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Royal Crusaders History

World Record 20 mile march

Drum Bum 
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The Royal Crusaders Drum & Bugle Corps, always entertained, while placing consistently in the Top-25 of Drum Corps International.

The drum line pictured is actually from 1979, but I included it because, not only is it a good example of 80's drumming, it is also the platform that provided the basics for the Vince Schaefer drumming music project. The musical approach to playing a modern electronic drum set is similar to playing snare or tenor in a marching drum line. Double stroke and even triple stroke rudiments not generally feasible for use on a traditional trap-kit are quite practical on the rubber pad of an e-kit. After a while, playing on my DrumKAT percussion controller feels just like hammering on a drum. 

The picture on the right shows the snare line during a pre-show warm-up. Unique because they played matched German grip on the snares, as opposed to traditional grip, the drum line was innovators in the use of modern rudiments and musical quality. Along with the Santa Clara Vanguard, introduced the use of the practical snare drum harness, instead of slings. 

The corps played a diverse selection of tunes including music from the musicals "A Chorus Line",  "Magic Show", classical music by Wagner and Moussorgsky, as well as popular music by Gino Vanelli, Allman Brothers, and Santana. The staff included Mike Kumer (best known for: Dean of Music at Duquesne University);
 Jan Fung (best known for: Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble)
 Dr. Rande Sanderbeck (East Tennessee State); Mike Blazer, Tennis Trozzo, and many others. Lower picture shows snare line from other end; Dave Romza, Micky Beggy, Buddy Salvetti, Mark Valko, Vince Schaefer, Tom Milchick, Greg Ferreri, Scott Koder. 
     Other years I also marched with: Frank Miller, Rick Puso, Jim Desilva, who were all snare drum soloists. Frank also worked with: Odious Dyne Independent Winter Color Guard , and Steel City Ambassadors Drum and Bugle Corps.
   The Finleyville corps took two tours every summer, and usually played about 35 gigs in 45 days, so that provided good experience for my future in drumming! The first full time drum job I got after aging out of the Royal Crusaders was: Slate & Pearl featuring Carl Black, though I worked at the Pink Poodle Jazz Cafe, and performed with some of Pittsburgh's best jazz musicians. Click on Carl's link to hear a real audio file of him playing with my RX Band! The drum-line also set a world record for constant playing during 20 mile march. (walkathon)

I also taught the cadet corps, a few of those years, and was hired (and paid in full) to teach the corps drum-line in 1982. Who that was there can forget the performance at the Civic Arena (pre-parade) of: 'Boris Godunov, the third world version' by Vince Schaefer. During the spring the corps had 20 horns, (pretty good for spring as this corps went) a full drum-line and the guard was almost filled. It was a good winter which had the young drum line in almost perfect attendance, which was unusual in contrast to the years I marched. The ensemble was mostly people I taught at Carrick High, or South Park, or members that had come up through the Royal Crusader feeder corps, so everyone was already experienced at my drum-line program. Without explanation, in May,  the board stopped rehearsals. Most of the members found spots in the Crossman drum-line from the eastern part of the state, including friends, and future teachers: Diane Elizeus Bowser, and Pete Harris. Bobby Bolman who had marched for years in the feeder corps, stopped there long enough to become proficient at tympani, before moving on to perform with the world champion: Blue Devils from Concord California. 
For more information about Vince Schaefer Click Here!