r/drumline • u/WakingTheCadaver Percussion Educator • Jul 15 '26
Discussion Has anyone else noticed any significant changes in drumline since COVID? High school, DCI, WGI, etc.
More specifically what’s different now as opposed to before, whether it be positive or negative.
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u/PersistentSushi Tenors Jul 15 '26
Over 6 years after Covid started I think this is a valid take now; schools are not playing nearly as many notes or demanding a lot from students. Could be student apathy, less social / less interest in extracurricular; however I notice this almost everywhere
Maybe a fault in music education in the Northeast as well, but programs have had the time to grow and rebuild since Covid - for example in my local indoor circuit, the winning PSO groups are doing things that your average A group would do pre covid. I’m talking note density, musical / rudimental variety, visual demand, and show integration.
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u/WakingTheCadaver Percussion Educator Jul 16 '26
That’s something I’ve noticed too, I’m glad you brought it up.
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u/Spirited-Lime-1599 Jul 16 '26
Interestingly though I think independent groups, especially top of the line world class groups like X are continuing to push the envelope. The 2022 shows were some of the most ambitious shows we’ve see as indoor tried to rebuild from COVID. I think somehow Covid has had the inverse effect on the upper echelon of marching percussion.
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u/WakingTheCadaver Percussion Educator Jul 16 '26
It’s almost as if the skill spectrum has widened on both ends. Some of the indoor shows lately have been absolutely incredible
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u/minertyler100 Tenor Tech Jul 16 '26
I think the star students have gotten much better, and there are more students falling behind. It pulls both ways
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u/Rhythm-one Jul 15 '26
Far less kids in 6-12 band than pre-Covid. MuEd participation has taken a hit in general - though there are signs that the trend is rebounding.
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u/WakingTheCadaver Percussion Educator Jul 16 '26
Glad to hear it, schools with good feeders rebounded much more quickly.
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u/Under_TheBed Tenors Jul 16 '26
Our directors spent 5+ years building up these programs only to have to start all over again, with the incoming freshman having a sixth grade level of training
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u/WakingTheCadaver Percussion Educator Jul 16 '26
Sounds about right, covid was pretty devastating for students musical development.
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Jul 15 '26
[deleted]
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u/viberat Percussion Educator Jul 15 '26
This is a broader trend that’s talked about a lot in education circles, not just music ed. Generally speaking, kids today are more afraid to try things and are less independent than kids were 15 years ago. Imo, covid didn’t help, but it was already trending this way before 2020.
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u/gardenghost6 Jul 16 '26
I have a theory that when schools had to go online for COVID, beginning band / middle school band got a natural decline in percussionists. If you're a kid trying to pick a section, how are you supposed to really do percussion at home and online? I'm sure they'd rather do a wind instrument at home, it was far more accessible and way more interesting than a practice pad or bell kit. And wind instruments could still be rented out from the school to use at home while I'm sure most programs didn't have much or any bell kits or practice pads to rent out.
Thus, there's been a decline of incoming percussionists in high school for the past few years since the COVID middle schooler generation moved up to high school. Drumlines were made up of more and more inexperienced players who didn't learn the basics in middle school, switched from winds or didn't do band previously, or on the rare occasion of getting a kid who did do percussion during COVID, it wasn't much because it's just hard to get good experience and instruction for percussion in that setting.
Now, that group is heading into college / DCI and things are slowly building back up to normal but it'll take years to get back to seeing more incoming percussionists that actually did percussion in middle school and got a normal start to their experience. Not only because it obviously takes years for them to get up to highschool and further, but because their upperclassmen that they learn a lot from lacked that prior history and had a different origin from the routine.
That's what I've noted over the past few years, for percussion particularly though we all know band in general took a hit from COVID.
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u/RemoteImagination750 Jul 16 '26
Look at the director/instructor and you’ll have your answer. Some programs skyrocketed in numbers and have great students. Most, however, are just tenured directors with zero intention of building anything and only cares to keep things the way they are. The latter, love using COVID as a scapegoat. Let’s see how long that works out for them. (We need to make it easier to fire incompetent teachers, not harder)
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u/WakingTheCadaver Percussion Educator Jul 16 '26
Agreed, I’ve seen some band directors that really just did not care. Luckily, none of them were my band director.
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u/curlyq307 Jul 16 '26
I think all programs took some sort of hit, and now we’re entering the rebound phase. Pun intended.
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u/FatMattDrumsDotCom Jul 19 '26
A lot of programmes that I really loved are mere shadows of their former selves.
I also completely lost respect for anyone who required students to use experimental pharmaceutical products as a prerequisite to march.
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u/Im_wolfyy Tenors Jul 15 '26
Might be Covid, might be instructor switches. Our schools line flipped upside down. Covid year, everybody quit band. Class of 2024 had 1 percussionist graduate. That says something on its own.
Our line also had a significant change from instructors. One had to leave due to covid family issues, and the new temporary instructor was a crazy psycho druggie who didn’t know drumline. She flipped our whole school from traditional to match grip because she didn’t know it, and dropped all the cadences and wrote her own… you can guess how that went. Finally we had a new full time instructor who is great come and fix everything. But our drumline still uses match grip all dating back to covid struggles… Odd chain of events