There's More To Drumming Than Just Marching Percussion

I have always been a huge fan of Bruce Lee and I really resonate with what he’s all about. The thing with Bruce Lee is that, he learned one style of Martial Arts, practiced that for a while, then he discovered other styles and techniques and thought, “hmm, wouldn’t it be cool to incorporate these styles into my own and create a completely new style?”

Ok, he probably didn’t say it exactly like that.

But this is pretty much how “Jeet Kun Do” (The way of the intercepting fist) was formed.

Jeet Kun Do is a culmination of all the different martial arts styles that Bruce Lee liked to create his own style. He was influenced by Filipino fighting styles, boxing, Kung Fu of course and in term, he influenced modern day MMA that promote mixed styles of fighting.

I think as marching percussionists, we can learn from different styles, but as a community, I don’t think we’re always open to different styles, ideas and techniques. For example, I always felt like back in the day, we tended to look down on Show Band style drumming. I mean, look no further than the hate our activity gave to the movie “Drumline.”

Yea, I know a lot of that comes from the fact that we didn’t like Drumming to get the “Hollywood” treatment when it comes to cheesy story lines, but I also think it had to do with the fact that it was a promoting a style that wasn’t our own.

So instead of thinking: “how can we learn from this?”

We instead think, “I don’t like it” and dismiss it.

But instead of hating, can we actually learn something from Show Band style? Of course we can!

What about Taiko drumming? You bet!

Scottish Pipe Band style? Absolutely!

In fact, you should check out this video I made with Michael Eagle. He marched Phantom Regiment and after he aged out, he discovered Scottish Pip Band drumming. Check out what you can learn from this interesting style to incorporate into your drumming game: