Well me and my wondering self took all day thinking where to put this question here and finally it ended up here, so here goes....

What's the deal with the instrumentation of the men and the women in percussion these days? Why are there so few men who want to play pit, and why are there so few women playing in the battery? Is it just me or am I wrong for asking these questions?

I personally would love to be in battery, but my pit chops are just way better. I might as well play where I can use my skills the best.

I think some girls are intimidated when all the other people in the line are guys as well as the whole drum staff. Some guys can be less than accepting of girls in the line, and won't necessarily include them if the line has certain traditions and things.

I think for guys it's a testosterone thing. The just like to beat on big drums LOL. Plus maybe they don't think it's cool to hang out with mostly girls. I don't know, a guy can answer this better. I've always wondered myself.

any number of reasons. why do more girls play flute and more guys play tenor sax? sometimes, when they're first learning instruments kids just look at whose playing what already and just keep it going if there's a lot of girls here and a lot of guys there. actually at our school we usually have quite a lot of girls compared to other schools (esp. or how small a school we are) until the last 3 years where we've had only between 1 and 3. also some schools that don't have exceptionally large pits do take from other sections with "extras" who can read music. and typically in high schools the largest wind section with people to spare is the flute section which is generally mostly girls. ultimately why are the lines generally drawn where they are who knows. most people who become drummers like to hit things, there just so happens to be more boys than girls who like to do that i guess. it also may have to do with their parents....if they're the type who have that type of influence over their children they're probably more likely to steer their daughter towards a more "feminine" instrument, whereas a more masculine one for boys. oh well who knows, who cares....every year there's more of a mix out there in pit and in battery.

and if anyone wants to know...a line that has "good use of girls" (a.k.a lots in the battery, and not gratuitously all on cymbals either) is perkiomen valley indoor drumline. i don't know if their outdoor is the same but whatever.

Hmm.. good question. I have to say I agree with indorrperc on this point.
Plus I have to add that it might be a testosterone thing, guys wanting to beat on drums as loud and fast as they can, while girls seem to prefer the more delicate and quieter tones of the pit instruments. I dunno, maybe its just the feminine appeal to not stand out a nd be as brash and bold as battery instruments tend to be.
But hey, what can I say? I'm female and marching snare. <img border="0" alt="[20]" title="" src="graemlins/cwm20.gif" />

JHS has a girl playing Bass, that's only happened once before, but it happened this time because she got tired of playing Sax. And she does fine with the traditions. Even though they joke around and say "When we say shirts off, that means everyone" or "Everyone has to wear the Drummer of the Week shirt and you're no exception." (it's a wife beater, see-through btw). But, it's all in fun, they don't mean it. Anyway, in my experience, the girls don't want to be in the Drumline because they were put in pit 1st and hated that. Most of the Freshman and Sophmore and occasionally upperclassmen girls that get put in pit just don't like standing there and would rather be marching. But, they also don't like drums anymore so the march something else.

Guys want to be in Drumline to be around a bunch of other guys and hang out and band on things. Yes, that is my natural instinct as a Drummer and I'm sure every other guy here is the same way. We all started out because we saw a drum at some point in our lives and went "Hehe, I want to bang on it." Or something in our heads like that. Plus, it's just fun for us to be apart from the rest of the band and as our own group. Anyways, I'm rambling. I'm done.

that is an ongoing concept I've wondered about. Our battery has two girls: me on tenors and another girl on 4th bass. In the pit there are only 2 girls...there used to be more, but they graduated or left for their "concert" instruments(aka double reeds/flutes/etc.) I'm thinking that one of the obvious reasons that less girls are in battery is because of the physical factor. I know some girls in band could definitely not march a bass without or falling over...and very few could march tenors...i'm lucky that I'm well-built enough to withstand all those back pains..LOL...Another reason may be that there may be more females who are in pit that also play piano and can therefore understand the setup of a keyboard....of course, guys do that too, but...just speculation.

