I am a tenor player most of the time because sometimes we do switch around on different drums. However, whenever i see a video of a DCI corps or something like that I can hardly ever hear the tenors and it's always the snares and the basses that stand out. Same thing with whenever I see a show live. This always makes me want to not play tenors and play something where people will actuall be able to hear and appreciate what I practiced countless hours on. It seems to me that no one ever cares about the tenor players (besides the other tenor players). I was just looking to see if anyone could cheer me up and possibly tell me what worth tenor players are to a line.

umm i dont know where your from...but basically around here (south west ct) all anyone cares abou is the tenors (and snares but that cuz there well...snares). If you think your not being head use heaver mallets and increase your heights

Thats because your from the north along with me, I've realised, In highschool, In the north, the big hype is on the tenors, In the south, It's about the snare.

But the tenors job is to not be heard, they just add an extra dimension to the music by playing the tenor voice, adding dimension to the snare voice. Its the nice blending voice, between the soprano (snare) voice and the bass voice.

And if you take a step back, do you really even hear the snares and basses that much? Sure, you do, but the job of the battery is to get up and underneith the band.

Its really not hearing the tenors, or the snares, or the basses, its about hearing the drumline as a whole. Each instrument has its own purpose, and in the music they serve their purpose, yeah I live in the south so the snare is like "ooh ahhh niice" but I love playing the tenors..sure the mediocre football crowd might not be able to tell, but it comes down to the competitions where judges hear the whole line togethor instead of a particular instrument..believe me judges hate it when an instrument sticks out..thats the difference between a Superior and an Excellent.

well spoken. and honestly in really decent lines even the cymbals can have an effect.

Sorry, but I wasn't hauling those heavy-*** drums around the field just to play second fiddle to the snare line. And I can hear the tenor voice just fine, thank you very much.

And that is the worst part about tenors, definatly. I was always taught, as the tenor players job, you don't stick out, you don't lead the battery, you play just under the snares and blend everything in the line.

I'm not saying the tenors are an accesory,(sp sorry) Everyone in the battery is imporant, But if you take the absolute neccisary parts, bass and snare are it. I'm not saying the tenors are un-imporant, I'm just saying (from what I've been taught) they are the blending voice, and the new dimension to the line, not the stand out part.

It's like being a piccolo player in a band. What you do rarely stands out to the audience, next to all the brass and percussion, but does that make the piccolo any less important an instrument? No; the piccolo is still a part of the ensemble, and even gets its chance to shine once in a while.

Just remember that there aren't too many people willing to put up with you have to do as a tenor player. While you may not get so much recognition as the rest of the drumline, take pride in what you do and most of all enjoy it.

Don't ever compare tenors to piccolo again! Go watch any DCI show and tell me you don't hear the tenor line. You may not hear them 100% of the time, but you don't hear everything that any instrument plays. Every instrument has times they play a supporting role and times they play a leading role. Tenors sound awesome the times that they stick out enough to be heard, and the times when they just sort of blend in, like you said, people who like tenors will be watching.

Quads= piccolos...good luck escaping that statement with your life.

Not sure who's listening to what, but if a section is getting lost in the ensemble for an entire show it's usually the result of bad arranging or an arranger hiding a quad section with less than ideal playing ability.

Especially at the HS level, you'll find a lot of teams have a quad book that is simply the snare chart split up over 5-6 drums. So considering that there are usually 2 snares for every quad player and the sound cuts twice as much, you're not going to hear everything they throw down.

...which explains 9Volt's take on the tenor voice. It sounds like his instructor might have been coaching a less-experienced tenor line, hence the "play under the snares" mentality.

But if you've got any talent in the tenor line, it can be used for a whole lot more than adding depth to the snare voice.



EXACTLY. Including tenors.



How can a piccolo, being as obnoxiously shrill as it is, not stand out to the audience?

Also at my school, everyone thinks the snares are so bad*** and the basses a little and when someone says , "What about the tenors"? usually they will say , "What are tenors, are they the things with a couple of drums"? Half the time they don't have a clue what your talking about.

Thats the kind of thing that always put me down about playing tenors. No one knows what the heck you are and no one really cares about you.

I do understand about what all you guys are saying though, thanks for the input.

Don't let a bunch of uninformed high school kids get you down. If you're lucky enough to end up playing tenors in college or corps some day, you'll learn what all the hype is about.

Sorry... maybe not the best comparison

Alright, So, Now I want to know, how exactly should the tenor player be playing? Even with the snares then?

As for the piccolo being tenors, No way. The piccolo is obnoxiously: small, loud, screechy. You hear that thing through-out the entire show.

And if people don't understand what you mean by tenors, try saying quads. Alabama has a LOT of show style bands, Show style is huge in the south, Most show bands don't know tenors by the name of tenors, they know them by quads. And I will stick to what I was saying earlier, In the south, the snare is where it's at. If you came up north you will see the opposite, tenors have all the hype.

Balance from section to section will vary depending on what the arranger has in mind. Sometimes the snares will be the lead voice, sometimes the tenors will be, sometimes they'll share the lead, and sometimes neither are part of the lead.

It's similar to the arrangements for the rest of the band or corps. Sometimes the trumpets will have the melody, sometimes they won't. Whoever has the melodic line generally plays out while other voices are supportive.

I'm from the north and there are a lot of talented drumlines in the Michigan area, and in all of those drumlines, everything is about blend. If you can't here a voice it's because someone is over/underplaying the dynamics.

In my experience a lot of snare lines at the high school level beat the living crap out of there drums ie. over playing, while tenor players do not.

I don't necessarily agree with the "Tenors are all the hype" Maybe amongst people who don't know, and haven't been involved with drumline, but in all of my experience snare bass or tenor every instrument is appreciated for what it contributes to the line as a whole. Sure they all sound decent alone but when you hear a full batterie ensemble....Sorry I need to go change my pants....

