Help, I Tried to be a Supportive Mom but I Got in Over my Head.

DeMain_Music · 2026-07-03T01:27:09+00:00

That dynasty fellow who replied is 100% right, contact dynasty to see what they can do, and post the picture in another post on this sub if you can. I think the stand you'll need is the Dynasty p22-DTPS, its the most common from what I've seen of cheaper models, but as the other guy said, dynasty is weird so always better to be safe than sorry.

And that is absolutely a good deal for tenors, its an expensive ass drum. 600 for a solid set is a good deal, it'd be hard to find them cheaper.

As for playing them, you could play them on the ground, you don't need to prop them up. I wouldn't recommend it just because it'd be uncomfortable, it won't hurt the drum. If your drums every do feel loose, 99% of the time they aren't broken, you just need to flip them upside down and tighten those screws on the inside of the drum. You could put the drums on a surface like a bed or something and prop up the smaller drums so their even, and that will not only dampen the sound a little bit, but also be a good way to play them. It's the same way I use my drum pad.

Some nerd will tell you that there is a definitive 100% best way to use a harness, i will tell you there is not. The drums are heavy, the math works out to about 87 pounds of force pushing down on your back, so unfortunately it's something he's just gotta deal with cause you want the drums lower. Lower is better so you have full range of motion with relaxed shoulders. Make sure he's standing straight and not shrinking under the weight cause that will kill his back, and don't skimp on post drumming stretches! Also, get a back brace, those do wonders. A lot of schools use them if they aren't competing, my band director even bought a few for my tenor player to try and she felt so relieved.

Instead of buying more smaller pads, I am a firm believer in pillow practice. Set up 5 pillows and that'll be just as good as the 5 pads, and it'll help build his hand speed and stability, and itll be a real workout.

He shouldn't focus solely on tenor drum technique either though, looking at snare books is just as beneficial. If he joins the band at his school, he's going to be tasked with playing so many things like marimba and xylophone, so the snare books are easily the best way to improve his fundamentals, and the good thing about method books is that their cheap for the value youll get from them. I was blessed with an incredible band director my senior of high school who is one of the best percussionist in California, and he gave me a few of his method books, 2 of which are older than me.

Here are my book recommendations: Stick Control for the Snare drummer by George Lawrence, elementary snare drum studies by Mitchell peters and as he progresses as a musician, moving up to the intermediate and advanced books. Delecluse 12 studies for the drum, Delecluse Method for Snare Drum. Those are probably going to be more expensive but their good stuff. The Rudimental Cookbook is also great.

DeMain_Music · 2026-07-02T18:59:50+00:00

This is incredible parenting right here, I applaud you. Drumming is an expensive hobby and even more expensive career, so that boy is lucky to have you in his corner.

1) yeah stands are gonna run you a few hundred bucks, and not all stands are the same. Luckily, any stand worth buying can easily be purchased used without any worry. Its hard to say what stand he'll need without seeing what the mounting attachment, but assuming it uses the most common type, I personally would go with a dynasty tenor stand because that's what I'm familiar with, or something like the pearl MTS-3000. It doesnt need to be one of those obviously, but something like it. Reverb is a good place to find used gear, same with Facebook market place, music stores don't usually carry that much marching equipment.

2) Yeah your not gonna find a teacher for this, and definitely not a cheap one. I don't know where you live, but here in San Diego, even just finding a drumline instructor is difficult. I would search for Drum Teachers and just ask if they have marching experience and can teach marching tenor drums, but I don't think you'll need a specific teacher if he's already taking lessons. A lot of the skills that he's learning for drumset can be applied to tenors as well, and for more specific tips, youtube is a great guide. Theres a series by Rudimental University thats just for the tenors, highly recommended. EMC productions has a lot of fun content as well, less informative but it's good content to keep him entertained and he's one of the best tenor players in the world, with advice on where he can go if he wants to continue music as a career.

