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Inclusive… sure, mostly. Diverse? Not even close. It’s not affordable enough to promote diversity. And all the corps who were actually bringing diversity to the activity are gone. I marched 96-01, I can count the members who weren’t white in all groups I marched on my fingers and toes. I can count non white educators on 2 fingers. as an educator, I’m not the diversity drum corps needs. But While numbers are better, in the decade I taught I can still count non white members on fingers and toes, and non white educators I’ve worked alongside on 8 fingers. is it better? Sure. Is it good enough? Nope.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CxnkxQmumqj/?igshid=M2MyMzgzODVlNw==

From The Cadets FB page 09/22/23: The Cadets We are deeply saddened to learn that Robert W. Smith, renowned composer and music educator, passed away yesterday. Robert made incredible contributions to the drum corps community, and The Cadets family will always cherish his arrangements in our 1989 production of Les Misérables, as well as his inspired instruction in the winter of the same year. Sending heartfelt condolences to Robert's family during this difficult time.

It was for me, but I’m biased.

It requires a revamp of the sheet. And rewarding things that many here will argue “the general public has no clue what’s entertaining, that’s why we have highly trained knuckleheads in polo shirts tells us it was entertaining”

He came and sat with us semi-finals night and watched BDs run with us. He told us then that he coming back to the Mandarins in 24 and will age out there in 25. He didnt even have to think about it. He said there is no other place he would rather be. He loves the staff, his fellow corps-mates, the culture, the way they treat people etc. He has definitely found a home there, and my wife and I couldnt be happier. He wants to be part of the first corps to bring a medal to the Mandarins at the WC level. And I can assure you they are talking about it. There are a few other things that I know, but I will wait till it becomes public knowledge. But know this......... Sinnerman was just the beginning.

Hi everyone! We're excited to announce that DrumScorps is back, although not exactly how you remember it 😀 Today we are officially launching our new website, www.drumscorps.com Our new website will provide the drum corps community with the latest scores, news, rankings, and more. We've designed the website with three basic principles in mind: Clean, consistent, easy to navigate UI Performance/responsiveness - pages should load quickly and look great on any size screen Useful/engaging content - news, scores, recaps, rankings, and more The site we're launching with today is just the foundation for exciting things we have planned leading up and into the 2024 drum corps season. Some features we have on the roadmap are: Historical score submission - Our current score database only dates back to 2013. In the future, we will add the ability for users to submit scores for older events and after a moderation process, these scores will be available on the site. Our ultimate goal is to make available scores for every event in DCI's history. Score prediction contests - Once the 2024 season starts, we plan to run a season long score prediction contest. Users can login each day to submit their predictions for that night's contests. Points will be awarded based on the accuracy of predictions and we will have a leaderboard to track who has the most points. Advanced stats - We are planning to add some useful/fun ways to view our score data. One of these will be charts to track one or more corps scores over time. Another will be corps comparisons where users can, for example, see if Corps A has ever beaten Corps B in percussion. As always, we value feedback from the community. We'd love to hear what you think of our new site and hope that everyone enjoys using it as much as we have enjoyed building it. https://www.drumscorps.com

It was electric. I've probably watched that alumni show 20 times and still love it. The crowd reaction is an MM's dream come true. I think what makes it even more special is that every member is playing for the joy of performing and moving an audience. No trophies....just joy and pride. That's what drew me to march corps and I hope that the players of the future can feel that kind of joy. Thank you Bluecoats. That was special in sooooo many ways.

Nice job! Site looks great.

Amazing man, incredible legend in the drum corps activity, his marching band charts were first rate, and his concert band pieces were outstanding. His Troy University bands were incredible. There probably is not a band director in this country who has not conducted several of his works or arrangements. He wrote or arranged so many good DCI shows. I think my favorite is his 1985 A Florida Suite. HIs Les Miz for The Cadets in 1989 is top shelf. As Bocook noted in the DCI Artcile his 1988 score for Suncoast changed the activity and the other arrangers took note. We lost this man way too soon. 😞 R.I.P.

battle of alumni corps......no. just come out and be your corps.

Their performance had to be the best one for me during finals week.

I would actually be proud and excited for him if he ended up with PC again and did it to help them continue to improve. I think before he marched last year his obvious thoughts was PC was a stepping stone on his journey. But, and this is a huge exciting BUT, the organization, staff, MMs, and everyone else were so awesome that he learned the experience and journey is quite often more important than the final result of the competitions. I love this life lesson and fully support it! I would be proud to continue to pay his fees for PC for years to come if they continue to display the excellence as an organization that they did this past year!

For them it’s down.

One of the best bass drum lines I ever taught were four female clarinet players. They were good friends, and they were the bass drummers for a band I taught in the early 80's. Started them as freshmen, and by their senior years they could plat anything I threw at them. Amazing young women! My daughter is a percussionist as well, and she was part of another great all-girl bass line in the last band I worked with, from 94-2018. They called themselves the Snails, as they would carry their basses backwards, on their backs, when moving around the field area. They figured out a way to "wear" their bass mallets on their heads, sticking up like antennae. That was 20+ years ago, and they are still great friends to this day.

BD did have theirs...no titles from 87-93.

I was mainly referring to the prior champions' ability to remain among the top 12 finalists in the world, and they have done that quite well. In 2017, 7 of the top 9 corps were past champions, and all 8 remaining past champions were in finals.....yeah, it's 6 years ago, but one season since then did not happen due to COVID, and one was an exhibition. I think your "bar/definition" for a "down cycle' is much more miniscule.............you mention BD, but the combination of two things keep them rocking year after year.......(1) more veterans from other finalists as well as other top 20 corps go to the Blue Devils than to any other corps. (2) They have a competent veteran staff that they have been able to maintain If Madison rebounds back into finals, it then becomes very likely that all 8 prior champions are in finals.....quite dominant as a group........

