Blue Team refers to a philosophy on drum techniques which directly opposes Red Team drumline.
Blue Team was born on the
West Coast, pioneered and championed by guys like
Tom Float,
Paul Rennick,
Ralph Hardimon, and
Scott Johnson.
Blue Team drumlines came into being in the early nineties with the advent of the
Falam and
Tendura drumheads. With heads being made out of bullet-proof material that could withstand hundreds of foot pounds of pressure, a new technique had to be developed. Playing through the drum and quality of sound became the priorities of the Blue Team drumlines that dominated in the nineties, and I especially emphasize the battery here. With the tuning techniques and
projection capabilities the new
heads and
playing styles brought about, a revolution in
marching percussion occurred.
The
quality of sound and
emotional intensity of a Blue Team
drumline is developed to a higher degree than that of a Red Team drumline, but this sometimes causes
clarity and
precision to be sacrificed. (Yours truly happens to be a Blue Team advocate.)
Blue Team drumlines include:
Any drumline that can participate fully in either school of thought is never a bad drumline... being one team or the other does not delineate good or bad, simply different philosophy.
A drumline which was a perfect mixture of everything good about each school of thought was
the 1993 Star of Indiana drumline. If you have the means, I highly recommend procuring a recording through
Drum Corps International.