"Marching Bands and Drumlines" Book by Paul Buyer

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Marching Bands and Drumlines: Secrets of Success from the Best of the Best by Paul Buyer book info & exclusive interview

April 13th, 2009 by James Voss Grumish

[photo courtesy of Patrick Wright]

Dr. Paul Buyer, Director of Percussion at Clemson University, recently finished his new book, Marching Bands and Drumlines: Secrets of Success from the Best of the Best.

Buyer consistently found a set of Five Factors Influencing Excellence by spending time on-campus with some of the best college marching bands in the country:

Louisiana State University’s Tiger Marching Band
University of Alabama’s Million Dollar Band
Western Carolina University’s Pride of the Mountains Marching Band
Michigan State University’s Spartan Marching Band
“The Best Damn Band in the Land” at Ohio State University
Green Brigade Marching Band at the University of North Texas
“The Pride of Arizona Marching Band” at the University of Arizona

This book is more informative than any “What works for our group is…” convention presentation in a stuffy hotel ballroom. Instead, it’s Buyer’s perspective and analysis as an observer finding the common threads of excellent programs. The research and insights of Marching Bands and Drumlines might just be the next great resource for marching music educators.

Students, tell your band director about this book! Email your director this link or quickly print this Marching Bands and Drumlines Flyer and drop it in their office.

Want to know more? Buyer was kind enough to answer a few questions about the book just for you, the FreeDrum.Info readers. Enjoy the interview.

FreeDrum.Info: Aside from being great bands, how did you determine the list of programs you wanted to spend time with?

Dr. Paul Buyer: With over twenty bands on my initial list, I decided to choose seven schools based on their home football schedules, diversity in location, athletic conference, and marching band tradition, and reputation for having an excellent marching band.

FD.I: Although it examines college marching bands that are traditionally recreational in nature, how might your book assist highly-competitive high school programs?

Buyer: I use the term entertainment, rather than recreation, but my book emphasizes the importance of developing intrinsic motivation, something I feel is lacking in many competitive high school band programs. Rather than offering extrinsic motivation such as ratings, rankings, scores, judges’ tapes, and trophies to reward winning, students develop intrinsic motivation and values such as accountability, self-discipline, and pride. In addition, highly-competitive high school programs will learn life lessons that transcend the activity such as goals, expectations, leadership, teamwork, culture, motivation, practice habits, musicianship, and recruiting and retention.

FD.I: How much of the book is specifically about drumline? What areas of marching percussion are covered?

Buyer: One interesting thing I found in my research is that there is no gap between the band and the drumline when looking at the top programs. They are connected - a true team - and it became impossible for me to talk about the drumline without talking about the band. That said, much of the book is based on interviews with the band directors and drumline instructors, so there’s a lot of information specifically about marching percussion, especially from Paul Rennick at North Texas. The areas covered are basically how the book is organized: setting goals, establishing expectations, teaching life lessons, studying leadership styles, instilling motivation, developing practice habits, building musicianship, evaluating recruiting and retention, and crunching the numbers (statistical data from each school). Based on my research, these are the real secrets of success in the marching band activity.

FD.I: What is one thing you picked up during your research that you’ll be sure to include in your own program in the future? Where did you learn the technique/method?

Buyer: One of the Five Factors Influencing Excellence is culture. At Michigan State, band director John Madden emphasizes how important it is to pass down expectations.

When someone acts out of line, we say, ‘That’s not who we are, that’s not what we do.’ Our expectations are part of our culture … MSU is a school associated with a big tradition and identity. We definitely have a culture of student leaders and veteran members passing down to younger members our routine. It’s a real ‘pass-it-down’ band.

FD.I: You explain the core elements of success as culture, staff and student leadership, rehearsal time, number of shows, and competitive auditions. Is this what you expected to find? Were there any surprises along the way?

Buyer: Great question. I did not come up with the Five Factors until I was about halfway through my sabbatical. After observing the first 3-4 schools, I started to see the common denominators. There were not too many surprises in terms of why these bands achieve excellence, but it was inspiring to see it for myself - on different campuses, in different situations, across the country. It was more of an experience of, “I believe these things, and I want to see if other people are like-minded in terms of teaching a marching percussion ensemble.” I was evaluating myself as an educator and a leader and wanted to see how my program stacked up against the best.

FD.I: Where can people buy a copy of the book?

Marching Bands and Drumlines can be found at Amazon.com for under $20.

FreeDrum.Info is very appreciative of Dr. Buyer’s comments. Thank you, Paul. Any students wishing to consider Clemson University can find more information at the Clemson Performing Arts website.

Dr. Paul Buyer is Director of Percussion, Director of Music, and Associate Professor of Music at Clemson University. Prior to his appointment at Clemson, Dr. Buyer served as Assistant Director of Bands and Coordinator of Percussion at Garland High School in Garland, Texas. He received his Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees from The University of Arizona and his Bachelor of Science degree from Ball State University. Dr. Buyer is a contributing author to the second edition of Teaching Percussion by Gary Cook and his articles have appeared in the American Music Teacher, Teaching Music, and Percussive Notes. He is a former member of the Star of Indiana Drum and Bugle Corps and placed 2nd in DCI Keyboard Individuals in 1990. In 1992, he was a percussion staff member with the Dutch Boy Drum and Bugle Corps. Dr. Buyer serves as a clinician/endorser for Remo Drumheads, Sabian Cymbals, Pro-Mark Drumsticks, and is a consultant for Mike Balter Mallets. He is a member of the Percussive Arts Society’s Marching Percussion and College Pedagogy Committees and is chair of the PAS Education Committee.

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