aaronfingers

They used a Kaiser Serpent (www.kaiserserpents.com), which costs about $800

Incorrect...For the 'A' Corps, Wayne Downey is still the arranger, John Meehan is the captionhead.

I just came across this "Accent Marching Academy" on facebook...curious if anyone has heard about this or attended one of the sessions. Any thoughts? Looks like an interesting mix of corps are represented on the clinicians/staff section. Here's the FB page: https://www.facebook.com/accentmarching Here's the main website: http://www.accentmarching.com/

No. The head drum major (the one you are referring to on the video) is named Jeff Christopherson. However, the backfield drum major was Scott Atchison--the current brass captionhead of the Cavaliers.

Mike (the horn doctor) is without a doubt one of the best repair people around. If he didn't live more than a thousand miles from where I live, I would have him do ALL of my personal horn cleaning and repair work. I would even bring my personal horns to his traveling repair trailer...because Mike is THAT good. I'm sorry to hear Mr.TsoChicken had a weird experience with him. Honestly, it sounds like you dealt with another horn repair guy. I've personally watched Mike work out of his traveling trailer for several years now (on probably over 3 or 4 dozen instruments at this point), and what he's able to do in that small space is incredible. I've NEVER seen him send a horn back out with solder balls and holes...never. I have, however, seen that kind of slop on repairs from another drum corps repair guy who shall remain nameless...but not from Mike. Keep up the amazing work, Mike!

That's not entirely true either...if you look at the Academy website, the 2011 staff is still listed. On brass staff: 1 BD vet, 1 Academy vet, and the rest are from Regiment. If you're talking about the Academy staff in general, sure there are more Academy/BD vets sprinkled throughout...but the brass staff was mostly PR vets. Who knows if Christian will bring his crew over from Academy, or if he's got a new team in place...either way, Christian is a fine teacher and he will no doubt bring his "A" game to Regiment. I'm looking forward to hearing the hornline under his leadership.

Looks like The Blue Devils will be LIVE streaming their rehearsal today (Sunday) every hour, on the hour until 5 pm (pacific time). I just watched the first clip of the day, and the feed is MUCH smoother than yesterday. Kinda cool to see bits of their rehearsals this early in the season. If you're interested, you can watch at either: http://bluedevils.org/live/ or Live Video

If feet aren't in time, the members definitely won't be able to play in time, regardless of how great their technique looks. Timing is everything- teach foot timing first. Having members simply walk in time to a Dr. Beat or to a popular song on the radio is a great way to go, and it really doesn't take that long to get the point across.

In his defense, there is a "no mouthpiece buzzing" school of thought that some educators/performers preach. Not saying it's right or wrong, but it does exist.

PR won brass in 89 and 96...and maybe 78? I watched Phantom during a stand still warm up in 2008 and they sounded MARVELOUS. I think some of the errors or shortcomings you/we hear on the field show recordings are directly related to their visual issues. If you can't march well, it's not likely you'll be able to play your best.

BD 2006 maybe?

http://bluedevils.org/programs/a/staff.php?programID=1 or from the main website, go under "Programs", then "A Corps", and then the "Staff" link is near the top part of the page.

I bet it's because of the Midwest Band/Orchestra Clinic there this week/weekend. One, if not the biggest convention for musicians and music educators in the country.

Now that I think about it, I know another case of this happening; the same situation as the first, cut in november, but was on the field finals night with the same corps/same year. This happened in 2009 and 2010, two of them were tubas and 1 was a trumpet player. And thinking back to when I marched, this happened almost every year. Someone I saw get cut in January would one way or another end up as a member on tour...it never happened to more than 1 or 2 people each year, but it happened.