SkyDog

He did start at 3 and age out at 22. And if you don't believe the alumni listing on the Blue Devils' own web site, he marched with well over a thousand people who could verify it. ;-)

My favorites: Boston Crusaders Santa Clara Vanguard Colts

This is why.

You contact your Pearl dealer of choice. There's a dealer locator on Pearl's web site, but some of the more popular ones are Steve Weiss Music, Columbus Percussion, and Fork's Drum Closet.

Before Dynasty was a Blue Devils "mainstay", Yamaha was. Before Yamaha, Ludwig was. Before Ludwig, Slingerland was. The only constant is change. It's not just the Blue Devils. Off the top of my head, here are some of the changes I've seen since the 1990s: BD from Yamaha to Dynasty to Pearl. Phantom Regiment from Pearl to Premier to Pearl to Dynasty. Bluecoats, Crown, Cavies, and Cadets from Pearl to Yamaha. Colts from Premier to Yamaha. Blue Knights from Premier to Pearl. Crossmen from Premier to Pearl to Yamaha. Boston Crusaders from Ludwig to Dynasty to Pearl. Blue Stars from Premier to Yamaha to Ludwig to Pearl With change being so frequent, it's hard to be shocked when the Blue Devils or other corps switch percussion manufacturers. Or brass manufacturers for that matter.

I know I'm in the minority, but my favorite is the '06 Cavaliers. I've always been a "music comes first" guy. To me, visual was nothing more than a necessary evil. Machine was the first show that came across to me as an integrated package instead of visual and music being two separate aspects of a show.

Agreed. Last year, the nearest show to me -- regardless of stadium size -- was 180 miles away. Nobody from my area is going to travel that kind of distance unless they're already hooked on the activity. With no nearby shows and no broadcast, how is drum corps going to build a fan base in my area and others like it? More than a third of the U.S. population lives in areas with 50,000 or fewer people -- places that typically don't have large NCAA or NFL facilities. A hundred million people is a whole lot of potential fans and members to turn your back on.

Four years in a row. You left out 2006. Other than that four-year streak, they had been making every-other-year trips since 1998. And there's no way they were going to miss the 2008 championships in California.

My personal favorite was the Blue Devils' 1988 exit. No theatrical pretense... just the brass soloists lettin' it rip.

I really liked the idea, but the assymetry and the fit of the jacket just didn't work for me.

A "post-show" sounds a little like the old timing gun system... Before 1984, the required show length was 11 1/2 minutes. After that time, a gun sounded to signify the end of the judged portion of the show. (GE judging continued for the entire performance, though.) A corps could perform another 90 seconds before getting penalized for going over the 13-minute maximum.

My money would be on a cymbal player. I'd bet on anyone who marched VK in the early 90s. Nothing against the corps (loved those guys), but judging by the age and condition of their buses, they probably had lots of practice pushing!

...which pretty much precludes New York high schoolers from participating in DCI corps. By the time school lets out and standardized tests finish, most DCI corps have been rehearsing every day for weeks. Maybe this is one of the reasons we've got six DCA corps in New York and zero DCI corps.

If a single corps is racking up most of the caption awards, it hints at a win but doesn't guarantee it. At the 1991 Class A finals, Carolina Crown took every caption award except percussion and finished second overall.

Mile High Stadium was demolished in 2002. Invesco Field was built next to it.

DEG = Donald E. Getzen. He started his own company after Getzen was bought out. Dynasty was a brand/model name used by DEG for their marching bugles. "Dynasty II" bugles had two piston valves. "Dynasty III" were three-valve horns. When the company ventured into marching percussion, they used the already-familiar Dynasty name. Yamaha can offer brass and percussion package deals nowadays, but that wasn't the case before multi-key brass was allowed. Yamaha never made G bugles. The Blue Devils used Kanstul horns throughout the 90s, and I think I've heard they used DEG mellos at least some years.

Try to imagine one of the two without the other: How many of us love a good blow-my-$#%&-face off encore, or to take in a line throwing down in the lot? How many of us would be entertained by watching a corps march around for 11 minutes without playing a note? Music. Hands down.

I've never had a problem blowing out Mylar bottom heads ...until this year. Our low-profile marching Ambassadors kept ripping right at the edge of the snare bed. Waxing the bearing edge seems to have helped a bit. As for my favorite (drum) heads: On top: Premier Marathon. Of course, they're a little hard to find since they've been out of production for years. So with that in mind, I can live with an Evans Hybrid, Remo White or Black Max, or Evans MX White. On bottom: I like Mylar. Remo Ambassador, Evans MS3, or Ludwig Xtra Thin.

...and the gold medal for boneheaded acronyms goes to the former First Union Center in Philadelphia.

Taps ;)

I had that kid, except it was a marimba part I needed to rewrite in alto clef. (And as a percussion guy who occasionally needs to work on wind arrangements, this thread has been a great read. I've learned a lot of useful stuff. Thanks!)

There were jazz influences even closer to the corps. One of the corps' neighbors (and friends) was the Concord Jazz record label. To quote the corps' web site, "The Blue Devils thank the late Carl Jefferson of Concord Jazz for giving us the idea for the jazz theme that continued for all these years."

Jerry got a "bonus year" when DCI changed the age-out rule to let 22-year-olds march if their birthday falls after June 1.

Between the A, B, & C corps, Jerry Ridgeway marched 20 seasons with the Blue Devils. He started out as a C corps soprano in 1979 when he was three years old and aged out in 1998.

You could probably use a vinyl film. It would be similar to using contact paper over your existing wrap, but should be much more durable. HERE is one source for the stuff. From past experience, though... I'd leave 'em alone. Recovering free floating snares and basses generally isn't too much of a problem, but I've had to discard too many tenor lug casings on the few sets of tenors I've recovered. The screw holes tend to bend over time under tension, at least on older Yamaha drums. Lugs that are slightly bent are functional, but tend to bind up screws or strip as you're trying to remove/replace lugs.