Bass Parts
Quints and Bass Drum parts for pep band?
I am arranging "Sweet Caroline" for my high school marching band. I have the wind and snare parts done, but i have no idea how to write the quint / tonal bass drum lines. how hard can i make them? we play well around a grade 3, but i'm only used to seeing wind parts - any drummer out there who can tell me what rhythms / note patterns work well? i know the gist of notating the parts, but i need to know what the parts should actually be.
also, are quint parts always written with X's as the note heads?
quint parts are not always written with x as note heads,...
writing percussion parts for marching drums should be an effort in reinforcing the wind parts. pep band drum parts should be easy enough to learn quick but not sound lame or repetitive.
i suggest you listen to an original pop recording to hear what the set drummer was doing to hold things together, split that up between bass, quint, and snare, then look at your wind parts to see what other patterns you can write in to help out melodic & counter melodic content, (&make drum parts more interesting).
good luck!
ps feel free to email me for more help/suggestions!