Robbie Ellis

Yes, breathing from the diaphragm is best. You can practice breathing all day while at school or work or wherever. Pressure is bad but once your chops and endurance get up to speed, that will ease up. You put pressure on when you are tired. Unfortunately it takes time to build up endurance but you have good work ethics so you should be okay soon. Good luck. :)

I do both but you do your corps no good if you can't play the book in the proper register. My GGs and AAs are done as solos so I lay out before and after playing them for a couple of measures. The important thing is how your line blends and then blends with the other brass. When I'm screaming, it is strictly for glitz that the horn instructor has requested. You must be able to hit the screamer notes in tune and for me, playing from the diaphragm helps as well as practice. So..........it is essential to be a solid player. I will add that after I play the screamer stuff, it is nice to see the audience's reaction.

My pleasure, indeed from the Rebels Screamer. B)

Kind of wondering what sops working hard means? There's not a lot of us.

Kanstul solo soprano with Yankee Rebels and Archer Epler Musketeers.

i just recently discovered drum corps, so i really dont know much about the history. but i understand that drum corps came from the military, veteran organizations or something. so in the beginning, were there no women in drum corps? or at least was it rare? if so, what was it like to integrate women in and how does that relate to all-male corps today? please excuse my ignorance! i'd love to learn more! -mellopet

IMHO, Warm up nicely. Do octave slurs, i.e. E to E back down to E, F to F back to F, F# to F# back to F#, etc., playing 1/4 notes at about a 100 meter, REST 20 to 30 seconds between each octave slur.........when you reached you maximum range for the day (only try twice, if you do not hit the top note after 2 trys....time to put the horn away) Do the same routine the next day. You should be able to extend your range with patience and persistance. This a good method that works for me except I try to play the note 3 times. I believe that was the Claude Gordon method. Also, try to play in the higher range if that is what you plan on doing. The key to the above method is resting between the octaves. and, you need breath support. You can't play any high notes, regardless of how talented you are, if you do not support the breathing.

It looks like all the discussion/comments were about Renegades and Crunchy Frog, Jim Russo retiring and Vince Bruni. All worthy subjects but there was more going on all weekend worth a few reviews.

Sorry to disappoint you, Jeff. We just don't play outside enough anymore and some of the guys get tight. I always tell them to just go out and have fun. It's much better that way. We don't have the "burning down the house" style like Sky. I know I had fun especially in my duet on Alexanders. We'll try to blow your face off next time. :P Robbie

Yes, that was the Yankee Rebels. My screw up was at the indoor concert, The Dixie Stinger. 2 years ago while playing a solo with Archer Epler, I went up for the crescendo high note at the end of the solo and my shako fell off. We do not wear the chin straps at an indoor show so off it went when I tilted my head back. Everyone saw it and thought it was cute. I picked it up like nothing happened and went back into line. Of course, for the rest of the evening, I was reminded of it and everyone was disappointed when it didn't happen with the Yankee Rebels.

Geneva Appleknockers. What's an appleknocker? Jolly Jesters A clever name for an all-girl corps is Emerald Grenadears.

"Piece of @#$* " when it doesn't do what I want it to do.

Holy Smokes! When I saw "Robbie" screwed up again, I thought you were talking about me! I didn't have the best day playing. Not up to my usual. I'm glad you thought we looked good. :o

Uh. Nothing wrong with that. In the afternoon I couldn't get anything out higher than the G above double C. I don't know if it was the air in the rain or what it was but it never usually happens. I also couldn't get my usual power either. In the beginning of our show I tried to hit my usual A above and it wasn't there. When we were finished the song, I felt like a smacked a## because the song definitely sounded incomplete and everybody was looking at me. :(