marimbaman89

Guess you're right but I still wanted to see the drill at letter I in the opener with all the drum features. But I guess I'll live.

I'll chime in with a II/III review later but I want to say that I thought the Vanguard Cadets' show was really a great show, and underrated. I loved how they left the field at the end with the trumpet solo. I haven't watched all the corps on the DVD yet as I've been too busy watching the Raiders over and over again lol. I can't get enough of our WSS show this year, haha. Regardless of where we placed or how we performed it. As for the Div I DVD's, I still have a long way to go before I can review that, haha. I completely agree with you about the high cam, I was looking forward to watching our drill this year but I didn't get to see too much of it.

Definitely look at Teal and Memphis Sound. Teal Sound is in Jacksonville Florida, and Memphis Sound is in Tenessee somewhere (but I heard it's not actually in Memphis?) Those are two great corps you can look at.

When I practice a lot on marimba and I can't play something after practicing it over and over, it helps me to find another exercise or just to find something else that I'm uncomfortable with and work on that. There's bound to be other things that you're uncomfortable with that you can keep occupied with. If you're practicing something you're really uncomfortable with, then it shouldn't take more than maybe a week or so to see some noticeable improvement in it. After you get to a certain point with that, go back to what you were doing before. Don't get me wrong, I'm no expert on that, but I know Leigh Stevens in his Method of Movement book (for marimba) has like 590 exercises to practice. He says that you should focus on a few exercises at a time, and once you either become bored with them or you plateau on them, go to different ones. He says that it's like a cycle and you should go back to those first exercises after a while away from them. Also, I completely agree to GO TO AN OPEN CLASS CORPS THIS YEAR IF POSSIBLE! There are LOADS of good drumlines in the open class, after watching the DVD from this year I was honestly shocked with how many good lines there were. It's a great experience! EDIT: Just saw that you can't march open class this year. But saying you might not want to anyway, well to that all I can say is, you don't know what you're missing B)

Anybody have any reviews after watching the DVD's? (for any of the divisions).

I've been watching the II/III DVD from this year and it seems like most of the drumlines I've seen so far have been very good. Am I completely off-base, or was this a good year for II/III drumlines? (I say II/III because they weren't world class yet). Anyone care to agree or disagree with my thoughts?

WOW!!!! I'm watching the Colts for the first time right now and I'm just realizing that they played Midnight Sleighride! I played this piece in concert band my freshman year of high school, I had the piano part, and watching this now is bringing back memories. Awesome! I love that piece! They also played Windsprints in 06 which I played in wind ensemble last year, funny how they did two pieces I've done before lol.

I received no shipping notice but I got the DVD's today. Too bad I'm at college so I can't watch them yet! GRR I can't wait for tomorrow!

Brandon- For some reason DCP isn't letting me quote people right now, but in response to your post, I guess maybe it's just because I'm with the pit and so I'm never actually marching anywhere with the corps (other than parades). This may have happened plenty of times but I remember being there once when a corps clapped for us. Anyway, pretty much every pit we've ever passed by on the way on and off the field have wished us good luck and we've wished them good luck. It's just the nice thing to do I guess. I can't recall a pit that hasn't been like this. And we had a great time with Impulse's pit in 06 when we shared our finals housing site with them. Oh, and of course, the Cadets donated their old food truck to us this year, how can I not mention that!

Hmm, one corps was incredibly nice to us after one of our shows this year. They all clapped as we went by. I think it was Citations? Don't really remember though. The Racine Scouts were with us a lot on tour this year, and they were incredibly nice to us finals week, letting us borrow their field finals week to rehearse on and letting us stay with them in their housing site for two days after prelims because our field/housing site were HORRIBLE. As far as nicest, I couldn't tell you who was nicest, but most corps were generally nice to us this year.

I started a thread about parity a couple months ago. I 100% agree with you, what DCI needs is more exposure.

All I know is my mom hates boxing with a passion, so if I make Bluecoats, she'll probably disown me :P My dad, on the other hand...

Wait, it says something other than the title? If there is, it's not showing up for me... Anyway, I'm really excited! Here's to hoping for a "Knockout" victory for the Coats in '08! B)

Blech, all this means to me is more clutter on the truck

nevermind

I guess that's ok then. Shame on me for choosing based on this year alone then, lol.

Personally, I think it's a little unfair to ask for the best of all time and only put up corps from this year. There are lots of other corps worthy of mention. I voted based on this year's performances. I only saw a few corps this year, and most of them only once, but I put Surf for brass, Spartans for percussion, and Spartans for guard. Only saw Surf once though and it was early season, heard they improved a lot in drums as the season went on. But I picked Spartans not because of their drumline (which I don't remember very well) but because of their pit. They had an OUTSTANDING pit this year.

Bluecoats, Bluecoats.

I got the email too, I would be SUPER STOKED if they got here early. What happened to shipping on Nov. 15th?

Definitely Tom Maiello. There's something to be said for a man who's stuck with an organization, through thick and thin, since 1991.

What about Star of Saffron City?

If you register on the website, you should receive an email and the exercises. Tommy (director) said that they were having some problems with the database or something and I don't know if they've been fixed, so if you don't receive audition material/an email when you register, just PM Tommy on the forums. His username is tnmaiello. I don't personally have any exercises because I was always in the pit, and I never auditioned for the drumline. But if you register and PM Tom, things should be taken care of. If you've already registered, do it again anyway just in case they somehow didn't get your information. As for suggestions, I don't really know how the battery auditions are handled, but I would just go having all your music memorized. It's good to talk/socialize with the other members, just don't talk about your high school marching band, or wanting to march another corps, etc. Not that it would kill you, but those are just some general audition tips for every drum corps. Hope this helps!

You should come out this year!

Was that in the 3 and a half minute range? Someone just hit a concert G (above the stock concert F high note trumpet players hit nowadays), and took it up the octave! Higher than any previous notes discussed on this thread.

When I said Ab, I meant concert Ab...so that would be your Eb. I didn't know that was a mellophone playing that note lol, I thought it was a trumpet (in reference to the high concert C). That's beastly. I've heard people go higher than that on mello but never in a junior drum corps performance.