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Why do I think this is good for the activity: A corps invites a musical group which is unaware of the activity to witness what a corps can do with the band’s source material. The band is so impressed they invite the corps to collaborate with them for a commercial release. I think this is a great thing for the activity. I like sunscreen, too.

Way back on the last day of 2017 spring training in Denison, Bluecoats finally performed their first complete run through of Jagged Line. Who was there to watch it? Thank You Scientists. Bloo flew them in to watch how their work translated to the football field and after that first run through, TYS gave a private concert for the corps. Who had no problems getting licensing from TYS? Yup, Bluecoats, in part because they invited the band into the drum corps experience. I’m sorry there are fans of drum corps who can’t get past their narrow preferences not to see how this is a great thing for the activity.

HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL WINE AND FOOD TASTING YESTERDAY! The committee made up of alumni and friends exceeded budget and brought in more people than ever before in our 25+ year history of doing this event. High praise to them for making this happen! Fun day. Also lots of non-drum corps people that came for fun and great wines that just wanted to support a great cause... Youth Education in the Arts.

No. No need for concern. Judges are not " pre judging shows ", as none of the Corps have the Visuals, nor the Guard, ready. Besides, some Corps are fast out of the gate, others slow out of the gate, even the first couple of weeks of the season come June. What might be shown ( or not shown ) in any off season audio/ visuals from camp then we can be assured will have no effect whatsoever on the Corps scores once we are deep into the season, and especially when all the Corps busses finally roll into Indy for the DCI Championships come August. Heck, DCI judges tune out fans assessments that are in actual attendance at Championships, let alone pay any attention to what might anonymously be said about Corps or their shows by fans on Social Media several months back.

One would hope BUT humans are humans aren't they😉

except the virtually free publicity of social media/internet that has become available to the corps since the mid-90s is such a benefit the activity could leverage if done right perhaps drum corps is doomed to always be the thing that sneaks down highways at night - practices in summer-emptied HS fields and performs only at shows which all the good seats sold out to months in advance

I'm glad this finally came out. I remember that day like it was yesterday. Very cool project with a super cool group of musicians. The kids in the Bluecoats enjoyed performing with TYS. I know I enjoyed watching them put this together. And, hopefully, a few people who would not have otherwise looked at Drumcorps or the Bluecoats will gain respect for the activity we love.

The Bluecoats performing with their friends Thank You Scientist. This is soooo cool. Bloo does know how to have fun 🙂

You certainly can believe, but believe with the understanding the ages of these kids and the range of physical, intellectual and emotional differences in them all. No matter how they are taught. Not one corps has 154 kids at the very same points of maturity in these areas. Most probably tune out most noise, but all don’t tune out all noise. And I am thinking the top corps when I say this.

:: Checking my last several posts :: Nope. I don’t see any name calling.

Agreed!

True. I would love to believe, though, that these kids (and the staffs for that matter too) are being taught like any well-trained performer to tune out the noise no matter what the circumstances. The book “The Inner Game of Tennis” comes to mind.

Good to learn !

You're not the only one. Its not confined to just the Cadets either ( of course ). Its throughout DCI these days now. The DCI Corps are entitled to do such... and watch as the activity fails to grow as for approx. 40 weeks out of the 52 weeks of the year there is such secrecy in the activity now that it rivals the secrecy found at Area 51 in the Nevada desert. ... DCI is seemingly not so much preparing students to work in the public sector in the public schools, or as performers out in public taking the good with the bad from audiences and the like... but as CIA operatives or similar, taking a secrecy oath to remain undercover, and hush for long stretches of time, as a future career field. (... haha). Ironically, on reddit today there is a thread on the WGI percussion these days now, written by a recent age out. its a funny criticism of the WGI Percussion. The kids that march WGI even get a kick out of it from reading the posts. So this notion that todays marchers in DCI or WGI are snowflakes with frail personalities that can't handle some anonymous criticisms or light hearted digs on occasion are acting ridiculous in that assessment of youth today doing DCI or WGI, imo. Heck we KNOW they laugh and chuckle at what is sometimes posted on social media.

