skluyuk

Wow...How dare the Blue Devils push the State of the Art! That's just obnoxious, huh? How dare they hire the greatest assembly of staff, recruit the greatest assembly of musicians and performers, fully field three independent drum corps in different classes, gather a loyal and supportive volunteer group, garner community support, become innovative in their methods of staying solvent? The AUDACITY!!! And the mere fact that they are DOMINANTING while doing so...that's just OUTRAGEOUS!!! Let's call up President Obama to help redistribute the wealth here. It doesn't matter that the BD organization has put the blood, sweat, and tears into developing this DYNASTY. Let's yank the rug from beneath them and .... what's that? Oh, the organization is built on a solid foundation and we can't yank it from beneath them?! Curses! Try as you might haters, the organiztion known as the "Concord Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps" is the BEST there ever was and will never be affected by you. Hate if you want, but make sure you keep watching them contend or win year after year. They are absolutely AMAZING this year...14! <How anyone can say that BD's music (and whole package for that matter) is not entertaining is beyond me.>

Pshhh!!! I suggested that Chris and the other 6 get together to form the Renegades! What would this activity be without me?!

A common valved brass player obsession. I've been doing this for over three decades...drives my wife crazy. I obsess on a three octave chromatic from low F# to F# above high C and back down....over...and over....and over again.

What a dumb debate this is. The OP was simply making note of the fact that he longed for the unadulterated power of the old G lines and the sense of conquest that sound evoked while performing with the battery on the field. I doubt that any crowd with a pulse gives a hoot about the subltle intonation, pitch, sound quality issues that have been improved with the better equipment and training. That's what the judges are paid for. How many of you would not jump to your feet as your senses are overcome by the WALL OF SOUND coming out of '80 Spirit pushing to the front playing 'Georgia on my Mind' or '82 Madison playing 'Slaughter on 10th Avenue' or '84 Freelancers 'Power Suite' or '84 Blue Devils 'La Fiesta'...'82 Phantom 'Triumph of Rome'?! So many more that could be listed.... All I know is that BITD when I would sit in front of a G-line wailing away, my senses could barely stand it. You couldn't wipe the smile off of my face for days! No disrespect to the Bb lines who have produced some INCREDIBLE quality sound with truly professional quality instrumentalists, but I just don't get the same sensation. Close, but not the same. The beautiful sound, great musicianship, higher demand are great, but it's almost impossible to compete with saturation of the senses due to the sound power level. That's what brings people to their feet.

Along with other things I've been hitting these studies pretty hard over the last 9 months or so and have worked my way through playing decent on about 9 of them. I haven't really tried the other five beyond sight reading and working through some phrasing. I love these exercises and play them on both the trumpet and baritone. Sometimes I curse at JS Arban when he throws a ridiculous amount of incidentals into a phrase that jumps two octaves and comes right back down those two octaves with a key change and additonal incidentals right in the middle. Vous etes malade Monsieur Arban! Since I was having difficulty figuring out the way some phrases really needs to "sound" I thought I might be able to find someone on the net playing them. No luck, but I remembered perusing Al Perkins/Chris Nalls Mellocast Website and seeing that listed somewhere, so I went back to check it out. Talk about diversion...I clicked on some of the youtube links of tenor(middle brass) players and was TOTALLY amazed at the insane skill some of these guys have. Crazy triple-tounging, beautiful melodic phrasing, just awesome! Some guy even wailed on Variations of the Tyrolean Song. I really was speechless after listening. Just when I started thinking I was sounding pretty dang good, the ax came out and chopped me off at the knees! Whatever...just another level to move up to. lol. Anyway, I was hoping some of you guys might be able to point me to some recordings or videos on the net (Arbans 14 Studies) that I could listen to. Thanks!

This place is a crack up.

Some chain over the lip action goin' on there... How were those piston rotors to play? I would imagine they felt a little clumsy until you got used to them.

...are these really that outdated? I've been using those last three with my kids HS band.

Looking forward to hanging with you SoCal guys again after marching band season.

