The good news for you is that, in order to be a drumline instructor, no formal education is technically required. Of course, that doesn’t mean that you can just walk into a school and take over the drumline. While you don’t need any formal education, the are things that will really help.

First of all, you should be intimately familiar with every area of the drumline. This includes tonal bass, tenors (quads, quints and sextuplets), snare, cymbals and pit percussion. It would be ideal if your were to march at least one season in each of these areas before you start teaching. You may not be as fortunate as I was, in that I went to a school that allowed exceptionally talented seventh and eighth graders to perform in the marching band. By the time I started college, I had marched one year on pit/cymbals, two on tenors, two on snare and one on bass. By the time I finished high school, I was pretty well versed in all of the drumline instruments and I taught my first drumline during my freshman year of college.

You also need to learn how to write and arrange. This is how I accomplished this.

I kept EVERY piece of music that I ever received in marching band. I mean ALL of them. I played them and practiced them over and over again, even after the season ended. I would practice music that I had marched two or three years previously. In addition to practicing them, I would study them. If possible, you should get a copy of the percussions score. If you have a percussion instructor, tell him that you are interested in writing and arranging percussion music and he shouldn’t have a problem printing out an extra score for you to study. You need to figure out why the music works the way it does. You also need to experiment on your own.

You should invest in a copy of Finale music notation software and learn to use it (start hitting your parents up now, and maybe they get it for you for Christmas). When I was in high school, I would take the time that I would normally spend playing video games, watching TV or even staring at the wall during study hall and use it to write drumline music. I started out with short pieces, just eight or sixteen measure long grooves and ideas. I’ll be honest…at the beginning your “suck factor” will be pretty high, but that’s the way it always happens when learning a new skill, right? When I started writing, about 75% of my stuff was offensive to the ears. Finale is an important tool, because you can hear something immediately when you write it. After awhile, you’ll be able to look at something you’ve written and get a pretty good idea of what it will sound like.

After you get the hang of writing short drumline pieces, you should try your hand at arranging. If you could get drumline scores to pieces that you’ve playing in addition to the full band score (ask your band director) then that would be ideal. Take the drumline scores and compare them to the horn parts to find out how they fit together and how they play off of each other. If you are confused by anything, just ask your instructor why he wrote what he did (assuming he wrote the drum parts). After you begin to understand, try writing your own drum parts to the piece and see how you do.

One more thing…

You need to be able to rehearse a drumline. When you are at rehearsals, try to listen to the line and pick out mistakes. If you hear something wrong, can you put it into words and explain how to fix it? This is one of the most important skills that you will have to learn.

After you think you are ready, you need to make yourself visible. The way the I did this was to make a resume. You can find web sites or books that will help you to construct a resume, just do a Google search (personally, I’d buy a book and learn how to do it myself, but you can do whatever you like). Keep it music related, you don’t want to put down the summer job that you had at Wal*Mart. List any clinics that you have been to, how many years of private lessons that you’ve had and with which instructors and list any awards or commendations you have received in your marching band as a group or an individual. After you have a resume, type it up, make copies of it and mail it to EVERY high school within a 30-45 minute drive of your home (depending upon how far you are willing to travel). When I did this, I think I sent my resume to fifteen or twenty schools…out of those, I got one call back, but that’s all it takes. Be ready to negotiate for a rate of pay. Some places like to pay by the hour, some like to pay a flat rate for the season. I like to charge a flat rate, plus a rate for camps. You also need to keep in mind that the band you will work for may not have a lot of money, but that doesn’t mean you should let them screw you. Personally, I don’t leave my house for less than $14/hr. Since you’re just starting out, you may have to settle for $8-$10/hr., which is still pretty good!

They also may expect you to write a show book and/or cadence and/or warmups. Some people charge extra for this, but I don’t. I consider it part of my job, and a band director may be willing to hire me over someone else because I’ll do it for free whereas many people won’t. If you write warmups, be sure they are relevant to the show! At one school I taught, the band director let some former student who “really knows alot” come work with the line for free for a week. He criticized my students for playing a sixteenth note based roll exercise because “everybody plays triplet rolls”. I wrote that particular exercise because there wasn’t a SINGLE triplet in the entire show!!

The only other thing to keep in mind is to show up on time, complete you work (like writing) in a timely fashion and make good use of rehearsal time. Don’t write over the head of your line. Respect your students, but be firm and command respect from them. Do all of this because the music world is a sewing circle. Band directors know each other. They are friends, they go out for beer, they went to school together, they student taught under one another and if you perform poorly (or well) as a teacher, then they will tell everyone. Always remember this.

I hope I haven’t give you too much information to digest, but I didn’t tell you everything, just the most important stuff. Talk you your drumline instructor if you can. Try to mimic what you like about what he does and change what you don’t. It’s very much a trial and error process. If you have any other questions, feel free to send me a message.

Good luck, and happy drumming!

The more I learn the more I realize the horse industry is tricky, you should pick something solid. Ever considered veterinarian school? If you hate the sight of blood you could be a chiropractor, massage therapist, work in dentistry, etc. Horses need LOTS of care as you know. There’s many fields out there. Every place you know will need a vet of some sort, especially those who are specialized. Getting a bachelors in business management or something with people skills will help you greatly in becoming a lesson instructor. Then maybe while you’re doing that, go into university to expand that into something more sustainable? I know I want to do something with horses, and right now I’m definitely considering chiropractor. I would love to board and train as well, but you need a base income! Tour colleges, read up about specialties and all the horse careers out there, then decide what works best for YOU! Good luck!!

In order to be a formal instructor, you would need to get a teaching certificate from a university. You can always teach private lessons, or assist a band director as the drumline instructor, without a degree.

You don't need any education. The two instructors at my school both played snare at the University of Akron years ago and now they help us out.

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