drumline

The section of the band that consists of a Batterie(no, that is not misspelled), or the field percussion, and a front ensemble, or pit, consisting of mallet and auxiliary percussion and often a bass guitar. The field percussion often consists of 3-4 snares in smaller bands and 7-10 in bigger bands, 4-5 bass drums, 2-3 multi-tenors (quads, quints, or sixpacks), and 2-3 marching cymbals. They are the hardest working, most featured section of the marching band and are often the flashiest as well. When the band enters the stadium, they often march at the back or in the middle, and play a 30 second-1 minute piece of music featuring the drumline, often called a "cadence" or "street beat". The best snare, also called "drum captain" or "center snare", starts the cadence with a signal yell or phrase and keeps the beat for the drumline during the show by yelling "daht" to the beat of the drum major during rests. Sometimes, they will challenge other drumlines to a "drum battle", which consists of playing prepared cadences until one line runs out of ideas and are declared the loser.