So, with WGI wound up and DCI not quite ready to begin, it seems we have a little time to fill. With that in mind we are going to start a friendly little competition (nothing official and no prizes). This will basically be for bragging rights. Here is what's going to happen:

Someone (me in this case) will upload a solo. If you think you have something better (original composition) then post it. Solos need to posted in PDF or image format. Please no finale or sibelius files. We only need two competitors at one time, so the first person to post a solo will be the choice. Please, if there are already 2 solos posted, do not post yours YET. There will be time for that.

After we have 2 solos, the DLO community can post which one they like better and why. Solos will be voted on by the name of the composer. Also, when you vote please include a running vote total so that the next person does not have to add it up as they go. (Example: drumholio 3 votes DlWebmaestro 2 votes) When a solo reaches 10 votes (by ten different people..which means voting only once) it will be declared the winner of that round. That solo will move on and someone else can upload a solo to challenge the winner. Then the process repeats. If a solo keeps winning over and over again, we might consider "retiring" it and letting two new contenders go at it, but that will be evaluated as we move forward.

The solo would need to be of reasonable length. Something you would find in a wgi/DCI/hs show is what I had in mind, but not something the length of an individual solo. Time signature does not matter. Snare, tenor, or bass can be used, but the solo can only be for one section. So, no writing a 4 measure snare solo that transitions into a 4 measure tenor solo.

I think that is it. As usual, if there are any questions, feel free to ask or pm me. Finally, please post what you liked and/or disliked about each solo as you vote. It always helps to have some constructive criticism.

Here is the first solo up for vote. Hope everyone enjoys it. It is a tenor solo written for 6 drums. It contains split parts, which is why there are 2 lines worth of music.

Can you give a time guideline for clarification. Like minutes and seconds?

minutes?....have you ever seen a DCI or wgi show where an individual section solo lasted for a minute? Minutes would be more along the line of an individual (I&E) solo. This is more along the lines of the snare break from Blue Devils 97 or the Cadets tenor solo from 1998.

I see what you mean now.

Does it have to be a tenor solo or can it be anything we want?

this is an excerpt from a solo that i wrote in '03.

let me clarify something....measures 3,4,and 5 was the snare break, the other measures were accompanied by the tenors and basses.

That was in the original post. That should answer the question about if it can only be a tenor solo. Gotta read the whole thing people. I don't come up with rules and guidelines because I like to see myself type

Ok, so we now have two licks to vote on. Remember, the first solo lick to get ten votes will be declared the winner.

Thanks for submitting something to get the ball rolling Beardo_MSU.

alright...let the voting begin...and please give likes and dislikes of the licks.

Ok, everyone slow down....please don't post all at once.


Seriously, this is not that difficult. Someone has to have an opinion.

Man it's so hard to judge a solo without hearing it. And without seeing it, as the visual aspect of all that split stuff I'm sure is very cool. It's kind of an odd thing to be judging a 3 bar snare break vs. a 12 bar quad break, but here's my opinion:

I like the first bar of the snare break. The second bar is cool, but it almost seems overly complicated just for the sake of being complicated. I'm having a hard time putting together exactly how it sounds and it seems like it would be really hard to clean. In the last bar the hurta's with the accents on the left kinda turn me off, just personal preference.

As for the quad break, I like it. A lot of cool movement going on, it's definitely a fairly advanced solo. I'm guessing it's meant to be played on stands since behind the back probably isn't going to happen otherwise. I think my favorite part is the triple left 2 1 2 followed by the double stop crush in bar 7, though I personally would mix up the two paradiddlediddles leading into it, given the complexity of the rest of the break. Then there's the split stuff... like I said it's hard to visualize it just looking at the music but it seems pretty cool. The scrape seems to flow well, I like how it leads in with the pududuh. My only comment really is that all the splitting is cool, but given the difficulty it would have been cool to see something split besides 8th notes.

So those are my thoughts, my vote goes to drumholio.

