mardi gras 2012
i have this crazy sort of idea for mardi gras 2012, based on three things:
1. The Tulane drum line isn't that big. my first year we had enough people to field a full battery, but my second year and this year we cut out the tenor line because we came to the conclusion that it would be better to have a fuller sound of bass drums and snares (that year ended up being 4 bass drums and 3 snares) rather than, say, have 2 snares and a single set of tenors. recruiting next year doesn't look terribly promising for percussion; unless a surge of people come in, the drumline will be pretty small again next year.
2. To help with the small drumline thing this past year, mark and i built a double-stack bass drum for the top drum. Basically our 16" bass drum has a 14" bass drum mounted on top of it.
3. Southern style mardi gras bands don't really have a pitched bass drum line like corps-style marching bands do. They have a "low" bass drum line which all play in unison and a "tom" line, which are all sideways sling-mounted 14" or 15" floor toms that all play in unison.
So the idea?
Mount 14" floor toms to the top three bass drums and have two sets of cadences: the first is the Tulane cadences that we do now (which are four in total, one of which i might replace) that are played on the pitched bass drums, and then have another set of cadences (3 or 4) that emulate the southern style cadences that use the mounted floor toms and low bass drum concept.
i'd probably make one cadence that uses both just for fun.
Chances are if i do this, i'd dismount the 14" bass drum from the double stack and make that the first bass drum. So the first bass drum would be a 14" bass drum with a 14" floor tom mounted on it, and the 16" would become the second drum.
we'll see what happens. part of whether or not it will happen will be determined by the final numbers we get in the fall.