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Cavaliers Sound Quality


Penguin

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so what is this about Cavies' hornline having never known how to play dynamics? their 02 show was practically nothing BUT dynamics.

their hornline definitely has gotten better year after year. the sound is much richer and less raunchy than in the past; although I've always thought if you could march drill like that and play at the same time, you can sound however you like. No one else could do it.

PR's hornline though.. they have a sound of their own. It's so gorgeous..

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IMO, we have to look oat the kind of groups that both the Cavaliers and Phantom Regiment have. First off, PR performs classical music which just implies dark and the Cavies perform a more innovative show, performing newer and original compositions. Drum corps lacks the timbre of string basses and cellos, to compinsate for this, they bulk up on low brass. Newer music lacks alot of a bass voicing, but more of a tenor/mezzo-soprano. With different music, comes different instrumentation and different timbres.

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All the top hornlines have different concepts of balance, and that often changes with each corps depending on the show music. Phantom's sound this year was outstanding. Best overall sound on the field. But there have also been Phantom corps that have lacked this type of balance. BD consistently puts out a wonderful and professional sound, but the balance is top heavy and needs to be due to the music style. I love it. The Cadets always articulate as good as anyone on the field and their tonal beauty is outstanding most years. But their balance is also on the top heavy side. They like it that way. Regiment, Cavies, and SCV tend to go for a more bottom-end sound. I love that as well. No doubt though, Cavies are consistently putting out some of the best horn lines in DCI these days and it is a welcome change to have so many corps shooting for high horn honors.

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Instead of giving my opinion on this subject, I think I'll just ask a question...what exactly ARE the philosophies to brass playing for the main 5 corps being mentioned? Can anyone help with this? I march one of these corps, but I would just like to see what other people say that the approaches are. As a side question, do you think these philosophies hurt or help the brass education that the students are receiving? I've often heard horror stories from directors about their kids coming back and taking forever and a day to fix their playing. I personally have improved DRAMATICALLY as a french horn player after I came back from each summer the past 3 years (AND I PLAY FRIGGIN' MELLOPHONE!!!!...horn players should know what I'm talking about). Anyway, thoughts? B)

P.S. I love all drum corps, so don't try to say I'm going one way or another! :blink:

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Gone are the days when drum corps members were taught improper technique. Too many kids were going back to their high school with their lips completely raw. :blink:

Most if not all drum corps (especially the top 5) teach proper technique for the style of music they're playing (jazz, classical, etc.). Corps tend to stay with a certain style because that's how they've been taught over the years. It's what the instructors know, and it's what the vets know. To change styles would be a painful process, although it has been done.

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  • 4 months later...

I'm gonna get railed here, but how could anyone ever put tone quality and Phantom in the same sentence. They sound great when they're playing softly, but when they open up it's like white noise. If I didn't know any better, I'd bet that their instructors don't teach them to listen to each other and to balance and blend the sound at ALL dynamic levels. It's almost like it's a contest to see if you can drowned out the guy next to you no matter how crass the sound becomes. It's funny cuz they could play louder with less effort if they'd learn to implement good individual tone quality with a balanced and blended sound built from the contras up instead of sops down.

Sorry PR...love you guys but you don't know how good you can be.

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wow, man i'm surprised anyone could here it like that. Thier tone is better than anyone i've heard. Their intonation has the room to grow. But thier tone is down-right near perfect. Intonation does slip when they get loud much of the time, but that tends to be the upper brass.. the low brass seems to be right on most of the time. Actually this past year i felt Cavies sound got worse from last year, because they opened up so much with more emotion and such that it caused fuzz in thier sound that wasn't present the last few years...

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