Boise State Blue Thunder Marching Band Drumline

Boise State Drumline Video Transcript

Video opens with the camera facing the drumline. The drumline is arranged in a three-sided rectangle with members standing in straight lines — quads on the right, snares directly in the middle, bass drums lined up behind the snares, and cymbals lined up to the left. As a metronome counts off the rhythms, the entire group begins to play in unison to a traditional marching band-style beat.

[Music]

At 0:09, the camera focuses on the bass drums as each player performs their unique pattern. At 0:14, the camera again becomes centered and shows the whole group while the beat shifts to a more rock-oriented rhythm. At 0:27, the camera shifts its focus to the quads while pulling back to reveal part of the snare line. The snares and quads perform the same rhythm in unison during this video portion. At 0:36, the camera focuses on the bass drums. At 0:41, the camera focuses on the cymbal players before quickly cutting to the quads and then back to the entire group.

At 0:59, the tempo speeds up slightly. Four of the cymbal players move in front of the snare players, slightly to the right of each snare drum. Each cymbal player holds their cymbals out horizontally, which allows the snare players to perform a jazz-like beat on the cymbals along with the snare drum. At 1:12, the quad players alternate between quad hits, stick tricks, and counting the beat with their sticks. The cymbal players then return to their original positions.

At 1:27, the camera again focuses on the bass drum line before returning to the center. At 1:55, the entire drum line breaks its original attention stance and switches to a more casual at-ease stance to highlight the more rock-oriented section of the piece. They then return to attention stance at 2:07. [Tempo increases] At 2:20, the group swats wide for a moment before concluding the piece in dramatic flair, in unison.