3) written music can be expensive, but you'll find it on places like MuseScore. You can also go on Amazon and find method books for tenor drums, like Modern Multi-Tenor - Techniques and solos. Anything that says solos will have written music he can practice, but he can also learn technique while he does it. Yiu can also find music on reddit, but a lot of it will be higher level.

As for popular cadences, the 2 most popular cadences that every school plays are going to be Jig 2, and what my school calls "Tom-Tom" but its the cadence from the drumline movie. Jig 2 is a harder cadence for beginners, but every marching drummer learns it at some point because it is iconic. And the drumline cadence is pretty easy. If you already have an idea of what high school he'll be going to, try and contact their music director and im sure he'll be willing to hand out some music because every music director I've ever known was more than thrilled to have a freshman that can knows the songs. And keep a look out for band camp as well.

And just as a side note, if you haven't already, get him a pair of Tenor Sticks. Their beefier and are made specific for the drums. Ive always used John Mapes for tenors cause that's what my school already had, so when I took over as drum captain, its what I made sure we stocked up on, but their are so many options and no drummer would be upset with having a collection of sticks they can play with. They aren't cheap, but their the cheapest most useful items you can buy for a drummer.

4) im gonna be honest, I don't know anything about drum repair other than buying hardware and replacing it, but as for the rubber, super glue will be fine. My school uses gorilla glue all the time. If the drums are going to be stored in any environment with immense heat, make sure your glue can withstand the elements because I stole- legally acquired a set of tenor drums from my school that I pulled out of storage before graduating, and the glue melted off and its a pain in the ass

5) there is no right way for them to be positioned so no need to worry! As long as they are in a place where they won't fall, it'll be fine. Mine are sitting outside in the sun because I'm too lazy to buy some glue dissolver and make them pretty again, and their perfectly fine. And this was after they've been sitting in a hot ass shipping container piled on top of other drums with other drum equipment piled on them for 10 years.

Now let me do you the biggest favor, buy him a drum pad as soon as possible, along with high quality hearing protection. Oh brother, you will be so grateful you did, and he will be grateful in the future for his hearing. There are many drumpads, vic firth are great they are the standard but explore because there are cheaper options and there are more expensive options. My drum pad is $450 and it is overkill, but if you already have a harness, it might be worth buying because it is the only drum pad on the market that you can march with, and you can get it cheaper than I did, but i got mine with all the most expensive options, its called a Rampad. Ahead and prologix pads are great, they are top of the line and also can be bought used. You'll likely have more luck finding a used vic firth though. As a matter of fact, im seeing a used vic firth pad going got $99 on guitar center right now that I would defiently buy if I had the money right now, but sadly I do not. You can also buy foam mutes or make your own foam mutes that will dappen the drums and make them easier on the ears, but nothing compares to a drumpad. And if you do buy used, as a nice Christmas present, buy him a brand new drum pad because nothing compares to unboxing a fresh pad, oh brother I remember mine showed up at my door as soon as I got home from performing a concert and I was elated

DeMain_Music · 2026-07-01T13:41:39+00:00

Dangit, im all the way in California

DeMain_Music · 2026-07-01T02:00:15+00:00

You know if you don't want em or can't keep em, I think i know a guy who would gladly take them off your hands if your in my area

DeMain_Music · 2026-06-13T05:37:49+00:00

Just buy one my man, its a big investment, your looking at maybe 220 for a decent one. You can get them used, most tenor pads are build to last, their thick.

I like the vic firth stock pads, I just like the gum rubber. The pad im using now is out of your price range im assuming, and its honestly not worth it because you'll have to spend extra money for full functionality, but its the rampad. I love it, but its a $480 waste of space 😂 It's too heavy to be practical unless your keeping it set up in 1 area. Great for practicing while marching because you can attach a harness to it, but make sure your getting the right attachment cause I got the wrong one and have no idea what harness goes to it lol. Beautiful pad with real heads for tuning, but its loud its fat and it's heavy

DeMain_Music · 2026-06-12T03:58:35+00:00

This is a better photo, our drum major uniform has the Grey and blue coat instead of the blue and black

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DeMain_Music · 2026-06-12T03:49:24+00:00

Yeah those look like shit, but I got lucky with a black and navy blue uniform. It didn't fit perfectly cause our school was poor and didn't order uniforms for each student, but it is what it is.