Actually, it is germane to your remarks above. Just because a song is played as an encore and not in the field show itself does not exempt the corps from satisfying copyright requirements before they can arrange and publish a performance on social media (granted, some encore pieces are public domain, but that's probably the exception more than the rule). Fact of the matter is that I wonder whether corps actually do pay the licensing fees for encore tunes as they should be, since they probably presume it will go overlooked. Edit: Even some of the common warm-ups and exercises are copyrighted materials by musical pedagogues, and it's always questionable whether all the requirements for use have been satisfied. So, you bought one copy of that book of great exercises by So-and-So, then copied and pasted it into the corps' technique handbook then distributed to 150 members, without ever paying So-and-So for an additional 150 copies? Yeah, let's avoid broadcasting that online, shall we?

they actually have name recognition now, as people will want to cheer the underdog

Congrats!

When someone is critical of another persons passion, skin gets a bit thin. Even more so if criticism is unceasing.

Well said.... great points.

I think the marchers for the most part ARE thick skinned and not ' fragile ".. its the Corps Directors and a few of their staffers that might be a little less thick skinned than most of their marchers are, imo.. But its not one Corps here. Just about all of them have developed a group think on this it looks like to me, and they all seem to be doing the same thing on this. I understand the copywrite/ licensing explanation for this total black out of info, as well the need to keep the theme/ show under wraps so they can handle the unveiling of it on their own terms when its ready. But there is nothing at all that prevents these Corps from playing encore songs, or lengthy practice chords, or watch staffers instruct a section's playing, or even the Battery playing. Things like this. I've noticed of late a few Corps inching their way into divulging at least some of this via ever so brief sound videos from camp. So maybe we'll see a bit more of this, who knows. But total black outs of camps with no videos from these Corps is no way to grow an activity, imo. I think maybe they 're not interested in the growth of the activity. Thats possible. But If they ARE interested in the growth of the activity, secrecy has never been a proven marketing tool to keep fans engaged, while simultaneously attempting to grow a fan base, Not in any other youth activity we can think of anyway. Even the college football intra squad spring football games are open to the public's video taking and disseminations, and TV, coverages and insights as to what is taking place on the recruiting front, personnel changes. etc and what not on full display,. Theres a plethora of off season info to keep fans engaged in just about all other youth activities, youth sports. Their college aged players are mostly 18-22 year old amateurs as well here too. I'd imagine their similarly aged football players are thick skinned too if they might fumble the ball in the preseason game or some such. Nobody is paranoid like about it, nor excessively protective of one's purported frail sensitivities in these other youthful competition endeavors in the off season. I likewise give the marchers in Drum Corps WAY more credit to be able to easily shrug off any criticisms that might come their way in any quarters from anonymous people from a simple preseason video clip release. So I'm frankly not buying that angle from the adults on their adult imposed black out of audio/ video on all these Corps camps/ practices in the off season.

apparently "stupid" is in the eye of the beer holder

the staff may grill you for info

Thanks for the response - I appreciate it. With all due respect, though, I would hope everyone involved in a performance-based activity (both performers and staff) are much more think-skinned and not as fragile as this.

The fact that someone thinks Thank You Scientist is a mainstream pop band only interested in fame is absolutely hysterical to me.

It doesn't matter who was POPULAR we didn't sink so low as to play POP. We listened to good progressive music which was never popular but none of that mattered as we were actual musicians who didn't care about hitting it "big". Back then it was about the MUSIC not being popular. People who pay 200 dollars for sneakers generally fall for what is popular and simple. All those "prog" bands as they call them now days played lots of notes and sought to stimulate minds rather than sell drinks and trinkets. If my corps was to collaborate to who was popular back then I would have quit without notice.

whoever scores highest wins

Matt Harloff won't let another Ott slip away.

AZZ I put it in big font so you can read it with your old fossil eyes.