A DCI Corps is Marching Flub Drums. Here's Why...

[@amazngdrummr27]

I said it once and I'll say it twice: FLUB DRUMS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT SECTION IN THE ENIRE MARCHING BAND

[@bimgus6672]

🗑️

[@jshock]

Oh Steven...

[@OdaKa]

Next comment - "I said it twice and I'll say it thrice:"

[@jojnokirk8035]

shut up steven

[@pear22]

Steven...

[@miless17]

Steven will be center flub there someday

[@MitchellCollardPercussion]

I was the FE tech at a high school where we created a flub section by taking extra snares and ripping the guts out. So we had 5 snares, 5 basses, 3 tenors, and 3 tomline (flubs). I thought it was a very neat experience to see them grow. I would definitely recommend doing this if you have a large enough program. We have warmups where that tomline/flubline part can also be played with the aux percussionists in the FE with a practice pad. This way, everyone can learn and participate.

[@loganherren0615]

my current school (Timberland high in MO) has a tomline with 5 bass 3 quad 4 snare 2 toms. definitly is super cool to watch them grow and learn, and is usually just freshmen marching them, so it's a nice introduction to marching.

[@willcowgill]

I was on the timberland tomline last year and it was insane the amount of improvement I had throughout the year and it definitely set me up for success on snareline this year

[@Stretchwiz]

Our flub line is our old snares (10+ years old) without the guts and everything else is the same this year we had 5 snares, 5 basses, 5 cymbals, 3 (was 4 but someone moved over to baseline as someone quit) toms(flubs), and 3 tenors

[@Jmilillo]

I’ve never played flub, but I imagine it sucks. This last season, my school had 5 basses, 1 tenor, 3 snares, and 3 flubs. I played bass 1. This other freshman who is on flub (I’m also a freshman) is gonna play bass drum next year, and I’m gonna play tenors. During the marching band season I would always make fun of this kid (playfully) for being a flub.

[@sybrenroorda3865]

"Could you imagine if you could not hear the snare line?" Yeah, Rhythm X - 2019, and that was fucking awesome

[@mrnicknick02]

I was literally about to type that!

[@subbot8077]

Agreed, that was indeed fucking awesome

[@mantistoboggan2599]

That was completely different

[@sybrenroorda3865]

@@mantistoboggan2599 could you hear the snare line???

[@mantistoboggan2599]

@@sybrenroorda3865 you weren’t supposed to. Watch the show again.

[@MichaelPuterbaugh]

Honestly, props to Music City for using this year's unusual season to do something experimental like fielding an aux/flub section. It seems to me like DCI placements are often based on how well a corps repeats what the top corps were doing last season, and it's nice to see some groups using the absence of judging to try doing their own thing. And it also doesn't hurt that they can supplement a traditional drumline without overpowering a relatively small brass section.

[@dniul]

One of the really cool things about that flub line is that they have a legally blind marcher. As we entered the field to start to perform we heard the interview with Colby. He was given the opportunity to do something that he loved without anyone telling him no. That right there is commitment. Huge props to the people in the battery. He always gave them credit on how helpful they were to Colby and its just heart whelming. This kid is living the dream that other drum corps couldn't offer. We love you Colby. G5

[@bovts12]

Saw their lot in Allentown, and I have to say they sounded great. The flubs added a bit of depth to the parts without basses, and they were quite clean.

[@ironfossil9963]

Taught a large high school drumline once (6s-4q-5b) and no joke 15 in the pit. Still had three kids left over. Slapped some flubs (we called them duos) together out of old snares and spocks. Tuned to an almost "thud" sound. Yes, you could not hear them in impact sections. But I would do reps without them every once in awhile and the book sounded empty at times. Combine that with a few exposed ostinato groove moments in the show and my whole staff fell in love with the duo sounds. Sadly, never been in that position since. We all still talk about how we wish we could do it again.

[@kietey14]

Though DCI is the major leagues, it's still an entirely learning based program. The think Flubs are an amazing addition. They let members, who aren't quite good enough, experience marching in an amazing environment. Though I too am a dinosaur, I think this would have been amazing back in my day of marching DCI Open Class. As a person marching who is giving their all, you are only as good as your weakest member. If your weaker members are now in a learning position, not distorting your own sound I think that is good. It will be a good experience because you get to perform at a higher level without being held back, and members who aren't there yet still get to enjoy the process.

