UMass Drumline performing our cadence. Video recorded on Saturday, September 19th after a UMass football game vs. Rhode Island. UMass Drumline videos recorded by TJ Kelly (www.tjkelly.com) and Ben Oven (benoven.squares...)
Consistently one of the best cadence combos out there! Got snippets of some of the best grooves of all times mixed seamlessly together into a great groove. Lovin the plate line! Gotta give a shout-out to the cymbals out there! All too-often they get overlooked.
I was the section leader of the drumline in 1991, and I wrote the cadence that year. Some of those beats are in here! Every year they add new stuff, while retaining some of the vintage stuff. I'm 39 now, so I guess that makes ME vintage! ;)
This is the kind of clip that I show to students to teach them about marching and playing at the same time. And how to keep their lines straight, keep the cadence going, and keep it clean no matter what; in whether they are stopping or moving!
UMASS Drumline/band was the best thing about going to UMASS football games. I remember people used to go pee and stuff before the half and the place being packed for half-time (as well as for the post-game).
@DaJmsta Hate to break to ya- but we were playing variations of this cadence back in the 80's at UMASS. It has of course grown in complexity every year, but the fundamental elements have remained (especially the First 16).
Is the UMass drumline simply the best in the country? Maybe I'm biased, and maybe some of the big schools drumlines - Texas or Michigan, for example - will disagree, but I haven't seen anyone top this group. Go UMass!
Hi Calvin, thanks for your comment. The excerpt you're referring to (at 00:53) is borrowed from Electric Wheelchair, originally by Santa Clara Vanguard from the early 90s. To see SCV playing it in 1992, search "1992 Santa Clara Vanguard Electric Wheel Chair Street Beat." Colin McNutt, writer and instructor at UMass, performed with SCV in those days. He brought some of SCV's style back to Amherst and he's been shaping our program ever since.
@rentin7 judging from your description, imma say that is either a five or six bass drum. May even be a franken-bass. i marched the three this past season. im moving to sousaphone next though. my heart lays with brass.
@tmwhalens I WILL check those out! Last November, I had the pleasure of going to the BOA Grand Nationals in Indianapolis, and you are right, there were some totally awesome bands from KY and OH and TN. Indiana too. Here's a thought (for anyone) - which state has the strongest overall marching band culture? Certainly not Massachusetts! We can't even pay our teachers. KY? IN? FL? CA? TEXAS, anyone? (Are you listening, Woodlands and LD Bell?)
@rentin7 sucks for you. honestly does, no sarcasm intended. i wanted to move to tenors, but i fell in love with the tuba. im playing baritone this concert season because we only have two tubas and both are being used. next year though because one of our tubists is graduating and going to college.
@Laughingmans6 yeah i march a 5 bass well not any more but use to we r in winter percussion and i play accessories... oh joy i wanted to move on to tenors but someone took them
Why do you say that? Thom Hannum is the associate director of the UMMB and is in charge of percussion. He is kind of a big deal, known for his arrangments and percussion work.
@drumer93 im a bass drummer in my high school band and i have to march the biggest bass which is bigger than a concert bass drum so like 2 1/2 to 3 ft diamator and i cant see above it so i have to see to my side so befor you say stuff like that, not saying you mean it in a bad or mean way its really hard to see where you are going
@tjkelly00 Well SCV and Cavies for starters. Check out some lot videos from the 1980's and they'll sound familiar. Again, I'm not singling out U-Mass, like I said it seems to be a trend in college lines. If I got paid a $1 for every college line that played a drum corps cadence or warm-up, I could quit my job. The Illini alone might be enough to pay my mortgage... Just type Electric Wheelchair, Ditty, Bunco Rules, Latin Lover, etc into RU-vid sometime and you'll see a trend.
I'm pretty sure that the 3 people who disliked this were just jelous. There is no way to seee this video and go "man, UMass sucks. My drumline is so much better than that." It's just not possible. :P
@IrishKiltie19 Which drum corps cadences, exactly, is UMass ripping off here, keeping in mind that this cadence was originally written in 1992 by Colin McNutt?
I enjoyed the video, and the beats, but I'll never understand why college lines in general (not just U-Mass) resort to ripping off drum corps cadences, watering them down and expect everyone to get excited. It's like watching reruns on TV. So many of these college corps style lines have great instructors and great players, why can't they put their heads together and write some original beats so we have something new to get excited about? Obviously the kids have the talent to pull it off.
It might not be an exact match, since the cadence gets revised little by little over the season (and this version is early--it's from April), but this will get you close: www.umassdrumline.org/wp-content/uploads/cadence-2009-04-20.pdf Any current year's version is available on our Music page - www.umassdrumline.org/music/