pbailey

it's an 8 mile parade. those were custom snares and quads cut in half to cut down on the weight. paul bailey madison 88-90 MSARP 2018

i can see how drum corps needs to pay rights fees to perform music because they are a private activity, but when i found out that show choirs, cheerleaders, and dance teams etc... have been paying little or no money confirmed my feeling that band directors are still mostly sheep that will agree to most anything that flashes a badge of authority even if it isn't backed by common sense or judicial precedent. overall i'm really sick of this crap of having to consider how much the performing rights are to create a marching band show each year and at the end of the day it really expands the widening gap between the "haves and have nots" especially when that performing rights money could go to directly help the students. this music is being performed by a public educational institution and should have always been fair use. btw... this is the same BS that the NFL tried to enforce back in the 90's not allowing pee wee and high school football teams to use their logos without paying huge licensing fees. the schools fought back and eventually won. these days they can use them for free

i have never been a big fan of electronics but my opinion is starting to change when i realized what is holding drum corps back from reducing the pit to two keyboard players (like in a broadway show) and replacing the rest of the pit with singers. wouldn't the most radical thing be actually directly entertain the audience and have part of our show actually include a great hornline and vocals. think of what a david bowie, queen, or elton john show really become? why beat around the bush with imitating acapellla music with a hornline? include it right in the show with a hornline accomp? at the end of the day maybe drumcorps has been approaching this all wrong and create shows that directly communicate to the audience via a production of instrumental and vocal music. why not? it seems like it's headed that way anyway, might as well skip to it's logical conclusion by adding all ww, brass, AND Vocals!

i think this year's show is performed very well but don't really understand who the audience is for the show?. my wife is a big JCS fan and loves it, get's all the movie and musical references, but unfortunately in comparison to the 1999 show the ending seems doesn't seem to be doing the corps any favors, it references the best part of 1999 but then meanders into a medley of lesser known JCS music. It's performed well and I feel for my skinny scout brothers doing there best to put on a great show every night. To be fair I feel the same way about many of the other shows (After a wonderful the wonderful Pines of Rome opening by the Cadets their show devolves into a musical menagerie that I quickly lose interest in, Same thing with Blue Knights. some interesting moments here and there, music that I kinda recognize, but whatever they are doing doesn't carry my attention or interest at all) Overall I keep hearing from corps complaints about how expensive touring is and how hard it is "to keep up with the Jones's". but how much more money does it cost to be competitive? $3000 for a summer is quite a bit of money. If I were a young music ed student who wanted to be a band director I could easily see it as an important experience in my future education, but probably might only be able to march one summer. Also back in the day I marched drum corps because it was the least expensive of all the collegiate-graduate level music training programs that I could participate in. These days you can still attend Round Top or Aspen for under $1500 (if you pass the audition), and besides that a student could get weekly private lessons with any principal player from a major symphony for under $3000 for the summer. At the end of the day it's too bad that the price to participate in drum corps has more than doubled because at these prices there are many activities that a young musician prospective teacher might want to consider besides marching in a drum corps for more than one summer.

I have 15 tickets that were donated by Madison Scouts alumni, former students (who don't live close enough to attend), and myself for the screening of Scouts Honor at the AMC Burbank 8 at 7:30pm tonight (June 15th). If you would like to attend message me and you can pick the tickets up at the door. MYNWA, Paul Bailey Madison Scouts 88-90