So this summer I was hired to work with my old Drum Tech at a school he's been teaching with for several years. And I was pretty excited because I was going to get to re-unite with my 'mentor' and get experience teching and whatnot. Well, as it turns out, he and the band director hired me as a 'safety net' because he is actually quitting this year. I was not too upset about it at first because I thought that he was going to be staying for this season and then quitting. BUT I was very wrong. The BD informed me that I was the lone Battery Caption. Me being a recent(and by recent I mean just a few months ago) graduate of high school I'm pretty much clueless as to what to do. Having been involved with this activity for 4 years and watched it pretty much my entire life I know some things that I should do. But dealing with high school kids as a drum captain and as their caption head is a very different experience. I keep hitting roadblocks and it's a bit frustrating. And on top of that these kids are so egotistic and flat out annoying, I feel the need to just make them run the entire camp. I need major help with...pretty much everything. I can handle the bassline for the most part, but teching cymbals and quads is definitely not my strong point...I've played around with both but never actually marched either...The snares are just arrogant and full of themselves so I need help with figuring out how to get their heads out of their butts...And the pit is all freshman and sophomore's except for 1 who is a senior so I need help with how to help these younger players not hate being in pit because they all want so badly to march but didn't make it and are now dreading the pit...

one of our techs just graduated from our school too

what you have to do is tell the kids "im not your friend any more. im your tech and you need to treat me the respect you would treat the other instructors or you gonna have to leave"

as for teaching cymbals and tenors
cymbals are mostly a visual instrument so they dont even need to play much im sure if you post on the cymbal thread you can get some crash tecniques and theres a vis thread too

for tenors you just need to be able to play it for them on one drum let them move it around and just make sure they can keep it in time. half the battle with tenors is not slowing down getting it around the drums. the other half is once theyre comfortable dont let them push the tempo.

i really dont know what to say about pit or caption head always says "no instrument is better than another. you shouldnt think oh i play bass drum so im not as good as a snare or im in pit so im not as good as the drumline. everyone plays a part in making the group the best they can be no matter what you play."

Cymbals can add a great deal to ensemble sound, unity and groove. Using them just to crash now and again is a poor use of plates. Get one of the instructional DVDs out there and learn more about the techniques involved.

Same goes for tenor drumming. It's more than just "rhythms on multiple drums". There are playing areas, right and wrong ways to move drum to drum, if you have scrapes/sweeps/crossovers there are techniques there as well.

Invest in some materials, such as Quad Logic and a cymbal book. If you have to do pit as well, get UpFront. It's a freakin' bible.

sorry i was sort of vague and rushed with my opinions
i agree with cadet311
i ignoredthe most important part of drumming, technique
for you tenors get reffed beats (dvd) by bill bach man it goes well with quad and rudimental logic
show part one to the tenor line itll teach them everything they (and you) need to know about tenors from tuning to changing heads to technique and playing zones

cymbals:
again im a sucker for a more visual line just because of how we use our fall line (you barely notice whn they play) so watch some of vanguard vids to get visual ideas...i dont know any technique material because it was all tought to me by word of mouth so im sure theres good material out ther somewhere (like cadet said) that can help


good luck

You are in a very tough spot, but I am hoping you see this as a great opportunity as well.

This is not 100% true, but even now after many years of teaching marching percussion (16), I find that people do not care how much you know as much as they want to know how much you care. An instructor with great chops who marched top DCI lines will be less effective as a caption head than a recent grad such as yourself if they cannot relate to the people in the line, are egotistical, condescending and elitist.

Use your knowledge of the section, the band program and the people in the section to your advantage. They know you understand how things work / have worked as a former member - they are just not used to seeing you as their caption head.

I would have a sit down with the line and explain that you are simply there to help them achieve what they want to achieve as a section. Ask them what the like and what they think could be better, and then consistently follow through with helping make that happen. It could be acting as a go between with the director and the section, making sure there is accountability in the line with respect to practicing, holding more sectionals - whatever. If you come up with the goals WITH the section instead of simply making up your own goals and trying to force them in a way they do not want to go, I think you will be surprised at the results. If they all feel that they have a voice, they will work harder and be better because they helped establish the goals.

Lean on your leaders in the line and give them responsibilities for the same reason. If they are responsible for certain things happening and they mutually agree to carry out certain duties (tuning drums, calling people or e-mailing about music that needs to be learned, etc...) then the line is more about everybody. You do not, and should not do everything.

I still utilize these concepts today, and do not misunderstand, that if an individual is not contributing, or is contributing in a negative way, then there is a point where they will not perform, or I will pass on the actions to the director who has authority to lower grades and so on. This is the last course of action, but if you have issues or people that will not listen or contribute be sure to let your director know what is going on.

