# Festive Fanfare — Drum Corps / Carnival Brass Band # Reference: DCI (Drum Corps International) battery percussion, Swiss brass band tradition, # Carnaval de Nice / Belgian carnival, New Orleans Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs, # "The Art of Drumming" (DCI educational materials, 2015) # A celebratory, high-energy drum percussion style for parades, festivals, and sporting events. # This is NOT military — it is festive, syncopated, and full of colour. Key characteristics: # - Rudimental snare technique: ghost notes, flams, and rolls build into strong accents. # - Bass drum punctuation on syncopated positions — NOT the steady march 1-and-2 pattern. # - Crash cymbals as dramatic exclamation marks, usually on downbeats or phrase endings. # - The "fanfare vamp" variation uses all instruments together for maximum impact. # - Swing_soft feel adds a slight forward lean that distinguishes festive from military march. # # Three variations capture different fanfare contexts: # fanfare_vamp — the main festive groove: strong snare + syncopated kick + crash opening # rudimental_build — escalating rudimental density; used to build energy in a parade or show # tutti_drive — all instruments driving 8th notes; max energy, used for key moments # # GM notes: 36=kick, 38=snare, 42=closed HH, 46=open HH, 49=crash, 50=hi tom, 41=lo floor tom # # ── Step grid notation ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────── # Each character in a step grid represents one subdivision of the bar. # Resolution controls how many steps per bar (16 = 16th notes in 4/4; 12 = 16th notes in 6/8). # # X Strong accent — velocity = base_velocity × 1.00 (full hit / downbeat) # x Medium accent — velocity = base_velocity × 0.75 (firm stroke / upbeat) # o Soft hit — velocity = base_velocity × 0.55 (brush / light touch) # g Ghost note — velocity = base_velocity × 0.28 (barely audible, mostly felt) # . Rest — no note fired at this step # # Beat positions — 4/4 at resolution 16 (one char per 16th note): # pos 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 # 1 e1 +1 a1 2 e2 +2 a2 3 e3 +3 a3 4 e4 +4 a4 # (1/+/2/+/3/+/4/+ = quarter beats; e = "e of"; a = "and-a of") # # Swing / feel: the 'feel' field shifts odd-indexed steps (1,3,5,7…) forward in time. # swing_soft — odd steps delayed ~16 % of a step — adds festive life without sounding lazy # ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── name: Festive Fanfare family: world bpm_range: [110, 155] time_signature: [4, 4] resolution: 16 feel: swing_soft instruments: kick: { note: 36, base_velocity: 110, velocity_range: 8, timing_jitter: 0.010, duration_beats: 0.14 } snare: { note: 38, base_velocity: 95, velocity_range: 15, timing_jitter: 0.012, duration_beats: 0.09 } hihat: { note: 42, base_velocity: 72, velocity_range: 10, timing_jitter: 0.010, duration_beats: 0.07 } crash: { note: 49, base_velocity: 110, velocity_range: 6, timing_jitter: 0.008, duration_beats: 0.24 } tom_hi: { note: 50, base_velocity: 90, velocity_range: 12, timing_jitter: 0.012, duration_beats: 0.10 } tom_lo: { note: 41, base_velocity: 95, velocity_range: 10, timing_jitter: 0.012, duration_beats: 0.12 } humanization: timing_jitter: 0.012 velocity_jitter: 14 velocity_drift: 0.06 sections: intro: type: count_in hits: 4 note: 38 groove: bars: 1 variations: - name: fanfare_vamp weight: 3 # The main festive fanfare groove. Crash marks the top of each bar — the # unmistakable signal to the crowd that something is happening. Snare plays a # rudimental pattern: ghost notes between the accented backbeats (pos 4, 12) # create the "rolling" texture of DCI-style battery percussion. The kick is # syncopated, hitting beat 1 plus the and-of-2 (pos 6) and and-of-4 (pos 14) # — positions that interlock with the brass melody hits in a real fanfare. kick: "X.....X.X.....X." snare: "g.g.X.g.g.g.X.g." hihat: "x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x." crash: "X..............." - name: rudimental_build weight: 2 # Escalating rudimental density — a DCI-style build. The first half of the # bar plays lightly (ghost notes + soft hits), the second half escalates to # full accents. The kick anchors beats 1 and 3. Tom fills appear on beats 3 # and 4 to signal the escalation. This variation creates the sense of growing # excitement before a musical climax. kick: "X.......X......." snare: "g.o.g.o.X.x.X.x." tom_hi: "........X.x....." tom_lo: "............X.x." hihat: "x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x." - name: tutti_drive weight: 2 # Maximum energy fanfare drive: all instruments at full 8th-note density. # This is the "wall of sound" moment in a live fanfare show — used at the # climax of a parade or at the end of a musical phrase where everyone hits # together. The crash on every beat reinforces the "hit" quality. # Rare in context (low weight), but devastating when it appears. kick: "X...X...X...X..." snare: "X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x." crash: "X...X...X...X..." hihat: "x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x." fill: bars: 1 variations: - name: snare_roll_build # Rudimental snare roll that escalates from ghost to full accent — the classic # battery "rush" that signals a section change in marching percussion. snare: "gXgXgXgXgXgXgXgX" kick: "X..............." crash: "X..............." - name: tom_cascade # Toms descend from hi to lo as the bar progresses — the "waterfall" fill # common in concert band and drum corps battery percussion. tom_hi: "X.X.X.X........." tom_lo: "........X.X.X.X." kick: "X..............." snare: "....X.......X..." - name: tutti_crash_build # 16th-note snare run into a unison crash — maximum drama for section endings. # The crash lands on the downbeat with kick and snare simultaneously. snare: "x.x.x.X.x.x.X.X." kick: "X.......X...X..." crash: "X..............." crash: bars: 1 variations: - name: standard crash: "X..............." kick: "X...X...X...X..." snare: "g.g.X.g.g.g.X.g." hihat: "x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x." structure: fill_every: 4 break_every: 0 break_length: 1 crash_after_fill: true dynamic_build: true