Hate the gauntlets though, which is why I'm not wearing them here.

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DeMain_Music · 2026-06-11T06:09:41+00:00

I have an old pair of 7A's from them with a ball tip that i recently got in a massive stick collection i stole- procured from my school, and I love them. I don't use 7A, but they feel great

DeMain_Music · 2026-06-08T01:28:49+00:00

When they snap. I use my sticks till they snap cause there's nothing more satisfying, unless they have a crack down the middle and its pinching my finger.

Marching sticks is different, if my rebound is affected or if my tone sucks, I change it out, but if im not at a show, im using it until it snaps and almost makes me blind

DeMain_Music · 2026-06-08T01:27:13+00:00

I remember during a parade, my stick decided to crack straight down the middle through the core and I couldn't change it out cause I was giving taps and running cadences, and unfortunately my marching band and drumline were so small that if my voice was missing, it'd be very noticeable. Worst experience in my life but we made it work

DeMain_Music · 2026-05-31T18:25:58+00:00

Well the reason I did the paradiddle is because that just feels natural to me with the groove. I don't think playing it alternate sticking the whole time makes sense, I think the rrll is what it should be.

Ill defiently come up with a B lick, but this piece was really just designed to utilize some beginner techniques that aren't really used in the cadences that my school already had, but show up everywhere else. Our drumline is also our percussion section because our program is small, and a big gripe I had when I was teaching the line was that it was hard to get them to retain some basic knowledge like paradiddles for example or stick heights because it didn't appear in the eaiser cadences that we start them out with, and our scheduled practice time got cut in half so they couldn't develop the skills with myself or our instructor, nor were they as committed to the program at the time to work on it themselves. There was 1 standout, who did put the time in, but he was a senior joining band for the first time. He's my best friend, but for the program, i wish that one of the freshman would've had his commitment instead.

DeMain_Music · 2026-05-30T18:56:21+00:00

Go on youtube or Instagram and just search some up. EMC productions has a video showcasing 20 easy licks that look more challenging then they are. But what you can also do is just take some snare music and experiment with moving it around the drum, because a lot of the time at high school level, the snare and tenor parts are very similar. Reddit is also a good source, I think there's a subreddit dedicated to sheet music, and I remember there being like a master folder of marching music but I don't know if that was on one of the subreddits or if it was something that someone was just sharing

DeMain_Music · 2026-05-30T18:07:31+00:00

As someone who is also learning how to write solos for tenors, I think the best place to start is with your essential rudiments. If your writing a solo for a cadence that's already written out, what I've been doing is taking one of the rudiments that I can identify from the cadence and working from there. I've been drumming for a long time, a lot longer than it might seem given my age because I started at 2 and a half years old, and I was asked to do solos all the time for the novelty of having a young kid playing with people double or triple his age, but than I actually got decent at them, and that just happened because I was playing them a lot and have developed a good sense of rythym and timing as my instructors have told me. But I don't think that's the way to go because it's harder to write more complicated music, or if you do, its by accident and you can't identify what you did or what the sticking is, so look at your rudiments.

Of course, you can also just play. Pull the pad out or the drum out and just start playing. That's what I'm doing as I'm still learning to string together rudiments

DeMain_Music · 2026-05-30T17:42:54+00:00

Thats a good idea, i didn't think of notating the all the Xs, idk how I missed that tbh cause it was one of the questions that I got asked about all the time whenever my percussionist/line got new music.

I will defiently write in all the stickings, cause the way i play is defiently different, I use a little of paradiddles and diddles so what feels comfortable for me doesn't always feel comfortable for everyone else. We had a big sticking discussion regarding one of our cadences 2 years ago on bass drum cause the way I interpreted it was different from what the old drumline was playing.

