Catagory: advice
Dear E-Drumline.com,
I am in a bit of a jam and I need some help. We have a guy in our line who is very tall and muscular, not good looking, just tall and muscular. We call him the yeti. We even have a cadence that we improvised one day that kind of stuck, he ghetto dances in the middle while we run around him. Kind of stupid I know, but very entertaining. My problem is that I am to be the section leader next year, and he is leaving for Florida, and I need a new name for it. We call the cadence, “Hollars,” which also happens to be the name of this kid. It wouldn’t be the same if we called it Hollars, but there is no Hollars there to back it up.
Sincerely,
The Egg.
Dear Sunny Side Up,
You’ve really messed up this time! Naming cadences after people is like brushing your teeth with a butter knife. You should know better than that? At least you realize that what you’ve done is wrong. Rec-egg-nizing the problem is your first step on the path to recovery.
It is very common for a drumline’s cadence, street beat or groove, as I like to call it, to have an obscure, yet meaningful-to-drumline name. One classic egg-zample is the 1990’s era high school drumline groove entitled “Why Bee”. You may be thinking, “Why Bee? What the heck is that? I don’t get it.” And you don’t have to get it.
The name means a great deal to the lines who marched the groove. If you were to mention “Why Bee” or “Y.B.” to any of the thousands of omelet eating drumliners who played variations of this hard boiled selection, you would come to realize that “YB” stands for “Yo Bit@%, come bite my love chain”. Now that’s a groovy name!
Other famous groove names come from the songs they are modeled after. Take for example: “Jungle Love” – the song was a popular disco tune in the 70’s. It went on to become a popular groove played by the 1985 Suncoast Sound Drum & Bugle Corps – and since by many others.
Now in your situation, you are going to need a title that will inspire your line. You need a title that will make your drumline forget they ever knew a kid named Hollars. We have one rather egg-straordinary suggestion… “Queue Fah” pronounced “Q – Fah.” This title will work quite well for you. But be careful, if you say it three times fast the cute woodwind players may get the wrong idea.
Don’t waist any time, you must scramble to get the new title in place. It is no egg-zaduration to say, “the future of your line depends on this change!”
Thank you for the opportunity to help, The Egg, and keep visiting e|drumline.com.