FIG. 1: Winter Guard International sponsors and establishes standards for worldwide indoor percussion (drumline) competitions.

MET has featured some of the most progressive K through 12 music departments in the country in its “Spotlight” articles. But Center Grove High School of Greenwood, Indiana, is the most nontraditionally innovative traditional music program that we have ever covered. Winner of the 2005 Winter Guard International's Percussion Scholastic World Finals (WGI Sport of the Arts, www.wgi.org; see Fig. 1), the Center Grove High School Indoor Percussion Corp is a clear standout.

Indoor percussion is the fastest-growing category of the pageantry arts. In addition to school ensembles, there are numerous professional indoor-percussion groups around the globe. Formed in 1977 to standardize the rules of indoor percussion and provide leadership, Winter Guard International now includes companies from Africa, Belgium, England, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Japan, Korea, and the United States. WGI held 600 competitions last year, and the finals were attended by more than 120,000 spectators.

Winter Guard goes by many names, among them “indoor percussion” and “drumline.” Winter Guard companies perform indoors, and with only pit instruments (stationary musical instruments — they do not drill), percussion, and color guard. Winter Guard is not to be confused with Drum Corps, overseen by Drum Corps International (www.dci.org). Drum Corps is held outdoors on the field, its members wear traditional marching uniforms, and it includes drums, pit, brass, and pageantry.

“Performing indoor percussion is like creating Broadway in three minutes.” says Center Grove High School band director Kevin Schuessler. Each company develops a concept, and then writes music and designs a visual show around that concept. The 2005 competitors based their shows on everything from concrete concepts such as a basketball game or a drag race to esoteric ideas such as morality and karma. Coming up with themes can be an interesting task for the band director, because drumline has a traditionally smaller group of instruments than most other performing groups. And the idea is everything.

“With indoor percussion, you have to be aware of how effective the transfer of the original music is to the percussive palette,” explains Schuessler. “I find both Winter Guard and Drum Corps to be very engaging.” Over the years, outdoor and indoor percussion have become more visually and instrumentally varied, says Schuessler. He remembers when Drum Corps “was just a chops fest.” Groups like the Phantom Regiment in the 1980s were the hot kids on the block. Now good chops are expected, but the judging has more nuances, and the show is more important.

FIG. 2: The electronic percussionists “present arms” at the conclusion of the Center Grove High School Indoor Percussion Corps’ 2005 championship show Synosure.

Indoor percussion troupes are less traditional and more experimental than Drum Corps when designing their shows. While Drum Corps began allowing electronics, amplification, and electronic musical instruments on the marching field only two years ago, most Winter Guard troupes have been using combo instruments (drums, guitar, bass, and keyboards) for many years. Indeed, one often sees electronic percussion and synthesizers in the pit next to mallets and acoustic percussion.

How the Center Grove High School Indoor Percussion Corps plays electronic drums is anything but ordinary. Last year's winning show, Synosure, featured a section in which the snare players removed their harnesses and replaced them with Roland electronic drum pads mounted on marching harnesses (see Fig. 2). The signals from the pads were transmitted through Sennheiser wireless systems (see Fig. 3), and the sounds were produced by a Roland TD-8 drum module and amplified from the P.A. system. The electronics in the show were designed and implemented by Center Grove percussion director Jeff Huffman. “Huffman's Synosure production last year had all the meat and potatoes, all the chops, and then the artistic side to balance that off,” says Schuessler. It fed the entire judging community; everyone found something engaging.”

FIG. 3: The signals from the Roland electronic percussion pads are transmitted through Sennheiser wireless systems.

Electronic drums enable the group to trigger more than just other drum sounds from the module. One of the rules of WGI is that only one syllable or note can be triggered at a time. Performers can't trigger multiple notes at once, nor can they use polyphonic samples or loops. “That's the rule everyone would break if they could,” says Huffman. While not breaking the rules, Center Grove's troupe pushed the limits in their new show. When performing Synosure, the group members used their electronic pads to trigger traditional percussion sounds (see Web Example 1). But in this year's marching-band show, based on the FBI (see Fig. 4), the percussionists used the pads to produced typewriter sounds.

The 2006 show, which will go into WGI competition in April, has Huffman and Schuessler excited. “I'm actually more excited about this year,” says Schuessler. “It has a broad concept that's very twisted but really hip.”

FIG. 4: In Center Grove High’s 2006 marching-band show, based on the FBI, the percussionists used electronic pads (not shown) to produced typewriter sounds.

