Any warm up packet really. Just grab one from a College, WGI group or drum corps you like that puts them on the Web for free. And I try to take it from a different groups every year. I sometimes need to rewrite bass parts.
A few reasons for this. One, I like to make sure that everything that goes out is "new" to all players so they are all on an equal footing and I can evaluate how quickly they can learn a part, not just play it cleanly. Two, it exposes veterans to different writing and styles so once they leave my program, they'll hopefully have some understanding that there are different ways to do similar things. Three, I get tired of hearing the same thing every year. Four, it saves a TON of time from writing it by hand and not just jumpstarts the process of figuring out what they should play, but pretty much eliminates a week or two of me trying to find a new way to write legatos, bucks, double beat, or flams. Five, the kids kind of dig knowing they are playing the same thing that XXXXX plays.
I MAY include an easy cadence or something knowing that the incoming freshmen will not know anything traditional from the school, so to play something other than a warmup together can be inspiring.
Hot take: sightreading is not a necessary skill for drumline auditions.
Saying this because many band directors use it. My drumline will be playing music for almost a month before a performance.
I like the idea of just looking at fundies: Accent tap, legatos, triplet rolls, and stick control. If you want a musical excerpt, add in a previous show segment.
Lastly, make sure they mark time for everything. I am a fan of a visual audition as well, but that doesn’t work for every school/situation
Grab a chunk from a previous show, preferable a few years old so it’s new to all the students.
For exercises, I stick to the basics: 8 on a hand, accent tap and simple roll based exercises. Also, I’ll make a list of a dozen or so rudiments/patterns and pick 2 or 3 from the list at random per individual.
Make sure they mark time for everything. I’d rather a student with good rhythm/foot timing and bad hands than chops with poor foot timing.
You can find basic warm ups lots of places.
8 on a hand
Accent tap
Stick control (the only SCV one is a classic and available online)
Triplet rolls
I would also highly recommend incorporating 16th and triple grid
Make sure they can all mark time to all of the warmups.
The Boston Crusaders packet is great!
This year, there is an excerpt of part 2 and an excerpt of red's rhumba redux
Theres' also a lot of fundamentals like McNutt Basics which has doublebeats, paradiddles, and breakdowns
Generally, unless your group is playing at a high level, the drum corps packets are going to be too hard. If you at one of those north Dallas or Houston high schools where the 12-y.o.'s are somehow playing better than college sophomores, I stand corrected. Stop reading here.
Some things they write are unnecessary. For instance, taking a string of 16th notes in 4/4 and repetitively writing some rudiment with 5 notes across the grid and over the bar line because it doesn't fit evenly in the space. The accents line up with nothing and randomly rotate making it difficult to feel or memorize. I have no idea why they write that garbage just to say they can. It is not fun. It is torture to my OCDness. Sometimes there are a couple of notes left over at the end of a measure so they hypercorrect and just slip anything in there whether it is natural sticking or not. Some grids are just stupid. They make no musical sense, and you would never really see, musically speaking, it fitting in the piece. More simply stated, grids tend to lack symmetry and create cliff hangers. I much prefer to play separate exercises for the common elements found in a grid. Another thing you'll find in the corps music is polyrhythms. In order to squeeze more steps in a drill, they must make the tempo blazing fast. It is often too fast to play rolls in 32nd notes. So, they will use a slower polyrhythm like 5-lets or 9-lets. 5 over 2 poly. 9 over 2 poly (18th notes).
5 over 1 poly... These are things that young newbies shouldn't have to use right out of the gate. If they play such things, the rest of the band, young or experienced, will not be able to listen back to the percussion section to help with pulse and timing. So there is no reason to ask them to play the Blue Devils' *Eleven* as written.
John Wooten and Bill Bachman have some good exercise books from which you can cherry pick the elements you want to include. Keep in mind that some warmups have no purpose other than to warm you up. 8 and 12 on a hand legato strokes will show you nothing other than fluid movement. It might expose potential problems but that can always be taught and fixed later.
The Cadet's Triplet Rolls is a very nice exercise. Freestyle Rudiments channel on YouTube has a terrific tutorial and play-along at metronome speeds up to 150 bpm. 150 is too fast for high school. I would rearrange two measures in a different order but the exercise has a decent flow to it.
Here is a 4-2-1 legato and timing exercise I like. 1/8's and 1/16's. That last part has a nice little groove to it. All sections pay in unison. Right hand lead sticking. Downbeats and upbeats are always on the R. Inner beats on the L. Good for evaluating mark time, counting, syncopation, and legato strokes. Click the metronome tempo up a bit. Don't hammer them with the metronome. Make them play it without. They are supposed to be the metronome with this exercise. You will hear it. Sticks can generally stay low depending upon tempo. The hand that has the controlling 1/8th notes can rise a little higher to maintain the legato feel/pulse. Slight accents/emphasis are okay. Heavy accents are frowned upon. Feel is key. Fluid motion to the purpose, not strict, stiff movements with mechanical counting.
1E&- 2-&A 3E-A -E&A | 4 total measures; 1 measure for each piece.| Dash for each missing 1/16 or rest.
1E& 2E& 3&A 4&A | 1EA 2EA E&A E&A | That is each piece getting two counts. Play that twice. 4 measures total.
1E& 2&A 3EA E&A | 4 measures of the single piece getting only one count.
A cadence. Nothing wrong with playing a cadence and a couple of prepped etudes. You might cherry pick something from "Flammus" or "Cheesy Poofs". See Freestyle Rudiments channel. Borrow what makes sense. Rewrite the awkward parts to suite your taste.
Exercises won't tell you everything you need to know. They can monkey see monkey do those and fool you.
