Something for y'all to think about...

I used to live my life with this very narrow view of what was "good" or not in percussion. And if I saw a drumline play even a little dirty I was like, "Ok, they suck." Didn't matter who it was. This made enjoying the activity VERY difficult because there is actually a very small percentage of drumlines who play clean on that level. So many years of my life was just trash talking my whole community. It was not fun at all and made it hard to really enjoy anything. 

Then, as I got older, I realized that even the drumlines who didn't play perfectly clean still provided value. This was hard for me to come to terms with because it broke my code of ethics. If I allowed myself to think of a dirty drumline to be "good" it meant my whole legacy of reaching for greatness would have been a lie. But it's not about EVERY SINGLE DRUMMER IN THE WORLD DRUMMING THE SAME. It's about different types of value being provided for different reasons. And I started to see that these "dirty drumlines" provide value to the members marching, and to the people watching them. I had to come to terms with the fact that not every line can be this ungodly immaculate and amazing thing. So I opened my perspective to allow all types and levels of drumming to provide me with joy in some way. I obviously have my favorites, (Clean Corps Style Drumming), but man it is nice just being able to watch a drumline have a good time and enjoy it.  

NO.

I just throttle who I hold to those standards. I still have my really high standards, but I only bring out that personal judging sheet when I am watching the best of the best battle it out, or I'm teaching my own students where the goal is to one day reach that quality/genre of drumming. 

NO.

In fact, at the top of the activity in show band competition, those lines are just as clean as DCI lines, and those drummer actually have