But I've found that it's not so intimidating to be in battery because I just fit in better with drumming people.And all the other band girls look up to you. :-) I have an advantage, in a way, because both our percussion instructors are female. :-) :-) LOL

Well, this year we have a totally different situation in our percussion section...in the drumline there're 3 girls and 3 guys, and in the pit there are 2 girls and 1 guy, so we actually have the advantage overall. I'm not sure why there are typically more girls in pit than in drumline- when you get into the brake drums, gongs, cymbals, etc, pit can be just as loud as dl, perhaps it's because drumlines seem more "intense". But for overall percussion, I think a lot of us are tired of the guy percussion stereotype- we've all joined percussion cuz it's a lot of fun to do and we don't really care if we are the "wrong gender". I do have to agree with what others have said- I think a lot of it started with the fact that percussion used to be mostly male, and so girls were intimidated from joining. Just look at the screen names of pretty much every girl on this board, myself included- we all have "girl", or "grl", or something to that extent. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that if we don't specify, it's going to be assumed that we're male cuz we're percussionists. I think subconsciously, we're all trying to break that stereotype and prove that, yes, we are good enough.

(I'm not saying that anyone here thinks we're not good enough, just that the percussion world in general sometimes seems to think that we're not good enough)

<small>[ July 11, 2002, 02:59 PM: Message edited by: pit_girl1 ]</small>

I guess the line I'm in really hasn't had a problem with this. My freshman year we had 3 girls in the bass line and 2 in the snare line. My sophomore year it was 2 in the bass line and 3 in snare line.. Then my Junior year, there were 2 in the snare line and 2 in the tenor line.. This year is the first year that we've only had 2 girls in the drumline, 1 on tenors (that's me) and another on snare. And our pit is mostly female, but we do have 3 guys in there. It just all depends on the year and the amount of female percussionists vs. male percussionists we happen to have.

wow yeah, i never really thought about the whole name thing. most "girls" do mention that somehow in their names. i mean, when i first signed on here my name was indoorperc_pit-girl so that people wouldn't think i was a guy. later i shortened it though cuz i didn't want people to think that was all i did, plus it was too long anyways, indoorperc is short and to the point.

anyhow, the year before i was in drumline there were 11 girls and 7 guys. 5 girls in the pit, 6 in the battery.
-3 of them on bass drums
-2 on snares and
-1 on tenors.
all the guys were in the battery though i think...1 on snare, 2 or 3 on bassdrums 1 on tenor and the others were cymbals/aux stuff, i don't know exactly but that's pretty close. oh well. the next year though most of the "battery girls" had graduated, save for 1. and so the next year (my first year we started out with 3 girls in battery 7 guys in battery, 4 girls in pit and 1 guy. but then one girl in the battery quit (she was a first year) and then the other said she hurt her ankle and couldn't march anymore (she was pit the year before) and after that it was the same minus one guy (go kicked out). then it stayed the same pretty much number-wise until last year when the girl from the battery graduated and last year was the first year we didn't have any girls in the battery.

edit: oh yeah, i almost forgot....for people who do think that the pit is a "feminine" section...that's just because the people picking the shows constantly pick ones where the pit part is "feminine". 2 years ago we did stravinsky's "the sacrificial dance of the chosen one" out of the "rite of spring" and let me tell you....not feminine at all. the entire sound of the show was loud and obnoxious, and save for maybe one or 2 minutes the entire time you were playin with full vertical stick heighths (or perhaps i should say "mallet" heighths) an well...yeah...not girly at all.

<small>[ July 11, 2002, 05:23 PM: Message edited by: indoorperc ]</small>

You know, I never thought about the screen name thing before, but that's really true! Hmm

Anyway, the physical thing is a lot of it also. Like if I was going to switch to drumline, I would love to play tenors, but they weigh like 80 lbs. I'm only 5'4 and weigh around 115 so the drums are like 2/3 of my body weight. There's no way I could march and play with them, I can barely stand there with them on. I really would only be able to play one of the smallest 3 basses or snare. So that is pretty limiting right there.

Usually we have at least 1 or 2 girls in the drumline, usually on Bass 1, 2 , or 3. Before we have had one girl play tenors, and one girl play snare. Usually the pit is almost all girls, and like someone said, a lot of them have switched from other instruments. I am one of the only girls who has actually been a percussionist since Day 1 of my music training. It hasn't been easy, I know a lot of girls quit in middle school because they are surrounded by guys and are intimidated. I was lucky that it wasn't really a problem for me after about 6th grade, But I think a lot of girls get scared away right there.

Now what I really wanna know is why guys don't think pit can be masculine too. It's a great mystery of our time.

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.....

