MarimbasaurusRex

Exactly! But, I was thinking Malagueña or West Side Story. I'm glad someone is doing it either way. It's just funny that STH is suddenly a popular choice after all these years. Looking forward to hear what they do with it. And is there any chance we'll see video of last year's Renegades on the web site any time soon or do I have to steal the DVD?

Why? Because we like you! M - O - U - S - EEEEEEE !

I'd take whichever ticket is worth more money and sell it on ebay. Then, I'd sneak in the back gate and take my designated spot near the press box like always!

Why am I suddenly hearing the Children of Sanchez? Really, guys. STH has never been done by a senior corps in the 30 plus yrs it's been around. Now two do it at once? Why? It's early enough to make other plans. Don't fans deserve more variety?

"Electronics and woodwinds ... are really making the BOA bands creative and more entertaining." I responded to what you said, not what you think you said. cre·a·tive ADJECTIVE: Having the ability or power to create (Human beings are creative animals.) Characterized by originality and expressiveness. - from the American Heritage Dictionary. It's not open to interpretation. Words have specific meaning. Catch up on your drum corps history lessons and get a clue. Explains nothing. So join a rock band! Dude, I've probably got more electronic gear than you would know what to do with just in my bedroom. I'm all for it, in it's place. If those people in your audience paid for a traditionally acoustic show (if they paid anything at all), they might feel differently (See Bob Dylan). Phantom of the Opera is about singers and stage, not instrumental music. People were not there to see the pit orchestra. Was it crappy? Yes! Finally we agree on something! Hey I just crapped my pants but nobody noticed (or at least nobody said anything), so it must smell good! They don't have good balance and blend. That's exactly my point. This whole thread makes me question your ability to discern quality of sound. Marching bands sound like doo doo and that's not just MY opinion. To prove the point, go look for some marching band music on iTunes (or anywhere else!). Don't you think that if people generally liked the sound of marching bands that they would be buying at least a few marching band records? And your training/knowledge base as a sound reinforcement specialist would be...? The opposite is true. Proper sound reinforcement is determined almost ENTIRELY by the venue. If it were happening in a living room would there be any need for amplificatin of anything? Obviously not. My argument is not to move corps indoors. You twist meanings to your liking and purposes. This is less a debate than a pathetic cry for attention. And in my opinion (and the opinion of almost every prominent music critic in a major city) Blast as a show is lame. It's impact in the mainstream music field is nill. Note that their awards are for choreography, not music. Also see if you can find anything from Blast on a service like iTunes. It's not there because the general populace doesn't care to hear it. For comparison look up Riverdance or Stomp. They're there. Why isn't Blast? It's a different world when you get away from the cloistered band/corps environment. As if we'd let you in!!! HAHAHAHAHA! ^0^ As their fans boo, walk out the door and burn their Green Day CDs. It was? If rock & roll ego counts as success, I guess. Guns & Roses did it too. Metallica did it so drum corps should too? That's a new one. EVERY instrument in that orchestra was amplified for the sake of BLEND. Because they know what they are doing. Might as well. It's become a cheap whore! (pwned indeed!) A discussion is one thing, but responding to every post is just poor etiquette. You asked for people's opinions. Shut up and listen to them! I always thought drum corps weeded out this kind of "look at me" attitude. Guess that's changed, too.

Is HS marching band the driving force in field music today? Has drum corps lost it's edge? Just askin.

