rmurrey74
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Posts posted by rmurrey74
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Same here. I prefer HD radio myself. I don't see the reason to pay for something that you can get for free. Again it all comes down to DCI not having the money to do this.
Don't you have to buy the HD radio?
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I have Sirius and would never go back to regular radio. For $11 a month, it's well worth it especially if you drive a lot, it's great having the same channels no matter where you are. Some of the channels have opened me up to tons of new music that I don't think I would hear on terrestrial radio. Plus the news, sports, and comedy channels make it great.
Does HD have the same channels everywhere?
CNN, ESPN, CNNHN, FOX, etc?
I'm not that familiar with it.
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If I marched Cavaliers, and someone came up to me telling me to explain to them my marching technique because he/she thinks the cavaliers technique looks horrible and undefined...i wouldn't tell them anything. Plus, i can guarantee you, from what I've seen, and the amount of education these cavalier kids get, any member who has marched a complete season (from camps to finals) could teach the technique.
Besides, if the Cavaliers had something to prove, they'd do it on the field. And they do.
Why are you looking at their feet anyways? You're probably missing a really cool show.
Who said it looks horrible?
Visual performance is part of the show.
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I respectfully disagree.
A marching technique is taught to be USED not necessarily to be RE-TAUGHT. Some may grasp it and be able to re-teach it or pass it on.. but as a marching member, the responsibility is to UNDERSTAND it and put it into PRACTICE.
Being able to teach it or explain it is a bonus.
Not everybody marching in drum corps has grand designs to teach what they've learned to other corps or bands.. some choose to pass on their drum corps lessons in other ways.
Stef
That doesn't make sense at all.
Every detail of a technique is defined (in most cases) and the members are responsible for knowing how it's defined. The members should be able to explain in detail what the technique is that they're performing. What the leg and foot is doing at any point in time. If a member that I'm teaching couldn't explain the technique to me in mid-July and what was expected, then I'm not doing my job as an instructor. That person may not be an effective teacher or may not do the technique well in all situations, but I would expect that any member that you ask in Cadets, Blue Devils, Bluecoats, Phantom, etc... could explain in detail their technique.
How do you learn it and then not know how it is defined or taught?
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well what your seeing is a teaching excercise. remember i explained earlier that in the teaching process the right foot deos not peel up until the left foot rolls down, thereby transfering weight between the feet. but in reality if you were stepping off for a set your weight would shift slightly at 1 and then continue on towards your dot. so for teaching purposes we practiced just taking step one without shifting weight, so we could better understand the peeling up prep befor the stepoff and rearticulation of the left foot into beat one. also practicing the first step whithout weight transfer helps with learning to lead with your feet and center of gravity rather than leaning into stepoffs. worked for me anyhow.
its just like learning to do any other complex smooth movement. you learn it in tiny jerky mechanical parts then expand the parts into larger portions while gaining fluidity, then put it all together using smooth and consistant movement. the above picture is an exact representation of the first to bulleted steps i mentioned in my earlier post.
Makes sense....thank you!
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Call Feidler!! The Cavaliers have been doing it wrong all along!! get rmurray74 in as a consultant asap to teach this corps how to do it right!
maybe it's not that the members can't explain the technique....rather than they'd rather not explain it to an internet poster with an attitude.
No, I didn't say the Cavaliers are teaching it wrong. I was disagreeing with the point saying that a person that marched drum corps may not be able to explain their technique to someone. Anyone that marches in a decent drum corps should be able to explain the details of their technique. It doesn't matter which drum corps.
Sorry if asking questions about something that no one really talks about comes across as having an attitude. I'll chime in on one of the 10 threads about how much the Cadets narration sucks.
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Karl, do you have more insight into the first step? I'm confused on why the weight isn't equal between both feet on step one. This wasn't the picture I was looking for, but last year or the year before they had a camp video of the corps taking step one and none of the weight shifted. It stayed completely over the planted right leg.
Thanks
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Hate to be blunt, but if you asked your "staff friends" about marching technique the same way you asked on here, they may not want to explain every little detail to you.
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Changed my mind. I don't need to respond to this.
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i went to a few camps a couple of years ago, and the staff repeated over and over "it's not a bicyle step, it's a re-articulation of the foot."
on the "and" count the knee breaks the plane of motion by bending while keeping the toes on the grond and lifting the heel. on the "one" count the heel hits the ground and the toes are as high as possible. on the "one and" count the right foot should be perpendicular to the ground at the ankle of the left foot (with bent knee). and on "two" the right heel hits the ground.
the interesting part was the backwards technique, where the initiation is the same as forward, the left food breaks the place of motion by bending the knee and keeping the toes on the ground while lifting the heel. on "one" the foot is placed behind you. on "one and" the right foot does the same thing as going forward, perpendicular to the ground, at the left ankle, knee bent.
the staff said that if you took a picture on the "and" count, you shouldn't be able to tell if they are moving forward or backwards.
sorry to any cmm, or fmm if this is completly wrong, it's only what i remember from a few years ago, and only going to a few camps (then marching two years in another corps with a different technique).
