Tama Marching Drums Debut at PASIC
Tama has officially climbed into the marching percussion ring. Along with unveiling at PASIC 2012, the division has also launched its full-featured website, tamamarching.com.
Much of the curiosity and enthusiasm about the line is due, no doubt, to the participation of marching drum master Tom Float. His decades of experience with drums and carriers had yielded a long list of status-quo shortcomings and safety hazards. “When we started the development process at Tama, those problems – and the solutions to those problems – were tacked on the wall as design mandates. Most of those solutions are terrific innovations that would be impossible if we weren’t rethinking and building these drums from the ground-up,” says Float. Add to those innovations Tama’s well-earned reputation for great-sounding drums that are easy on the eye, and as Float reports, “Drummers who’ve played the drums and seen the design improvements in action usually react with something like ‘Wow, now that is cool!’”
“The Tama approach has always been to use the real world as our R&D lab,” says Tama marching drum specialist Jason Ranck. “Our drums and accessories have always been developed collaboratively with musicians who subject our gear to the harsh realities of their playing environment.” Over the last few years the Tama Marching Percussion team has worked closely with such nationally ranked competitive marching percussion squads as Ayala High School (Chino Hills, CA), James Logan High School (Union City, CA), Foothill High School (Henderson, NV), San Marcos High School (Santa Barbara, CA) and most recently the Avon Marching Black & Gold (Avon, Indiana).
tamamarching.com features video and an interview with Tom Float, product videos, pics, specs, as well as functionality that allows band directors to assemble Tama Marching Drum packages virtually, which can be submitted to the dealer of their choice for pricing.
