I play for a showband and our snares have pretty good chops. But snugglebunny of showstyle lines have snares and quints who couldnt play clean for 10 seconds. I love playing corps style becuase its more challenging.

^Snugglebunny? LMAO Why can't we type the word "al0t"?

Maybe because there is no such word. - Admin

There are a bunch of guys that couldn't play clean for an extended period of time. But playing clean is an combination of chops and being taught how to play clean. Some just aren't fortunate enough to have an instructor work with them.

It would be a lot easier to play clean if somebody tuned the drums carefully, especially the tenors!

What I've noticed is that some of these lines achieve stadium-rockin' volume by having an abundance of drummers on field. In the first clip above there are about 15 people playing the same "chest tom" part.

On the other hand, a good corps-style line can achieve the same volume with five guys playing well-tuned basses in perfect unison. However, five guys dancing around doesn't look that impressive, so.....

I think the price that show-style lines pay for having such fancy choreography is that you really have to cut down on the level of detail in the music. A huge, dancing line just isn't going to sound as good as a corps-style line, or play with as much rhythmic variation as a corps-style line would. I bet that if you were only allowed to listen to the show-style line, then it would get kinda boring after a while..

By contrast, corps-style percussion arrangements are some of the most rhythmically and melodically sophisticated music I've ever heard, and people remember "the greats" of Drum-Corps percussion arrangers because there really is an art to it.

That being said, I think the whole Corps-Style mentality can get a bit overbearing at times, and it can feel like the drummer's only function is to robotically play whatever the instructor says to play, with no emotion or even fun involved! That's a sad state of affairs, but sometimes the ends justify the means...I mean imagine how hard the '03 SCV line had to work to bring Gussek's "Double Beat" to fruition. Now it's a classic drumline jam that people will talk about for years...

That post actually really bothered me. First, didn't the art of marching percussion begin with civil war pieces? And from there, corps style has had a much longer a deeper root than show style. How could corps style sway if they are the origins of the activity. Even further, I believe that corps style has remained true to the rudimental standard as well. Not to say that all show style groups haven't, but corps style has placed particular emphasis on this. Yes, corps style is more technical. Should it be a shame that it takes a little more brain power to appreciate. If you were to take the same test and compare pop vs. classical what would happen? That could almost be considered a slap in the face to classical compositions. I may post more when calmed down enough not to talk in garble.

It's all based on Taste-Taste-Taste... What did you grow up listening to? I grew up with country music all around me, but I expanded far beyond that into an eclectic collection. Same goes for corps and showstyle drumming.

You cannot, I repeat, cannot say that one is more artistic than the other. Art, whether tangible Picasso portraits or visual and audio stimuli, are TRULY in the minds of the beholder. I find showstyle visuals to be wonderfully artistic and rhythmically enthalling; I find a corps line fantastic from cleanliness, precision, etc... But that doesn't mean everyone else feels the same.

It's like me looking at a cliff face and seeing the beauty in the rock strata and the complicated formations, while most other people would just see rock and not care - art is everywhere and in everything. Just because you don't see, doesn't mean it's not there.

Quote:

---

Find someone you know (or don't) that knows nothing about drumming. Take out an mp3 player and play SCV's Electric Wheelchair. Then play those infamous cadences at the end of the movie "Drumline". Which one would he enjoy more? Was he watching either of the lines?

---

Now, I may be a showstyle performer, but I defend both ends of the spectrum. Humans love rhythm. We all do. Yes, corps style is not well know for the down and funky, tap your toes beats as showstyle is. So a person with no prior exposure to the drumline world will most likely choose the "Drumline" cadence over "EWC". However, this is where knowledge of drumming becomes a key factor. IF the person knows about drumming, and how elegent and difficult it is, they appreciate the complexity of SCV's EWC, even if it may not have the same groove as the other. Complexity is beauty. Just ask Ian Malcolm and his fractals.

Now, by no means am I suggesting that us showstyle drummers are no more capable than corps drummers of throwing down EWC at a whim, it just goes with the general territory of our style to be different in the respect of HOW we present our art, style and beauty.

Drumming is beautiful. Leave it at that.

I agree with you OU110Snare. My past got the better of me for a moment and I didn't state what I wanted to as clear as I wanted to. Hence the emotive language. I do agree that all music and drumming for that matter is beautiful. I also think that each side has a lot to learn from one another.

I didn't claim that one was more of an art than the other. I said that was my opinion. [ "In my opinion,"; "I think"]

I didn't say show-style was better than corps-style. Actually I respect corps a lot more than most show-style bands. The topic at hand however, was listening to a show-style line, and it getting boring quickly. And the same is true with classical music vs. pop. Of course I respect Mozart more than I respect 50 Cent, but which one is going to be boring to the average American?

Also, I said "the art that drumming was supposed to be". Drumming doesn't always mean marching percussion. No one knows the origin of drumming, but I'm sure its pretty tribal, and after listening to tribal drums, I'm much more reminded of a show-style line than I am reminded of the Blue Devils. That's the point I was trying to make.

It really probably comes down to my outlook on life. I'd rather live for creativity and funk than to be come so sophisticated that I would no longer be able to appreciate simple syncapation found in show-style lines.