JS Arbans Fourteen Characteristic Studies. If you can play them all without a single screw up...

Hey Ken, Good to see you are still kicking. Hope all is well. I posted an observation on a relevant topic in the historical forum at the following location: A Trend - Don't Kill the Messenger Maybe it will add to this conversation.

http://www.dcacorps.org/scores.html

HAHAHAHA!! Oh man do I love that one. When I started teaching drill again everyone was talking about a "dot book" and I was like "what the #### is a dot book?" Just get into the bloody form!! lol. Just have to add my favorite quote. 1982 Lake George, NY. We were given a long lunch to just hang and relax, so the sop line went down to the lake to go swimming. An overzealous life guard felt the need to constantly enforce rules and was hacking us for "getting too close to the pontoons, no camel fighting, don't splash", etc. One of our upper leads who has to be funniest and loudest obnoxious person you will ever meet responds with..."HEY!! CAN WE TAKE A <WHIZ> IN HERE!!!" Dude didn't say another word to us, lol.

WEST!

Although my heart goes out to my brothers and sisters in Blue (A and B-corps), I must congratulate the Phantom Regiment (and SCVC) for their dogged determination and execution. You have to be the best on any given night to take it from the best. Nicely done. What a great season. I'm tired just thinking about it.

Didn't feel the p-wave, but did feel the s-wave which lingered for about 30sec to a minute. It was a nice smooth rolling, horizontal shake versus the vertical jolts that we sometimes feel. Almost seemed like the wave was reflecting back and forth off of the coastal plate. I'm up in the Ventura area.

Must agree with the '82 - '84 crowd. Incredible hornlines and batteries! I wasn't too much into watching the colorguard, but the 1982 (or was it '83?) Freelancers caught my attention with the double rifle spin and very cool unis. If I remember correctly, this guard had guys in it too. Other than the all-male corps, were the Freelancers the only corps to have male colorguard members back in the early 80's?

Wrong corps Sam.

Alas...the days of full retreat after every show is long gone. I have to say that even if it made the night a bit long, I really looked forward to the retreat blocks and being on the field with the other corps. We were always trying to out do each other in one way or another. It got to be hysterical at times. The staff would stand behind us threatening death if we didn't shape up and properly represent. Good times. I loved the Freelancer buckle smack.

...You're right. I definitely was not paying attention to the hardware before I hit the "Add Reply" button. Thanks for the correction. I know that anyone who might have one of the sopranos from the '82/'83 Valley Fever could easily have a distinct indentation that looks like a frog....

You can just hear the bell of that mello crunching against that buckle now. "Parade Rest...'Chink'!"

The only man I know that can tell you about every minute of his drum corps experience! Even more scary....mine and half of the corps too. "Remember in Montreal when you..." OK OK..break it up...nothing to see here.

Both my brother and I are in there somewhere. Some people remember exactly where there were during whatever formation (SAM!)...I have no clue. I was on the field somewhere. Thanks for the pics!

Now there's a novel idea...get the drum corps community (including fans) involved in rules changes. In order for that to be fair, anyone who is not directly involved with corps management or affiliated with a corps directly would have to become a 'citizen' per se. In other words, if you want to 'vote on the proposition,' you would have to be a registered member of DCI or something. The rules would still be proposed by a governing board, but would have to go out to the members for final approval. Think of all the cash a yearly membership would bring in. They can set the price for membership. Accountability to the fans!?!? It will never happen. DCI is waaaay too tightly controlled by the handful of elite. They are a private entity that makes use of a public non-profit status.

Are you guys seriously implying that SCV is having an 'off-year'... Holy Smoke! They are ripping up the field!!! They have an awesome book, and awesome show, great sound, great visuals. I stood an applauded when I saw them even with my BD bias. So what? They aren't beating BD and PR. This is great drum corps people! The staff/members of the corps are the ones who should worry about placement. Us fans should just leap to our feet and provide thunderous applause!!!!! Go BD!.....WEST!