I guess I just wanted to throw in my line. We have an entire bass line (five) and one out of the four snares that is a girl as well as two of the four cymbals. Also are pit is made up of four guys and five girls. I guess our ratio is pretty even. And it has always been that way. I really never noticed that their was a 'battle of sexes'. It has always been great hanging out with everyone. Weve always had a blast!!! I would never complain about a girl in any line.

I, like Indoorperc want to know if there is something inherently "feminine" about the way instruments in the pit are played, or if pit is just considered girly because it's made up of mostly girls. I guess not being a guy it's just not something I get.

But anyway, sometimes I feel like people assume that just because I'm a girl or because I'm in pit that I'm not a "real" percussionist (as in have been playing for most of one's musical career and not switching from flute or bass clarinet or whatever). Not that I'm saying that those people aren't good players or good percussionists, but people assume that they aren't if you get what I'm saying. Now even though I'm a girl I have been a percussionist since the 4th grade and have never played anything else. Sometimes I feel like people just assume that I won't be a good player and think I'm a flute player who's just fooling around in pit for something more interesting to do.

Next point - I agree that the girls who are in battery have to be "one of the guys" to an extent. The same thing was true for me in middle school, where only 2 of us were girls and there were like 25 guys. I learned to get along with the guys in my band and trust me I can dish it out as well as they can (otherwise I would probably have even been scared away from here with mostly guys). Now though since I'm in pit I think I've lost some of that rapport with the guys I used to be pretty good friends with. The battery likes to segregate themselves from us, but at least this year some of the newer guys haven't been such [b]butts[/b] about not wanting to hang out with us anyway.

Now about my feelings towards being in the battery: when I first joined marching band I wanted to be in pit because I had been playing bells and marimba and xylo and stuff for several years, and I had little to no experience on snare since all through middle school the girls were always assigned the mallet parts (which I suppose is just the concert version of what we're discussing). I was really comfortable there my first year, part of which was because the instructor was female, but not really beacuse the other players were. I mean it's nice to be able to ask someone from your own section for a hair tie or midol or something but i'm sure I could have managed anyway. But anyway, I'm still not 100% comfy with our pit and I think if my instructor wanted me to switch to drumline I would seriously consider it. The guys might not be terribly receptive at first since I've already been branded as one of those foreign gendered things in the pit, but I'm sure they would learn to love me eventually.

Keep the responses coming. They've been very enlightening so far <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />

trust me, i'm not saying pit is feminine...I guess i wrote my last post wrong. Some of the best mallet players I know are guys. And some of the best mallet players in our pit play other instruments. It's just those darn stereotypes that we're gonna have to break down. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />

I tell you. Excellent, excellent posts everyone. Looks like i've touched a lot of button with this question, probably even more so than the cymbal question. Let see if i can add some insight to the mix.

I can say that this is a touchy topic for a lot of reasons. It makes us look at the instrumentation, some of the stereotypes and hype about guys and girls who play any percussion instrument whether it be in the pit or the battery.

What I can say about all of this is, that some people are just want to be in the pit, whether it be a guy or a gal, they made that choice to be there, therefore making them a better player and person for it because they are playing in a section that they love to play in. Now having been in both, I made a choice to be in the battery. I love it. It makes me play better cause i'm playing where I wanted and love it every second.

Before I was a percussionist, I used to be a clarinet player(well technically I still am a clarinet player); and I too have been criticized for not being able to reach my full potential in the drumming world. But really I didn't care. I wanted it bad and now....I'm hopefully trying out for a DCI line.

As for relationships between the pit and the battery. From what I've seen, the relationship between the pit and percussion can sometimes make or break how a line is gonna turn out. If they hate each other, the audience will suffer because the show won't have that...oh what's the word i'm looking for.....comroderie(did I spell that right?). It just won't feel the same. But if the pit and battery are on the same page, they can do a lot more cause they know what the other people are thinking in the ensemble.

As for answering my own question: We have to remember that gal aren't built to be diesel hogs like guys are. And some guys may think that pit is "[b]sweet[/b]"(even though it was indirectly stated)....but the reason is that the induvidual made a choice to be there whether it be in the pit or battery. But it doesn't matter though...cause they are all shooting to be one thing....the best <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" /> .

Ok, wow, that's a lot of posts in the time I was gone. And I would first like to APOLOGIZE, like I did a million times in my posts before, because I'm not trying to offend anyone here. I myself don't really feel that way, because like I said, the guys I've seen in pit are just plain guys (actually their potheads, but who can tell the dif, jk). That's just what I heard from some other peeps about some guys they have seen.

