Frosty Roofs

Frosty Roofs is an explicitly Christmas-oriented parade cadence that takes inspiration from a couple of popular Christmas tunes. There is a dedicated sleigh bell part for that festive holiday sound, and all the music is relatively simple, so you can squeeze this in at the end of the year as needed. The run time is fairly short, but different segments could easily be repeated as necessary to stretch things out.

Sheet music is packaged as a PDF binder including separate scores for 4– and 5–bass arrangements, as well as printable battery parts.

Kick Rocks

Kick Rocks takes a very simple syncopated pattern in the bass drums and layers it with some basic accompaniments in the snare and tenor parts to pack a big punch that nonetheless offers very limited demand for vocabulary and ensemble cohesion.

Sheet music is packaged as a PDF binder including separate scores for 4– and 5–bass arrangements, as well as printable battery parts.

Pound Sand

Pound Sand is a parade cadence that punctuates a round split between the bass and tenor voice with a recurring accent pattern in the snare drum voice. Despite its simplicity, it offers great opportunities to maximize dynamics and shaping, and everything should fit together nicely without too much investment of rehearsal time.

Sheet music is packaged as a PDF binder including separate scores for 4– and 5–bass arrangements, as well as printable battery parts.

A Milli

A Milli was introduced to the NC State drumline in 2008 by drum captain and tenor guru Brent Bass, and it was an immediate hit. Inspired, of course, by the Lil Wayne tune that was brand new at the time, it was fun to play and fun to hear, so it became a staple of the line’s repertoire. In 2010, I got a little indulgent with rewriting the snare part, trying to channel my inner Mike McIntosh, but the piece would certainly work perfectly well with a much simpler snare part (prior to 2010, it was rim click quarter notes with drum on beat 3, and the more intricate part was something 8th note based with rim shots on beat 3).

Because of the accessibility, adaptability, and popularity of this piece, I think it is worth sharing.

Since the character of the piece would be well-preserved with a much simpler snare part, I’m going to give this a “Green Circle” designation, even though the snare part is a bit demanding, as written.

Enjoy this one!

Game Day Grabbers: 10 Stadium Grooves

Game Day Grabbers: Grooves Good-to-Go showcases ten stadium grooves that were created by re-imagining existing cadences and lot jams with an eye toward brevity and ease of use. While these arrangements would serve any collegiate drumline and almost any high school drumline—at any time of year—they were conceived with particular regard for the month of October in football season: a time when it might be nice to throw something fresh into the rotation of beats, but when you don’t have all the time in the world to rehearse new music.

Edit 6 Jan 2022: Fixed typo in the last measure of bass part of Wet Air both in book and individual score.

Zapatitos

Zapatitos builds out of the traditional taps from the anchor bass that most marching units use to stay in time (when they aren’t playing music or drumline cadences), and it also uses this idea as a musical motif to build up to the reprise of the main groove at the end. A simple walking bass line is coloured with texture from the snare drum before a lyrical melodic line is introduced by the tenors, and then more or less the same thing happens again. Nice mix of highs and lows here, and it should be plenty of fun without too much commitment of rehearsal time.

Pep Seven

Pep Seven is a cheer-type stadium groove that hops through different feels “in seven” while keeping the game day spirit driving forward! Although the vocabulary is very simple, the sizable demands for ensemble cohesion and strong sense of pulse make this piece a little more challenging than it appears to be, but the “cool” factor will more than make up for how much work you have to put into it. Dig this!

Powder Keg

Powder Keg is an explosive street beat full of motion, energy, and groove, with some tasty licks in between. The patterns should all feel quite good in the hands, and this piece, having a somewhat limited vocabulary, would likely suit any line willing to put in the work.

Robusto

Robusto creatively employs repetition and a fairly limited rudimental vocabulary to create many cool moments and grooves across the battery. Don’t get me wrong: there are many challenges here. However, many of these challenges are repeated so many times that a little bit of practice goes a long way for every performer. And for the most part, these challenges will be more mental (rhythms, dynamics, and ensemble cohesion) than physical (chops).

A college or high school line could enjoy this one while knocking it out of the park, although a high school instructor should be cognizant of the rhythmic challenges (particularly the syncopation in the bass line) and whether they fit into the wheelhouse of the performers who are earliest on their journeys as rudimental drummers.

Cottonwood Crunch

Cottonwood Crunch uses simple dynamic phrasing and a little bit of visual flair to bring life to a very straightforward rhythmic idea. Nice and accessible, this piece could easily be embellished with repeats, endings, and section soli content in order to bolster the composition while still playing to your performers’ strengths. Enjoy!

Relaxation Time

Relaxation Time is a straightforward street beat that was written for a parade band that included drumlines from three different high schools; accessibility and adaptability were the goals here, but this piece still manages to create some interesting moments and pack a nice punch too!

Strut

Strut is just what the doctor ordered! A solid one-minute street beat that’s reasonably accessible and gets a lot of variety out of a few simple ideas. If a pattern is tricky, it will appear a few times, so that a little bit of woodshedding can go a long way with this piece. A college or high school line could have a lot of fun with this one.

As a bonus, I’m including a score that has parts for differently-sized bass drum lines, since not everybody rolls with 5 basses. If you’re looking for more stuff arranged for differently-sized bass lines, my offerings through Marching Monk and through Tapspace include extra parts for differently-sized bass lines (2–9 basses, and 4–9 basses, respectively).

Fox Hunt

Fox Hunt is a medium-level street beat that’s always in motion. A high school could rise to the challenges of this piece, and a college/university could play it really well without being bored. Lots of nice shaping in the tenors, with different textures used across the whole battery, creating interesting moments that either shatter or satisfy listener expectations. And, of course, it wouldn’t be a Fat Matt street beat without lots of power and excitement at the last rehearsal letter.

Blowdown Drum

Blowdown Drum is a swung-style stadium groove that can be looped as needed for some smooth jamming.