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Drum Major: Spinning Consistency Help!

Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2013 1:12 am
by Dm614
Hi, I'm going to be competing in the upcoming L-Pattern Season. It's my first time competing and I'm very excited! But, I have a major issue with my spinning. I can't spin good consistently throughout the day. What I mean by this is that the quality (or more like the feel) of my spinning changes greatly depending on the time of the day. It's a bit like this...

Morning to noon: fair, but not great
Noon to 5PM: not good
5PM and on: Awesome

I can't really feel confident before 5PM, even though that's the time of the competitions. I've practiced before 5PM before, but it's rare to have the quality and the feel I'm looking for (I've also recorded myself and I can see major differences in the quality of my spinning between the time periods). This began over the summer and I've been trying to solve it by practicing at different times but with no luck. Spinning the traditional military baton for my warm up and gettng gloves helped a little, but far from being enough. I practice regulary and began this in middle school (I'm currently a sophomore). Please ask questions if there was something that was unclear. ANY suggestions or tips will be greatly appreciated.


While I'm at this, I have another question on vocals. How do you make your voice loud, but keep it clear and calm like Arcadia's drum majors?

Re: Drum Major: Spinning Consistency Help!

Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 1:27 pm
by DMJUDGE
I will start with the easiest thing, vocals:

Practice singing (real music, something with a real melody i.e. if it is on popular radio it does not count!), all of your power comes from your vowels. You must relax to get the most sound out (just like playing your instrument!) Also practice talking really loud. You relax when you talk and tense up when you yell. Stop yelling and start talking.

This relaxing thing probably also will fix your morning spinning issues. Make sure you eat breakfast, stretch before spinning, and have a consistent and logical warm up. (basic spins in all directions, as well as different speeds, small combinations of moves that you use during your routine, etc.)

I am a big proponent of practice how you are going to perform. If you are going to perform with a signal baton, practice with it. If you are going to perform with gloves practice with it. I never understood practicing with different equipment. If you need bigger spinning muscles do more basic spins (i.e. 100 in each direction) that will beef up those muscles in no time!

Your body will do what it is told, make less excuses to make more progress.


My two cents,

Brennan
97-98 Arcadia DM

Re: Drum Major: Spinning Consistency Help!

Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2013 10:19 pm
by Dm614
Thank you, Mr. England! Your advice helped at the competition. I bought the traditional signal baton just to try it out and see if I like it. Also, I am using gloves at the competitons. It just happened to help my consistency problem. As a former Arcadia DM, do you happen to know where I can buy the baton Arcadia DM are currently using?

Re: Drum Major: Spinning Consistency Help!

Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2013 5:34 pm
by DMJUDGE
Most of the them are spinning a JEMM baton, and they are no longer available. A couple of the students from Arcadia bought some from me that I had from my personal collection. But I am all out of "extra" batons. I would suggest for you to scour ebay and hope one pops up. The closest thing available is the one from Peacock's Baton Company but I have never spun one of those.

Good luck with the gloves, I personally hate spinning with gloves. My recommendation is that if your band director does not care to ditch them. But if you like spinning with gloves on, more power to you.