How Many Tenors In Your Bass Section For 2005?

[tenordrummer.com]

How many tenor drummers will be playing in your bass section in the 2005 season? Are you put off by introducing more players or are you happy with the numbers you have? How many tenor drummers work best for your section? How about some opinions and thoughts on the subject...? :shrug:

[Monique Ros]

The answers to your questions -

Number of tenordrummers in the 2005 season: 1
Put off by introducing more players: NO
Happy with the numbers you have: NO
How many tenors work best in your section: any number above 1

I'd love to have more tenors in our band, but unfortunately I only have one student and he is currently taking over the role of bass drummer since our regular bass drummer is in hospital.
And finding new tenor drummers in our regoin is extremely difficult.

Any tips on how to gain interest with the public, so that you can recruit new tenor drummers?

Monique

[tenordrummer.com]

Monique - just drop me an e-mail to info@tenordrummer.com (mailto:info@tenordrummer.com) with the details of your band, the number of players you hope to recruit and contact information and I will place a free advert in our Recruitment (http://www.tenordrummer.com/recruitment.htm) page. That may help you out.

[Celtic Mitch]

Well, we currently have 3 but are thinking of adding a 4th. Are we happy with 3, yes, could we be just as happy with 4..probably...we will find out soon. The goal for 2006 is to have 5!

[Andrew Adams]

Our Grade 4 band:

Number of tenor drummers in the 2005 season: 2
Put off by introducing more players: no
Happy with the numbers you have: I can live with it, but want more 1 or 2 more.
How many tenors work best in your section: Can't answer, as we have only ever had 2.

Our Grade 5 band:

Number of tenor drummers in the 2005 season: 1
Put off by introducing more players: no
Happy with the numbers you have: not really. I would like at least 2, because that helps get them ready for Grade 4.
How many tenors work best in your section: Can't answer, as we have only ever had 1.

[Big Bluto]

We've currently got 3 tenors in our band, along with up to 6 snare (and more in training), and are starting to compete in grade 4b this season.
However, we're currently still looking for a bass drummer.

Would I be put off by more players - hell no! We might not be able to get them out with the band right now, but the more the merrier!

Happy with the numbers I have - yeah, I'm content, but would dearly love for a dedicated bass drummer to come down.

How many tenors work best - I guess we'll have to wait and see!

[Cliff Davis]

In our grade 2 band we have three players. Playing split parts alto, tenor, and baritone.
We have a dozen or so pipers and four sides, so our midsection size is about right in terms of balance. (We need more sides!)

In our grade 3 we currently have one, and our grade 4 has two.

We are always looking for good players, and are lucky in that the enthusiam of our midsection players seems to attract new talent when we need it. We have a team approach when it comes to teaching rhythm and flourishing.

Five years ago we had no tenors in our competition bands. The art form has taken hold here in Kansas City.

[Penny]

Our Grade 3 band had two last year. We are getting another one up and ready for this season, and then have just had another one "show up keen to learn" in the last month! I'm very excited!


I was looking to go with the alto, tenor, baritone idea for our three drummers.... what do you do when you add the fourth person in? Do you double up on one of the voices? Which one makes more sense? :shrug: :68dance:

Penny
---------------

I'd rather play a tenor than a five'r anyday!

[Love2Drum]

Grade 3 band:
Number of tenor drummers in the 2005 season: 4 voices
Put off by introducing more players: Yes
Happy with the numbers you have: not really. Personally feel we're pushing it due to #of sides

How many tenors work best in your section: At the moment, I feel like 3 work best. If we increase our snare line, then 4 or more would be fine.

Grade 4 band:
Number of tenor drummers in the 2005 season: 1
Put off by introducing more players: no
Happy with the numbers you have: No. We could use one more
How many tenors work best in your section: I think for the grade 4 line 2 tenors would be optimum.

[blythe]

Hey...i just joined a new band.. before I was alone in my band.. but now my new band currently have 4.
We have 3 voices within the corps [2 altos.. 1 tenor and 1 baritone]. In my opinion if you have three voices it sounds pretty good because if you add more voices it might get a little complicated.
I don't think there is a maximum number out band would be good with but for now.. we are getting by.

[Celtic Mitch]

Our 4th is a quadratone...or a 20" tenor. Yip, it's big...

[Jose R. Alvarez]

Hi,
In our band we have 7 players of tenor drum but only 4 plays on each concert. Our problem is not the tenor but the snare drums because we have only 5 players.

[The Axeman]

There are no limits where music is concerned. If 1 works for your band go with it. if 5 workd for your band go with that.

Me personaly, I love the sounds of different voices and the challenge of making the numbers and scores make musical sense.

Yes I have 3 that work very well but would like to have 5 that works just as good. Now because you have 4 or 5 does not mean that they all must play all the time. Their lies the answer to large Mid sections.

It is a Hobby and if you can't have fun with it, why do it??

So Scott is that 15 or 16 drummers on the field for shotts this year, How cool is that?? 9 or 10 side and 5 Tenor and 1 bass??

The Axeman:

[tenordrummer.com]

Originally posted by The Axeman:
So Scott is that 15 or 16 drummers on the field for shotts this year, How cool is that?? 9 or 10 side and 5 Tenor and 1 bass?Hmm??? Not sure Sandy - I think it will be 15 or 16 drummers give or take!

[Tara Davidson]

This year Oran Mor's midsection will be going out with 4 tenors and a bass, (still an all-girl midsection, mind you!). I believe we're looking at playing anywhere from 7-9 sides, too. I'm pretty happy with the set up we've got now. Not against the idea of adding an additional voice, however, 3-4 tenors seems to work pretty well for us. Looking forward to seeing what other bands will be doing with their midsections this upcoming season... :D

[Drew McPheeters]

Still just 2, but I'd like to add a third voice.

