Head cam by Zachary Hudson at the Buffalo Bills Stadium in New York on August 7th performing The Concord Blue Devils 2017 program, Metamorph. 98.538 - Undefeated - DCI World Champions - 18
As a former front ensemble member from when dinosaurs roamed the earth I gotta give Zachary here the highest level praise. Its very difficult to pull off precision, groove, and feel like this when the rest of your section is 50 yards away a lot of the time. This is fantastic. The feel and pocket is great throughout. Well done and congrats on a perfect season from an SCV vet.
Wyatt K personally I’ve been playing drum set for my schools winter group and you are exactly right. Drum set helps the pit stay with the marchers and they have me look at feet as well
George Smith sound delay. If you’re in pit you shouldn’t be looking at the major, you should be listening back. Unless of course, the pit initiates a phrase
I just want to point out how flawless that stick mute was at 9:23 was. Small detail, but i just can't seem to do stick mutes without extra added noise! Zach is a talented person indeed.
Baritone player, this part is freaki g epic. Theres a kid at my school who learned that whole part and I wish he taught the rest of our trombone section
Thank you for this. I always play along with you playing and ive practiced it so many times that it sounds almost exactly like it. It has also made me a better player.
Awesome vid man, great playing. Out of curiosity, how granular is the drum book? Is each fill specifically written out, or do you have any latitude with what you play? Are individual crashes and effect cymbals notated, or do you get some discretion as you play?
I think it varies from group to group because in my high school group my instructor just tells me to improvise over most of the show as the only parts I get are fills, basic grooves, and some hits. I think it depends on the level you're at and how well you play the set.
giveandcolor most of my parts were written out note for note, I took liberties with a lot of it, and other parts would get changed on the fly. Sometimes a written part would feel uncomfortable and I would just change it. I always made sure to stay true to what the arrangers/writers wanted in the first place, and then comfort and "fun stuff" came second
A lot of times the writing will take into consideration what the battery is doing, so a good player (like Zachary) will be able to keep that in mind if they have to modify anything - it's all about having a good sense of what fits, and that comes from experience.
Great job duder!!! I miss the days!!! Im Now just a Dad watching his son play, in his first years of High school MB!! Hoping he goes the distance like i once did!!
aspiring to play drum set in my future years of marching band this gives me a nice idea of what i need to work on/know what rhythms i would/could play. awesome work this sounds amazing!
Thanks to RU-vid recommendations I've gone from knowing nothing about marching band competitions on the other side of the planet, to... knowing almost nothing about marching band competitions on the other side of the planet, but I now think these Blue Devils are pretty awesome! Genuinely makes me cringe as to how sub-standard my own high school band was, but... hey, we were just a tiny school in rural Australia. And at least I got to play with James Morrison that one time.
Benno1223 the front ensemble can't normally get tempo from the drum major, so I would listen to the drumline for tempo, and when I couldn't hear the drumline I had to turn around and watch their foot timing
Benno1223 what Zach said. I'm lead trumpet in my marching band, and since our theme this year is Motown, it's very dependent on me, center snare, and the drum kit / rhythm section. However, instead of depending on the drum major, we listen back to center snare.
Diego Aviles 1243 Evanston Township High School. I'm a sophomore. We're doing a GoPro thing similar to this, so I'll try to remember to let you know when it gets rolling!
So this is 2 years late and I know I’m not gonna get a response, but I’ll ask anyway. How hard was it to get into DCI? Like I know that there was auditions but how many people were you up against? How long did it take before you got the part?
Yochran front ensemble parts vary on difficulty based on parts but for anyone auditioning that is not a kit player I believe they audition on boards/keyboards while other battery types audition together just (based on from coaches from DCI) but really depends on how well you can feel the part as well as skill cause you gotta groove
It really does suck that front ensemble is so hard to get into. I march clarinet and I'd obviously have to learn a new instrument if I wanted to get into DCI. I used to just think I'd do pit but I have no chance competing against people who've played percussion for years longer than I have.
I have seen the drum major's head cam and I am suprised the drummer doesn't look more at him. Maybe it is to hear more the music and sync better but isn't that the job of the drum major? And I get that light travels faster than sound. So that may be it! ;)
Dominic Paré your exactly right. The front enemble's most important job is to listen to the drum line. Not only is sound slower than light, but it also fluctuate causing tempos to speed up and slow down slightly as the band moves around. Very rarely can a front enemble look at the drum major and be in time.
I must watch more of those drum major cams because I find this really interesting and I want to understand more how he/she directs (what needs to be directed and when and why and how)! Thanks for the insides/infos. ;)
Dominic Paré Not only that, but they practice to metronome so much, and this is such high level of play that the drum majors are primarily there to start and stop songs.
