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Demystifying "Pointed" vs "Round"

There are two mysterious words used over and over by experienced pipers and drummers: pointed and round. Each of the five styles we play are either pointed or round--some are really pointed, others are more round depending on the…

10 Extended Roll Sequences to Spice Up Your Drum Scores

Extended roll sequences can add a bunch of musical possibilities to any drum score. When composing a new score, it is always important to include some extended rolls to add dynamics, texture and some interesting syncopation to your pipe band's…

Practicing Subdivision: The March Style

When you go to see a rock band play, a common conversation after the show involves how "tight" the band played. If you see a "tight" band it's a good bet that all their count ins, stops, shots, endings and…

Drill the Skill: The Ratamacue

Hmmm... it doesn't look very intimidating... but there is sits, the DREADED RATAMACUE: one of the most maligned and complaint inducing rudiments we play. It is a simple rudiment to understand yet one of the toughest to execute consistently. Starting…

Drill the Skill: The Open Six Stroke Roll

For a snare section, the ability to play in perfect unison with each other is the toughest goal to achieve. Pipe band snare drums are notoriously unforgiving due to their extreme volume level making every tiny mistake or rough patch…

Getting Your Drum Corps on the Same Page... Literally!

In my early years writing drum scores I used loose leaf paper, a pencil and (most importantly) a good eraser. There were virtually no music notation programs available and those that did exist could not handle pipe band drumming notation…

Notating "Light and Shade"

For hundreds of years most of the Western world has been using a system of Italian symbols in their written music to indicate dynamic levels (loud and soft).  For some reason, pipe bands have yet to catch on to this…

Your Drum Corps Should Read Music. Here's Why:

I didn't always know how to read music.  Like many drummers in my generation I learned to play by ear, listening and watching my teachers go through the rudiments.  Drum scores were learned by repetition and use of recordings.  Written…