[@Lkease]

HUGE agree about open class. i know it's tough finding enough talent to field a full line in open class unless you're top 6 but putting a few on flubs is only going to help the corps grow.

[@squillz8310]

I agree with both of you. It's all about the experience, and the ability to grow and improve as a musician, athlete and a performer.

[@caindrumming7823]

I marched an impact drum, which was essentially flub, for North Star Independent this last season. Wouldn’t do it next year, but it gave me a good idea of how much effort a WGI line requires and what skills I need for my audition this year. There’s definitely value to it

[@KitKensky]

in the short lived 2020 pre season, the Raiders DBC were fielding a 9 person snare line, with 3 flubs, or "impacts" as we called them. They were old snare shells, with no guts and a softer tom head on the batter side. They played a watered down version of the snare AND tenor parts, switching between the two wherever it fit best in the music.

[@GrantDolanMusic]

It’s says something to the quality you are as a person to talk to the guys who are actually doing it and finding out if it’s worth it. Disagree all you want, but most people don’t take the time and talk to the people that it impacts.

[@redwoodofficial_]

We had flubs at our high school, the “tom line” because we had a large drumline and a small brass section. The tom line played traditional grip on a 14” tom similar to the tenor drum 4. Most people only had to be on the tom line for one season at most. Unfortunately for a member, he was promoted to snare for an outdoor season and was moved back to the tom line for indoor. That was his last season…

[@ajwags05]

I'm a junior currently, but 3 seniors I knew two years ago are in that group. 2 on snare and 1 on flub

[@duelmaster33]

As a Front ensemble guy, going into my senior year I had wanted to see if I could get into the drum line for some other experience. I was put on the "tom line" which at most basically provided texture to the snare part especially for the show we were doing. looking back on it, I really liked the year for the one time experience to then just leave

[@0Aquamelon]

when I found out music city had a flub line I literally shouted "IT HAS BEGUN!!" And proceeded to do an evil laugh

[@MattBeasley1968]

I just got my Drum Set t-shirt from your merch store yesterday (beige instead of yellow, though). Planning on wearing it on Saturday night to the DCI show. We got seats in section 140 ( near the 50 yard line) 8th row. See if you can find it when you are out on the field if you're, uh, not too busy. On second thought, you should probably stay focused on your performance. Looking forward to the show Saturday. See you there!

[@triondrummers]

You should look into the Jacksonville State Southerners drumline for flubs. They have done some interesting things the past few years with the flubs.

[@stokowski100]

I saw them live in Akron on Monday. They definitely added a different tone to the ensemble.

[@jeffe_77]

The great 1993 Star of Indiana Drumline had a flub section for the closer and won high percussion.

[@drummamama-qb5gu]

The CA highschools that took gold and silver for PSW during the 2023 WGI Indoor Perc in Dayton both had flub lines. Ayala HS had a 3member flub line and Chino Hills HS had a larger flub line.

[@Matty.Travis]

I mean basicly as far as i can tell seems like a good way to get the most instuction in a shortened season while getting more dots on the feild

[@josefeastep9916]

Aye my video was featured in this! Thank you for featuring it :)

[@robby935]

My nephew is playing flub trumpet in the band next year. I am so proud!

[@ikurasake]

As a wind player I could see myself using flubs as an easier opportunity to march battery in the winter season

[@Kchernek]

Flub sections sound like a completely viable section to consider for DCI groups not already at max capacity. In every corps I ever auditioned for, there were always way more percussionists auditioning than spots available, and the ratio was certainly higher than the hornline or color guard. If you have the room for more members, it doesn't make a lot of sense to turn away those kids who almost made a spot as is. During move ins or early season if someone gets injured, they would even be a viable alternate. And even if you don't have confidence they can fit in a snare or quad line, theres no reason to think at that level they shouldn't be heard at all. They can still play simpler parts clean, and designers can take advantage of the added timbre. I hope more open class corps take advantage of it. I think some lower world class groups aren't at capacity each year either, but im sure they get extra percussionist auditionees, so I hope they consider it as well. Thinking outside the box is the best way to grow the activity.

