I can answer that one drummergrl. Guys don't wanna be in the pit simply because it's either too girly or a guy in the pit is symbolized to be a weak player(well maybe not in most parts of the United States, but this is the style in the dirty south). I really don't think this true in most cases, but I'm going from my experience so bare with me here.

This is an interesting question. I've certainly seen this in <s>[b]snugglebunny[/b]</s> [color:"red"]a lot</font> of groups, but the group I'm working this year is an exception in several respects:

We're marching 6 basses this year and #2, #3 and #4 are girls. 2 of them are returning bass players from last year and the 3rd is an incoming Freshmand with aspirations of playing snare in a year or 2.

Also, we're marching 5 snares and the section leader happens to be the 1 femaile in the snare line. Interestingly, she's probably the 2nd best player in the line (rather than the 1st), but she's got more determination and dedication than the #1 player so she's our best choice for "Drum Captain".

{side note: when I marched DC years back, our center snare's name was Diane - what a machine!).

Despite this line's diversity in the battery, our pit is 100% female (I think) and primarily comprised of band members who play instruments like oboe or bass clarinet that don't really have a role in marching band. You might think they'd be lame since their not playing the mallet instruments year-round. However, most are active in things like winter mallet ensemble, so they actually do a pretty decent job.

Have you noticed that in most cases, the stonger femaile players in the battery (or pit for that matter), tend to be "one of the guys"? And I do NOT mean this in a butchy sense AT ALL (for all the girls that just freaked!). I'm mean these girls don't tend to get grossed out by our often twisted sense of humor and they can give it as good as they get it. And just to reinforce my disclaimer, they are NO less feminine as a result. In fact, most of our femaie drummers are quite attractive (but I won't even start with that! Or did I already?...Oops).

Nah, I gotta agree, the girl in JHS playing bass is HOT (her name is Catherine,and no I don't just look at her body, she's a nice person too, just in case I offended anyone).

But anyway, I think guys not wanting to be in pit is a matter of the guys that they usually see in pit. I myself have seen plenty of GUYS in pit (i.e. a guy who is not feminine). But, in corps and some other schools, some of the guys I see in pit are really just, pardon my words, girly. And no guy wants to act girly. To a drummer, it's like a guy being in colorguard. Sure some guys go to colorguard, but look at them!! Can you seriously tell me with a straight face that they are manly? I'm not trying to offend anyone again. This just comes from my experience. Guys just want to look good. They are looking out for their pride and reputation always and forever. Myself included.

But I'm a nice guy, so again, I would like to apologize if I offended anyone. Especially any girls out there. And BTW, indoorperc, you took me completely by surprise when you said you were a girl. I serious didn't know, I'm sorry. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Frown]" src="images/icons/frown.gif" />

I know right? There are some extremly hot women in drumlines all over. And I totally agree with JHS's experience with men in the pit. The testosterone in males is just too high to stay in the pit.....but they're probably put there like their first or second year because their chops aren't up to par.

I have to second a lot of what GarfCadetSD said. In my experience I've seen that a lot of the girls who fit in well in battery are, just as he said, "one of the guys", the types that share the strange humor, that are just as tough as anyone else. I think they do well because they're unwilling to take any crap from anyone. It also seems that most pit members are transplanted. I'm actually a horn player, one of my other pit members is a violin player, we've also had a bassoonist, three flute players, and various other transplanted people. They come for various reasons- some because their instruments don't march, others because they don't want to march, but all end up doing very well. The girls in pit, myself included, are not quite as crazy as the drumline, but we are crazier than most of the band- sort of in between. And we have had 5 guys in the pit, so at my school it's not really a "feminine" thing...