Now, let me tell you why I'm not in pit. When I was in 8th grade before I got into HS, I was all for being in pit. That year, there were about 8 9th graders. So, they had a huge pit because my director puts freshman in pit (we've already had this discussion if you remember drummergrl004 <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" /> ). But anyway, so I did want to be in pit. So when I got to 9th grade, looking forward to being in pit, there were so many Sophmores and not so many Seniors leaving, that there was a huge pit already. And so the director said "No Freshman in Pit". So I lost my chance. That whole year I practiced and practiced the audtion for Drumline and made Tenors, lucky me seriously. So I never had to be in pit, and love Tenors so I'm not complaining.

Drummergrl: I think it's terrible that someone would think that about you just because you were in pit. Myself, I would see your talent from a mile away and know you were a real Percussionist. That just shows you that THOSE guys are just Drummers (you know, they just bang and have no brains).

Bassgal: It wasn't your post, it was mine.

CoosCoos: For your information, I was trying to get as far away from "[b]sweet[/b]" as possible. I DON'T think pit is [b]sweet[/b]. The reason I'm not in pit now is because the parts that are not mallet parts at my HS at least, do no compare to the Tenor parts I have to learn. And I'm looking for a challenge. But anyway, with that past, Coos, you are cool man, I hope we all stay here for a while.

You too Drummergrl, it seems that whenever Coos starts something and Drummergrl and I get into it, we can really get some peeps talkin about stuff. We did it on the Cymbal one too. This is great.

Anyway, as my last chapter of the book I'm typing, I have a propostition to make. Maybe it's not our fault at all. I was thinking about what Drummergrl said about the concert segregation too. It is true that girls usually play mallets. And I know why. BAND DIRECTORS. All of the male band directors we had were probably trying to keep that sexist steryotype up. I'm not saying they are sexist, but they are just going with what they know. So, they make girls learn mallets, and guys can't even read notes. I know I can't read notes that well, I would have loved to learn how to then instead of now. So what do you think about that?

Gee I really never thought about the Band Directors that much....but that could lead to a better question.....What's the dillio with the male band directors these days? Are they really being cheuvanistic(boy oh boy....i really hope I spelled that right)? And why aren't there many women band directors?

Boy oh boy...I sure do ask a lot of questions. But I guess I'm asking the right ones cause it's stirring up some quality posts here. And it does seem that most of the time I ask a question like this...JHS and drummergrl004 find some way to get into it; which in turn leads to feedback to other people....leading to a red hot topic. I hope we stay here awhile too JHS(heck.....maybe we might even make it to 1000 posts or something). <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />

<small>[ July 13, 2002, 12:50 PM: Message edited by: CoosCoos ]</small>

Lol, Coos, they day I got 1000 posts, is the day that I faint because I've spent all my free time on a Drumline Forum. But it would be nice too see. And, Drummergrl and I seem to make for very good conversations. Ah, one day we'll all be officers and moderators and we'll all wonder what happened to everyone before. And Webmaster will pop up and say something like "Alright kiddies, back on topic now." lol.

But where is MonkeyMan in all these topics huh?

That's a good question man. Monkey Man's imput would be greatly appreiciated like whoa. How long has it been since i've seen him? hmmm...maybe if we give him some banana milk....

You know Chris, that's a really good point you made back there. By having mostly just the girls learn mallets early on in band class (like 4th - 7th grade), it's really hurting both genders later on. A lot of the guys then can't read music, and a lot of the girls don't have a powerful of chops in the drum area.

Now that I think about it, I bet a lot of guys choose drumline because they can't read music and don't know how to play mallets, and a lot of the girls pick pit, like I did, because they have better mallet chops. Now I know several guys that can play at least some mallets because they had to learn for all-state band or just learned because they wanted to be well rounded, and granted girls could go out and take snare lessons or whatever, but the foundation of your musical education comes from band classes in elementary and middle school, and even in high school.

I want to know why directors have a tendancy to assign parts like that. I thought at first it was just my school because I came from the only elementary school where we were taught mallets so in middle school I was the only one wo could play them, and a lot of the guys played set drums so they were better at snare then me. But it looks like this is a common thing at lots of schools and I wonder why.

well...i don't know how it is at other schools but here when you first start out (4th grade) you have the choice of either playing bells or snare drum for percussion. which is somewhat odd since when it comes to other instruments you only get the primary instruments to choose from (i think it's: flute, clarinet, alto sax, trumpet, trombone, french horn, and i think recently baritone and oboe, but most of those are flutes first anyways...all the other instruments don't come until middle or high school). sure if you pick bells you get some basic regular snare stuff but not too much, the goal is proficiency in bells not snare.