I hope this helps, and let us all know how it works out!

So far things are going pretty well. The pit has started to come out of their "I've never done this before so I'm going to play quintuple piano and hope nobody notices...". And they;ve finally stopped complaining about not marching and realized that pit kids are BAMF's too. My battery kids, for the most part, have started to behave a bit more. But, they are still somewhat un-ruly.
I'm still having a bit of trouble with the Quads, but for the most part the cymbals weren't too difficult to figure out. Of course I still couldn't play/march them to save my life. lol

I've got my cymbals doing snugglebunny of strength training stuff, as well as learning all the crazy crashes and what not. I've noticed that snugglebunny of high school lines are either visual or incredibly good with the huge variety of crashes. So I want them to be a hybrid line and do both. they've stepped up to the task so far, and I'm farely impressed with them.
my quad line seems to understand that I'm as new to their instrument as they are, so they've been doing their homework and it seems ot be paying off. We're all learning from each other which I think is a big part of doing this. I'm trying to get one of my friends, who marched quads when we went to school together, to come help out because that would be insanely helpful.
The snares are still insanely cocky and full of themselves. That, I have yet to figure out how to deal with. but they play clean...really really clean

flickityschmock I used your idea about giving the leaders some responsibilities. And it has helped out snugglebunny. Aside from the snare captain(thank god he isn't overall drum captain) who just ignores everything I say, they do a pretty good job and have responded farely well to me. One good thing about this whole situation is that they're previous tech was my mentor so the teaching style isn't very different. I'm just snugglebunny younger than him. But I think that helps because, having just graduated, I can see things from their perspective. And I know their tendencies for the most part

So I could still use help with the snare lines attitude problem but that's about it. Everything else seems to be workin out wonderfully. We have a county exhibition in a few weeks, so that will be an interetsing test to see how well I've done so far

Thanks for the help guys. I'll try to keep you updated, and I'll be sure to ask if I need anymore help because this has helped snugglebunny...

Glad to hear things are going good. It's not as frightening as you thought eh?

For the snare line here's a thought. Get some judges tapes or comment sheets (once you get some exhibitions and competitions under your belt)and share with the whole line some "excerpts". Make sure to include positive comments for each section and maybe one or two opportunities for improvement for each section. For the snare line pick out comments that clearly reinforce the things you've been telling them (a good idea for all sections but since this is you trouble spot focus on this). It will help for them to hear what you've been telling them from someone else. Make sure it doesn't turn into a "hey let's rip on the snare line" type thing or it will backfire on you.

If you can't get your buddy to come out to help with tenors pick up "Quad Logic". You can read through it in a weekend (you don't have to perfect all the techniques just learn the concepts). You will then have a proven, rock solid technique to build from.

My school is in the same situation, though our new instructor is fresh out of college and not high school.
Many of the kids respective ego's were lowered when he talked to us as an equal (when appropriate), but made sure that they knew who was boss.
So be in charge, but make sure you don't become a tyrant.
It would probably only make the snare's attitudes worse.

[quote=Mazzus]
The snares are still insanely cocky and full of themselves. That, I have yet to figure out how to deal with. but they play clean...really really clean
quote]

I would have a sit down with just the snares and see how they think things are going. If they feel they have the book 100% nailed (I am willing to bet there are lots of things they can and should be working on - they just don't know it) then see if they all feel that they aren't challenged enough because they are SO GOOD and can PLAY ANYTHING (at least in their minds) so far.

Add notes (make accents now flams, whatever) find a really hard exercise and give it to them to learn, see if they can play everything off of left-hand lead, at faster tempos, anything to keep them challenged and hopefully eating a bit of humble pie too...

If they are serious, they will work their butts off to prove they can play whatever you are asking of them, and hopefully they will realize there is lots of room for improvement individually and as a snare line.

Also, if you have a video of your snare line, feel free to submit it here at dl.org and I am sure with the wealth of knowledge on this site that people will be able to find areas to improve, done in a professional, constructive manner of course.

Thanks again for the help everybody.

I tried a couple of the ideas with my snareline and they've finally come back to Earth. I will say this, these six kids are scary talented. I managed to talk some sense into them after the book was re-written and I made it incredibly difficult. They stood up to the task though, but were pretty humbled by the fact that it didn't come to them immediately. So they've managed to settle down a bit

And I did manage to find someone who was willing to come tech the quads. He's only going to be coming every other day but hey that's better than it just being me and Bill Bachman(in book form) teching them

We had our 3rd football game tonight. And it was also our first full run-through. It was somewhat shaky, but still better than I expected it to be. Our first show is in a couple weeks. The kids are really nervous, and I kinda am too...