Drumholio: 1
Beardo: 0


edit: In the future it might be good to specify at what tempo it's meant to be played.

yeah, I can understand how something this hard would be hard to understand without hearing it. I have a video that I took on vhs, but I have no clue where it could be. snugglebunny of my stuff got messed up in the hurricane, so there is a good chance it was part of the destruction.

I tend to think though, that snugglebunny of people now rely way too much on the play back of some notation program like Virtual Drumline or Finale, instead of actually just reading music...kinda becoming a lost art in the scheme of things. I'm not trying to be an butt or anything, so I hope you don't think I'm trying to put you down.

I could not have said that any better. I completely agree.

Personally, I would rather look at the actual music than hear just an mp3. You can make something that sounds cool, but is not written well or playable (tenors especially). One question to "mp3" crowd...does your instructor make you an mp3 of the music he/she gives you to learn or do you have to just hack it out to learn it?
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The 2 1 2 tenor thing is something I saw Music City Mystique do in 2004 (seven deadly sins). I agree about the RLRRLL RLRRLL going into the 2 1 2 thing. I had that solo in my head for a long time and didn't put it on paper until I thought of this "competition" thing. Apparently, in my head time signature doesn't matter because I had to redo a couple of things to get it to fit into something that made sense. Thanks for the review.

I think the whole thing about wanting to hear a solo or section of music is just to fully understand the exact interpretation of what is written. In the second solo there is some switching of meter which shouldn't really confuse things because the 1/8th stays constant, however, some people need to hear things AND read them to fully understand what they should sound like. I am a huge proponent of Finale and Virtual Drumline-like programs and soundfonts because I believe that it helps people understand what they are playing and reading a little bit more.

Now for the review...

Both Solos are nice...I really enjoy the trade of the Tenor solo and the flow of the sweep near the ending. Although comparing Tenor solo's to snare solo's is tough IMO, I believe I would have to give the nod to the tenor solo...The snare break that was submitted was pretty much a quick RAM and not really a solo, whereas the Tenor solo actually has the look and feel of a true break. I believe holio wins my vote as well:

Drumholio: 2
Beardo: 0

The opposite is also definitely true on tenors, scrapes just sound like... well nothing really, but look and sound and feel good on drums.

Personally, for this upcoming season I gave my kids all the music for the exercises, and then gave them VDL recordings to play along with after they'd learned them all. I don't necessarily want them relying on the recording to learn the part, but I think practicing along to it is much more fun, and it gets them to play along to a metronome without even realizing it.

Ok, I think I need to clarify my position on this one. If I have the choice, I would like to see and hear the music. However, if I can not have both, I would much rather have the music to look at it than to have the sound to hear. I can hear things in my head much better than I can see them in my head (which would make me a visual learner I suppose)

the metronome aspect of soundfonts is definitely a nice touch especially on show music

I guess you win drumholio

I guess no one cares about this thread. 58 Downloads of my tenor thing,44 downloads of beardo's snare thing and 2 votes. Yeah, just another example of people wanting the free music but not wanting to contribute. Eventually, it will get to the point where no one wants to post music on this site because of this kind of stuff.

Finally got a chance to check these out-

The snare lick was challenging, but had an overuse of off-the-left parts with no flow to it.

The quad lick was better for flow and the readability of the part was better. I also appreciate licks that don't need scv 92 to be played well.

So add my vote in for the Quad lick.

***Sorry, I can't follow simple rules. My bad.***

***Hi, I had WAAAYYYY to much caffeine today and instead of taking a walk, I decided to post. My bad.***

As for my review, the tenor break, I think, is a little boring to start out but it definitely develops nicely into a pretty decent break. Beardo's snare break, however, is pretty cool, but seems a bit unnecessarily random and difficult. It works for an individual solo I suppose but I think this forum is more for breaks than those type of solos.

so that would make it...

Drumholio:4
Beardo:0


p.s. I have no intention of ever reading a piece of music on this website and...
one: using it without permission
two: not commenting on it in the way the person has asked
three: reading it, printing it off, and logging off...