Technology, explains Huffman and Schuessler, has to be musical and enhance the musical idea of the show. Electronic drums are never used gratuitously. To date, electronics have been used to stretch the boundaries of a show rather than as its main element. Schuessler and Huffman say they like to “walk the edge” in their shows, but their main goal is to have the judges feel moved by the show.

“The main philosophy, whether in marching band or guard, is feeding the activity,” says Schuessler. “Electronics are not a competitive element for us. It's about doing what we want to do. It's about having the kids at the forefront and stretching the activity a little bit.” Does that always work? “No,” he laughs, “Sometimes we succeed, and we always learn something. And that's okay.”

One of the most stressful and intimidating aspects of performing drumline is the mere three minutes in which you have to set up the show on the floor. When the announcer calls out “You may take the floor” to the next group, it becomes a mad dash to roll out your floor tarp and get all your props in place (see Fig. 5). And some schools have very elaborate backdrops and props.

Working with technology in the short time frame that drumline requires takes nerves of steel. You get a penalty if you don't get done in time, and just one small penalty can determine the difference in how you place.

FIG. 5: An Indoor Percussion Corps member scrambles to help set up for the championship competition in the allotted three minutes. Starting late is not an option.

The biggest problems with electronics are always bad weather and unreliable equipment. Imagine working with something as complicated as electronic drum pads and wireless mics. “[Ironically,] none of the problems we've had have come from the drums,” says Huffman. “The dealer told us that V-drums were reliable, and a friend who plays them said the same thing. And they were right — we've had no problems at all with them. Of course, drumline is held indoors; we're more careful in the marching band, especially with mics.”

The Center Grove troupe's biggest problems have occurred with monitoring. When the sounds are coming from the P.A. and not from the drums, hearing your instruments can be difficult. This year's addition of Roland's percussion monitors and a full V-drum kit in the pit has helped resolve that problem.

“The trick is to be extremely systematic about this stuff,” advises Schuessler. “Set up with the same personnel and responsibilities every time. Make sure the same kid has the same responsibility each time.” Schuessler says that drumline is a marching band of tarps and props. “You have to be systematic, or all of a sudden you have an 80-foot vinyl sail [the floor tarp] going up, and that's not good.”

Huffman and Schuessler also train their students on how to handle problems that could come up during a performance. They walk them through troubleshooting procedures so that students know what to do if and when things go wrong. The students develop self-confidence because they are expected to handle their gear every day.

How did the Center Grove teachers come up with their approach to drumline and marching band? “I was a Rush junkie,” say Schuessler, who has been a band director for 19 years, 12 of them at Center Grove. “[Rush drummer] Neil Peart used electronics equally and appropriately. He knew when using electronics would work and when it wouldn't.” That approach takes practice and taste — two things Huffman and Schuessler strive for.

“I loved Van Halen,” says Huffman. “So anything I could do to get that big drum sound, I was into. I never felt that electronic drums were the enemy, because Alex Van Halen used them.”

Huffman was a Drum Corps kid, performing with the Star of Indiana, which later became the Blast Show. He decided after high school that the last thing he wanted to become was a band director, and so he instead studied mechanical engineering at IUPUI. “It took about four weeks to figure out how unhappy I was doing that,” he recalls.

Even as a high school senior, Huffman taught percussion, and he continued to teach while in college. Finally, Huffman said, he had to look at what he was doing with his life. “I rationalize it by saying I'm not a band director — I'm a percussion instructor. But in reality, I'm doing what I said I was never going to do.” Huffman now splits his time between Center Grove High and Center Grove Middle School, which are directly across the street from each other.

FIG. 6: Center Grove High percussion director Jeff Huffman’s method of mounting electronic drum pads to traditional marching harnesses and wireless mics is ingenious.

Huffman's friend Alex White used V-Drums with acoustic drums in his own live stage show and helped Huffman understand and manipulate the technology. Huffman then spent many nights on his couch in front of his TV set with an electronic drum pad and the TD-8 module, listening to various sounds. Huffman's method of mounting electronic drum pads and wireless microphones onto traditional marching harnesses is ingenious (see Fig. 6).

Huffman wasn't exposed to electronic drums in college, but his experience in high school marching band and drum corps made the transition to electronics easy. “The gum-rubber pad felt like practice pads,” he notes. “For any ensemble drummer, that's an easy switch to make.” The ensemble is currently experimenting with V-cymbals and the newer V-Drum mesh heads, which are more rugged than gum-rubber heads and feel more like real snare heads.

