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Alabaster Box

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    Div 1 Corps 2006

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  1. Not trying to start an argument here... But I would tend to disagree. For my tastes, anyway. To me, when I've heard drum corps' do vocals they seem to kind of "jump off the field" at me. It's like sitting down to enjoy sushi and then someone dumps a bottle of Louisiana hot sauce all over your eel roll. Ew! But that's just my tastes, and I'm not not a singer/vocalist by any means. It's not so much that the vocals themselves that I think are bad, just the way the blends into the show. I don't mind a little spice but I'd much rather have a dab of wasabi on my sushi, please!
  2. The ONLY time I've ever seen amplified singers used in a show in a way that worked.....was East Lake High School out of Florida a couple years ago. I saw them at a competition, and their show was based on an opera, but I don't remember the name. They had like 3 or 4 kids from their school's choral program who sang during parts of the show, but the singing blended in so well with the band. I think they sung some stuff in latin and it was mostly pretty low-key...almost like ambiance music. It was beautiful, and I've never seen anything like it since. Has anyone else seen this show? I guess that's really not answering the OP's question so I'll say this: IF a corps could reproduce that effect I don't care if they use vocals and I don't care who composes them. Although, that would be pretty incredible if Eric Whitacre composed an a cappella section for a corps. His vocal stuff completely blows his wind ensemble stuff away. The problem I've seen with vocals (amped) in drum corps is that the activity hasn't figured out how to incorporate them into the show in a way that is non-glaring. Normally when I hear amped vocalists I just find it grating to listen to, because really vocalists aren't going to sound that great amplified out in a huge stadium in the first place. It just seems like the acoustics of the venue make singers stick out from what's going on and, in my mind, makes the singing distracting from what's going on.
  3. How do we define melody? Does it mean that the entire show has to be written in 1:1 counterpoint? Does there have to be melody for a piece of music to be emotional? I listen to a lot of music that I find highly emotional and I can't hum it. On a side note, why hasn't anyone ever done Aram Khachachurian's Piano Concerto on the field? I mean..come on...it's amazing.
  4. Why BD and not Cadets? Maybe BD has been doing it longer...but arguably the Cadets changes are more drastic.
  5. That is what he said, but that's totally taken out of context. Ask Michael Boo about this one. On another note, I'm kind of curious as to why people this this move will be so detrimental to Revo. Maybe someone has already pointed this out, but would Crossmen being in the area really be that much worse than BD/Cavs/Blue (and more to come in the future I'm sure) hosting auditions there? Yeah they're in the same city but...I don't know, if anything I see the relationship being a good thing more than a negative.
  6. B) It seems like many corps don't really care if people wear Trooper's shirts. Everyone's a fan!
  7. Having kids who already know basics of articulation, style, flexibility and blend isn't going to hurt you by a long shot. I just means that the staff is that much further ahead with what they have to teach. I think a good example of staff talent versus member talent is the Cadets. No doubt there's talented kids there, but I know of kids who got cut from other Div1 corps and then got spots at Cadets....and then the Cadets ended up beating or placing close to those other corps. I know of other examples where a corps has been filled with talented kids and not placed well. Boston 2001 comes to mind, as they actually attracted people from others corps who had rings and ended up falling in placement. For me it's a toss up between the design team and the instructional staff, however. I mean, you get the most points in the GE caption so I would say that having a strong design team is actually more important, because it's going to net you more points then strong execution. I think a good example of this would be 2003 Cavaliers. That show was definitely hard as f***, and you can tell the kids got worn out because there are some pretty egregious execution errors, especially in regards to timing in the feet. BUT that show was designed to take GE to the max and they still ended up in second place even though they may not have executed as highly as a couple of the corps who placed below them. Execution or no, it's still one of my favorite shows ever. As one friend said, "It was an over-designed show for a corps already peforming at the maximum highest level." I think that sums it up nicely. So I would rank, in order, Design Team, Instructional Staff, and Members. Obviously the stronger the members are, they easier it is for the staff to clean the show and add things. And obviously, the stronger the instructional staff is, the more the design team can throw at them. And really, the attitude of the kids has more to do with how they perform than their talent level.
  8. While buzzing can be very beneficial, most professional don't recommend spending more than a few minutes on it a day (as a supplement). Of course, using it while working on etudes and whatnot is not included in that time. Plus, if you're just lounging out watching commercials while buzzing, you're probably not really paying attention to the steadiness of the tone, the smoothness of the buzz from high register to low, or to what the embouchure/air is doing to move around the mouthpiece. You're probably not sitting with good posture either, reinforcing bad breathing habits. Just my 2 cents.
  9. I don't know if that's a *requirement*...I mean, Maynard Ferguson wasn't the skinniest guy around and look at what HE could do... :P Kidding aside, I actually have been told that being a little hefty can be a benefit when it comes to brass playing...the increased girth can expand your lung capacity. Not that I'm trying to advocate getting fat to be a better musician or anything...
  10. It used to be that many of our great leaders were liberally-minded. Now it's a disease?...I guess I missed the memo on that one. <**>
  11. Actually, if your system is anything like the one in Florida, it's not all that great. The money from gambling isn't "extra" money. They just take away the money they were already supplying via taxes and replace it with gambling money, so really the schools aren't any better off. It's just a "feel good" system. <**>
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