Either way you shouldn't be able to pick one instrument of the drumline (or band for that matter) out above the rest everything should blend that's what it's all about.

any DCI video i've ever watched of a drumline, you can always hear the tenors. Yes your not going to hear the tenors all the time but like it has been said it is another dimension of the music. If you really wanted to you could compare tenors to an electric bass in a rock band. They almost never stand out, but you take them away and you definitely realize something is missing. Oh and i live in new hampshire, pretty far north and tenors are definitely not all the hype. Snares still steal the spotlight and everyone still thinks they're better than us.

hey dont feel bad on my line i am a tenor and i basicaly lead all the other freshmen
and im atenor and im in florida

i personally think its more about how you like the sound. if you play in front of a crowd, they will hear you.

In muy little town everyone knows me as the percussion guy who plays the quads. Everyone knows what they are and everyone can hear them because I am forced to play loud to keep the snares with the band and the band with the drum major. I am the section leader but my BD wanted me on tenors because he was scared of what the other percussionists would do if they had to figure out how to move around the drums. I pesonally think that it matters what the situation is. In a small band like mine, I can easily overpower the whole band if I used hard mallets. In bigger bands I think that the tenors aren't as noticed, but the idea remains the same: we are the ones who keep everything melodic and fun. We are the door between the drumline and the winds simply because we have different notes too but we are still drums.

Ha, I get the opposite impression and we're both SW CT. Snare seems to be bigger, but that's just how I see it.

Anyway, I was at a competition last night and I couldn't hear the tenors at all. This was for pretty much all the bands, the sound just didn't cut through.

I would attribute this problem to the fact that most inexperienced/immature quad players don't understand quality of sound. Heck, I didn't even hear of the concept until college. That's why in experienced quad lines, the tenor voice is well heard, but it doesn't overpower. It's all about making the drums sing, but not just whacking the crap out of them. You also have to take into consideration that most schools don't get to tune their quads often for fear of breaking heads, or using the wrong kind of sticks or mallets for a piece of music.

...or lack of time. I don't get to tune nearly as often as I'd like because there are so many other things to tend to when you're the only one on the percussion staff!

these things happen even less when you don't have a percussion staff...and when they do happen, they don't happen well...

there are some times when the quads really do have a prominent role and other times when they are in the background, just like most of the other instruments. If you have a well balanced show, then you will be able to hear everyone equally in (theoretically). I know in my show that there is 3 parts in particular where the quads really stand out, other than that, not really.

Tenors are one of those instruments that you have to be, quite literally, religious about how you play and practice and not expect much recognition and appreciation from anyone. Within the battery, it is the insrument that, when all three different types play together, is least heard, but it can still be heard, especially by the judges, who are the people that matter most. Like any other section in the battery, it can has it's features, but it's main role as a TONAL percussion instrument is to supplement and support the winds and brass.

Remember also that tenors are one of the newest percussion instruments in music history, where as bass drums and snare drums have existed since the Renaissance (1300's). That, I believe, is the best explanation of why people don't know of it as well as the other two.

Overall, to be a tenor player, you have to be okay with not as much recognition as the snares and basses, but also being happy that you play one of the most difficult percussion instruments to come out of the marching world. Long story short, be humble about your role in the band.

well put...i totally agree



tenors are pretty easy to show off with, but i try and save for special moments. :-)

Also, the tenors are usually the smallest section in the drumline, if not the whole band.

True, so you should feel really special if you play tenors.

Haha yeah tenor section at my School.. Me/A.J and thats it. Just two. But.. we are still heard. I was watching a video yesterday of our first competition and i was like sweet we CAN be heard. ^_^

Or lack of capable instructors...
This fall season, the only percussion instructor can't tune tenors at all. So I had to tune them, since we were putting on new heads. My only experience with tuning before that was reading a 1 page thing on it in Quad Logic the night before... And I kinda suck at tuning things in general, so that was a disaster. Meh, hopefully we can get somebody who know's how to tune in al least before finals.

bltsponge, if you need help, there's a post somewhere about tuning. Check there.

On that note, let's sum up on how tenors are heard best, even with a small section.

1) Right playing areas (sound quality)
2) Drums in tune with each other
3) Cleanliness of the line

If all those things are spot on (or pretty darn close to it), you'll be able to hear the quads from mezzopiano to however loud your line can possibly play (fortissimo).

To add an often overlooked -- but very important -- thing to IP's list: Make sure that each head is in tune with itself, also known as balancing or clearing the head. If some tension rods are pulling the head tighter than others, pitch will vary from place to place on the head and you'll get some funky overtones.

If a head is just a little bit out of balance, it might not be too noticeable on a single drum, but will make it difficult to tune one set of tenors to the next. You'll hear the same primary pitch from drum to drum, but the overtones will be different. In a way, it would be like comparing a C major chord to a C minor chord -- same root pitch, but you can just hear/feel something different about the sound.

If a head is badly out of balance, you can get a nasty "bark" from the drum. Think of the sound you get from a spank on the #4 drum, but minus the rim.

To balance a drum, tap about 1.5" from each tension rod and adjust tension as necessary so that they're all the same pitch. (It's a little trickier than it sounds because whenever you adjust one tension rod, it has an effect on all the others, too.)

It is perplexing how many people do not realize that occurs.

I know I should have put that down; I just decided to keep it short and sweet. But they are right; each head must be in tune with itself befor anything else.

Getting the technique down to tune doesn't happen overnight. Just like playing show music correctly, it takes practice.

I got to tune our quad line for about a week when our tech wasn't on tour, so there are 4 or 5 shows in July where the quads are singing my tuning. Proud moment for me. Haha