Well, at my middle school, you could only learn snare, there were no bells, but there was only one girl anyway. So no band director could put girls on mallets anyway. But I was always playing Tympani or Snare, and every girl I knew played mallets. Anyways, that was just my middle school.

Oh yeah, and I'm touched that you noticed and used my name Jen. I think I'll just call you Jen, cause it's shorter and sounds better. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />

<small>[ July 13, 2002, 10:25 PM: Message edited by: TheTenorFormallyKnownAsJHS ]</small>

I can't remember that far back(heck I did just graduate high school here...), but I do remember something from elementary school......

Chris and Jen...sitting in a tree....K-I-S-S-I-N-G....first come love, then comes marriage....then comes the baby in the baby carriage. <img border="0" alt="[2]" title="" src="graemlins/cwm2.gif" /> <img border="0" alt="[2]" title="" src="graemlins/cwm2.gif" /> <img border="0" alt="[2]" title="" src="graemlins/cwm2.gif" />

Now before anyone freaks out or what not....I'm just kidding around here so don't take it seriously....just a joke. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="images/icons/wink.gif" />

I don't care man, I'm never offended by anything, usually. It just shows how childish you are, <img border="0" title="" alt="[Razz]" src="images/icons/tongue.gif" /> , j/k. I'm sure that Jen is a wonderful and beautiful young woman (God, that sounds really old. Maybe I should just say "I'm sure she's really hot", but I'm not going to, don't want to seem sexist or soemthin). <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="images/icons/grin.gif" />

Yeah...it sure does doesn't it....oh well.....just having some clean fun before church <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="images/icons/wink.gif" /> .

LOL CoosCoos, I think the last time someone used that little rhyme was about the 4th grade.... <img border="0" alt="[2]" title="" src="graemlins/cwm2.gif" />

Chris, if you said you're sure that I'm hot I wouldn't be offended LOL I would take that as a compliment <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" /> BTW, I like to use people's real names when I know them because they're easier to remember, and I know at least I prefer to be called by my real name.

This reminds me, I was thinking maybe someone should start a picture thread sometime and that way we would sorta know who we were talking to. Then also maybe Scott could finally see what Myranda looks like and shut up about it <img border="0" alt="[2]" title="" src="graemlins/cwm2.gif" /> <img border="0" alt="[2]" title="" src="graemlins/cwm2.gif" />

Now *cough* *cough* back to our real topic.....

Indoorperc, at my elementary school like everyone picked flute too. But you didn't have to, you could pick whatever you wanted, like french horn or oboe or whatever, but most everyone just picked flute or clarinet. But anyway, there were 2 people on percussion, and so we both had to learn everything. Besides most of our music was just snare and bass drum anyway. But we did learn mallets and I usually was the one who played them if they needed to be played just cuz the other kid couldn't play worth crap.

But anyway, Chris, your middle school didn't have any bells!? <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="images/icons/shocked.gif" /> I feel bad for you! Or maybe I'm just spoiled cuz my middle school had 2 sets of bells, a nice Musser Kelon xylo, another kinda crappy xylo, a set of pretty nice Musser chimes, 4 nice timpani (better than what we use for outdoor marching at the high school), 2 sorta crappy timpani, and we would borrow vibes from the high school if we needed them.

Here's the kicker - we also had a 4.3 octave rosewood Musser marimba.....

I'm sorry guys. Please don't hurt me just cuz we have a decent music budget...

<small>[ July 14, 2002, 12:59 PM: Message edited by: drummergrl004 ]</small>

It's ok Jen <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" /> . Yeah we had 1 bell set, but it was really bad and I only played it once when we played the Theme from Cats, lol. <img border="0" alt="[2]" title="" src="graemlins/cwm2.gif" />

But, we really didn't have any other mallet instruments. I usually played Tympani, and I really love Tympani. And sometimes I'd play snare, but I'm pretty much a Tympanist. I got stuck on it a lot so now I don't play anything else. I'm really good anyway, so who cares.

