, if there are 9 i take nine (assuming that the other sections are filled out as well)

My personal preference is 5. Five drums provide enough distinct voices to create musical movement in the bass voice, while still being few enough to ensure that each player will have enough notes to keep the parts engaging.

A good number for a bassline is 5. . .


And I would never take 9 bass drummers if they were all good enough. . . Whats the need for 9 anyways? A melodic statement? So should the tenors get 9 drums then too so they can have melodic statements?

In my opinion I think you can get melodic statements out of 5 bass drums. . If you NEED more than 6 (at the most) because you can't create a melodic statement then I honestly thing the writing style of the person who says they need more bass drums needs to be checked out.


So yah thats just one of my few opinions on a bassline bigger than 5 (6 at the most. . but i would rather stick with 5) I hope I didn't offend anybody, that's not my plans here. Just my opinions on the topic.

I think that five is a good number. Like the others I'm not saying that seven is bad, but I personally like five. We have five basses on our line and they provide more than enough sound to our band. But then again, if you really have that many people that there is a need for so many, then you must do what you have to. I've seen a number of college lines that have more than five basses. It's really just personal opinion and if you can write for them.

world class lines 5
high school lines 4
college lines 6

At one time I played bass number 6 out of 7. You can't really make a "seven is too many" blanket statement without a little more information. PSU's band has almost 300 members, so 7 bass drums is no big deal, but I'm guessing there aren't many high schools with bands that big. As far as making melodic statements and "more than 5 being harder to write for," we had a lot of parts where basses 1-4 were playing more melodic run type stuff and 5-7 played a more rhythmic role. So rather than opening up more melodic possibilities, having more than 5 basses just lets you get more creative in ways you might not even think about with 4 or 5 bass drums.

Yeah, my high school has almost 300 members. We are expecting over 300 next marching season. I think 7 basses are a good number for a band that big. Our writer of drumline show music is John Cypert. he is a realy good writer and writes for some colleges like UGA. I will try to get you guys an example of our show music (bass) and see if you like it or it is too much. All the players on bass are pretty good.

Edit: here is a link to our opener for basses in our show.

don't copy and give to your friends and stuff,

Baccan

I've never seen music written for so many basses before. Looks good though. I think it will sound pretty sweet.

We have already finished the marching season with this show. I will try to find an mp3 sometime if I can to show you guys what it sounds like.

I would say 5 bass, but i have seen some high schools with 6

thank you sky dog

4-5

Four or five is the usual number. Much else is a little extraneous.

I once saw a high school drumline with eight or so basses.

It baffled me.

;/

Tell me what you think about the music we play. THere is a link in the last post of mine.

5...no more no less

I would say five. Stick any extras in a front ensamble. Four is fine if you don't have enough talent. Don't feel bashful if one isn't hacking it. Punish them to the front ensamble until they get a clue and realize that being in the battery is a privilege and requires practice.
If you have a rather large MB I would still only have five.

"Punish" them? To the pit?

You seem to have the wrong idea, dude.

Pit is no worse than bass. If they can't learn their bass music, they should by no means be trusted with a pit part, even if it's only temporary.

xP

hm
we have four basses
five is really the ideal number of basses though
although it does sound amazing when you can get a large number of basses to play a crazy 32nd note run =)

yeah, we are going to now have a 7 man bass line for the second year in a row, its sounding really good.

this dude said it as plain as it can and should be said..if they can't learn one rythm on one drum how do u expect them to learn rthms and such on the mallet percussion as well as memorizing the notes? not to mention any kind of suspended cymbal or what ever sideline percussion instrument you might need as well?

I agree for the most part with the above statements about the pit. But I think that the reason most people get "sent to the pit" and whatnot is moreso because of the marching AND playing. I could be wrong. But it's kinda more like who can play what and who can play what the best that decides our line. We don't really have formal tryouts. I don't know how that many other high schools do it, but ours are more like "instrument fittings" as our percussion director likes to call them. But in my opinion playing cabasa and cymbal rolls is slightly easier than remembering sets and step sizes AND playing. I don't know if you all agree with that or not, but that's the way I see it. I'm not saying that concert bass drum hit is less important than the marching percussion part, just a lil easier to stand and do it than remember all the sets too.
That's my two cents.
Peace

thats the way my instructor does things. we don't really have formal auditions either. he just kinda moves us around to different things and sees who does best on what drum.
and then he assigns us to our drum by what drum suits us the best. i assume thats what u meant by "instrument fittings" right?

Yup, that's what I meant. Pretty much exactly how it works here. The only bad thing is that sometimes someone who could and possibly should be playing one drum is on another drum, even though they like the one they're on.

haha that or someone gets put on a drum even though its not the drum that suits them cuz no one else suits it either haha

we generally march 7 bass'...but in '05 and '06 we had 8 bass'....our bass line is very very competitive, so we march whatever numbers our talent level permits us to do; as long as the rest of the line is balanced of course....

4-5

i agree ^^^ anything else is just wierd for splits

I don't think so....if you have a line of really good bass drummers, a very high to very low 32nd split sounds awesome! not to mention the increased range in musicality you get from it.

7 is never too many, as long as you have a 13" bass! LOL

i would like to have 5 basses but this year my school only has 3...
='(

You have nothing to be sad about, my band has no bass line at all. In fact, our drumline doesn't march, alhtough I'm not complaining too much, I have so much more going on, and my drumline instructor says we'd be after school forever everyday.

i like 5, it gives a more melodic feal, also is great for accents, i always say though, the more the merrier...

the more the merrier but then the splits get really wierd...and the unisons are slammin loud

yea it can get weird, so thats why i prefer 5

Yeah, you'd be there after school a few times a week if you wanted to be any good, but that's the case whether or not you march a battery. If you want to be good at pretty much anything, there's a lot of practice time involved.

My HS line only had three. :P I've played in a five line and heard many more and it just seems like the best amount.

I agree we have 5 on our line and it makes splits sound a lot better in my opinion i've seen 6 but never 7. anyways 7 i would have to say is way to many

unless of course you're JSU's bass line then you can get away with pretty much anything

I think it is pretty safe to say that five is the right amount(considering most if not all world class drum corps use five basses.)

yeah, 5 would would probably be the best, cause in my opinion, it sounds much better. 4 or 6 would probably work too..

I like 5 best, though if you have a HUGE band I can see why you'd have up to 8. My line has 4 basses due to not having enough people, but it's working just fine.