TommySopranoContra

I was forced to go to Drum major academy, where I missed a few days of drum corps (took a lot of string pulling). Let me tell you, you would have shot yourself coming straight from tour to the "detail atten hut" band geek mass with George N. Parks. His conducting sessions meant very little to the marching band, because we are a Drum Corps style marching band, Parks conducts as he were conducting 144 bpms for a concert band. Marching band these days need precise stuff, as you would learn much more from Drum Corps than Marching Band. My director marched from 1990-1993 and my assistant director marched 1998-2000. They both support the activity, actually my school has about 6 other kids besides me in Drum Corps. Every year they give a speech to the Drum Corps kids, of how it is very different to come back to marching band from a summer of corps.

Some places stress more performance, education develops individually and naturally from there. Some places stress more education, the performance develops naturally from there in ensemble. They both work.

I started when I was 15 in a division 2 corps. Boy was it different from marching band. I got used to drum corps but when I came back... I hated marching band, it completely made me hate the activity that I intially loved. It's very odd to come straight from finals to band camp with your tour stuff entact. I didn't understand why my peers let the heat affect their day so much. It wasn't even hot by DCI standards either :P There were more than a bunch of times that I contemplated quitting marching band. It the difference in the level of effort is probably what upset me the most. In the end I had to ask myself why I was comparing Marching Band to Drum Corps... :P So I just went along with it to have fun. Managing Drum Corps with an academically intensive Junior year is one of the hardest things I've ever encountered.

I think they're slightly better than they were in 2000, to me I think the design has upped every year so the demand is upping too :P

Well DUH you :P

2006 Phantom Regiment is possibly my favorite phanotm show ever. It is absolutely amazing. What an amazing finals performance, they were on fire.

I liked the Cavaliers show :)

God ###### all of you keeps screaming about differing opinions Steve Irwin died! Who cares! ..... Go Phantom 2006

what'ever their show is, the cadets' colorguard will always be one of the best.

You know me for too long

A lot of times they care a lot about marching. Because if you can't march, everyone will be able to hear your feet through the horns. In that case, mind as well throw out tone, intonation, articulation, precision out the window

hello much?

Tossup Phantom or Cadets

You sound quite surprised all of a sudden that this is happening like right now. I dunno maybe something like Crown 04 and BD 05 might ring a bell. Let me point out that 2006 Cadets... is not doing anything ground breaking. Singing, Amping, Narration? Crown, SCV, BD are all culprits of these new things. Sure it's an opinion but saying it like that makes you look intolerable to thngs. Like I told you before, it's better to force yourself to enjoy something rather to cut off all possibility of toleration. For crying out loud, they're the Cadets. They create some of the most over designed shows. Try to just ignore the amping, narration and singing. Besides those things, I'm sure you can enjoy the percussion, the hornline, the drill, the guard. And if you can't ignore simple AMPing, that automatically means you're not giving the show chances.

Isn't most of music score comes from the uniformity of technique? Everything else like intonation, tone quality, and other things are added in the high number boxes once you get the foundational stuff down. I could eb wrong.

beef jerky

We're not that late in the Season for the Cadets. Bets on Cavies winning.

It's a shame people waste more time by trying to condemn things than actually spending time searching for things they like.

seconded Honorable Mentions of 1989, 1993, 2003

I'd take 1990 Star of Indiana 1996 Phantom Regiment 2001 The Cadets 2003 Blue Devils 2004 The Cavaliers

Bigger shows... the scoring seem have risks of boxing in.

One of the few cadet shows I don't really mind for. But it's still better than Yowza.

Haha this turned out to be a philosophical discussion. He's expressing something in his blog. Seems valid, it is his blog though, public or not.

So many bands did Scheherazade in 2005

Actually it does make sense. Anything that's out of character for consistency brings up attention. I'm not defending anyone, I'm just saying it's human nature to act like that. If I medaled in guard for over a decade, for every single year, and I all of a sudden placed 5th, I would make note of it too. It doesn't even have to be DCI, it could be test scores, athletic competitions, etc...