[@MysticGacha]

Ikr I hate seeing Flubs getting absolutely trashed on at times ;-; I mean it’s a really cool concept and wish more lines used them but people have opinions lol

[@squillz8310]

I agree wholeheartedly. You may not see them in any top 12 corps, but in some semi-finalist world class groups you would see some. Open class would be the best place for Flubs imo. That way, members can get that experience early on if they are rather inexperienced. I'm always for the evolution of the activity to enhance the experience for everyone.

[@bob5510]

At my smaller all-age corps, we had two young kinds show up late in the spring, both were younger brothers of hornline members. The corps made a deal that they could march flubs for parades (two or three cadences, five charts in the parade book) and they get a ticket to every show for their effort. These kids put the work in, were able to work with all of our drum staff. You'd hear them flubbing away no matter what else is going on in rehearsal, and they had a great time doing it. I'm sitting this year out but I'm pretty sure they're both in the line now, one on snare and one on bass. As an older horn player, one of my favorite parts of the activity is watching our members improve.

[@RoyalChant]

we did the same thing here a few years ago here with our drumline here in Australia. We had some junior tenors (plus cowbells) that wound up functioning as a timbale/colour element of the line, and then some uni-tenors (essentially flubs) + woodblock that were literally "hype men" for various phrases. Whatever it takes, whatever works. I remember hearing about flubs from Star and then seeing it in their show, and then also vaguely remembered the old FSU drumlines from the 90s used to have quints in addition to marching bongos and marching timbales, so it's just kind of a way to get more kids involved from a broader range of ages and abilities (as well as deal with any budget shortcomings). Again: whatever it takes, whatever works.

[@A.F.Whitepigeon]

You should make a flub wrap with those lance corporal insignias.

[@Luke-vw3yk]

Saw Music City in Akron on the 9th! Great show!

[@oldmilwaukeesnarestandfrom4894]

To increase flub volume, cut the snare line down to 1 or 2. Tenors down to 1, and transition the others into the best flub line ever

[@bigberd3680]

When our high school had some they played the same snare music and our drumline had some hard music

[@thesearchlightsCW]

Gonna be honest my dude. I know nothing about drumming but I watch your videos for your passion and positivity. Love it!

[@cadenceanderson7523]

Saw you perform in Indianapolis this last weekend!! You were awesome!

[@matthewwhaley874]

I do think it sucks that they don’t have their own dedicated tech (which is the norm that I often see in high school groups with flub lines) but I also understand one of the reasons drum corps have less cymbals lines is (as they claim) the difficulty of finding quality cymbal techs. More kids getting a DCI experience I have to see as a net positive, but I do believe the experience could be better.

[@tikala1]

The unfortunate truth is that some techs focus on pushing the visual aspect to the point that their rhythmic and sound quality goes down. This isn’t meant to trash on East Coast style, I started out and still prefer East Coast but we should never let our visuals compromise our sound. Once a line gets cut, it’s pretty hard to convince the design team to bring them back as that opened up four to five more brass or guard spots. Worse yet, when the battery head or arranger has literally no idea what to do with them and opt to play it safe and cut them to not hurt scores.

[@captainkiwi77]

As a drumset player, not having a dedicated tech doesn’t make a bad season, I have not once had a front tech who really understood how to properly utilize or play rack or set, so like flubs are just in the same wheelhouse. And on a high school level, I just straight had no tech at all for drumline. It could be done a little better, but I see very little actually wrong with this on the dci level. At least the battery techs all understand the sections and can help the flubs at any given time, it’s meant to take the basic skills the entire staff should already be on the same page about and apply those. They don’t have a dedicated tech, they have 3-5 great techs

[@TheUpAndComingNobody]

We didn't have a dedicated flub tech yes, but for the last week and a half of tour we had an extra snare tech. So our caption head "Cheese" tech'd the snares, and our snare tech Nathan Rearick tech'd the aux, so they had great teaching this season.

[@carwash9333]

Wait a minute why did everybody switch sides on their flubs opinions in the poll yesterday like we weren’t all shitting on them on the first flub video

[@drumm3rbo187]

My school only has 9 people in the line this year. Our competition show only has a pit and we barely have enough people to have a full bass line. When they have 20 people, they just put the extras on cymbals. These are usually pit players who have less experience with battery instruments.

