Is DCI becoming a 'non-marching/little drill' activity?

[PRPhan4ever]

After seeing  a few shows live, and MANY on FloMarching and the "site which will go unnamed", it is becoming apparent (IMHO) that the refined judging system and panels are seemingly giving higher scores for content and performance rather than doing both while actually MARCHING drill?  I guess I may be wrong, or old school, BUT some corps (both classes) seem to be scoring very high in visual & GE and seemingly - marching/drill is secondary to sitting, standing, posing, crawling or laying on the field or on a prop.  

Is more merit given to what you "park & blow" on/under/over or running around/posing to synth/voice overs and sound bytes than actual drill?  It seems that this as well as the amplification/electronics thing is escalating to a point where "I" feel it's difficult to judge !

JUST FOR THE SAKE or an example I will use BD... they play alot of notes, they play them VERY well... they play them while standing, walking, sitting, running, posing etc... whereas, the #2 corps is hauling ### in their closer to amazingly fast drill.   Seemingly, All are pointing to the amplification issue of SCV an their 'floating' mics on brass... how is that different than the 6 mics BD has?   Has DCI become a visual activity that is being judged on it's ability to please the eye and ear while having props all over, or, are we seeing a departure, be it slight at present away from drill in it's purest form?

I am a trained brass player, well educated and understand the fact BD plays in the upper registers alot! They do it like no other -- That's how it's been .... but as we can see, Bluecoats are now emulating this same type of sound it seems... same type of show design, staging, props etc - so am i wrong in saying if a corps feels it has to redesign their shows in the likes of what the judges/panels are scoring high like this years (and others) shows of BD, does drill, and how fast or well you perform it matter anymore?  Looking at sheets from midwest to East regionals, it appears the favor is given to the stationary or slow moving brass than those moving at a high velocity while STILL producing great sound. 

We are not judges, but, it seems the last 3 years - that no matter how well a drill is done or performed, higher scores have prevailed elsewhere!  You can flame away - no disrespect to ANY corps or their designs, but questioning the future of drill and what may be ahead fr corps that rely on fast paced drill with music to match...

Edited August 9, 2017 by PRPhan4ever

[NakedEye]

And what if the pendulum does swing back toward more of a balance between stationary and moving? Once upon a time it was considered the height of excellence to have a fantastic, planted concert feature, contrasted with a drum feature where the horns did fast motion the whole time. It was largely the early 80's Cadets with their "music is motion" niche that started the ball rolling with constant motion, and then everyone else jumped on board.

Why isn't it time for a break from that? As long as there is still visual interest happening during a concert feature, as in BD's phenomenal and very difficult flag feature, the audience is still getting tremendous entertainment and you get a show with much more pacing variety. Watching the whole corps move at roughly the same pace for the entire thing gets old after a while.

 

[MikeN]

I have to disagree - I've seen a ton of shows this year, and I don't see it that way.  I see a *lot* of pretty intense movement all across the field.  I don't think it's becoming park and bark at all.

Mike

[PRPhan4ever]

I getcha -- and I agree--- IN PART! But when you have shows with more pre-recorded audio, sound samples and synth than actual NOTES being played as a brass line... I take issue with THAT portion of the non-drill/playing aspect.  Example, if a show is 11 minutes long and Corps XYX is running around, posing, lying on, standing on - crawling etc and NOT playing for 4-5 minutes of it while the battery plays and there are a few sectional moments, battery playing to pre-recorded voice overs etc... THAT is what my beef is... 

Noe, if DCI had some sort of context of "pre recorded synth/audio/sound samples cannot exceed 4 minutes..."    I think even with the departure in part from the drill of the 80's-90', we'd see more marching and playing as a cohesive group... not a 3o second mello run, a tuba feature -- 6 minutes of battery etc... 

[Newseditor44]

There's never a dull day here, is there?

[snare_guy_83]

1 hour ago, Newseditor44 said:

There's never a dull day here, is there?

