What will help DCI become more entertaining

[drumguy50]

What will make the DCI product a better fit for mass audiences and more attractive to former members and fans. I'll start. Less WGI guard influence. Looking at recaps recently and the listings of those in charge of judging it is way too many WGI guard judges. I attended WGI finals last year and found it to be boring and adventures in designers egos.....sound familiar?

DCI does not have enough groups to fill the stadium with those there to perform. We need to change direction and remeber thse who brought you here.

[BRASSO]

What will make the DCI product a better fit for mass audiences

It probably would require a choice to appeal to them in the first place. I'm pretty sure that at present that most DCI Corps show designers don't see this audience as their target audience. Not all of them. But many of them.

[drumguy50]

It probably would require a choice to appeal to them in the first place. I'm pretty sure that at present that most DCI Corps show designers don't see this audience as their target audience. Not all of them. But many of them.

Unfortunately very true.

[Quad Aces]

It probably would require a choice to appeal to them in the first place. I'm pretty sure that at present that most DCI Corps show designers don't see this audience as their target audience. Not all of them. But many of them.

I'm not so sure all of the corps should concentrate on making a more appealing product to the masses initially - I think they should focus on making a more appealing product for their core (no pun intended) audience first, as they seem to have lost some of it along the way.

[BRASSO]

I'm not so sure all of the corps should concentrate on making a more appealing product to the masses initially - I think they should focus on making a more appealing product for their core (no pun intended) audience first, as they seem to have lost some of it along the way.

Thats seems to be the prevailing thinking.Such sentiment is even manifested in the new judging sheets as well. I do believe that most of the DCI show dewsigners have the ability to design shows with more mass appeal, but they are mostly concerned with an appeal to a much much smaller segment of the populace. I think that it does appeal to most of this segment... but of course this then naturally runs up against the very real financial realities of dwindling revenues that it now finds itself in. Its quite the connundrum.

[Kamarag]

We need to change direction and remeber thse who brought you here.

You do realize that WGI has been influencing guard design for well over 30 years, right? And that WGI and DCI designers are, and have been, the same folks?

[Jeff Ream]

I'm not going to blame WGI at all. There's lots to like there, as with DCI...and lots to not like.

I would say make visual to music truly 50/50......despite what the sheets say, it's not how it's judged in reality. I woudl tweak the performance captions to have multipliers used like WGI does in the lower classes to emphasize performance over the book. And while I think Cesario had the right idea with his initiative to make shows friendlier to the masses, there's work to do.

[Dave]

I must agree with Jeff, I think returning music to at least equal footing with visual is a step in the right direction. Visual is awesome and necessary, but as I've said in the past: we don't buy muted DVDs to watch just the drill, but we do buy CDs to just listen to the shows. I'd like to enjoy today's shows musically as much as I have in past years.

[BRASSO]

You do realize that WGI has been influencing guard design for well over 30 years, right? And that WGI and DCI designers are, and have been, the same folks?

We discuss a lot on this section of DCP what music we'd like to hear played in DCI. All thats well and good, but the focus really today ( as you correctly cited ) is from the Guard.

A DCI guard performer ( one of perhaps 35-40 ) carries more weight on the current DCI judging sheets than a brass performer ( one of more than 72- 84). A corps needs a strong Visual program with a strong Guard to place well in DCI under the curent judging sheets. And Corps today really are not judged in performance and execution as much as they are in " Show Design ". Increasingly, it is the adult Show Designers, mostly the Visual side, that are being judged on the field now.

For example, I do not believe for a second that the 2012 Brass line and Drum line of the Cavaliers could not play their Brass instruments nor their Percussive instruments as well as the 2011 Cavaliers Brass and Percussion sections. I don't believe that the 2012 marcher Cavaliers worked any less harder than their previous years Cavaliers Corps either. The 2012 Cvaliers Corps seemed veteran and mature enough from my eyesight observation... certainly not lacking in talent abilities with that of their 2011 Corps it appeared. So what changed that precipitated their placement drop to 8th last yrear ? Well, I believe it was the simple change in one staff member in the Cavaliers that altered their Visual program from the year before. So it really wasn't the 150 or so marchers that were judged. It was the single staff designer on the Visual side that most effected the " judging ", and thus their placement. It is the Visual design that bleeds heavily into the brass and percussion scores these days I 'm finding. I can not rationalize nor explain why this might be the case, only point out that it appears from my observations to be the case. So yes, the influence of WGI with its Visual emphasis has had an enormous impact on DCI Drum Corps. I do agree with you on this.

Edited April 4, 2013 by BRASSO

[drumguy50]

You do realize that WGI has been influencing guard design for well over 30 years, right? And that WGI and DCI designers are, and have been, the same folks?

Yes I do and as it has become more egocentric it has been a huge negative influence on DCI. The influx of WGI guard judges who are not versed with what wholistic design involves is a negative. That all happned about 12 years ago.