Blowdown Drum is a swung-style stadium groove that can be looped as needed for some smooth jamming.
Cooling Tower
Cooling Tower is an upbeat stadium groove with lots of tasty layering and shaping in the upper battery and a simple walking bass line to keep things moving along.
Steam Engine
Steam Engine is a bombastic stands beat with two different tempi. It should evoke the image of a massive locomotive starting up, and if you work on your fivelets, everything should fit together perfectly!
The Furnace
The Furnace is a heavy stadium groove that plays with timing and feel to create moments of build-up and release. Some things in here are deceptively easy, while others are unavoidably challenging. Tread carefully.
Bass Cadence
This Bass Cadence served as the introduction to NC State’s arrangement of Spider for many years. It has since been retired, so I want to share it here, since I have not written anything else quite like it. It is arranged for 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, and 4-drum bass lines. The NC State version is the 9-drum arrangement, while the VDL recording is the 6-drum arrangement; I am providing both for reference.
Stop Breaking Down
Stop Breaking Down is a bass drum cadence with an optional full battery component, inspired by the Widespread Panic cover of that tune… particularly Dave Schools’s catchy bass line.
EDIT 21 February 2023: Fixed a typo in the flam taps in the tenor part of measure 16.
Emeritus
Emeritus is a slamming street-beat that adds low-humming tom drums to the typical battery instrumentation, inspired by the extra bit of punch that a lot of show-style drumlines bring to the table. Creative use of triplet feels and transitions to duple feels create suspense and release while maintaining a strong pulse to march to.
Fun fact: the snare part in the first measure of rehearsal letter C is stolen from an early version of Murray Gusseck’s “Electric Wheelchair,” which had that lick in place of the loud 32nd-note singles that you’ll recognise in every later version. Great choppy 90’s notes to set up the rest of that snare soli. If you’d like, you can also view the first two beats of the following measure as an homage to the old SCV “Threes” exercise.
The X-Ray Climb
The X-Ray Climb is the result of playing around with MuseScore notation software for a couple of evenings, just to try it out. MuseScore is a free musical notation program that has a free extension for drumline notation and playback. It’s a pretty solid piece of software, and it’s absolutely amazing for the price! There were only a few things that I gave up on trying to figure out how to do (like adding my copyright notice, so I just did it in PowerPoint), and it was intuitive enough that I could write something new and original by just playing around with it. Like when you play around with a new musical instrument (like a bass or guitar), and there’s just something fun and interesting about it which helps to direct your ideas, leading to the creation of a new song… there was something about the experience that made this cadence what it is, and I am very pleased with the result. For comparison (and because I am especially proud of my VDL mixes), I’ve rendered the same composition with the VDLite sound library.
Givin' it All
Givin’ it All is a slammin’ Stadium Groove inspired by 7Horse’s “Meth Lab Zoso Sticker.” Give it some time to develop, and everyone is going to want to start moving!
Quit It
Quit It is a lot jam adapted from the classic NC State cadence “Hit It” by taking the main ideas and fitting them to 7/8 time. I wrote this as a tongue-in-cheek birthday present for John Antonelli, the my drumline instructor at NC State (and pedagogical godfather). There’s some hard stuff in here, but there are also some really cool moments that could be easily adapted into a stadium groove or onfield warm-up.
Thunder Horse
Thunder Horse is a rhythmic tour-de-force that employs variations on some very basic swiss triplet patterns to create a range of groovy feels that relentlessly push forward. Add some Agogô bell in the quads to really bring the funk, and make sure you've got a good handle on different dynamics, because you're gonna need it.
Mud
Mud is a stadium groove based on the groove from Primus's My Name is Mud. Tenors definitely have to do the most work here, but there should be a good payoff once all the parts fit together correctly.
Quad Damage
Quad Damage is a groovy street beat with plenty of advanced soli licks supported by battery impacts that tie everything together, so there's never a dull moment. This is a "new" piece, but all the elements existed in an old Finale file (pre-2011) that I recently dug up, where I had collected ideas that never made it into other pieces.
Baby Legs
Baby Legs is a more experimental street beat written for the cool and comfortable tempo of 96 BPM. It blends inspiration from Cumbia and Drum & Bass styles to create some interesting feels that come together at the end for some heavy grooving.
EDIT 21 February 2023: Fixed errata in Measure 2 that had the snares and tenors playing the wrong rhythm in beat 4.
Malignant Narcissism
Malignant Narcissism is a street beat based on the eponymous instrumental by RUSH. The notes should all be very physically achievable, but there are some moments that will be very demanding of ensemble cohesion. Don't hurt yourself!
30 Under
30 Under is a street beat written at 90 BPM for a much more laid-back feel than the 120 BPM you're used to. I don't know who is prepared to march that slow, but if you are, these notes are for you!
¡Bust!
¡Bust! is a street beat based on an old NCSU Drumline classic called "Hit It"—a long-time staple of the line's repertoire that has since been retired. I wanted to embellish some ideas from that piece as well as expand on the Latin feel with some heavy grooves to breathe new life into an old favourite.
Cadence in 4/4 for Marching Percussion
Cadence in 4/4 For Marching Percussion is a street beat consisting of four short movements—ideas I've been fleshing out over the years—that I've managed to work into a cohesive piece. The third movement is based on Annie's Theme by DJ Afrojack, and the fourth is based on a song by a band I played bass in while I was a teenager. It all adds up to a cadence... in 4/4.
Smoked Salmon
Smoked Salmon is a shuffle-based stadium groove that should thump the stands so hard it makes you feel like you need a shower. It’s written around a simple pattern in the snare line which is actually a measure from the NC State travelling cadence, slowed down to 90 BPM and then swung.
Just a Touch
Just a Touch is a simple stadium groove inspired by Judas Priest's "A Touch of Evil" from their 1990 Painkiller album. Execution should be very easy, apart from some scrape patterns in the quad part, and the groove should be very effective.