Every corps is simultaneously the best and worst of all time with everything they do or don't do.
-DCP 

Edited August 9, 2017 by snare_guy_83

[Bobby L. Collins]

My devotion to this activity sort of waned (well there's no "sort of" to it) with the loss of bugles, but I remember how hopeful I was after watching The Cavaliers' 2002 production.  That show featured almost nonstop marching and playing, with some of the strongest drill that had been put on the field.  I remember thinking at the time "Now, if THAT is the direction drum corps is evolving, then I'm totally on board".  Unfortunately, all the other corps' directors and instructors focused instead on the 20 seconds of dancing in that show, and decided that was the direction they wanted to "evolve" the activity.

Regardless, I strongly feel that the Cavies won in 2002 because their entire production was built around "music in motion".  The book wasn't that innovative or challenging (mainly theme and variations with a bunch of well-polished e-flat chords), and they only laid their horns down on the field one time to dance, but the strength of that drill and the excitement generated by all those rapid fire transitions really sealed the deal.

 

[barigirl78]

Whether I agree with the OP on all points or not, it brings up something I wonder about in the sheets.

For example, the Brass sheet has a "Content" section and an "Achievement" side.  I've assumed that content just judges the difficulty of what they are playing and achievement is how well they play.  But, is there anything that judges that achievement under different circumstances like marching vs. standing still?  Does the brass "content" or "achievement" score go up if they are playing a difficult passage while marching fast?  If yes, than it's covered.  If no, than it may be a missing thing on the sheets.

[ftwdrummer]

24 minutes ago, barigirl78 said:

Whether I agree with the OP on all points or not, it brings up something I wonder about in the sheets.

For example, the Brass sheet has a "Content" section and an "Achievement" side.  I've assumed that content just judges the difficulty of what they are playing and achievement is how well they play.  But, is there anything that judges that achievement under different circumstances like marching vs. standing still?  Does the brass "content" or "achievement" score go up if they are playing a difficult passage while marching fast?  If yes, than it's covered.  If no, than it may be a missing thing on the sheets.

IIRC, much of the justification for Cadets winning Brass in 2015 was because of the drill they were marching while doing it.

[afd]

2 hours ago, PRPhan4ever said:

After seeing  a few shows live, and MANY on FloMarching and the "site which will go unnamed", it is becoming apparent (IMHO) that the refined judging system and panels are seemingly giving higher scores for content and performance rather than doing both while actually MARCHING drill?  I guess I may be wrong, or old school, BUT some corps (both classes) seem to be scoring very high in visual & GE and seemingly - marching/drill is secondary to sitting, standing, posing, crawling or laying on the field or on a prop.  

Is more merit given to what you "park & blow" on/under/over or running around/posing to synth/voice overs and sound bytes than actual drill?  It seems that this as well as the amplification/electronics thing is escalating to a point where "I" feel it's difficult to judge !

JUST FOR THE SAKE or an example I will use BD... they play alot of notes, they play them VERY well... they play them while standing, walking, sitting, running, posing etc... whereas, the #2 corps is hauling ### in their closer to amazingly fast drill.   Seemingly, All are pointing to the amplification issue of SCV an their 'floating' mics on brass... how is that different than the 6 mics BD has?   Has DCI become a visual activity that is being judged on it's ability to please the eye and ear while having props all over, or, are we seeing a departure, be it slight at present away from drill in it's purest form?

I am a trained brass player, well educated and understand the fact BD plays in the upper registers alot! They do it like no other -- That's how it's been .... but as we can see, Bluecoats are now emulating this same type of sound it seems... same type of show design, staging, props etc - so am i wrong in saying if a corps feels it has to redesign their shows in the likes of what the judges/panels are scoring high like this years (and others) shows of BD, does drill, and how fast or well you perform it matter anymore?  Looking at sheets from midwest to East regionals, it appears the favor is given to the stationary or slow moving brass than those moving at a high velocity while STILL producing great sound. 

We are not judges, but, it seems the last 3 years - that no matter how well a drill is done or performed, higher scores have prevailed elsewhere!  You can flame away - no disrespect to ANY corps or their designs, but questioning the future of drill and what may be ahead fr corps that rely on fast paced drill with music to match...

Another example is Blooo. Sliding down ramps does not indicate to me any marching.