members

UA Drumline - News and Information

Paul Buyer to visit UA November 12-17

Dr. Paul Buyer, Director of Percussion at Clemson University in SC will be on the UA campus the week of Nov 12-17. He is our Band Day percussion judge the 17th.

 

Paul is a UA Music Percussion Alum (MM '94 and DMA '99) and tenured faculty at Clemson. He is author of many articles and Chair of the PAS Education Committee. (And all around great guy!) He will present a master class on Wed, 14th at 11:00 in room 146. The topic will be his research on excellence in marching percussion (see abstract below). The UA is the last of the 7 colleges he is visiting. Please plan to attend and PLEASE PASS THE WORD!

 

EXCELLENCE IN MARCHING PERCUSSION
A Journey Inside College Drumlines Across America
Dr. Paul Buyer, Director of Percussion, Clemson University

 

This fall, I am on sabbatical visiting 7 college marching bands around the
country to do research how their drumlines achieve performance excellence.
I am attending their rehearsals, meetings, and football games and am
interviewing the drumline instructor, band director, and section leaders.
My purpose is to discover how other instructors teach their drumlines and
learn from them.

 

The schools I am visiting are LSU, Alabama, Western Carolina, Michigan
State, Ohio State, North Texas, and Arizona. These programs were chosen
because of (1) their reputation for having an excellent marching band, (2)
their diversity in location, athletic conference, and marching band
tradition, and (3) their 2007 home football schedule.

 

In particular, I am interested in learning about each drumline's goals,
expectations, leadership style, work ethic, rehearsal techniques,
rehearsal schedule, practice habits, performance preparation, repertoire,
rehearsal time, facilities, instrumentation, tuning approach, audition
procedures, and traditions.

 

I plan to write a book sampling the "best practices" of eight college
drumlines (Clemson included) across the country. As a member of the PAS
Marching Percussion and College Pedagogy Committees and chair of the
Education Committee, I hope to provide something of value to high school
and college drumline instructors.

 

 

Yamaha Returns to UA...permenantly

The Arizona Band program has recently purchased a full new set of Yamaha drums to ensure that The University of Arizona Drumline will exclusively play Yamaha Marching Percussion from now on beginning in the Fall 2007. Special thanks to our friends at Instrumental Music Center for their role as an authorized Yamaha dealer, and for their continued support of the Arizona Band program!

 

If you have any info or announcements you'd like to submit to the UA Drumline News section, email it to drumline@cfa.arizona.edu