I am not putting it off, except for lack of willing participants, although I am concerned about over balancing our sides (only 3 ready at the moment).

[annefrommass]

Quaboag has 3 playing tenor right now, with only one on the projected comp. team at the moment. I am also teaching two others who are almost ready to go "on drum" and march with us. So, in all it would be five tenor. We have two bass (one big bass and one mini-bass), and 4 snare. However, right now we only have three snare drums, so the newer drummers switch off.
When we start competing, we will look at adding another tenor drummer to the line up. Right now it is just me.

[Gimpytenor]

in our grade three band we will have 5 technically. Three rhythm tenors playing with the other two fourishing. At some points we actually have 5 voices on runs and what not, including the bass. This will be our first year out with that many, and fielding 6 sides i hope it mixes as well as it has been inside at practice.

[Daz Gregory]

Just a question for you but why do you call them voices? It's a sound no?

I know it's probably just a term but from where...

[Daz Gregory]

Sorry i lose myself..

Scott one for you - having listened to G1 for the last few years at Glasgow and then Cowal my question is this:

Do you think that mid sections are too overpowering in their overall sound or is it down to bands to get the sound and beats 'right'?

I listened with some friends the other night to some old(mid 90's) World Champs CD's and we all agreed that the Tenor drumming was a better sound (ie 3 tenors) just wondered on your thoughts??

[tenordrummer.com]

Hey Daz, I don't have any issue with the number of tenor drummers, just as long everyone doesn't knock the crap out of their drums at the same time. Typically in a modern bass section, not every tenor drummer plays at the same time. Scores are set up to incorporate a number of 'voices' or 'sounds' and for this to work, everyone has to wait play their own specific section of the rhythm.

I played in a bass section of 4 tenor drummers for 8 out of 10 years during the '90's and we won the drumming every time. Perhaps Shotts was the exception to your own thoughts on the '90's.

My personal feeling is that 3, 4 or 5 tenor drummers allow for a balanced and exciting bass section provided the scores are structered properly.

All the same, I've heard some overpowering and dominant bass sections with only 2 or 3 tenor drummers!

[Harry M]

Number of tenor drummers in the 2005 season: 3
Put off by introducing more players: no
Happy with the numbers you have: I can live with it, but want more 1 or 2 more.
How many tenors work best in your section: Not sure, I have worked 3 a lot.

We're behind the curve a little in Grade 1, but 3 seems to work fine so far. No idea what the future will hold for us, but we have upped our snare number considerably this year. No solid numbers yet (I never know until I see them walking around in Black Stewart), but we have had some very well attented practices recently. Should be fun!

[Rick C]

Originally posted by Scott Currie:
How many tenor drummers will be playing in your bass section in the 2005 season?.....3
Are you put off by introducing more players or are you happy with the numbers you have?..happy How many tenor drummers work best for your section?....3
How about some opinions and thoughts on the subject...?....life is good
:shrug:

[Daz Gregory]

Scott

very good points indeed mate it's all down to timing and expression i suppose with more Tenors.

By the way i wasn't criticising the amount of Tenors in a band! sorry if it came over that way - i think 4 or 5 sound great together as long as the players get it together!

I'm reminded of an article you did for P & D online - great stuff

Regards

DAZ

[tenordrummer.com]

No problems Daz, I certainly didn't detect any criticism in your post! You raised a very valid point that some people have about the numbers in a bass section. Some jump to the conclusion that more tenors means more noise, which has been proven not to be neccessarily so.

[AndrewMac]

I'm the solitary tenor in our small pipe band, and it looks as though I will be, for the foreseeable future. I'd be happy to see more tenor players coming along, especially in the "junior" ranks. Our small band has exactly 4 drummers and maybe 5 pipers on a good day, so we'd probably be getting ahead of ourselves, a bit, if we tried to recruit other tenor players. However, I certainly wouldn't mind hearing another drum "voice" in the bass section; probably an alto would augment our ensemble sound the best, based on what I've heard from other bands.

[Spatman]

We have 3tenors and 1 flurishing for now,But in 2006 we will have 8 sides, bass ,3 tenors 2 flurishing..just need some more bag squeezers

[Jeroen van Gorp]

Well, we have a little problem in our band with the bass section. We used to have three tenordrummers. That changed to 1 and this year the one remaining had a baby last week so it can take a while before she is up and ready. So there I am. I was a side drummer for 12 years but switched to tenor drumming. So I will be the only one that has started but I hope she will be back soon. Because with 5 side drummers you need at least two tenor drummers. Especially if you want to use the alto, tenor and baritone.....
Keep your fingers crossed that we will get through...

Greetings :wave:

[Lulubcc]

- Number of tenor drummers: 3(alto,tenor,baritone)
- Put off by introducing more players: no
- Happy with the number we have: yes, but I wish they could do the flourishing too... (Not done at all in Brittany, France).I think it's necessary, especially for a grade 2 band like ours. We'll try to work on it in the months to come. :D
- How many tenors work best in your section: hard to say...

[Robbert van Gorp]

Hi Everybody!

It's good to see my brother in Holland (playing with antwerp (belgium) by the way) has made the right choice, to play a real instrument! ;-)

We play with 3 tenors this season (we were playing four last year, one left). I think 3 is a good number for us, especially with changing the style with the help of Norman McLeod and changing the whole band (new pm, new players). I hope we can implement the style on a good way so that can expand the numbers of players within next year to four...or even five!

[Jeroen van Gorp]

Yo little brothertje,

I hope I can convince a former tenordrummer of our band to join again so that we can impress everyone.... And that when you come back, Robbert, we can make even a more bigger impression. Or I come over there.....

Jeroen