JazzmanSA80

I don't think so. According to DCI's recap, "Carolina Crown (3rd, 90.025) finished above Phantom Regiment for the first time."

I'm also a sax player and as much as I'd love the chance to audition for a DM spot in a corps, I know the odds are against me. I auditioned with Crown on Mello for last season and I did well, but I didn't make it. I am playing mello in my college marching band this season, plus I have practiced as much as I could since last year, and I'm going back to Crown for a mello spot. A good friend of mine (also a sax player) auditioned last year with me at Crown, and didn't make it either, but he marched that season with the Blue Stars on mello. His only experience on mello was one season on it with our high school marching band. If you are a good musician, and you practice diligently, say, from now until audition camps in November, you can definitely make a good brass line as long as you show significant improvement between camps. They might not think anything of you in November, but I drew attention the next month when I came back with massive improvement (even though I still kind of sucked haha). Just try! Even if you don't make your choice D1 corps, call around some lower tier D1 or some D2/3 corps- lots of them have openings even after the top D1 guys have chosen their lines, and they are more than welcoming toward people with good attitudes, even if they aren't the most proficient on their horn. They know they can teach you if you are willing to work for it! Good luck! Hopefully I'll be competing with you next summer :P

I have to second the Crown - wall of sound. clean, beautiful brass. Scouts - (used to be) blow the stadium down. They still are powerful, fun, and entertaining. Cavies - precision drill. crazy, precision drill. also, very well integrated show themes... "Machine" anyone? It might say something that nobody has mentioned a couple of typical finalist corps... Bluecoats, Crusaders, Glassmen, etc. I've always found it difficult to identify with these corps because I don't get a sense of identity when I see their shows. The only ones that get away with it for me are the Bluecoats, though I can't say why. I enjoy them anyway!

I haven't seen it since they changed it, and I liked it how it was, but maybe they were having trouble cleaning it up? (it is rather challenging after all)

I can't tell how serious you are being there with the "" at the end haha, but I don't think having one big-shot staff member is as important as having a team that compliment each other's skills and knowledge. Sticking a staff member who probably doesn't want to be there in with another corps' staff would create some bad mojo, and that would likely make things worse. Since the corps directors essentially make the rules, wouldn't it be smart to give a more weighted vote to the lower corps? That is the only fair way that I can see to give the lower corps a boost without punishing the top corps. This could help prevent rules being passed that favor the top corps, like raising the max corps size to 150. The lower corps need an advantage to help make themselves competitive again. Then they might actually stand a chance at passing a rule like what the OP suggested, which would never ever get passed now.

Well, it has been said that a lot of kids want to march their choice corps and no other. So if everyone were required to march in a lower placing corps before they can march with their dream corps, then it's safe to say that a lot of those "corps X or bust" kids would blow off marching at all than march somewhere they don't want to for a season. Granted, I think (at least I hope) that most would be motivated enough to march that season with another corps before going for what they want, but just think of how much talent could potentially be missed out on by this? That's why I think this has the potential to hurt the activity as a whole: because although it can help the lower corps, it could hurt the top-tier corps, even if only a little. Do we really want to drag down the excellence of the top corps to create more competition? There must be a better way.

Like it was said in the old thread, REQUIRING anyone to march somewhere isn't going to fly. I might even help the membership of the lower tier corps, but it would probably hurt the activity as a whole. There is still no reason why the top Div. I corps shouldn't be strongly suggesting that a person march a Div 2/3 corps if they don't think that person is ready for their organization, and then encourage them to return the next year and try again. I know that some corps do this, but I know some others just cut people and say see you next year. Why not, "We don't think that you are ready to march here this season, but we'd like you to attend an audition camp at Corps X next month and see how you like it. The experience could really help you make our organization next season." It would be wise for smaller corps that aren't feeder corps for any specific Div. 1 organization to "officially" partner up with one. The benefits would be mutual: kids with potential get deferred to the smaller corps, resulting in a more consistent level of talent, and when the kids in the smaller corps are ready to move on, they have a likely place to think of first- the partnering Div. I corps.

They definitely seem to be making quick progress. I saw them a couple weeks ago when they were playing about the last 30 seconds standstill (having I guess changed the drill?), and then a week later, they had put that 30 seconds on the field for the most part and it looked surprisingly clean. Plus they seem to be a lot more like the Scouts I love than they were last year! ^OO^

Wore an aussie for 4 years, and I love them. Def. the most ###### points. Now I wear a shako and I'm warming up to it. Makes you look taller, and it you are already tall and mean looking, a shako can look pretty ###### as well. Aussie still wins.

