Bill Bachman On Marching Tenors

Helping your tenor line develop clean technique, consistent tone, and confident movement around the drums can be some of the most challenging parts of teaching a marching percussion section. This series is designed to give you the tools and vocabulary to teach it effectively.

In this series, Bill breaks down the core fundamentals you can bring directly into your own rehearsals: 8 Figure Eights, 4 Basic Scrapes, Legato Flow, Tuning Your Tenors, and Playing on the X & Y Axis.

Each video is built to be a resource you can pull from directly, whether you’re introducing fundamentals to a young line or refining technique with your veterans. Consider this your toolkit for teaching tenors with clarity and confidence, straight from one of the most respected names in the activity.

A challenging drill combining outward and inward scrapes across all four drums, designed to build consistent hand motion, tone quality, and control no matter where your arms are traveling.

The four foundational scrapes every tenor player needs, taught with an emphasis on small motion and maximum sound, ideal for teaching efficient technique early.

Strategies for helping students travel across the drums while maintaining a smooth, legato, rebound-based stroke.

A practical, straightforward approach to tuning that will help your line sound its best, no guesswork required.

This more advanced concept from Bill’s book, QuadLogic, is useful for pushing your top players toward the next level of technical control.