[@theonetrueravioli1043]

So, we had this guy that wanted to be on the drumline. He started in pit freshman year, sophomore year he was on a flub, junior year, he was on bass 5, and senior year he said fuck it and took the drum kit part that was offered.

[@Marines_Dream_Adventures]

I LMFAO at the Terminal Flub Drummers. Puts the whole thing into perspective.

[@jak5187]

I SAW THEM YESTERDAY IN CENTERVILLE

[@bait-cz5uj]

Saw them in Akron on Monday

[@cactusfishy1596]

I’m like “what stupid drum corp would do this” and it’s literally the one that two of my friends are in 😂😂

[@mrnicknick02]

Who?

[@tadpeterson2639]

You should have some merch that says "Flubs are the future" cuz it's entirely true, makes people more enthusiastic about flubs, and the alliteration of course.

[@sam.a.22]

I saw Music City in Akron a few days ago, and as soon as I noticed the flub line I immediately wondered what your thoughts would be

[@TheBANDit_67]

My school uses the bass line as the training instrument. The actual show music always sounds fine, just with watered bass parts. Some people have enjoyed bass enough to stay for multiple seasons, but mostly people just play it for one season before moving to snare or tenor.

[@brianmalexander]

The bassline is the most important section out of the Drumline (this, coming from a snare player and tech). Why would it ever be used as a training section?

[@TheBANDit_67]

@@brianmalexander I don't teach there, I'm just a student. I disagree with it as much as you do.

[@ChrisPernaDrums]

Eric, are you aware that other DCI corps have marched flub lines in the past? There may be more, but these at least included Star ‘93 and Crossmen ‘98 that I know for sure. Granted, they weren’t in for the whole show for training - but I digress.

[@1hotday1]

You said it best, MUST CONTIBUTE! It's an educational activity. Make it work in the ensemble.

[@hunteralexander9791]

I have a few friends marching with music city this season and from what I’ve heard, their staff said that Mapex just gave them the flubs so they decided to field them. Thats the REAL reason as to why they’re marching flubs this season.

[@Uncle_Yam]

Music city normally maxes out but all the corps are running low this year because not many people were into the idea of no scores

[@difficultkill3r636]

Yeah my drum corps had a super small hornline this year and we were a bigger battery

[@TylerDunphy]

revelation percussion custom built an instrument very similar to this one back in 2018, they called it the T2 instrument. They actually had really great functionality in 2018 and it fit in very well with the show!

[@hunteralexander9791]

It was also a very good gateway I instrument for wind players. I was considering marching Rev for this exact reason

[@carsonswitalski9098]

Two of my good friends had a contract to march with Raiders (Open Class Drum Corps from NJ) on flubs for the 2020 season. They both tried for Snare but ended up being placed on Flubs and wanted to get the experience marching open class, even if they couldn’t do it on snare.

[@holton345]

Terminal Lance: In the Army, we had the "E-4 Mafia". It seemed like everyone in the Army was a freaking E-4. We also had "Career Privates". Stay away from those Career Privates, as they are usually a bad influence on the youngsters.

[@lmaoitsmee1812]

End flub has a sick tat.

[@TracyWiggins]

A few universities have added these sections to get more players involved. The University of North Alabama (where I teach), Jacksonville State University, Liberty, and one of the Western Carolina lines all use them. For us at UNA, it is a great tool to keep 5 more players' hands growing and developing (and keeping more students involved in band). Ours are tuned with the 14 sounding like an HBCU single tom, and the 2 spocks we use are tuned and muffled to sound almost like octobons, so the tuning is to add color and not interfere with tenor sound.

[@wariokanasta1772]

One of my friends and me when we were in 7th grade joined our high school marching band (We are an Open class team and this was the Covid year) Me, my friend, and another 7th grader all ended up playing flub that year (there was also 1 7th grader on bass 1, and 2 in our pitt being 2/4 of our pitt) Me and that other guy quit midseason, and we had this thing in our school called winter percussion and the same 3 guys came and played flub again, and the same other 7th grader left again. But midseason our Bass 3 ended up quitting moving my friend up (We had 4 basses in our school) and since my director hates flubs, he moved me to Pitt to play Glockenspiel. Next year in marching ban, as a 8th grader, I moved up to Xylophone and my friend stayed on bass 3 (We won nationals this year), and the next winter percussion season after that I moved to marimba and my friend moved to Snare. Now In our freshmen year I'm likely going to be Marimba 2 and my friend is gonna be Snare 2.