Had to get one in-

Although I pull for Crown, this one night is unlikely to be a sure indication of things to come. I'm sure Crown, PR, and SCV will continue to battle for placements among themselves and probably with the Bluecoats as well. From what I've seen of the two corps though, I can't /disagree/ with the placements. Crown is certainly worthy of defeating PR this year if they continue their current progress.

I can only offer advice on what I know: I checked out a few schools in NC where I live (University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Western Carolina University were the standouts for music ed.) before choosing WCU for music ed. We are up in the mountains of North Carolina, and we are a pretty small school (just over 9000 students). I believe the School of Music has about 300-400 enrolled, and the marching band is around 350 this year. The school is pretty legendary for education in this state, which is saying something since NC has some really great schools. Our marching band has a bit of corps inspiration in our drill and music, but we do fairly high-tech shows with a lot of electronics. The director, Bob Buckner, is extremely connected in the HS marching band world and BOA (hall of famer) so you'll see us marching in exhibition at the Atlanta super regional most years and nationals every few (last was in 2002). <b>We are also marching in BOA Nationals in 2008</b>! We also have a few kids marching corps at any given time. We usually have people in Crown, a couple kids march Blue Stars, and I think we've had kids in Spirit. Bob Buckner wrote drill for Spirit and Crown years ago, and he is a consultant for the company that makes the Pyware drill writing software. The guy runs a fantastic band and will definitely teach you how to run a marching band. The trumpet professor at WCU is pretty great, and our trumpet studio is probably the most competitive. We are definitely worth checking out! Marching band website: http://www.prideofthemountains.com School of music site: http://music.wcu.edu/ Because we are such a small school, our marching band isn't as well known as some others named here, but we have been nominated and were finalists (top 3, I believe) for the Sudler Trophy the last 2 or 3 years, putting us up there among the best college bands in the country. If you want, you can see a list of schools who have won the award in the past (1 per year) here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudler_Trophy#The_Sudler_Trophy

Are we voting for our favorite corps, or who we think is going to win? Thos are two different things for a lot of us haha

There is a separate forum for Div. II/III though. That doesn't mean that they are any less important- it just needs to stay organized.

I've been talking around whistling William Tell for the last month

An hour before step-off, the forecast changed from 90% chance of thunderstorms to 10%... glad I didn't bail on the event! How about that phasing in the national anthem? They didn't sound very rehearsed, did they?

Unfortunately, every member represents the image of his or her entire organization, and just a couple people can hurt their reputation. If individuals like this are dumb enough to continually display an attitude like that in the stands at competitions, then people will talk about it. In my marching band for instance, there is a fairly low opinion of JSU (the University band, not the corps) because of their attitude towards us during rehearsal when we played the national anthem together for a high school competition. Granted, most of the rude members of JSU's marching band were evidently Spirit corps members, as was evident by their Spirit necklaces and fading bad tans. These are only a couple of accounts, and while I don't like to bad mouth any organization (even if they deserve it because of bad attitudes) maybe this thread isn't so off-base. If Spirit doesn't crack down on this kind of thing, it will be widely known that they are rude, period.

If Crown is going to pass SCV, I'd like to see it at their home show this weekend.

The new Bluecoats unis look really good. I think they might be the only new unis this year that I actually like better than what they replaced (though I liked the old ones too). '05 Scouts might be my favorite though. They are simple, clean, have a good fit, and don't look tacky. Love 'em.

Not sure if anyone mentioned this- I believe Crown had a youngster on bari last season. 14 or 15 maybe? Dunno if he is still with them.

I was about to mention Blue Stars as well. I got to see them for the first time this season in Salem, and their sound really surprised me. I thoroughly enjoyed their show this year- they are going to do some great things. My vote would go to Crown as well, though. That corps sounds simply amazing...

How about some music from Halo by Marty O'Donnel? He writes some good tunes.

It iz Evan get smakt tiem nao?

I get really painful shin splints. A pre-season marching band camp, I get used to being yelled at about my marching style because I am shuffling my feet. Unfortunately there is nothing I can do about it, because I become incapable of raising my toes more than an inch, even if i push through the pain- my feet just won't move. I also get a lot of pain where my arch should be. I never really bothered to think about a way to avoid the flat-footed induced pain. I've always just dealt with it as best I could, but it's worse every season, and I plan on marching corps next season which will be much much worse than marching band...so I'll probably be testing out some inserts. Til now though, the pain has never been something I couldn't work through, and my feet are totally flat.

if only superbowl half time shows could be that entertaining!