Yeah, our pit is not a "feminine" pit..and it never really has been....it's usually about half and half. In winter line we had 7 guys and 6 girls. With the guys, we had an oboe, a tuba, a sax, and 4 percussionists in pit then. With the girls, there was a French horn, a clarinet, a flute, a color guard girl, and two percussionists. and we rocked the house. LOL :-) But anyway, being in a girl in the battery does tend to make you "one of the guys". In fact, the other two tenors and I used to joke around how they were gonna get spirit gum and fake hair and give me a goatee since they both had one. "We have to be uniform, ya know.." LOL...that would have been a sight. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="images/icons/shocked.gif" /> <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />

Ok, you aren't saying that I do think that pit is "feminine", are you? Cause if you are, I never said that. Let me clarify. I just said that some guys that go in pit are just kinda of I don't know, I hate to say that I'm thinking this way but, they are just not the "sterotype" male. God, nevermind, I take that back. It's just a guy thing I guess. We just don't want to become that way. We want everyone to think that we are big and tough when we're just too stupid to admit that we have feelings and have waaaaayyyy too much pride in our own sex.

But, anyway, I would not mind being in pit, I was just lucky and made Tenors. I have the talent to bang on a drum but I don't have the talent or the patience to learn how to play Mallets. I will at some point, but right now, I really just don't know how and don't want to. Maybe that's another thing about guys. We've been "banging" on drums so much that we never learned mallets and could only play stupid tom parts in pit.

Here's an altogether different take on why guys (at least this guy) don't want to be in the pit:

When I was a freshman bass drummer without a clue, I practiced mallets (xylophone primarily) whenever I could because I wanted to be the guy playing the mallet solos in the drum feature (the guy I looked up to was a helluva keyboard player and I wanted to be like him). Anyway, I got pretty good at it and when drum camp time came around, I played keyboards UNTIL the section leader decided that we needed one more snare drum. So that's where I ended up. And boy, if I had it to do all over again...I'd...uh....yeah, I'd still march snare drum!

I think, for me, it boiled down to the fact that I was perfectly comfortable carrying a snare drum around since it was me playing it. However, I did not like the thought of having to move all of that pit equipment around all the time - much of which I'd probably never touch unless I happened to be playing it in the show. So I guess you could say I was lazy... at least to the point of not wanting to chance having to pick up the slack for someone else's laziness and move their equipment back and forth too!

Ok, yeah, I know that's a pretty obscure reason not to play in the put, but hey, it was reason enough for me!

oh well..we all really know why there aren't that many boys in pit though. it's just cuz they're not smart enough to be able to play keyed notes and rhythms and stuff all at the same time. ok, no not really, i'm just kiddin, that's what we (girls in pit) say when the boys in the battery start actin like [b]butts[/b]. oh well. you know what i don't really get either, is how can a section be "feminine"? like really though, what is it that makes it "girly" and not that there are girls in it, that just doesn't count. and furthermore, JHS said something along the lines of that the guys that he does see in the pit, that they're...less than the stereotypical male and that "We just don't want to become that way. " what is that supposed to mean? pit makes you [b]sweet[/b]? i know you don't mean it like that but that's how it sounds. i mean, when a girl is in the battery it doesn't make her "butchy". oh well i don't know where i'm going with this but i've seen plenty of non-feminine guys in pits. then again though i've seen guys who were somewhat effeminate in the pit as well as in the battery so the pit does nothing to you, if certain people act or are seen in certain ways that's just how that person is.

oh well...that was long and boring. to follow up that last post on why they didn't want to be in the pit...here's mine on why i didn't want to be in the battery. when i first signed up to be in the drumline i was signed up to be a bass drum. so a week or two went by and we got out practice schedules and we had to go pck up our audition packets for whatever drum we signed up for. i'd gotten one and a friend of mine who had been in drumline before, and i was like, "did you get your audition papers yet" cuz i was nervous you know, first year and all and stuff...and she was like, "no, i'm in the pit, we don't have to audition" and i was like, "damn, i'm not gonna go and freak myself out when i don't have to" so i sent an e-mail to the instructor at the time and said that after talking to some people, that i would rather be in the pit and ever since...i've been in the pit. end of story, nothing great but that's how it is. had i had to audition now, i would not be worried at all, but when it was my first year, with new people in a new thing, i didn't know where i would be ability-wise. and if i had to do it again, i wouldn't do anything different either.

I'm actually in the pit cuz of a medical problem that prevented me from marching when I started band. I marched mello for part of the show last year and did pit for the rest, and yeah, it was sorta fun learning drill and all, but like indoorperc said- the pit's sorta where I belong. I love it here....plus, I could never imagine carrying around a carrier and a drum.....