[@singland5390]

The MCDC video was taken at my high school's football field.

[@jacksonhall3151]

aw when the merch announcement happened I thought we were going to be able to buy actual flub drums with the I

[@kevingeeter8172]

A couple of guys marched 2-3 years on flubs in my college band, so it's not unheard of.

[@bens7622]

Our school just did their first jr high band camp and it was awsome

[@DennisJohnsonDrummer]

I think I saw where some of the groups are afraid of the double age outs this year leaving them high and dry next season, so they are taking in more members and using this as a training year. Probably not groups like Blue Coats, Crown,etc..but for the group in this video-Music City- I could see that bring an issue. 1:21 is me! Ha! Marched D.C.I. in 1980. (tied for the Sanford Award by the way).

[@stephenbyrnes7205]

Video 29 of commenting until EMC makes an entire battery percussion section out of spocks and 8 inch splash cymbals

[@Tripp.tambores]

Would you be open to talking about the educational benefit and purpose of cymbal lines? Or maybe like a compare/contrast between cymbals and flubs and the reasons groups will do one but not the other.

[@ninjabuck2576]

Damnit...I don't watch the channel for a few months, and suddenly THIS SHIRT?!?! 😂😂😂

[@xGeminiKing]

I would definitely rock the flubs in DCI.

[@nickpisarczyk]

One of my friends could have made snare but she just played single tenor (basically same thing as flubs) all four years of high school.

[@alexfulkerson2499]

U gotta judge and rank all the Drum Corp shows this season for us

[@Ais4Drew]

Inb4 Xymox flub practice pads are available before Eric gets his replacement rims.

[@ObscureMachines]

Troy University marched timbales when I was there and they’d do scrapes and stuff which was dope. One went on to be snare section leader too. So it does happen. IDK, I’m on the fence, but leaning towards unless it’s a conscious textural choice ok, but if it’s cause we’re gonna do like t-ball and everyone wins and we don’t wanna cut anyone from the line so let’s throw em on flubs, then no.

[@Tansea]

Back in the day (tic system) some lines would muffle out snares who were less than stellar. I have also heard that some Scottish line use a muffle pad for those who may or may not have imbibed a bit too much.

[@nolanfinke3729]

I went to DCI and saw this corps with the flubs, honestly it was kinda interesting

[@iswm]

There is an argument to be made that while they might not contribute much musically they still contribute to general and visual effect, especially in the case of smaller bands where an extra 3-5 bodies on the field can make a big impact on the perception of the size of the ensemble.

[@HE360]

I like the idea of those flub drums. It makes the drumline look more fuller and if those drums are used to train new drummers, then that's great! And at least those kids get to march in a DCI corps and have THAT experience. A lot of DCI corps don't take beginners or mostly fill their ranks with more "talented" people. Thus, at least they get a chance.

[@nickromano7441]

I get it for this off season (considering 2021 isn’t competitive) but DCI is literally for the best of the best, especially when talking about top 12 World Class corps. You can still do drum corp if you’re not at that level, ie. DCA, Open Class DCI.

[@n-man8208]

My high school, only our winter show has marching toms. It’s like that, because we have like 5 basses, 4 snares and 3 tenors but one tenor is broken plus we can’t cover the snare parts so we put two people on toms. So yah

[@matthewrios2734]

i never understood flubs, i played flubs in middle school didn’t really feel like i got the real snare or tenor experience, i feel as if maybe a instead of flubs they use a cymbal line

[@willdonahue4940]

You should check out my college marching band. We have marched Flubbs for years and I think they add a lot to the ensemble. It’s the Marching Southerners at Jacksonville State University

[@james_g_walt]

TwoSet and EMC Productions need to compose a flub drum/viola duet.

[@frum9315]

I’m in a FOUR person drum line at my high school next to a much bigger horn line of around 35-40.(small because of post Rona). We sadly don’t own any flubs BUT I will attempt to convince my percussion tech to get some as we do have some people joining in the near future.

[@vvillv6995]

Flub drum merch lookin 🔥🔥🔥

[@EMCproductions]

Thank you! And good job on first comment!

[@despicabledave9998]

I actually know the Noah Martin guy on flubs. He is from my hometown and is a damn good player.

