Catagory: advice
i am currently a bass drummer in my high school drumline. the drumline is really really good except for one snare drummer. this one snare drummer has no snare drum talent at all. the bassoonist in our band is better than him. he never practices, always jokes around, and he never listens to any of the older drumliners. it makes everybody mad. what do i do with him?
BOB
Dear BOB,
I’m assuming your drumline has no instructor, as any competent instructor worth his weight in drum keys would have dealt with this already.
In my early days of drumline, I encountered a similar situation. Our line always came in 2nd place. We were by far the best drumline on the field, but there was this one kid that kept us from reaching our potential. Curse you Ryan and all your evil ways.
You see BOB, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. But a drumline, that’s different. A drumline is only as strong as that jackass dancing snare clown who doesn’t care about drumline or his fellow linemen.
Of course, you could just talk to your band director about this guy, but what fun would that be?
What you really need in this situation is a classic intervention. Here’s what you do. Have your drumline sit down with this kid and explain how he is hurting the whole group. Invite the bassoonist to the intervention, as well. When the snare drummer is about to bust out of the place, have the bassoonist player pop out from behind some boxes and lay down a lick that your problem snare player can’t pull off. Everyone will point and laugh at the snare drummer. The dork will be so embarrassed that he won’t be able to attend practices. He’ll quit drumline!
Thank you for the opportunity to help, BOB, and keep visiting e|drumline.com.