The marching band is often tasked with transforming popular music into arrangements that are easily recognizable to fans attending football games. When arranging popular music, the drumline arranger usually transcribes recordings that originally include drumset. The arranger is then posed with a dilemma: whether or not to have the cymbal section hold for the snare line. When the cymbals hold their cymbals for the snares, their instruments can easily imitate the sounds of hi-hats, ride cymbals, and crash cymbals. The dilemma occurs when considering the aspect of movement. If the drill writer wants to incorporate the drumline more into drill, the cymbal section may be moved away from the snare line.

In this session, the clinician will present examples of drumline arranging that serve to mimic drumset parts, with the snare line and cymbal lines operating independently. Attendees will be shown musical examples, then hear the musical examples in context with the drumline and full band. The clinician will also go through different marching cymbal tones that can improve attendees’ arranging and give examples of how to indicate these tones in scores. This session was first presented at the National Conference on Percussion Pedagogy in 2026.