[@realspork2785]

These video you watched were at my high school and I was there to watch it and i couldn’t here the flubs a whole lot

[@kaziiqbal7257]

Sooo, the flubs are specialists of DCI?

[@chrishoma1033]

I was out in the pit my freshman year after not making the line, chalked it up to being in a feeder school that didn’t put out when the drum line met in the spring. Anyway their flub configuration gave the line an underlying lower tone and kind of cool they are marching a snome. Can see some more aux percussion there too next year, cool way to bring pit percussion out to the field for more visual capability. Or maybe cymbal/flub change outs? Better then marching metal discs and pinching the crap outta yourself all season

[@jacksoncolley6366]

At my high school, we didn't have any pit one year, so we put the pit people on flubs. It was something, not something good, just something.

[@JoshSaysStuff]

Are there any drum corps for adults who want to try it out? When I was young I went to a very small school that didn’t have a music program, let alone a drum line. But your videos make it look so fun! I wish I had gotten the opportunity as a kid.

[@zerobatsu]

This was adorable.

[@akaiyui9300]

Meanwhile, most DBCs in my city have so many flubs and they are always superimposed whenever these corps play.

[@Boulder_Betta]

7:02 So is nobody gonna talk about the rightmost snare's giant afro??

[@Copp.r]

We have cymbal quads which is our equivalent. Most of the time it’s a first year only instrument. Although we do have a senior that chose to move from front ensemble to cymbal quads?

[@spiciestspeckofdust7844]

i marched flubs freshman year at my high school and the next year i was center snare because everyone graduated lmao

[@gfcsdad]

Personally, I appreciate the idea of a training opportunity for ANY student looking to make a greater contribution to the ensemble as their level of skill progresses. That said, I reject outright the antiquated notion that ANY traditional component (i.e. bass drum, front ensemble, etc.) should be viewed as the place for beginners or those "not good enough" for the snare or tenor line. If a flub section provides a training opportunity while providing meaningful musical contributions, then I'm all for it. What I am completely against is any notion of "rank", hierarchy, or level of importance in the ensemble.

[@ginger_alpha9430]

I have a guy in my line that was on flubs last year and is this year too, and i dont think he minds much, but idk if he wanted to be on snare or tenor in the first place either so….

[@perrywclifton]

Everybody forgets Star put two flubs on the field for their closer in 1993.

[@adamkerr8353]

@Emcproductios Didn't Star of Indiana in 1993 have Flubs?

[@diffytez2413]

I have friends that marched freshman - senior on the flub

[@privatekitty6621]

when i marched flubs my first year of high school there was a sophomore on flubs 2 seasons in a row she quit band her junior year

[@danielperry7600]

When I started in drum corps back in 1972 there were corps that still had snares, multi tenors and single tenors. So I guess the single tenors were like the flubb for that era. For smaller corps it made you look like you had a bigger snare line.

[@Ion848]

I’ve been trying to do snare since my freshman year, now I’m a senior and I’m still in front ensemble💀

[@rogansayson]

Where was your AGT audition videos?

[@VerstappenFTW]

The Steven reference got me dying

[@clarksummers4514]

I made Music city and I’m not sure if we are gonna have flubs again, not completely sure, we will see at move ins

[@captainkiwi77]

Dci killed its own goal of being a music education juggernaut tbh. Used to be we turned people off the street into god tier musicians over a season... now... we get divided when a corps marches a training section

[@RoyalChant]

during the lean years of the mid-90s, when corps were folding left and right, we remember these conversations/debates start to appear, which is a roundabout way of pondering whether corps are here to train up youngsters with passion or should they just take the good ones and create a dream team (which we will call the "Blue Devil's effect"). Your "people off the street" description reminds us of the way people used to talk about some of the East Coast and Mid-West corps: really strong programs, but they did it through a lot of hard work rather than just cherry picking talent (aka: BD). We have no idea if that dynamic is even remotely true today, or if it ever was.

[@KevinGamin]

Two thoughts: 1) I think I recall Vandegrift High School, the 2019 BOA Grand National Champion, had a full drum line which also included flubs. I’d like to know if I remember correctly and, if so, what was their philosophy for using them. 2) Music City has a flub line but no cymbal line. I’m not sure how I feel about that.

[@mrnicknick02]

What do you mean by number 2?