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Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Framing a Drumhead from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!

My son Matthew marched in the 2014 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with the Georgia State Marching Band and he was given the Macy's logo drumhead he played as a souvenir.  Watch me make a shadow box picture frame for the drumhead and see his reaction!


I never noticed before that all of the marching band drummers in the parade use drumheads with the Macy's logo on them.  That's pretty cool!  I'm so proud of my son and the GSU marching band for all of the hard work and effort that went into being a part of this legendary parade.

GSU Marching Band in New York City

The drumhead is 14" in diameter and about 3/4" thick.  I made the frame pieces out of a standard pine 2x6, and they ended up being 1" wide x 1.5" thick.  This allowed just enough room for an 1/8" groove to hold the front plexiglass, and a 1/4" rabbet on the back to hold a backer board, with about 1" of space in the middle for the drumhead.

Cutting Frames on a Table Saw

I used hot melt glue to stick the metal rim of the drumhead to the backer board.  This worked great and I think it looks nice with no visible fasteners.  Also, this method did not damage the drumhead in anyway and it can be easily removed later if needed.

Attaching a Drumhead with Hot Glue

I printed some 4x6 pictures from the parade and attached them with spray adhesive.  I also made a plaque on my Inventables X-Carve and attached it with hot melt glue.  I wanted the letters in the plaque to be black, so I sprayed it with black paint then removed the paint from the surface.  This method worked great.

Framed Pictures and Plaque

In this video, my son shows up at the 1:50 mark.  He is the snare drummer with the beard standing right in front of the camera.  (That's him closest to the camera in the thumbnail.)


This video shows Georgia State's televised performance.  It's unbelievable how much practice, hard work, and organization goes into preparing for just a 2 minute performance.  The band practiced several months leading up to the parade.  Just the logistics of getting the whole band and all of their instruments to New York City seems daunting to me.  Thanks to COOP3R DRUMM3R for posting this video on his YouTube channel.


Congratulations to my son and the Georgia State Marching Band for a job well done.  You made us proud!  Go Panthers!

Framed Macy's Parade Drumhead

2 comments:

  1. I marched in the 1987 parade and I think it's fantastic that he got to keep the drum head. Even better than you found a great way to frame it. He'll never forget it!!

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    Replies
    1. Cool! Congrats to you too for being in the parade. I did not realize how much preparation goes into it. What a neat experience. Thanks!

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