We might now have had that many instruments, but we started out with 10 percussionists. By the end of the year it was 6, 2 quit, one left and then the only girl left but then came back. So the next year we had 7, but, another person moved, so we had 6 again. We got 3 new percussionists in 7th grade, but 2 ended up quiting in the beginning of the year. Let's see we had John, John, Lukas, Jeremy, Gerran, Misty, and I. Then for 8th grade, John#2 left, and we didn't have any news ones. By 9th grade, Jeremy left for Drama, Misty quit cause she didn't like it, Gerran transfered, and we got one new guy named Eric. So we had 4 percussionists in the 9th grade band. When drumline auditions came Lukas and I made Tenors, but John and Eric made pit. So, Eric quit, and Lukas couldn't handle the pressure and quit as well. But, now John and I were in Symphonic Band, so we had more drummers. But, anyway, this year, John didn't make Drumline again, so he quit. And now I'm the last Drummer that started out from 6th grade all the way to Junior year, and now I'm moving so there isn't a single Junior percussionist at JHS right now. And, for the 1st time they will have to have a Junior next year be Drumline Captain, it's always been Senior before.

Phew, sorry about the length, just wanted to show you that we aren't so bad off, but that I'm the only one left. I'm sure this happens a lot. <img border="0" alt="[7]" title="" src="graemlins/cwm7.gif" />

Hah Chris don't worry about the length, I am the queen of long posts <img border="0" title="" alt="[Razz]" src="images/icons/tongue.gif" />

A lot of people quit along the way from my school too. But we had a really big group starting in 6th grade. There were like 20 guys and 3 girls just in the 6th grade. Then when we got to 7th grade we got split into 2 bands, most people went into 7th grade band, but 6 of us went to Symphonic band which was combined with the best 8th graders as well. So in symphonic band there were 6 7th graders and 4 8th graders. Then the next year the people from 7th grade band moved into 8th grade band and the 6 of us from symphonic stayed there, and 3 new 7th graders joined us.

Then when we went to high school, one of the 6 of us went to private school, and one went to Baltimore School for the Arts, so that left 4 of us. We have all stayed in one of the 6 bands in high school, and 3 of us did marching band as freshmen. This year one of those guys quit, but the other guy who didn't do mb as a freshman or sophomore joined, so there are still 3 of us. Of course we added people from the other middle school and from other grades as we went along, as well as people who were in the 7th and 8th grade bands. But of the 6 of us who went through together all the way from 6th grade, there is just me and 1 other guy who have been together the whole time.

Interestingly enough, he playes snare and doesn't really talk to me much because now I'm just "one of those foreign gendered things in the pit" <img border="0" title="" alt="[Roll Eyes]" src="images/icons/rolleyes.gif" />

Dang....that was quite a explaination there Chris.....and it all boiled down to everyone quitting but you? Man that is like whoa.

Dang Jen, I'm sorry that he doesn't really talk to you anymore. That sucks. I can see that a lot of people leave after a while and the number of drummers gets really low. It's kinda sad really. Makes me almost nestalgic for the days when there were more of us and we had just a class of drummers and on those days when we would have no teacher watching Mr. Hollands Opus and throwing toilet paper on the light fixtures. <img border="0" alt="[14]" title="" src="graemlins/cwm14.gif" /> I miss those days. I wish I wasn't moving too, then I could stay and share more memories with my 1st Drumline, and stay with my friends. But I have to move on, as the only drummer left from the beginning. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Frown]" src="images/icons/frown.gif" />

Oh well, I guess it just happens that way sometimes, it just comes down to the fact that some people are more into it than others. But I'm in it forever. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="images/icons/wink.gif" />

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="verdana,Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="verdana,Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by TheTenorFormallyKnownAsJHS:
<strong>Makes me almost nostalgic for the days when there were more of us and we had just a class of drummers and on those days when we would have no teacher watching Mr. Hollands Opus and throwing toilet paper on the light fixtures.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="verdana,Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">LOL in middle school when we had a substitute teacher for our percussion class we used to watch the Stomp video Stomp Out Loud. I must have seen that video 5,000 times <img border="0" alt="[2]" title="" src="graemlins/cwm2.gif" /> I don't remember any toilet paper being thrown though LOL

<small>[ July 17, 2002, 12:19 PM: Message edited by: drummergrl004 ]</small>

That's cause when our director left, we didn't have a substitute. Don't know why, but it was damn fun! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="images/icons/grin.gif" />