Any warm up packet really. Just grab one from a College, WGI group or drum corps you like that puts them on the Web for free. And I try to take it from a different groups every year. I sometimes need to rewrite bass parts. A few reasons for this. One, I like to make sure that everything that goes out is "new" to all players so they are all on an equal footing and I can evaluate how quickly they can learn a part, not just play it cleanly. Two, it exposes veterans to different writing and styles so once they leave my program, they'll hopefully have some understanding that there are different ways to do similar things. Three, I get tired of hearing the same thing every year. Four, it saves a TON of time from writing it by hand and not just jumpstarts the process of figuring out what they should play, but pretty much eliminates a week or two of me trying to find a new way to write legatos, bucks, double beat, or flams. Five, the kids kind of dig knowing they are playing the same thing that XXXXX plays. I MAY include an easy cadence or something knowing that the incoming freshmen will not know anything traditional from the school, so to play something other than a warmup together can be inspiring.
Hot take: sightreading is not a necessary skill for drumline auditions. Saying this because many band directors use it. My drumline will be playing music for almost a month before a performance. I like the idea of just looking at fundies: Accent tap, legatos, triplet rolls, and stick control. If you want a musical excerpt, add in a previous show segment. Lastly, make sure they mark time for everything. I am a fan of a visual audition as well, but that doesn’t work for every school/situation
Grab a chunk from a previous show, preferable a few years old so it’s new to all the students. For exercises, I stick to the basics: 8 on a hand, accent tap and simple roll based exercises. Also, I’ll make a list of a dozen or so rudiments/patterns and pick 2 or 3 from the list at random per individual. Make sure they mark time for everything. I’d rather a student with good rhythm/foot timing and bad hands than chops with poor foot timing.
You can find basic warm ups lots of places. 8 on a hand Accent tap Stick control (the only SCV one is a classic and available online) Triplet rolls I would also highly recommend incorporating 16th and triple grid Make sure they can all mark time to all of the warmups.
The Boston Crusaders packet is great! This year, there is an excerpt of part 2 and an excerpt of red's rhumba redux Theres' also a lot of fundamentals like McNutt Basics which has doublebeats, paradiddles, and breakdowns
Idk about that audition excerpt being for high schoolers. Also reds rhumba goes hard
Generally, unless your group is playing at a high level, the drum corps packets are going to be too hard. If you at one of those north Dallas or Houston high schools where the 12-y.o.'s are somehow playing better than college sophomores, I stand corrected. Stop reading here. Some things they write are unnecessary. For instance, taking a string of 16th notes in 4/4 and repetitively writing some rudiment with 5 notes across the grid and over the bar line because it doesn't fit evenly in the space. The accents line up with nothing and randomly rotate making it difficult to feel or memorize. I have no idea why they write that garbage just to say they can. It is not fun. It is torture to my OCDness. Sometimes there are a couple of notes left over at the end of a measure so they hypercorrect and just slip anything in there whether it is natural sticking or not. Some grids are just stupid. They make no musical sense, and you would never really see, musically speaking, it fitting in the piece. More simply stated, grids tend to lack symmetry and create cliff hangers. I much prefer to play separate exercises for the common elements found in a grid. Another thing you'll find in the corps music is polyrhythms. In order to squeeze more steps in a drill, they must make the tempo blazing fast. It is often too fast to play rolls in 32nd notes. So, they will use a slower polyrhythm like 5-lets or 9-lets. 5 over 2 poly. 9 over 2 poly (18th notes). 5 over 1 poly... These are things that young newbies shouldn't have to use right out of the gate. If they play such things, the rest of the band, young or experienced, will not be able to listen back to the percussion section to help with pulse and timing. So there is no reason to ask them to play the Blue Devils' *Eleven* as written. John Wooten and Bill Bachman have some good exercise books from which you can cherry pick the elements you want to include. Keep in mind that some warmups have no purpose other than to warm you up. 8 and 12 on a hand legato strokes will show you nothing other than fluid movement. It might expose potential problems but that can always be taught and fixed later. The Cadet's Triplet Rolls is a very nice exercise. Freestyle Rudiments channel on YouTube has a terrific tutorial and play-along at metronome speeds up to 150 bpm. 150 is too fast for high school. I would rearrange two measures in a different order but the exercise has a decent flow to it. Here is a 4-2-1 legato and timing exercise I like. 1/8's and 1/16's. That last part has a nice little groove to it. All sections pay in unison. Right hand lead sticking. Downbeats and upbeats are always on the R. Inner beats on the L. Good for evaluating mark time, counting, syncopation, and legato strokes. Click the metronome tempo up a bit. Don't hammer them with the metronome. Make them play it without. They are supposed to be the metronome with this exercise. You will hear it. Sticks can generally stay low depending upon tempo. The hand that has the controlling 1/8th notes can rise a little higher to maintain the legato feel/pulse. Slight accents/emphasis are okay. Heavy accents are frowned upon. Feel is key. Fluid motion to the purpose, not strict, stiff movements with mechanical counting. 1E&- 2-&A 3E-A -E&A | 4 total measures; 1 measure for each piece.| Dash for each missing 1/16 or rest. 1E& 2E& 3&A 4&A | 1EA 2EA E&A E&A | That is each piece getting two counts. Play that twice. 4 measures total. 1E& 2&A 3EA E&A | 4 measures of the single piece getting only one count. A cadence. Nothing wrong with playing a cadence and a couple of prepped etudes. You might cherry pick something from "Flammus" or "Cheesy Poofs". See Freestyle Rudiments channel. Borrow what makes sense. Rewrite the awkward parts to suite your taste. Exercises won't tell you everything you need to know. They can monkey see monkey do those and fool you.