I suspect you'll be waiting a good long while...

luckily it never got this far in Scranton with the Moosics sheriffs. close a few times....

The information you are quoting is incorrect, so I will accept your retraction on this statement.

Love this

What happened to Brasso? He was a good poster.

1. | Addition of “Brass Ensemble” Judge at Regionals and Championships; Removal of Additional “Music Analysis” Judge Don't care. I trust Michael, but I don't see this passing, because it'll be interpreted as "the rich getting richer" by all other brass programs. 2. | Competition Times (reduce from 17- to 15-minute intervals) I'm down with this. I'd go further, and allow the corps themselves to notify the judges of the portion of the show to be judged. That way, if some corps needs 10 minutes of prop setup/teardown, thus wanting to do only a 5-minute show, more power to them. To correct for the timing imbalances, the show would be weighted based on the length of their chosen interval, therefore, actually REWARDING those with longer shows. It would encourage quicker setup/teardown times. Furthermore, when SCV shows up in June with yet-another unfinished show (Oops, too early?), it'll probably end up 2-3 places lower than it should just because its show length is only 70% that of its competitors. What I really like about this approach is that it's totally objective: Math is used to create points based on length, period. If Corps X is constantly being beat by Corps Y, and they think their product is better, but they keep losing by a small amount, then Corps X can increase the length of the judged portion of their show, just to see if it makes a difference, lol. If some smart aleck corps say "judge all 15 minutes, including setup/teardown, since it's part of our show," I'd pay to see that. I don't see this passing either. 3. | Change the Captions “General Effect 1” and “General Effect 2” to “General Effect Music” and “General Effect Visual” So, going back to the way it used to be? tah-MAY-toe, tah-MAH-toe, I couldn't care less about this, but I get where Michael is going, given his new team. 4. | Pacing of Evaluation No. No baby steps. Get ready. Be ready. Compete. It's called "spring training" for a reason. Granted, one regional exhibition show (as had been done BITD)? Fine, but 10 days? eff no. No prayer of passing. 5. | Brass Amplification Parameters Let's start with the first sentence of the summary: "This proposal stipulates that short-range personal microphones cannot be used for ensemble reinforcement of the horn line." 100% YES from me, and I might even teach again if that happens! But...the rest of the summary: "Such microphones would only be used to amplify musical content that is "soloistic or soli-istic" in nature. This proposal would not place limits on the number of performers that may perform such content at one time or through the duration of that ensemble’s performance. Noted is that amplified solo content should not reinforce non-amplified ensemble content." OK, now it's totally open for interpretation, so NO, don't even bother. Ya had me at the start, but all the rest of those words leave open the possibility that everyone is still mic'ed, and defined as "soloists." Still too much gray-area. I'd go further: No personal mics, and no field shotgun mics, period, ever, under any circumstance. A single "solo" mic placed anywhere on the field is OK, and a single ensemble mic is OK (I'm not going to get into a mic type discussion) You do know that SCV's 2018 entire contra line was mic'ed, right? And you know contra lines got smaller in 2019, even though membership numbers got larger, right? Thats cuz contras are now mic'ed. At least SCV mic'ed everyone, thus sending each player the message that they matter. The top hornlines mic-up almost half the hornline now, if not all of it. Now, I admit that we can't argue with the "competitive results," cuz hey, SCOREBOARD! But I'm allowed to stop watching/teaching lol. I'm aware The Universe doesn't care. I can still listen in the lot, but I'm sure that will be taken away, or corps will start bringing the electronics to brass warmup. This has no prayer of passing, cuz everyone at the top has been rewarded by current trends already. 6. | Brass Pre-Recorded/Sampling Electronics Management In theory, as a purist, I'd agree. But as a creator, I want every possible color in the palette, given that we're stuck with electronics anyway. I'm not sure how this would be policed. It assumes judges can tell the difference, and that's absolutely laughable. Look, Drum Corps is no different than any other entertainment option out there, trying to be exciting and relevant. It's only going to get "louder" from here, even if less "excellent." No prayer of passing.

We didn’t get them in retreat when I marched. We had to hand in our equipment and uniform before we got them. I remember standing in the line with my stuff after finals. It gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling.

I won’t confirm or deny that people tied to at least a dozen corps may or may not have sent them to me or people I may or may not. I will also not confirm myself or the people I may or may not know may or may not have shared them privately or just put them on social media sites we may or may not use

Rule #2 Sucks! Don't Downsize my Drum Corps shows too! Shrinkflation hits Drum Corps. Frosted Flakes and Charmin downsized on me. Now This!? GIVE ME FEWER DRUM CORPS! and SHORTER SHOWS. SOUNDS GRRRRRREAT!

I’m a no on number 4.

I’m fine with shorter shows.

People should be allowed to ask questions on here without getting "dead horse" remarks in return. Not everyone knows everything about every corps. That dead horse? I think you're standing on it.

sad news.........drum corps loses one of the great ones, but will fondly remember all his fine work/contributions.......a great arranger, educator, and person. RIP Our dear husband, father and teacher Robert W. Smith passed away today due to complications from cardiac surgery in Montgomery, Alabama. Arrangements for a Celebration of Life will be communicated when they have been determined. Thank you for keeping our family in your hearts.

Awful news about a band bus crashing in NY State. Band Bus Crash

The band director who was killed Gina Pellettiere was a soprano player in the 1998 Crossmen horn line, a superb educator and a good friend.