It took me a good long while to understand why SCV consistently takes home high percussion every year. After going back and watching every vanguard show 2011-present (rennick started with SCV in ‘11) here’s what I’ve noticed. 1/?

Let's start with why it might be hard to believe that SCV wins every year. Their book isn't exactly the hardest, and it's not always the cleanest. (Usually, it's really really tight, but there have been noticeable bits of dirt.) It's also really different than most other music.

Here's why I think they win every year:

The sound quality from those drums is AWESOME. The tuning of those quads is either my favorite or my no. 2 (BK is up there.) They're tuned a lot lower than most quadlines and I think that adds to the unique sound.

The snares are also tuned in a really unique way, a lot lower than in most places. They're oddly wet, but still really tight.
Twss
Both of these being tuned really low give SCV's sound such beefiness and oomph found nowhere else.

Adding on to the discussion of sound quality, the Vanguard drumline produces the best sounds in DCI. Which is odd to me, since I watched a lot of snare cams and they don't always play in the center??? Either way, it sounds so BEEFY and amazing.

The orchestration between the snares and the quads is something to marvel at. The interplay is amazing and always interesting. I found PDF's of snare book and quad book and watched both while listening and I was amazed.

PR writes for quads in such a unique and musical way. Most "quads" actually have 5-6 drums, the smallest drums are called spock drums. Most use them for effects or accents, akin to rimshots on snares. PR writes quad parts like true 5-drum parts, not just using spocks for accents.

The snare writing is also very unique and musical. It requires touch like no other book. It's unique and new while still keeping an old school vibe. It isn't flashy. The hardest rhythms I've seen are upbeat triplets, upbeat 5s, and 4:3 sixteenths. Nothing real difficult.

That being said, the music isn't easy. It's fast (2019 went up to 210 bpm) and requires chops and touch. It plays with dynamics in a way no other corps does. Every part of a phrase does something musical. Who said drummers just bang on stuff?

On a larger scale, the interplay and between the battery and the front ensemble is something to marvel at. They aren't 2 separate sections, they're 1 percussion section. Every year PR puts out a Youtube video of just the percussion book and it's almost a show in itself.

A principle in the Vanguard drumline is that sound leads to technique, not vice versa. That's why you see some weird-looking hands in the snareline. Most drummers could watch them play and point out 5-10 different things "wrong"
in each player's technique.

This isn’t a bad thing, quite the contrary. If a certain technique leads to a better sound, why would we not use it? There’s a philosophy that technique leads to sound, which is fine and good, but vanguard’s “sound first” technique seems to work.