Carolina Crown Wins 2013 DCI World Championships

Carolina Crown won their first ever DCI World Championship last weekend. For only the third time in DCI’s history, (in 1992 and 2004), a record nine corps broke 90 points at the World Championship Finals. The top ten scores were:

1 Carolina Crown 98.300
2 Blue Devils 98.050
3 The Cadets 96.950
4 Santa Clara Vanguard 96.850
5 Bluecoats 93.350
6 Phantom Regiment 93.250
7 The Cavaliers 90.500
8 Boston Crusaders 90.400
9 Madison Scouts 90.100
10 Blue Knights 87.750
11 Spirit of Atlanta 86.400
12 Blue Stars 85.450                

View a complete recap from DCI.org.

Here are the 2013 World Class Caption Award Winners:

Donald Angelica Best General Effect Award
Carolina Crown

Fred Sanford Best Percussion Performance Award
The Cadets

John Brazale Best Visual Performance Award
Carolina Crown

George Zingali Best Color Guard Award
Blue Devils

Jim Ott Best Brass Performance Award
Carolina Crown

 

Posted below is a video of Carolina Crown's victory run after winning the DCI 2013 World Class Championship.

Download drum corp sheet music.

Snare Drum Sheet Music Warmup: Blue Devils Spree 1999

 

One of my favorite snare drum warmup exercises of all time is the Blue Devils Shopping Spree 1999 version. The Blue Devils used to have a warmup exercise every year called Shopping Spree but there's something about the 1999 line that stikes a chord with me. Download the complete Shopping Spree snare drum sheet music. Embedded below is a video of the actual Blue Devils drumline in the lot going shoppin. Check it out. What Spree is your favorite?

 

Download Blue Devils Shopping Spree 1999 - snare drum.pdf

Get more drum corps sheet music.

Colby Beers Tenor Solo Sheet Music

Colby Beers was the 2007 DCI Champion of the I&E Solo competition, scoring a 95.5. His tenor solo was called Free Mind and the sheet music is now available to download for free. Below is a video of the solo for you to play along with and a link to download the sheet music.

 

Download Colby Beers Tenor Solo Sheet Music - Free Mind.pdf

 

Visit our downloads page for more tenor drums sheet music.

How to Create Beats with Beat Generals

Beat Generals is a site that uses FL Studio to teach you how to create beats with easy to follow HD video tutorials. In case you don't already know, FL Studio is a pretty cheap, easy to find, music creation software suite responsible for hit records by Drake, Jay Z, Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross and others. It’s easy to make simple drum loops but takes a lot of skill to pull off a well-polished song.

 

So, naturally, I was excited just to find some awesome video tutorials that could help me to start making the beats I loved faster than ever possible before. So now, all I needed were some good drum sounds to make my beats sound better. Luckily, Beat Generals also provides drums for you to use to really get that professional sound quality in your music. Practically anyone can create full radio-quality songs with little more than their home computer! Here is a video tutorial example:

 

 

It's simply amazing to me that one of the most popular programs out there for making beats has so few resources to teach quality techniques. Sure, many things come with experience but where do you get the basics and the advice you need to help elevate yourself to the next level? Beat Generals isn’t something made by some kid in his parent’s basement. We're talking about industry professionals teaching you what you need to know and showing you exactly what to do. If you’re even remotely serious about making beats and making money within the music industry, or you just want to create cool beats to play for your friends, you should check it out.

Beat Generals offers a free trial, so you really have nothing to lose. Try them out today and start making your own beats now.

Drum Licks on Instagram Video

The new fifteen second video feature on Instagram is a great way for us drummers to share our sweet drum licks with the world. You can view a few of mine on my Instagram page: ntweisen.  If you do check it out, I want to apologize, I don’t have a real snare drum and haven’t played on one in years. I just wanted to record pieces of this solo I wrote before my chops are completely gone. Record a few solos of your own and use the hashtag #snarelick or #drumsolo. I’d love to see what you come up with!

 

Pictured below is the snare drum sheet music to one of my videos, just a short and simple little lick I came up with. Feel free to use it if you want.

 

 

And here I am playing it if you don't have Instagram. I haven't uploaded a video to YouTube in two years and today I've uploaded two!

 

Star Spangled Banner Cymbal Fail Video

As the band from Eisenhower Junior High School in Darien continued playing the “Star-Spangled Banner,” Andrew barely missed a beat. This kid's face and reaction is priceless!
 

2013 WGI World Championships Recap

The 2013 WGI World Championships were held in Dayton, Ohio last weekend. Rhythm X won first place in Independent World competition with a record score of 98.263. Aimachi, the WGI group from Japan and always a fan favorite, placed 6th. In scholastic world class, for the first time ever, Dartmouth High School did NOT place in the top three (they just missed the medals by placing fourth)! Father Ryan always has entertaining shows and finally got a medal for their effort. The list of winners for each class is below (with some links to some YouTube videos):

• Independent World Champion - Rhythm X
• Scholastic World Champion - Chino Hills School
• Independent Open Champion - Capital City Percussion
• Scholastic Open Champion - Upper Darby High School
• Independent A Champion - Brookwood Independent
• Scholastic A Champion - Hilton High School
• Concert World Class - James Logan High School
• Concert Open Class - Clayton High School

You can find all the finals scores here.