Thank you too
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i still cant find it, is this a joke or is there seriously a video? im interested now.
ok here, for the sake of an explanation. ill do my best for you. but the reason you probably dont usually get straight answers is because the vis staff likes to make minor changes every year. therefore what someone told us the corps in 2000 maybe described completely differently in 2007. so what i say may not be current or correct but its what i can remember. so i would still recommend emailing jeff or some of the vis instructors if your really that interested.
ps. anything i say in the coming paragraphs is just paraphrasing because the technique is HEAVILY defined, as much as it may not seem like it, theres a few vis guys that i guarantee could write you a hefty reference book on it(and not even get to dots). should any of those vis guys read this... im just going by memory here, feel free to send me hate mail if i make a mistake. also its quite hard to explain without actually standing in front of you. (again.... paraphrasing)
to answer your above question. the knee is not defined. the knee is not defined because humans have legs of varying length therefore trying to define foot position by position of the knee would be a waste of time. the technique is defined from the heel. simple forward movement can be broken up into different steps in order to learn the overall idea.
-from a halt, movement is initiated 1/2 beat before one by peeling up the left heel as high as possible. (when i marched toes stayed on the ground, this could have changed) this is the same for all directions of movement.
-at beat 1, the foot moves in its intended direction and the toes move up into a roll in order to land on the back edge of the heel again. i say again, the techique is defined from the heel, so the heel stays as close as possible to the ground while still holding the foot in the heel-upright position. thats placement of the first step. it gets more fun from here on
-from beat 1 forward the left foot rolls forward and down as the back (right foot) begins to peel up heel first in the same fashion as before.
-at the "and"(+) of beat 1 the right foot breaks forward with heel peeled up and the left foot is rolled completely down. the right foot should line up with the left shin at 1(+), and be pointed toe down, again with the heel as close to the ground as possible while maintaining upright position.
-at beat 2 the right foot lands toes up on the back of the heel and rolls down as the left foor begins to peel up again, and the whole process continues in a circular progression.
the idea is to learn to do the above steps in one fluid motion with no jerks or speed changes. when this is achieved, weight and therefore the upperbody can be transfered from step to step with no varying movement at all. in other words, weight is centered over your feet at at halt, spread between your two fee as you roll and peel, centered over your one foot at the (+) count, spread between your two feet at the next roll and peel... and so on.
thats just forward. backwards is strikingly similar in that you do all the same except you land on your toes and roll down while you peel up with the other foot. i was not a horn player so i cant tell you about slides ord jazz runs. but i know they have their own set of directions.
also for percussion. when crabbing, or moving in any oblique direction, there is a pretty much a changeup of the technique for each of these 4 directions, forward-left, forward-right, back-left or right, and crabbing... and that gets modified often so i wont go into that either.
hope that helped a little, your best bet when asking a cav about marching technique is to ask specific questions about specific aspects and see what answers you get. because its kind of like asking someone to acurately describe the language of japanese just in a few sentances. and for other cavs, if i am innacurate in my above descriptions, please clarify...
THANK YOU! That's what I've been looking for and I'll probably have some more questions. After reading this, I can now understand what I'm seeing a little better now that I have a idea of how the heel is supposed to be moving. Again, I have nothing against the technique. While I personally prefer other styles, I think it's important that as a teacher, I understand how this style is defined. Thank you for not giving a vague answer like everyone else. I've seen the Cavaliers perform probably over 120 times in the last 14 years and I've always wondered. I just never started digging into it until recently.
Thanks again
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You have "good friends" who have taught the Cavaliers and you still refer to it as a bicycle step?? Cuz I know they don't. At least the people I know who have taught there don't.
Yes, because no one can explain why it's not a bicycle step. They don't, but what should I call it then and why isn't it a bicycle step?
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Correct!
even more correct!
if you ask the staff in the same manner you asked the board, you probably won't get an answer. but if you're nice about it, i'm sure someone will be happy to help you out. hope you get an "A" on the book report!
p.s. it's not 'bicycle' steps.
If it's not a bicycle step than what is it?
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the problem with asking former members is they dont' sit down with a book and learn the technique so that they can go back and explain it to other people or necessarily teach it.
It's taught so that it makes sense to that individual (just like every technique).
The specific nature of your questions will best be answered by staff or by attending a rehearsal where they work on basics (usually in the off season.. December, January, Feb/March...they usually start working on the actual drill in April once they get out to NIU).
I recommended you contact Jeff Fiedler because, while he's also the director, while he was on staff with the corps, he was on the visual staff. As someone else recommended, if you ask your questions to the right people with respect, you'll get the answers (or at least initiate a conversation that will result in answers for you) you seek.
