SCTuba

I was also about to make this point. I don't think it's time just yet to write Bloo off. They've got a solid product that I could definitely see the crowd getting behind. If they just continue to plug away, clean and add and do their thing they could find themselves within a point or so of 1st by the time the last week of the season rolls around with some huge forward momentum going their way. So long as they pace it so they don't plateau this thing could go all the way I think. The progression of this season should be interesting and fun to watch at the very least.

Kennesaw Mountain High School had LED lights on their uniforms and props last year. WCU used them on their drumline last year too, although that's been referenced many times on this forum.

Yeah, look at the guard uniforms. That's a shot from Phantom 2012, a Crown picture will probably be put in as the final cover.

I've only heard vague things about Diamond before now, so at your mentioning this I looked the piece up. WOW. There's fantastic material throughout the entire work that could provide enough to make an absolute home run of a drum corps show. It's like Copland meets Bruckner meets a movie score feeling meets the awesome flair of the 20th and 21st centuries with a whole bunch of other things thrown in. This stuff needs to get put on the field.

From my own observations seeing everyone live, I'd have to give it to The Cadets. Their hornline as a whole was extremely solid, but their low brass was fantastic. A dark, rich sound while still maintaining plenty of clarity, which adds a huge amount of depth to the overall sound of the hornline IMO.

It's short for "Too Long; Didn't Read".

I'd say it's pretty likely there's a large number of music majors in corps nowadays. Drum corps experience is a HUGE plus for anyone looking to apply to teach band at the high school level, especially at schools with bands that perform on competitive circuits. It gives candidates a different experience than what they get at college (which is where most drum corps participants get their formal symphonic training, at least in undergrad) and lets them bring a much more diverse skill set to the table vs. other candidates. I also wouldn't be surprised if the percentage from BITD was a bit higher than you think as I've heard of many musicians and music educators nowadays who marched corps in the early 90s and farther back. As the activity has progressed it has become more viable and practical for the college music major to participate in for various reasons, and thus the percentage has increased over the years to the point where it is now (and I would assume it will at least stay around the same level if not continue to increase).

They're marching 12 this year, there were just 2 holes tonight it seems.

http://www.madisonscouts.org/blog/?p=1003 Official announcement. Pretty classy move by Phantom.

From what I've seen in my experiences and knowing people from multiple institutions, you don't have to be a music major to get a music-based scholarship. Most of the time they will require some level of participation within the music program (which could vary anywhere from simply taking lessons to having some ensemble involvement depending on what instrument the audition was on), and most of the larger scholarships will more than likely be reserved for the music majors enrolling in the school, but I've still known non-majors to get rather sizable awards for music simply by being able to walk into their auditions and blow the faculty away, which I'd imagine your son will be able to do easily if he's already able to play Rach on piano. So the short answer is yes, and he can actually earn a TON of scholarship money from having the boost from a music scholarship and being an engineering major, which can earn lots of money and incentives depending on what the institution has to offer.

This image shows the details of the right arm a bit better than other pictures.

That sound + Saucedo arrangements = This is gonna be good. I'm extremely excited to see the product the Blue Stars will put out this year.

2013 drum finish (via PR's Facebook):

The headgear here reminds me of what Ronald Reagan HS from San Antonio wears. This is the best picture I could find. You can kind of see how it looks in the background, and Jolesch has some pictures as well that it can probably be seen better in. That was the first thing that entered my mind when I saw the sketch, not sure how indicative it is of Crown's choices for this year.

Total rumor. I've known 3 guys that got spots in the Bluecoats' hornline as rookies with only high school marching experience. Coming prepared for your audition and showing a good attitude and work ethic can compensate for a lack of experience a lot of the time from what I've observed/heard about.