I'm compelled (don't ask me why!) to revisit this premise that having more artistic tools equals more creativity or fosters more creativity or makes things more entertaining or whatever. I would suggest that the opposite could be true. Necessity is the mother of invention. Creativity happens not because the palette is full, but because it is empty. There is confusion between artistry and the artist's palette. There are (were) good reasons for limiting instrumentation. It wasn't to hinder creativity, but to use instruments that worked well outdoors. A homogenous sound is also more unifying, underlining the "corps" concept. That's obviously been somewhat lost or convoluted over the years or we wouldn't be having this discussion. I don't see any woodwind teachers lobbying DCI for acceptance of woodwinds to make their students better players. Marching band people get used to that outdoor woodwinds sound, I guess, but it just isn't very high quality even from a woodwinds standpoint. I doubt that many teachers would endorse it except for their music ed kids. Maybe a musician needs to get their ears out of marching band for a few years to hear it as undesirable, I dunno. Electronics can and often do reduce the quality of sound as they may or may not enhance it. If I went to a symphony concert and they farmed out the string parts to a MIDI keyboard, well... I want my money back. It's a no-brainer. There are no rules about what instrumentation a symphony must use and in fact most of the symphonic sounds we hear in film are supported by several synthesists. But, you'll never see that on stage because that's not what the audience pays to see. It's cheap. There are also outdoor issues of directionality and blend with anything that comes out of a speaker. It's only cardboard and a magnet. Even the best audio systems can sound amateurish in a stadium. Consider the kind of sound system required for a vocalist with an orchestra at an outdoor venue like the Hollywood Bowl. It's quite literally a wall of speakers and it's not just for looks. That's what's necessary to do the job well. And it STILL doesn't compare to the natural acoustic sound, which is exactly why orchestras and audiences overwhelmingly prefer symphonic music indoors. In practical terms adding woodwinds and electronics to the palette can cheapen the sound and make the whole activity seem more amateurish than it already is. To go the other way... What if I, as a designer, wanted to use a 64 person wireless electric guitar section wearing nothing but tattoos and doing backflips? Add 70 topless women with lasers and a drum machine that looks like a refrigerator with lights. Might as well have a small brass section for the latin part, and one sax with a mic for the Barry White segment. Throw in some pyrotechnics and shoot a few people out of a cannon. Gaines writes the drill. Not only would my corps make your ear drums bleed and smoke anything currently on the field (finally I get to do Hendrix!), it would also make it on CNN and probably go on a national solo tour. (and if you steal my idea, I'll kill you. ) But, would it have anything to do with drum corps? And if the DCI name goes on it, doesn't that cast regular drum corps to it's grave? Oh yeah, DCI, that naked guitar thing! Cool, where do I sign up? I exaggerate to illustrate the point that boundries can be a good thing. Boundries can actually serve to make an artistic product more creative, more marketable, more distinctive and more viable. There are boundries everywhere and they serve us well. When Green Day brings out the clarinet section on every song their fan base would evaporate too. It's a boundry just the same. How many cool "drum corps moments" happened because corps had to get their point across with the limited tools they have? Why score a scary cool brass segment when you can just dial up a spooky sound on the computer and dance around? I would suggest that many of the great orchestrations of history were a product of trying to create sounds that didn't exist in the palette (see Ravel) just as many of the greatest drum corps arrangements are effective for the same reasons. As Quincy Jones puts it (paraphrasing)... If it works when you play it with one finger on piano, it works. If it doesn't, it doesn't. All the bells and whistles in the world won't make it better. It reminds me of the kid in Guitar Center who drools over a sweet rig because if he had that cool gear then he would really be a musician. If you like marching band, be in a marching band. If you like drum corps, be in a drum corps. If you like both, be in both. If you like orchestra, you're a weenie! (I kid as always) Don't get me wrong. I'm for radical change in drum corps. But, I don't think playing to the high school marching band audience is where it's at. pwn this! ^0^ Back to the Aaron show already in progress.

Why limit where you can throw a forward pass in football? Why have foul lines in baseball? Because those boundries add a level of interest to the game. OK, then let's include prerecorded tracks and midi sequencing too. And don't forget distortion pedals. More distortion equals more creativity, right? That is exactly what you said. Perhaps you meant to word it differently. Outdoors? Not really, no. Sorry. :)

I would like to know how woodwinds make a band more creative. They've been using woodwinds since the dawn of time and just now they are getting creative? Does woodwinds really have anything to do with that? And how can an amp make something more creative? It makes things louder. That's all. Woodwinds, amps, etc. have nothing to do with creativity. They are tools. Does a new chisel make a sculptor more creative???? Does a differently shaped paint brush make a more creative painting??? In that case, get me some new instruments so I can finally be a good musician! It's not about the tools. It's about what you DO with them.

I was fortunate to march 9 years without ever wearing a shako. They're just so 50's. It makes sense for Cadets, because a shako is traditional "cadet" headgear (see westpoint). But, I still don't care for the look. For other corps it makes less sense and... well... it's a BOX on your head! <**> Headgear I like includes aussies ala 27 or SCV, Bridgemen pimp hats (a great look for the time), and Blue Stars helmets (One of the reasons I joined!) Sorry, no PR or BC helmets. They're just too common. And enough with the feather boa plumes already! It's starting to look like a vegas revue. My vote for most distinctive headgear of all time goes to the R.I. Matadors for their giant sombreros.

And they did it with a mallet plug. Imagine if the whole group played! Check out Watkins Glen Squires 90.00 in brass ensemble (the header for brass ensemble is missing, it starts below perc ens after Kiltie Kadets). John Fannin directed the group and did the arrangement. We marched together in t-birds and he was my college roommate in 79. I went to BS and he went to Squares and we ended up standing next to each other on the sideline.

General Butler Vagabonds had some serious players that year. Pat Cavanaugh, Bob Chiprean, Curt Hawkins (Cabs soloist), Candy Weigel, she could wail (and still does with T-Birds alumni sometimes) not sure if she was the first female snare to do I&E but among the first and probably should have placed higher.

For consistency over the years, I gotta say Vanguard, starting with Procession of the Nobles.

Just wearing my Jurassic pride. We're here. We're paleological. Get used to it! :)

THAT's the ####! When one mallet instrument just isn't painful enough... The center of gravity on those septoms looks to be about 3 feet out in front. Now we need some JETPACK pictures! Drumcorps bondage 101.

The Atlanta Falcons Michael Vick, who wears number 7, went 7 of 7 in passing for 77 yards and a 7-0 lead against Miami in the first quarter. It can only mean one thing... CorpsVets are gonna win DCA!

158MB!?!?!

Seems like it varied depending on whether the corps was a finalist. In 79 Blue Stars I think we had about 6 kids that were actually from LaCrosse. People came from all over the place, as far away as Washington state and Louisiana. Once the corps started placing out of finals the out of towners stopped coming.

Heck, I thought they won in 2003! This year's show might bring the house down.

Bluecoats win! Wouldn't that be fun for a change? Nice to see Blue Stars back in the mix. Regardless of placement there are lots of good things going on up there. They have a maturing veteran core and will attract a lot of new talented players. FCO!

THIS I wanna hear! Are those herald trumpets? (I mean bugles :sshh:)