Dave

Semi-off topic...the interesting thing about China is that not only do they not respect other countries' copyrights and trademarks, it's almost an anti-copyright environment there. My business has goods manufactured in China and imported, and while there are certainly a lot of factories churning out highly questionable crap, there are also factory owners in the new, (relatively) more open China that recognize to some degree the West's desire for a certain level of quality and seek to provide it. You just have to demand it and inspect to make sure corners aren't being cut in the process. With the exception of a couple of Conn-Selmer's student lines and Blessing, virtually every student model instrument in use today is either made or is produced with parts manufactured in China. But if one factory starts having a lot of success selling a particular product while other factories struggle, they are actually required to reveal their trade secrets to the government which shares them with their struggling counterparts. That's the big downside of manufacturing successful products in China, you can forget about keeping any trade secrets or designs to yourself, and if there's anything that eventually leads companies here to divest from that, it will be long-term costs associated with the immediate production of so many generic versions of name-brand stuff. As to the topic at hand and the idea of a law firm going hunting for suit targets, no big surprise there. That's one reason we've been so adamant about this place not having links to illegal videos, whether copies of DCI or DCA-produced products or fan-made videos, other sites that existed to share such links without actually producing the illegal copies have been shut down. This isn't the first time I've heard of a law firm going out searching for what seems like easy money trying to hunt down copyright violators.

What Cowboys team have you been watching?

There's a lot of good literature around, if the college has a music library you might want to see what they have on hand. One good one that might be worth checking out is the Lebedev Concerto in One Movement, although it needs some editing to be in under the time limit.

Are you taking lessons from anyone? I would have to know more about your individual playing ability before recommending a solo. I played things like the Vaughan Williams and some others but those can be a little high on the challenging scale.

What sort of tuba solos are you working on already? I'd pick one of those and just try to refine it. But you don't have to pick something insanely difficult, just something that shows your technical and lyrical abilities.

Some of the less expensive horns out there have occasional issues with the leadpipe manufacturing where mouthpieces just seem to get stuck no matter what. My observation has been that they aren't consistent from horn to horn, and if this is something your kids are renting most music stores with an ounce of good customer service will swap out the horn for something different.

Another vote for buying a mouthpiece puller. I'm also curious why they're a constant problem. If you use a different mouthpiece, does the same thing happen? Or is it that specific piece?

Geez...how much pressure are you using? That sounds like an extreme case. In general, backing off and letting your air do the work is a good rule whether you're marching or sitting still, it just takes a bit more working to make such relaxation an automatic thing on the move, especially in the high-intensity setting of drum corps. Other wise things: get yourself a can of DCT or something like that to keep your lips from getting sunburned, and if they get a split, put a little vitamin E on them; you can get a jar of gel capsules at any health food store. DON'T put it on before going outside, or you'll burn the hell out of your lips. Drink lots of water (this goes year-round) and just take care of yourself.

Thread closed at request of author.

It's a copy of the Kanstul, which has what it calls the "Tune-Any-Note" slide that lets you kick the slide out for any valve combination rather than just 1st valve combinations. I'm not aware of any issues other than the same ones Jupiters always have with solder joints busting relatively early compared to other brands. Just take care of it like you would any other horn and it should be fine.

Check out the Denis Wick model DW5886-3. It's a small shank tuba mouthpiece intended for smaller Eb tubas, and a very nice mouthpiece in general.

Five posts in and it's clear where this is going. I'm closing this. I would suggest contacting Scouts management directly, rather than trying to stir up problems here.

There's no good reason to amp horns in drum corps period, and certainly no good reason to try some godforsaken micing of an entire hornline. You set yourself up for disaster of biblical proportions when (not if) something goes bad. Not to mention...this is freaking drum corps. If your hornline needs to be amped, then as the kids say, you're doing it wrong.

Right, because it's not possible to have a different philisophical take on what drum corps should be.

Why would this make them less objectionable to those of us who find the use of mics horribly un-drum corps?

You didn't want to "ask" kids to wear t-shirts. You wanted DCI to pass a rule mandating kids to wear t-shirts. And the question is legitimate: if t-shirts are a good idea, why not long sleeves, or long pants? Why is it okay to mandate coverage of the upper body but not the arms or legs? I wore a t-shirt when I marched, simply because that's the way I preferred it (especially since I was a contra player and didn't care for a big spot of worn plating on the underside of the horn). But a lot of other people didn't, and they paid dearly for enough sunscreen but it worked out. I'm not going to argue that anything's going to end drum corps, that's just silliness. But one of the most important aspects of my experience marching junior corps was that it forced me to grow up, to make decisions for myself even within the structured environment of life on tour and to take responsibility for myself in ways I didn't have to when I was living at home. Mom isn't there to tell you to put sunscreen on, or to do your laundry for you, and so on and so forth. You let kids go off, you let them grow up and make those calls and get sunburned and deal with it. We all know the dangers of cancer but that's not a good enough reason to start depriving kids of the sort of choices they have to make to start growing up.

No one's said that precautions shouldn't be taken to avoid future problems. What we've said is that DCI shouldn't be trying to create rules about member dress in rehearsals.

Merging with the "Thanks..." thread...

This is a discussion forum. On forums, people tend to not agree all the time, or ever. Such is life on a place that exists to talk about things. If this vexes you greatly, there's a power button on the front of your computer; feel free to hit that.

Their tubes have always been wrapped a lot like cornets, which I think leads a lot of people to think they're cylindrical, plus they have a big throat and less of a flare than most trumpets which lends to the appearance. G sopranos actually have more cylindrical tubing than trumpets do, since they're pitched lower.

That's based on marching four year of junior corps with kids like that. No hovering parents, no rules outside the ones normally found in corps, no special treatment--just vets to show the way and staff to teach. They do fine. I don't need a dissertation to have eyes and ears.

Yes.

Yes to A, no to B. Couldn't be less relevant to the point. Corps make rules like this because they feel there's a need to and they're in the best position to make such a call, DCI as a whole shouldn't be doing such a thing.

Quite, frankly, this is completely untrue. Manufacturers are using the same tooling to make G bugles as their Bb counterparts. That's part of the reason they have such issues with intonation, because they're just extending tubes instead of really engineering them to have the proper dimensions relative to the key they're in. There's nothing magic about G that makes it a "bugle."

Should kids take precautions against future problems by protecting themselves from the sun? Yes. Should DCI pass a bunch of rules to "protect kids from themselves?" Absolutely not. One of the points of drum corps is to let kids get out from under the maternalistic wing and start becoming their own adults, so let them be adults.