This is a little of the vdl2 topic, but I figured this might be the best place to get my question answered. I am going to be purchasing new drums for the high school I teach at , and Im at a crossroad with tenor sizes. I orginally wanted to get the small sixtuplets (6,6,8,10,12,13) but I like the sound of the large sixtuplet set. Im just concerned that the large set will be to heavy for them. The kids that are marching them are skinny and short and will be the tenor line for the next 3 years, so I dont know what to do. Anyone have any advice or personal experiences with this type of thing? Any help would be very much appreciated. Thanks guys.
                                                  Darryl Jones

oh, I forgot. The band will be close to 150 members this upcoming fall season.

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vdl2
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Darryl,

How many players are you talking about - just out of curiosity?  I know what you mean in that an 8"; drum as the ";1"; drum just doesn't sound ";right"; to my ears either.  Something I have done in the past with mixed results was to use a ";custom"; set-up with tenors.  I have used a set that was 6, 6, 10, 12, 12, 13.  Basically, it was the ";1 & 2"; drums from the large size and the ";3 & 4"; drums from the small size.  I just tuned the second 12"; drum a little lower.  The overall weight of the drums were noticeably lighter but you still have the sound of the 10"; as the ";1"; drum.  I have also heard of using a set consisting of 6, 6, 10, 12, 13, 13.  I found that the configuration I used here (with 2 12s) sounded fine. As a matter of fact, most people did not even know that it was not a normal ";large"; size set.

I used that configuation for 4 years and by the end, the second 12 (the ";3"; drum) was started to go out of round towards the bracket that connects the ";3"; drum to the ";1"; drum.  When we got new drums, I went with the normal sized ";large"; set.

I don't know if this helped or not but there is my 2 cents.

There are 3 kids on them right now, but by winter drums there should be 4. Using those sizes sounds pretty good, but im not sure if dynasty will do that. I'll try giving them a call later on. Thanks Dave

-darryl

Darryl,

That is cool.  I used Yamaha drums when I did the configurations mentioned above.  Not sure about Dynasy as I am a Yamaha man myself.  Good luck to you though!

For what it's worth, when I ordered my new tenors a few years back, I made sure to get the larger size. I also make sure that those drums are on their stands as much as humanly possible so as not to wear my students backs' out. Some of the students got to a point where they didn't want to bring their stands out to the field for warm-up, but when they complained later, I just pointed out that they could have prevented that.

We ended up buying Yamaha tenors in 6,6,10,12,13,14 -- the standard configuration (I don't know what strings Dave is pulling, but for the rest of us guys in the trenches I didn't know you could request a special set of sizes!!). I like the sound of the drums by themselves, with the rest of the line and in the overall sound of the band. We previously had the smaller set, and unless there was a drum break, I never felt like you could ever hear the quads in the full ensemble (band) sound.

When I was in Phantom Regiment, we used the custom set Dave referred to. I never felt like they were too high or that they didn't project. And I've never thought that they didn't carry when the whole corps was playing. In my humble opinion (and that's all it is), I think the #1 drum is the critical one. The #4 is going to be heard whether it is a 13 or 14";. But you might not hear an 8"; the way you would a 10";. And, of course, it depends a lot on the writing.

If you can get the custom set, that sounds like the way to go. Good luck and let us know what happens!

I am going to let some of my ";hillbilly upbringing"; show here but my Grandaddy used to always tell me that the ";asking was free";.  All I did to get the custom configuration was simply [i]ask[/i] my local music dealer if it was possible.  I was not on the Yamaha roster at the time when I ordered the custom size sets.  Dumb luck I guess.  Again, let me stress that over the course of time the drum 3 12"; drum eventually went out of round on all 3 sets of drums.  Don't know if I would go with that condiguration again when I order drums again.  Probably not actually - I would just go with the large size.

Eric is right on in that the drum 1 is the one that makes the most difference in the sound and balance with the ensemble.  I also agreed with him that you [b]HAVE[/b] to have stands for the players to use as often as possible.  Granted it is a [i]marching activity[/i] and all but the kids are your greatest resource and as fresh as you can keep them the better they will perform.

Maybe a different perspective, but I'd take the lightest set you can.  The HS I taught I had them on 6/8/10/12/13, and just paid attention to the tuning.  I'd like to say, it's HS, so who cares...  I mean of course that they sounded fine, but I just can't say that it's worth giving the kids back problems.

If you guys insist on giving 15 year olds the 10/12/13/14 treatment, please don't skimp on their harnesses.  :)

[quote author=drumcat link=topic=1170.msg5044#msg5044 date=1150922087]
Maybe a different perspective, but I'd take the lightest set you can.  The HS I taught I had them on 6/8/10/12/13, and just paid attention to the tuning.  I'd like to say, it's HS, so who cares...  I mean of course that they sounded fine, but I just can't say that it's worth giving the kids back problems.

If you guys insist on giving 15 year olds the 10/12/13/14 treatment, please don't skimp on their harnesses.  :)
[/quote]

As a guy with many years of tenor playing in my past, I can COMPLETELY understand your concerns with the kids backs and wanting to go with the lightest size possible.  I personally use the larger set and make sure the kids use stands as much as possible.  Having said that, it [i]is[/i] a marching activity and the kids [i]are[/i] going to have to march with them but there are times I just have them march without their drums.  I think the balance of the tenor voice to the rest of the percussion section and to the winds necessitate the larger size.  Just a personal preference I guess.

Its all good.

[quote][/quote]

Having said that, it [i]is[/i] a marching activity and the kids [i]are[/i] going to have to march with them but there are times I just have them march without their drums.�� [quote][/quote]

Glad to hear someone else say that. There are plenty of times that the tenors and basses can ditch their gear when the focus is cleaning/learning drill. I think that's totally called for.

I do that quite frequently - particularly when [i]learning drill[/i].  Just makes sense to me...