What is Indoor Percussion?
Indoor percussion is a high-energy athletic and musical activity that pushes members to achieve their highest possible performance level. This activity is similar to marching band, but does not include wind instruments and is practiced and performed indoors as opposed to on a field. Our indoor percussion ensemble is comprised of three sections: the battery, front ensemble, and color guard.
BatteryThe battery is the “drumline” of the indoor drumline. This section is comprised of snare drums, bass drums, tenors, and cymbals, and is responsible for generating the majority of the rhythmic interest of the music. Members of the battery must meet the demanding simultaneous responsibilities of marching and playing at the same time, staying in the form, and maintaining an overall high level of performance quality.
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Front EnsembleThe front ensemble, often referred to as the “pit”, is the section of the ensemble that primarily provides the melodic and harmonic content of the program. This section includes the mallet instruments, a drum set, auxilliary percussion, synthesizers, guitar, bass guitar, etc. Members of the front ensemble must lock into each other and to the battery while also maintaining high performance quality.
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Color GuardThe color guard is a purely visual component of the ensemble and thus helps convey and develop the thematic content of the show in a way that the battery and front ensemble may not be able to. This section does not produce music, but uses a variety of props and carefully crafted choreography built with the battery drill to portray the emotions and bring life to the show music.
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