{"id":14522,"date":"2021-05-04T08:45:45","date_gmt":"2021-05-04T12:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adrummergirlslife.com\/?page_id=14522"},"modified":"2025-05-03T09:56:17","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T13:56:17","slug":"drumline-the-review","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/adrummergirlslife.com\/?page_id=14522","title":{"rendered":"Drumline: The review."},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>I\u2019ve been asked countless times whether my experiences paralleled the movie,\u00a0<em>Drumline<\/em>.<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure id=\"attachment_14628\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14628\" style=\"width: 335px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-14628\" src=\"https:\/\/adrummergirlslife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Drumline-lg-400x600.jpg\" alt=\"Drumline movie poster\" width=\"335\" height=\"503\" srcset=\"https:\/\/adrummergirlslife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Drumline-lg-400x600.jpg 400w, https:\/\/adrummergirlslife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Drumline-lg-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/adrummergirlslife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Drumline-lg-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/adrummergirlslife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Drumline-lg.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 335px) 100vw, 335px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-14628\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Drumline movie poster<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<p>In some ways, yes\u2014the spirit, the excitement at competitions and exhibitions, traveling to games, the high-energy adrenaline rush, the electric roar of the crowd, hosting DCI events \u2026 KKPsi \u2026 even the band romance. It\u2019s all there.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>However: This film falls short only in its shameless irrelevance to bona fide college drumlines.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The snares in the movie couldn\u2019t play a clean triplet roll. Their rudiments, drags, one-hands and attacks were sloppy.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>A line gets tight with sectional practice, not by challenging for a spot in a show just days away. This can&#8217;t possibly somehow maintain drill and musical integrity despite a last-minute member switch. The P1 \u2013 P4 ranking system was laughable.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>It\u2019s \u2018drill\u2019, not formations. What about stick height? Why march a multiple-bass ensemble but play unison, and not tune tonally? Sounded like dirt. Snare music does not contain sharps and flats, with no percussion markup.<\/p>\r\n<p>Placement auditions are heard not by peers in a public setting, but by Directors and staff. The ability to sight-read a chart is a given, not learned by rote \u00e0 la Devon Miles. Dave Satterfield would have checked that chump day 1.<\/p>\r\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Drumline Trailer\" width=\"525\" height=\"394\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rwmIvDym_KY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The field visuals were slick but would have been rendered much more effective with practice and attention to detail, particularly for a major motion picture.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>What &#8220;big time college marching band&#8221; performs in <em>half a stadium<\/em>? The on field rumble bears no need for elaboration.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Lastly\u2014the &#8220;BET Big Southern Classic&#8221; allows Petey Pablo to crash the Morris Brown show\u2014thus not judging strictly by merit of their performance alone.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Somehow they\u2019re a lock in a tie for first? The Drumlines &#8220;put it down&#8221; on the 50? Hollywood at its finest &#8230; CUT!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>As a former snare drummer with the 350+ strong West Virginia University Mountaineer Marching Band (1997 recipient of the <a href=\"https:\/\/bands.wvu.edu\/ensembles\/mountaineer-marching-band\/sudler-award\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sudler Trophy<\/a>), these non-conformities are in stark contrast to reality.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Overall, it&#8217;s a fun movie with a contagious spirit. <strong>It&#8217;s fierce. It&#8217;s got heart.<\/strong> It gets props\u2014but NOT for which it purports to be: a factual representation of a serious and polished college marching band drumline.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\r\n<figure class=\"alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"75\" height=\"75\" class=\"wp-image-13050\" src=\"https:\/\/adrummergirlslife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/drum-avatar-thumbnail-sm.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve been asked countless times whether my experiences paralleled the movie,\u00a0Drumline. In some ways, yes\u2014the spirit, the excitement at competitions and exhibitions, traveling to games, the high-energy adrenaline rush, the electric roar of the crowd, hosting DCI events \u2026 KKPsi \u2026 even the band romance. It\u2019s all there. However: This film falls short only in &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/adrummergirlslife.com\/?page_id=14522\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Drumline: The review.&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":13642,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-14522","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrummergirlslife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrummergirlslife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrummergirlslife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrummergirlslife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrummergirlslife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14522"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/adrummergirlslife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17866,"href":"https:\/\/adrummergirlslife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14522\/revisions\/17866"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrummergirlslife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrummergirlslife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}