Quote:
Originally posted by D.Seipel:
This is something I've often wondered about. Once in a while I hear about these "awesome" snare drummers in DCI. And they are awesome...on a snare drum, not a drumset. I've never seen a DCI snare drummer bust ass on drumset. Drumset and corps drumming are two different beasts.
I used to play in marching band in high school so I've had some experience on it, but it's totally different that playing on a kit. For one, on the kit, I'm not holding tree trunks for sticks and secondly, the heads on a kit aren't kevlar and aren't tuned nearly as high as a marching snare.
When I see awesome DCI guys executing these awesome chops on a snare drum, I can't help but wonder why they don't do it on the drumkit. Actually I have seen an awesome corps drummer on the kit, but he's an awesome player, but the solos are anything like a snare drum solo.
Buddy Rich, to me, sounds like a snare drummer-gone-kit player, which he was.
A snare drum solo (corps drumming) is different that a set solo. I'm not sure how to explain it exactly, but on a kit, the nature and context in which someone plays is centered around three main things:
1.Ostinato (usually a repeated phrase on hi-hat or cymbal)
2.Bass drum (usually tells everyone listening or playing along where the beat of the music is, or the emphasis of the phrase,beat,etc.)
3.snare drum (usually tells everyone listening or playing along where the back beat is and can be used to emphasize or embellish the beat or ostinato ..ie. ghost notes)
Now, a marching band snare drummer, in my opinion, is using a completely different concept when playing a solo or piece:
1. When playing a snare solo, the beat or emphasis seems 'implied' or is defined by the snare drum phrase, in a way. This is opposite of kit solos, where the beat can be implied by other means (bass drum, whatever).
2. solo phrasing in corp drumming seems to be shorter to me, I'm probably wrong, but I never played corps solos,had no interest in them and still don't.
3. Set based solos have the option to be more beat oriented, where snare only solos are sort of beat oriented but it's not as implied as on a kit.
I didnt' exlain the last three cuz i don't have a lot of experience in corps drumming, but essentially, kit drummers are an "army of voices" and a corps drummer is only a "platoon of voices".
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Buddy Rich was a vaudevillian from the beginning, not a snare drummer. And I couldn't disagree more with your explanation of a drum set solo. BTW, an ostinato is any repeating rhythm.