Drum Major Blog

New tutorial finally

2012-01-01T18:13:00.000-08:00

Xmas Wishes

2011-12-25T15:24:00.000-08:00

Hey Drum Majors. Just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas!

FU to the Establishment

2011-12-25T12:07:00.000-08:00

I love marching bands that strive to be different. When you marched in and/or watched as many parades as I have you'll start to realized "Wow! Marching bands are really boring!" What's this band gonna play? Oh a march. What's the next band gonna play? Oh another march; and so on and so forth. Take this band from Reedly, CA. According to NCBA and SOCCBA bands may only play Association Approved marches, May NOT stop on the Parade route, etc, etc. Yeah, they're pretty strict on what you can and cannot do in competition. Then there's Reedly High School, Here's a band that say's "You know what! we don't care about your scoring or your rules! We're here to entertain the crowd! Now try and stop us!" Take a look at their performance in the 2009 Santa Cruz band review and listen to the crowd reaction.

Apologies part 2

2011-12-23T20:11:00.000-08:00

Hey drum majors, sorry it's been a LOOOOONG time since I posted a video on youtube. I could give the same excuse of "I've been so busy" but I feel like I would just be repeating myself over and over. Anyway just some updates of what's going on. I've finally graduated college and received my Bachelors in Science. Now my options are to apply for graduate school or get a job. Except my options for graduate school are somewhat limited since my GPA isn't amazing. So I'm currently job searching. Other than that now I have more time to make more tutorials for you guys.

I've been looking at the way I've been making videos and I feel like I could do better. I'm planning to make a new series of tutorials where I would cater to all 3 forms of learning (visual, kinethetic, and auditory). I'm also planning to release a new series of Drum Major related Vlogs and Blogs for you guys. I'd like to get more involved with you guys so it feels like I'm personally giving you all lessons rather than just making reference videos.

Again sorry for dropping off of youtube and leaving you guys stranded for almost a year.

Woodland Scottish Gathering Drum Major Competition

2010-04-27T20:30:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the annual Sacramento Valley Scottish Games in Woodland, CA. It's a small festival but It is the BIGGEST in the nation when it comes to Drum Majoring. The best thing I love about these games is that they place alot of emphasis on the Drum Majors thanks to its organizer Angie Roddan (one of the sweetest ladies you will ever meet). This year Woodland was the host of the first ever United State Scottish Drum Major Championship, and many of the top drum majors attended; including the current World Champion DM Kathy Megarry Calvin from Northern Ireland. Needless to say this was a very difficult competition. I myself went up against a World Champion and several Former World Champions. The Winner of the overall 2 day event and the first ever 2010 US Scottish Drum Major Champion was DM Jason Paguio from San Diego, CA whom many of you may know as the first American to win the Juvenile World Champion and the Co-owner and Co-founder of the Regimental Mace Company. This was probably one of the most exciting competitions I have participated in. So until next time...band dismissed!

Apologies

2010-04-27T20:24:00.001-07:00

Whoa! Sorry I've been neglecting all of you guys. I've just been super busy. I'm trying to finish up my last semester as an undergraduate in college and I just haven't had the time to make drum major tutorials. For sure I'll have new movies up by May or June at the latest. So until then...Band Dismissed!

Basic Routine Construction blog 1

2009-01-22T20:44:00.000-08:00

I know it's been a while since I made my last post. I've just been super busy, and to all my subscibers on youtube, sorry for taking so long with the latest video. For the past three months I've been juggling school work and marching band stuff. So now I'm trying to get back on track. Also on a side note, I'm also trying out for Drum Major at my college so wish me luck!

Anyway with that aside, I wanted to describe about the concept of basic routine construction. Now a lot of drum majors have their own techniques of creating routines but hopefully I can help all you guys on how to create great routines that will earn you points with the judges.

The analogy I like to use when creating a drum major routine is a "cake". If you look at a cake, it has two basic parts to it: there's the main body of the cake which I like to call the "Foundation", and then there's the frosting and decoration.

The Foundation is just that, the "foundation" of a routine. It is pretty much the fundamentals of marching and deportment. For every routine, you need to have a strong foundation. Certain criteria which fall under the foundation are: Posture, marching technique, free hands, beating of time, and all that jazz. All the stuff they teach you in the first day of band camp make up the criteria of the foundation

The Frosting and Decoration is everything which you do to make your routine great. This includes: spinning, tosses, etc.

Going back to the cake analogy, you want to have a good balance between your foundation and frosting. If you don't you could have either one of two outcomes and I've seen it all too many times before.

(Too much Foundation, not enough frosting)--These drum majors are in a word "BORING". These drum majors present good knowlege of marching fundamentals but yet they don't spin their maces as much or take any risk. Usually these drum majors keeps spins simple as they either may not know how to spin well or may be too afraid to drop their maces on concrete.

(Too much Frosting, not enough foundation)--These drum majors (Tsk Tsk) I see all the time. They are excellent spinners; they can do all these complicated moves and are not afraid to take risks. However these drum majors lack technique in basic marching fundamentals. During their routines, their are either out of step or their feet phase in and out of step; their posture is atrocious and they present so much body movement when spinning.

So when you create your routines just remember the "cake analogy"
-A cake with out frosting is just plain boring.
-A cake without a foundation is just a very beautiful mess.

Introduction

2008-07-21T12:10:00.000-07:00

(Picture: I'm the one on the far left)

Hi everyone, my name is Arty, some of you may know me from my Drum Major Videos on Youtube. I just thought I'd start a blog for drum majors. I'll just tell a little about myself. I live In California. I started spinning mace and military baton when I was a freshman in high school. I was the Drum Major of the Armijo High School Band in 2003-2004. I attend California State University, Sacramento where I am planning to try out for their position of drum major. Currently I compete in Scottish Drum Major competitions against the best drum majors in the country. So I hope this blog can be of some help to all aspiring drum majors.