Furthermore, I would like it if everyone took this approach and possibly a few more people than 2 out of 57 would comment on a spree I recently posted.

The tenor break has a really nice flow to it and the splits look like they would have a nice visual aspect to it and a cool sound.

The snare solo is definatly a bit odd, and random and dosent really look like it would work for a whole line to play, although it is a cool break.

But im going to have to side with Drumholio

Drumholio:5
Beardo:0

Was that really necessary?

Calm down, tough guy.

Yeah, you may want to check the aggression at the door buddy.

On with the thread...

***See my soapbox? Isn't it pretty? My soapbox is the prettiest soapbox in the world. Watch me hop off my soapbox now.***

so it's...
Drumholio:5
Beardo:0

More people must vote, please.

The snare lick is cool but I think flow and overall readability of the part is a little...jumbled? And honestly that is not even the right word but its the only thing I can think of to describe my take on it. The tenor solo is a nice rip that the average high school line could pull off with some work and possibly a bit of watering. The part is rather easy to understand and flows from one bar to the next. I would vote for Drumholio, however I kind of dig them both.

Drumholio 6

Ok, so since this was my idea I am going to change the rules slightly. Instead of 10 votes to advance, it will be amended to 5 due to lack of activity and trying to keep things moving. So, that makes the tenor thing the winner. First person to post a lick gets to challenge me.

Can the solo be a bass solo? or is this just a snare or tenor thing?

I'll give this a shake... it's a short snare lick that's all about finesse.

I dig the lick Matt...its got a lot of groove to it...Not necessarily that challenging, but definitely a nice quality lick. However, the Tenor thing still gets my vote over this lick...

Drumholio: 1

*jumps on soapbox and breaks it*

Seriously, dude can you read? Everything you need to know is in the first post of this thread. Also, on top of that, you have already asked a ridiculously similiar version of this question and I have already referred you back to the top post once already. As I have said before, I don't sit here and make rules just to see myself type.

..and people wonder why the mods get a little upset when we spend all of our time closing duplicate posts and stuff like that.

Same here. I like the double right and double left carrying across the sixlets in the second bar, always fun. Also, good use of dynamics in the beginning. But overall I give it to drumholio

Drumholio: 2
FatMatt: 0

Are you kidding!? Did you by any chance look at the tempo on that thing? That is definitely difficult.

I actually very much like the snare lick and I'm going to have to say that the snare lick gets my vote this round.

Drumholio: 2
FatMatt: 1

question for Fatt Matt:

in measure 3 beats 3 and 4, are there supposed to be 4 right hand hits in a row there or is that a typo? just curious.

I am going to stick with Drumholio. I think his is much more playable by and reads much easier.

Drumholio 3
Matt 1

Yeah, those are four right hand hits in a row. The capitalization was intended to reflect that there will be an apparent decrescendo from the initial stroke height.

That rudiment was in the Constitution '08 opener before the part was changed. I kinda liked it though.

Oh wow, my brain just read those as paradiddlediddles for some reason, didn't realize it was four rights. That's pretty tough at that tempo

I'm kinda diggin matt's

Drumholio: 3
Matt: 2

anybody else smell that? It smells like this thread is dead.

Yeah not much interest unfortunately. I'm disappointed, I had one ready to go

Im really torn in this decision, i really love the split parts and the flow of drumholio's lick, and i love the different stickings and dynamic uses in matts.. im gunna have to go with matt

drumholio:3
matt:3

After looking at both solos, i would have to say that the snare lick is my favorite.
Drumholio:3
Matt:4

Love em both but im giving FatMatt the go ahead.

Drumholio: 3
FatMatt: 5

Well, since someone finally gave Matt the win, congratulations.

If someone wants to post a lick to compete against Matt, feel free.

If anyone could show me which program is used
to write music (because the only ones I can
find you have to pay for) I'd love to put up
some music

this is a trio that was written for the solo cadence that we play...

here is the solo cadence, to give the trio a little more relevance...

Isn't it supposed to be for one section?

If thats the case, then:

Fatmatt:1

Beardo:0