I don't know why you would believe that you won't get answers from the staff.. they're the nicest bunch of guys I've ever met.. and always happy to answer the specific questions I've had about things over the years.. you just have to ask.
Stef
Sorry...but no. You should be able to explain a technique that you've performed all season. Maybe some people would not be able to teach it well but you should be able to explain a technique that you've been taught if the staff is giving you the information.
A good staff should be teaching each member as if they would a future teacher.
Even if someone doesn't make the corps, they should have received general information on how the technique is defined after attending one camp. Each person is taught the technique individually? Each person may be approached differently to get them to fully understand, but you have to start out with the general details in a group setting. This is where the foot is on the & of 4, this is where the foot is on 1, this is where your weight is on 1, this is where you foot is on 1e....etc.
The "Blue Devils" style of technique can be broken down until specific details. I'm not trying to bag on the Cavaliers technique or be negative about it. I'm truly curious to see if this technique can really be defined.
I'll email them directly after the season.
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The only way I can see you not getting the answers you want from the source like the staff or the director is if you're really not interested in knowing what it's all about to begin with.
I'll contact the current staff. Just in my experience, close friends of mine who have taught on the staff in past could not define it for me. That makes me think that maybe it's not as defined as I thought it would be so I'm not going to get specific answers.
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It's all in the knees!
How much knee? How is the knee defined?
All answers about this technique are always vague and that's why it looks different from person to person on the field.
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You're pretty confused on this. My suggestion echos others on this thread. I say contact the staff directly, just make sure not to sound too insulting.
Heck, you could even attend a camp or two. I think they do marching at the december camp now.
The Cavaliers marching technique is a complicated one, but once you get it down, it just makes the most sense.
I'll contact the staff directly but I don't think I'll get the answers I'm asking for. I've also have had discussions with past visual staff members that could also not define all details of the technique. It was taught with more or a general concept of how the foot should flow. It doesn't seem to be defined as the other technique methods out there and it shows on the field every year. That's why I'm curious if any former members could really define it.
I've studied and taught technique for years and the first step issue also really confuses me. Maybe I'm just missing some obvious detail on how you would take step one without moving your center of body forward and without having your weight equal between both feet.
How does the technique make the most sense? I hear that often, but I never really see any convincing arguments on why.
Thanks
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Alright...then can anyone reply with a real answer?
Thanks
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I was gonna reply but I think cire just about covered it.
So, you're saying it's not really defined? How can they get the visual performance numbers that they get year after year with no exact definition in the lower body?
They control their upper bodies well and they move great dot to dot, but the & count clarity does NOT exist.
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Can any Cavalier alums please explain the marching technique to me?
I appreciate the technique and how it is different from anyone else, and it has obviously worked well for them. It just never seems as clean as any other technique out there. There are many variations from person to person in how much the leg is bent when the foot passes through on the & counts, and that seems to be okay year after year. They have the 2nd highest visual performance score right now and from an & count timing and & count definition standpoint and I just don’t see how that is happening. Is it because it is so unique that the lack of & count definition is okay or more difficult to read then the Blue Devils or Cadets approach?
How high does the foot come off the ground on the bicycle step?
Is the foot parallel to the ground, hanging naturally?
Is there a specific angle in the leg?
I’ve seen pictures of the first step and I’ve always wondered why the weight did not shift off the back heel. The pictures show all of the weight staying on the back foot after taking the left foot forward.
Do the members not move their center of body forward on step 1? Do they have to gain more ground on 2 to make up for this?
I’ve asked these questions to two friends of mine who have marched there and they were not able to define it for me. I’m just curious and confused on how this technique is approached because I would like to be able to understand it better. Maybe I'm just not reading it correctly, but they look much less defined than Phantom, Bluecoats, Cadets, and Crown.
Thanks!
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I agree, it sucks, especially during the drum solo. It's not as horrible as the Cadets because, as others have stated, it's used more sparingly. But I wouldn't be disappointed if they cut it back to the first few seconds of the show or eliminated it entirely.
There's no narration during the drum solo.
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I love their narration.
It fits the show perfectly and they also do not talk over the music which I find the most distracting part of Cadets.
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When was the last time Troopers beat Madison??
(this isn't a knock on the corps because Troopers and Scouts have beeaten each other in the 70s and before)
http://www.dci.org/news/view.cfm?news_id=f...ca-d950e16f86e2
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Bluecoats 95 and 96
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Wasn't this new staff brought in to bring back the Madison Scouts of old? After seeing it live, it just seems like the opposite. Where's the blaring brass high power ending? The down ending takes 1 minute 38 seconds!
Cavaliers Technique Question
in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
Posted
NO, I could understand the explanation. The explanation was always vague..."It's a feel thing"
People couldn't explain the details of the technique. Where the foot is on the & count. Where the foot was on 1e....etc.
I did ask a teacher that taught for the corps. Any member should be able to answer this too.