When Schuessler asked Huffman to design the 2006 show, Huffman thought, “Okay, how willing is this guy to trust me and try something new? Let's see if he goes for it.” Fortunately, Schuessler was more interested in creativity than in execution, so when Huffman introduced the idea of using electronic drums, the band director didn't hesitate. As long as the electronics served the passion of the show, Schuessler was all for it. “Passion speaks to people. They don't get off on ones and zeroes,” explains Schuessler. “I'd rather run a million miles an hour and die tomorrow than to live passively and die at 100.”

Most important, the kids thought it was cool. “That was the response I was looking for,” says Huffman. “Then they figured out how much lighter the electronic drums were than the marching snares. They thought that was way cool!” Huffman's kids aren't intimidated by technology. They just jump right in. “They think anything new is awesome. My first thought has always been about the band boosters,” he says.

Indeed, band boosters are amazing. More music-tech departments should consider adding a booster organization, because involved parents are the mainstay of any performing group. They raise funds, move gear, and make things happen because they're committed to the musical education of their kids. As a result, “The kids are getting the exposure that I wish I could have gotten,” says Huffman.

For those people who are proponents of the integrated use of music technology in school music departments, Center Grove High School provides a glimpse of what music education could become for the majority of schools. The program is more than just adding a technology lab or starting a commercial music department in another area of the music building; rather, it's about the full integration of music technology with traditional music so that the two approaches support each other (see the sidebar “How Traditional Programs Benefit”). Center Grove's idea of music education promotes well-rounded music students who are exposed to traditional approaches and current methods of music performance and production. It is about understanding technologies and learning how and when it is appropriate to use them, as well as stretching the boundaries of what's always been done to see what else we can do.

“It's just one of those inevitable things,” says Schuessler. “For example, it used to be that bugles were always played in the key of G. Now they are played in B^b. Why? Because it's just a better sound. I believe the whole electronic thing will evolve in a similar way. By adding one more family of voices to a band, the possibilities go up exponentially.”

Huffman adds that although he thinks most band directors are not resistant to incorporating technology into their music and really want to try new things, the worry about not being able to obtain adequate funding is always a consideration. “Every time you think of something that you would like to try, you're also thinking about your band boosters.” In addition, band directors' full-time schedules can be daunting, which can affect their ability to learn something new.

The kids are the ones who are the clear winners at Center Grove High School. Huffman's students greatly enjoyed doing something that no other group had ever done. For example, senior snare player Sean Bailey was delighted that, after the Center Grove troupe's final competition was over, other kids told the band members what a great show they had given. When on the floor, the performers couldn't clearly hear what was happening in the house. But afterward, Bailey recalls that “Everyone came up to us and said, “You guys were so loud! How did you do that? What were those things?” The best part of indoor percussion for Bailey was knowing that the group had done a good job while working with something that was very different.

Freshman snare player Phil Stiles followed his two sisters into the Center Grove High band. He'd never seen electronic drums before but notes that “It's not that different than playing on a practice pad, and I've done a lot of that. It's just natural.” Stiles's dream is to continue playing in the Indoor Percussion Corps, hoping to get into the Cavaliers or the Santa Clara Vanguard.

On March 25, 2006, the defending world champion Center Grove High School Indoor Percussion Corps won the Indiana Percussion Association state championship with its new show. By the time this article goes to print, the group will have participated in its fourth WGI national championship competition, which will be held on April 8 and 9 in Dayton, Ohio. The show, which was described by Schuessler as “twisted” and “a hip concept,” will serve to make further use of innovative electronic-drum technology.

The group is also interested in seeing what other companies will do with the new technology that Center Grove's troupe introduced last year. As Huffman says, “We want the electronics to be the exclamation point on an already strong show — strong enough for the judges to say, ‘Cool!’” To obtain more information about Center Grove High School's Indoor Percussion Corps program, visit the band's Web site at www.centergrove.k12.in.us/cghs/music.htm.

Debra Barbre is the music education specialist for Roland Corporation and sits on the executive board of TI:ME. For more information on integrating technology into your school music program, contact her at debra@rolandus.com or visit www.rolandus.com/community/musiceducation.

There are many ways that traditional music departments can benefit from a technology component. Here are just a few possibilities: