My high school line just decided to get 5 basses 4 snares no quints, the other quad player went to pit and I'm on bass 3.

I was just wondering how common is this and will it hurt us in comps?

No I dont think it will hurt, I think its kinda of better then just having one and all the judge talk about not being able to here him(and plus I dont like the way it looks 4 snares 5 basses and 1 tenor just looks weird to me), I wish we would lose our 1 tenor.

Ours is gonna be 3 snares, 1 quad, 1 quint, 5 basses, and the pit is TBA. I don't know how quiet the tenors word be 4-4-2. I gues it would be pretty quiet since I couldn't here out quad player last year when we had 2 snare 1 tenor and 3 bass 1 cymbals

i don't mean quads literally by the way, we used to use 1 spock.

Well, this happened to my school's line this year... though we only had six people (two snares, four basses.)

I doubt the judges can really penalize you for not having tenors. As long as your line's arranger is creative with writing your parts, there shouldn't be any negative effect on the quality of your music either.

Plus, that's less drums to haul around to competitions.

We almost did a no quad thingy this year, but we didn't.

No, it's not very uncommon
No, it won't hurt you in competition.

Plus, bass drum is more fun than people give credit

That's too bad. Happens a lot unfortunately.

Although, Carmel High School in Indianapolis has been pretty successful and hasn't marched a quadline in quite some time. I'm sure there are others, but that's just one off the top of my head.

As a former quad artist (quadTIST?) I think it sucks, but you have to do what you have to do. I've axed a few quad sections from my groups, more often than not because there just aren't enough bodies. I'd rather hear no quads than just one...it sounds whimpy IMO.

BTW: I'm not disappointed about bass line, bass 3 is cool. The thing I absolutely hate about it is that I can't see over it -.- , and I just finished learning the quad feature( he had the parts written out until that bass 3 kid quit). But i also think we're going to have a great line once i learn how to play bass, we got this lineup( only one senior )

bass 1: sophomore(was in pit)
bass 2: sophomore(is already great at bass, bass section leader)
bass 3: me(freshman, I'll be good once i learn)
bass 4: freshman(he ROCKS at bass)
bass 5: senior(hes great at bass too)

snare: my sister, junior(played bass 2 years but got off of bass line due to back problems, she almost took the bass 3 spot from me)
snare: sophomore(he played tenors last year, hes okay at snare)
snare: junior center snare, my sisters boyfriend (amazing drummer, hes been playing set since age 3)
snare: sophomore(hes good, bass last year)

*stops writing huge post*

If it were the line at my school he would probably take 1 snare and 1 bass and put them on tenors

also that sucks you only have bass 3

same if had been at my school. one band not too far from me seriously only had 1 snare and like 1 bass once.

we're doing 3 snares, 2 tenors, 5 basses, 2 cymbals and like 5-7 in pit.

personally, being a tenor player, i think it bites that you're not having any tenors. but then you do have to do what you have to do.

My old hs did that one year. It did not hurt them in comeptitions. One reason is that judges do their job based on what they see and hear, and not on what is typically there in a drumline. Another, as mentioned, is creative writing by the arranger.


Also, I saw a line one year that marched no snares. They marched 4 tenors, 5 basses, and 4 cymbals (I think) That was several years ago.

a few years ago my hs line marched 4 snare 5 basses and a huge pit.. no tenors. They were still VERY good.

as a lot of people said... they werent penalized.

this year we're marching 4 snare 3 tenors and 5 basses. The snareline has played together for at least 3 years.

last year at states i saw a line with no snares, they had a Dynasty wedge in their tenors. it was really very interesting to watch.

We pulled it off last year and came home with a few Best Drumline trophies. You don't need them but it definately sounds like something's missing when they're gone. Kinda made me sad... =(

WOW, my instructor decided that he'd rather have a full ensemble then a full bass line, hes writing the part for 4 basses and I'm the lone quad player =]. It's nice to be my own section leader lol.

That's cool. Being the only one, you could just improvise all your solos and the judges wouldn't know the difference

1. Um...he's the only player- the whole show is a feature.

2. Judges won't know, but the staff will- and I would promptly hand out a butt whuppin' to any of my kids pulling that crap.

2a. I would never have a lone quad player, so I wouldn't worry about #2.

I would NEVER do that, though it would be amusing . Also, why would you never have a lone tenor snare?

Should'nt the judges have a score?

Other than traditional marches at parade competitions, I don't know of any marching circuit where judges are provided with scores.

It's all a matter of preference.

At the corps level I wouldn't worry about it. However, with most HS circuits, lone quad players tend to get shafted in two unintentional ways:

1. They often are not so developed that they can produce sound quality sufficient enough to blend or cut (as needed) through both the battery or the entire ensemble by themselves.

2. Part of our judging our caption is the consideration of how well a section plays together. If you have one person playing an instrument (pits being the obvious exception), judges often remove that criteria and over evaluate the player in other areas. As a result, some teams have arrangers who will write quad charts as a split snare book, which really only takes away from your ensemble.

To be fair, there are some great arguments as to why a single quad player is perfectly ok. Multi-thomm is a big supporter of having that voice in his ensemble, even if it means one guy and if you've seen how he uses that player in his ensemble, you can't deny the effectiveness.

Unless I have an individual who is a monster player, I would rather take the time to have them learn snare or bass technique and improve the quality of the more populated sections.

Then how exactly do they judge on how well the tenor player played his part, if they don't know what his part is? Not trying to seem like a jerk, honest question. If you can't tell, Show bands don't really do competitions.

Judges can typically tell what notes and rudiments are being played......and they judge a lot on cleanliness and execution.....the music being played can be simple......but if it's clean and nice then it's a high score

Not entirely. Demand is also taken into consideration. If Drumline A plays cheese chuchuttas for 11 minutes a little bit dirtier than Drumline B plays their double stroke rolls for 11 minutes, the judge may favor the higher demand over technical execution.

Judges don't have scores. They listen to what the ensemble plays in samples, or chunks. If the sample they're selecting is playing something with demand the EXACT same way all across the drumline, then it's a high score.

A guy who goes by "multi-Thomm" wants a tenor voice in his ensemble? Surely you jest.



The same way you do -- with his eyes and ears. You don't need a score to know if a line's playing well. You can see technique and hear things like cleanliness, blend, and balance without having the sheet music in front of you. Besides, if a field judge had his head buried in the score, he'd get trampled in the drill.

i think i'd rather have a balanced line with all voices then 4 snares 5 basses. if i had to have a smaller line i'd do 3 snares 2 tenors and 4 basses.

That's how our line is set this year.