Fan Favorite Awards

Fans at the show voted for their favorite drumline via text message. Interesting, none of the fan favorites were the gold medal champions picked by the judges. Here are the winners of the fan favorite award for each class:

• Independent World - Infinity
• Scholastic World - Father Ryan High School
• Independent Open - River City Rhythm
• Scholastic Open - Dorman High School
• Independent A - Spirit of America
• Scholastic A - Mechanicsburg High School
• Concert Class - Tunstall High School

Now that indoor drumline season is over it’s time to begin looking forward to drum corps. See the 2013 DCI schedule here: http://www.dci.org/schedule/

Drumline Humor: Honk War

This is a funny drum video called Honk War. An innocent meeting at a traffic lights quickly escalates into an all out war over who has the better skills playing the car horn.  The battle climaxes when one driver pulls out a pair of drumsticks and starts drumming on the steering wheel. Hilarious! And something I’ve totally done before (drum on the steering wheel that is, not get into a honk war). Watch the funny drum video below:

Dartmouth HS 2012 Snare Sheet Music

Today I've got some snare drum sheet music from Dartmouth High School's indoor drumline. Dartmouth has won the Scholastic World Championship four times, silver medal five times, and bronze medal five times as well. The snare line typically plays with a matched gripped, atypical of most line’s traditional grip. Dartmouth earned a silver medal at the 2012 WGI World Championships with their show "Evolved", scoring a 96.825. They beat out Ayala but lost to Chino Hills. Here's a video clip to:
 

 

Download the 2012 snare segment here. My favorite show of theirs was called 2006's "What It Means To Be Human."



Download more indoor percussion sheet music for FREE from our downloads page.

Pulse Percussion 2012 Snare Solo Sheet Music

We’ve got some new drumline sheet music for you, starting with the Pulse Percussion 2012 snare solo. Pulse Percussion was the surprise 2010 Independent World Champion.Their 2012 show was called "Coming and Going" and placed third at the 2012 WGI World Championships with a score of 94.825.

Get the full snare solo sheet music here. Check out the cool video clip below.



Download more indoor percussion sheet music for FREE from our downloads page.
 

Drum Cat Snare Solo

Check out the female leader of Korean drum percussion team "DRUM CAT" perform this crazy snare drum solo. The group got the "HERALD ANGEL AWARD" in the Edinburgh International Festival in 2008. Funny, but you would think she would be using a Yamaha! Remember kids, it's all in the hips.

Tummy Talk: An Epic Drum Solo

My brother sent my this funny drum video as three percussionists lay down some epic drum soloing action in Tummy Talk.

I really wish I had seen this back in high school. We could have used this idea in Trash Talk.

Boise State girl tearin' it up on the cowbell!

My New Years Resolution has been to post more frequently to Percussion and Drum Stuff this year, especially more drumline sheet music and funny band videos. And speaking of drum videos, embedded below is one that is recently trending from the college football bowl season.

I guess on the cowbell enthusiasm-meter, you've got Will Ferrell on one end, and this girl on the other

Tenor Drums FAIL video

One of those days...

Snare Drum FAIL

Snare drum fail funny video. Real or on purpose, what do you think?

Blue Devils Win DCI World Championships

The Blue Devils drum and Bugle Corp won their 15th Drum Corp International (DCI) World Championship on Saturday (and fourth in the last six years). The Blue Devils drumline won the top overall percussion score behind one of the best lines I've ever seen.



Carolina Crown placed second (drumline 6th) while Phantom Regiment got third and the Cadets wound up in fourth place.

Five special awards were presented during the DCI World Championships awards ceremony, each averaged after combining the scores from Prelims, Semifinals and Finals. The George Zingali Award for Best Color Guard went to Blue Devils. There was a tie for the John Brazale Best Visual Performance Award, between Blue Devils and Carolina Crown. The Jim Ott Award for Best Brass Performance went to Carolina Crown and the Fred Sanford Award for Best Percussion Performance was earned by Blue Devils, who also won the Don Angelica Award for Best Overall General Effect. Congratulations to all participating drum and bugle corps. View the full recap at DCi.org.

Were you able to attend DCI World Championships or any other shows this year? Did the results surprise you? Comment below and share your thoughts!

2012 DCI Videos

These are video clips of the 2012 Carolina Crown Drumline rehearsing on June 30, 2012 for the Pageant of Drums Show at Ames Field in Michigan City, Indiana [watch in HD 1080p]

These are video clips of the 2012 Colt Cadets Drumline warming up on June 30, 2012 for the Pageant of Drums Show at Ames Field in Michigan City, Indiana [watch in HD 1080p]

My bad on that last one - I thought it just said Cadets, I didn't catch the Colts on the beginning. That tenor tuning was pretty bad no?

Blue Man Group Lego Animation Video

I saw this amazing video on YouTube today of a Lego Blue Man Group animation. Kent Jenkins, the creator and animator, did a really fantastic job capturing the best and most memorable moments from the live Blue Man Group show and the stop animation is spot on. There is even a moment where the Lego figures throw marshmallows back and forth using a green screen. I really like his creative use of Lego pieces for instruments, such as barrels for drums and scorpions for guitars! Enjoy the Blue Man Group Lego performance below.

2012 WGI Show Video Update

We're in the midst of the 2012 WGI season and I have yet to make it to any shows (though hopefully that will change soon) so I've been trying to keep up with my favorite groups through YouTube. I've uploaded a couple of videos below.

Rhythm X 2012 MEPA 2/11/12 "Enlightened"

Northcoast Academy performing their 2012 show "Lose Yourself" February 11th at Troy Athens High School

Riverside Community College (RCC) 2012 Full ensemble 2-11-12 opener

Music City Mystique 2012 Premier | Nü Tribe

Sanre Drum Sheet Music: Blue Devils 1995 Ram

We've got more snare drum sheet music for you today from the infamous 1995 Blue Devils. This is the snare drum sheet music for their "Ram" warmup and chop builder. Embedded below is a short video clip of that amazing snare line. Talk about definition!

Snare Drum Sheet Music: Blue Devils 1995 Ram.pdf download