Talk:Drumline

References

This article (and it looks like the one on Marching Percussion as well) are in desperate need of some references. I'm working on finding some, but if you do a little research you'll see it's difficult to find just simple definitions of the modern drumline. I'm doing my best, but if anybody finds some better stuff that would be awesome! I know most people who are reading the article probably have a general idea of what a drumline is and for the most part agree on the information in the article, but having references would make it much more credible. I have added some references and added a couple pictures as well. Drumline Enthusiast —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.210.59.46 (talk) 17:53, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Move

I do not think the articles "drumline" and "marching percussion" should be merged. The "marching percussion" article seems to be a description of the actual instruments used in various types of drumlines, while "drumline" is a more broad description.

I also think that the content of the article needs adjusted, particularly the description of a bass drum unit as consisting of "4-6" drums. The WVU Marching band's drumline (an organization in which I played bass drum for 4 years, and am intimately familiar with) is a very accomplished college drumline, and has marched 7 bass drums for at least the last 15 years. I'm not sure if any other drumlines have this many, but it's a very appropriate number of drums in the 40+ member drumline, and as a part of the 350+ member band. I'm also aware of several smaller high school drumlines that march only 3 bass drums, so it seems that that description should be changed to "3-7" drums.

Comment to above: The Purdue University Drumline has 8 Bass drums of different pitch (not including the Big Bass Drum), therefore it should be at least 8 as the max.

I disagree, this article should stay the way it is. Drumline is a unique term referring to the percussion section of a marching band. It MUST NOT be merged with 'Marching Percussion', as a very large part of the drumline (the pit) does not march! Keyboards and auxillary instruments are part of the drumline too. 'Marching Percussion' is not interchangable with 'drumline'. Also- about making this article about the movie and totally more the 'Drumline' article to some other name. NO. I am sure that most people who look up 'drumline' are looking for the actual musical term, not that movie. If you looked up 'Pearl Harbor' would you want the main article to be about the event or the movie?

In conclusion, drumline = pit and battery. Marching percussion = battery. Front ensemble = pit. Move? No.

Kirsten

Agree that the information in this article should be merged with "Marching Percussion".
Brad Halls 03:51, 21 April 2006 (UTC)Brad Halls

This articles should cover the movie, but most definitely have a "This article refers to the movie drumline. For the drum section of marching bands, see Marching percussion" or something similar. Evan Seeds (talk) 04:14, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

I disagree. Marching percussion should refer to just the instruments that the performers play. You can't call a drumline a marching percussion, or vice versa. The drumline refers to the group of performers rather than the musical instruments. A drumline is also comprised of more than a marching battery. There is also the front ensemble, which does not march at all, but is stilla very important part of the drumline. Drumline can be synonymous to percussion ensemble, but not marching percussion. Also, the movie drumline is not an accurate interpretation of what an actual drumline is. It is merely a fiasco pulled by movie-makers in search of money. The sounds produced by the drumline in that movie is also not a valid representation of what a drumline is capable of playing. Once again, the articles Drumline and Marching Percussion should not be merged. Wallaby (Will continue discussion when further argument is presented).

While I definitely agree that the movie Drumline is a gross misrepresentation of true drumming, I believe Marching Percussion and Drumline should be merged similar to how Percussion and Percussion Instrument are merged. Perhaps there could be individual articles for each marching instruments (or Marching Snares added to the Snare Drum article, Marching Basses added to the Bass Drum article, etc). Although, I think Front Ensemble should be given an article separate from Marching Percussion, as while they are both parts of drumlines, they are quite separate in music and technique. Evan Seeds (talk) 15:20, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

Maybe the article for "Drumline" as a performing group can be renamed to "Percussion Ensemble" which is probably a more proper term than drumline. This is proving to be a tough decision. Because there is field percussion, and then indoor percussion (marching and concert). Both are refered to as drumlines. Maybe by combining it all under Percussion Ensemble, there can be subsections of the different types of ensembles and also describe the instrumentation of each. We can't always call it marching percussion because there are standstill Indoor lines. Maybe that can be how the two are merged? The battery and front ensemble both usually exist with each other, except in concert percussion ensembles. The battery rarely exists on its own, even though there are popular recordings of songs/exercises just for battery. I like your suggestion about adding marching instruments to the articles on their concert counterparts. But what will we do about the marching tenors? Wallaby 14:33, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

Well, there already is a tenor drum article (which needs cleanup) , which touches on both single tenors and multi-tenors. I agree with the idea of merging all the separate ensembles into Percussion ensemble (which already has a small article). Also needing merging into that article would be Indoor percussion ensemble which has a somewhat developed article already. Although, for the record, I've rarely, if ever, heard the concert percussion section referred to as a drumline. Evan Seeds (talk) 03:35, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

I agree with the move. These two articles are very similar and present almost identical information. A drumline and marching percussion are basically the same thing. (I know what I'm talking about; I play snare in a drumline). User:BenRig811 21:12, 11 may 2006 (UTC)

I play snare on a competing high school drumline, and I disagree with the move. Drumline is just a small part of Marching percussion. Drumline generally only consists of snare drums, bass drums, tenors, and cymbals, while marching percussion generally consists of pit percussion and other forms of percussion is a marching band or drum corps. The best option would be to create an entire category for Marching Percussion, which consists of drumline, all of the instruments on a drumline, pit percussion, and other articles that fit the description. Superdude1112

Drumline refers to both the battery and the front ensemble while marching percussion only refers to the battery. Therefore I believe the articles should stay separate. Drumline Enthusiast '11

I disagree that it should be moved....and if it is it should not be moved to percussion ensemble. If it must be moved then it should be moved to marching percussion ensemble because percussion ensemble generally does not refer to marching instruments. It usually refers to the percussion section of a concert unit. As for the bass drum thing most high school march around 4 -6 basses. Yes, sometime there may be as few as even 2 but typically watching any unit high school or DCi the average is between 4 - 6.Brehale (talk) 07:00, 13 May 2010 (UTC)Bre

New Content/needs merging

Killkhan recently (as his first and so far, only, edit) added a section on the Battery. While the content isn't horrible (although needs cleanup), someone needs to merge the information we already have on battery into the new sectionalized version, as well as adding a section on the Pit/Front Ensemble, focusing on the types of music, i'd say, as the instruments themselves should have their own article. Evan Seeds (talk) 15:36, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

I've played in a very successful highschool drumline for four years, and I know a thing or two about marching percussion. I'm also very interested in DCI. I totally disagree with the move. Anyone who knows anything about marching percussion knows that there is a BIG difference between the drumline and the percussion front. Merging Drumline into the more broad Marching Percussion would be analagous to merging the Trumpet article with the Horns article. Trust me on this one.Stevetremblay

History

This article desperately needs a history section. There are sources out there. Unfortunately I don't have the time to look them up. —M (talk • contribs) 14:01, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Seconded - I was interested to see how this developed. Is it a modern phenomenon? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 146.200.210.132 (talk) 11:01, 28 August 2014 (UTC)

"Drum line"

I don't believe "drum line" is a correct term for this situation. MS Word, Firefox, and many other spell checkers always mark "drumline" as being spelled incorrectly and suggest "drum line." However, as drumlines as such a niche activity, the word's omission from spell checkers can be understandable.Dlwebmaestro (talk) 12:56, 28 September 2010 (UTC)