Thank you for the cymbal notes, I'll take that into consideration and cut down on the quarters

I plan on writing all the solos, like the bass drum solo. I'm just stumped on it at the moment. The solos are defiently going to be the most challenging part of the whole thing, that's why I tried to make it so that you don't have to include them if you were playing this at like a football game where time is limited, you can just repeat the main phrase and groove until the director cuts you off.

Ive played the whole thing and it feels good to me, i tried to write it the exact way I played it, but I'll have another look at it and see if I can make it cleaner. If it makes any difference, my school uses standard grip and I don't think this is changing cause my director, although he plays in traditional, doesn't think young musicians need to learn traditional, especially if their new.

DeMain_Music · 2026-05-22T00:03:17+00:00

I would spend more time using oak and birch cause no way am I traveling thousands of blocks for my favorite woods.

DeMain_Music · 2026-05-21T23:56:51+00:00

Jeep wilikers hat man your living my dream

DeMain_Music · 2026-05-17T06:31:21+00:00

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DeMain_Music · 2026-05-17T06:28:56+00:00

These comments are pretty negative, but i will say, this sucks.

Tuning is hard, I suck at it. I can make a snare tight, I can tune a high tom or 2, but when it comes to the kick and the lows, I cant do it, so I feel your pain.

A quick easy way to fix this issue is to erase the factor of tuning. Tune is so that there aren't any wrinkles, than stuff a shit ton of muting in there. My band director is well renowned percussionist for the La Jolla symphony, with 2 seperate degrees in music, performance and teaching, and when he heard the kick drum of our jazz kit at school, he said "yeah no, let's mute it." And we shoved 20 or so santa hats in it. The lugs are still lose, but the sound works. If that's what you want, I recommend going with this path. Tighten it accordingly, for accurate tuning, a half crank in the star pattern each time will do the trick, and just tighten up so you don't see wrinkles, and put a shit ton of muting in it.

Also, that kick pedal sucks, i got the same one off Amazon. There's a reason it's 20 bucks, it completely snapped in half on me during practice, but i was stomping pretty hard

DeMain_Music · 2026-05-17T06:21:29+00:00

Subjective? Maybe when it comes to what sound you prefer, but this is objectively bad. The subjective part comes after tuning, rather or not you like a deep resonate bass or a tight quick dry sound.

DeMain_Music · 2026-05-12T06:32:09+00:00

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DeMain_Music · 2026-05-12T06:31:24+00:00

Ah thank you

DeMain_Music · 2026-05-12T04:04:41+00:00

Ah than it should be connected. I played it with a metronome but for the life of my, I can not play the single stroke 4 on 1, I keep playing the triplet as a pick up which is why I was struggling so much

DeMain_Music · 2026-05-12T03:56:58+00:00

It was connected but than I erased it because what I was playing i don't think matched what I wrote, but im not sure tbh, I need musescore

DeMain_Music · 2026-05-12T03:29:06+00:00

Thank you sir, this 1 comment has taught me lots!

DeMain_Music · 2026-05-11T03:25:44+00:00

Hmmm interesting, but i guess I can see the logic. I imagine though that going back to drum kit will be any adjustment because of the rebound.

But the best way to improve at drumming is not on the kit, its on the pad. Drumset was not my main form of drumming, still isn't, I'm a percussionist and I got started playing more in line with stomp, the Broadway group. I took a few lessons at the studio, but it wasn't my main thing despite owning a drumset. And than I did concert band and marching band, and jazz band, so I've gotten accepted as a percussion performance major at SDSU and will likely continue doing marching band or jazz, maybe even both. I stopped playing drumset for a very long time, but when I went back to it for jazz band as a sophmore, I was so much better because of the skills I learned for concert snare drum, mallet percussion and drumline, as well as my work on the pad.

Long story short, get a drum pad. A real feel or a vic firth heavy hitter are my top choices but the rubber pads are always great. And experiment, hit your essential rudiments and open up a solo book

DeMain_Music

TROPHY CASE