Mello Dude

Yes, because it changed the unique sound of drum corps forever. Changing the unique overtone series G bugles have, esp soprano bugles, was a true Drum and Bugle Corps item lost. Losing the Olympic style retreats..HUGE loss. The experience seems to be the big item some people are using as the "key" to the drum corps experience. If that is the ONLY thing then I fear drum corps is lost. There are excellent marching bands despite what some would have you believe..and I mean VERY good. I would think the drum corps experience TODAY is used more for padding a Music Ed resume..noting wrong with that but think about it. How many shows, in the last few years are designed to get crowd butts out of the seats anymore vs pandering to a few judges? I dare anyone to time how much BD actually played as an ensemble in last years show that won..BTW nothing wrong with what they did, the rules are there for everyone. How about the people that are here exposing technique...I dare say in the real world of music you don't spend a year working on 10 minutes of music to play it correctly. Has drum corps become the Emperors new clothes ala 21st Century?

LOL, loud is relative to what you know and have experienced.

Selfish is rather harsh IMHO; it's more like lets have truth in marketing. Let the name Drum and Bugle Corps die with honor, and let Santa Clara Marching Band etc live on and let those with the "so-called" supreme knowledge and open minds enjoy it to their hearts content.

Ok MikeD.....got it 10-12 separate parts.

He is perplexed because he is stuck into the inside group that CAUSED this to be what it is. To fix ANY problem like this one, and the fact drum corps seems to be introverted to the extreme, you have to go to people who have not been to a drum corps show in years and have them sit through a show. THEN, see what they think..and LISTEN to what they have to say rather than poo-poo it because YOU think it's ok or it's JUST FINE as it is or, in the extreme cases explain to them why you are an expert and they have no idea what is good and what they like.

Says who? Appropriate playing technique is tied to the environment to which one has to play in. Right now the pit sounds completely un-natural to say the least, finger cymbals overpowering the horn line in soft areas of the show, etc. You don't see or hear any doubling..interesting.

Win.

CHANGE!!!! PROGRESS!!!! Where's MikeD? Hell at least THAT is acoustic!

Win You will often find the amateurs blaming good equipment for their failure to master it. These, of course, are the same people that can't figure out that it doesn't take a music major (or even a marginal player) to master 4 1/2 minutes of music if they have a year to practice it. It's kinda like alternate universe where people can't understand what practicing and instruction is.

I would think you would be correct. The only problem with it, I can see, is that the ties are with the schools and their own bands and boosters. Kids and parents have to go to school where they pay taxes and school tuition, they don't have to go to drum corps and pay for that single (very expensive) experience. Besides, it's even harder to climb that hill as being something unique anymore. If it looks like band, sounds like band....then it's band to any and all outside people.

Heh, good luck trying to get the so called "intelligencia" to wrap their heads around that little item. Quite honestly I have never seen an activity that has tried in vain to run away from itself and become non-unique.

Naw, the band plays music you'll be able to hum for the rest of the day.

LOL, oh, I think we get plenty of "opinion" here on what everyone should be liking. Let art stand on it's own, if it stinks and can't support or explain itself in it's desired medium then it deserves to go the way of the Dodo bird.

Yes, it's still going forward with a severe limp. Give a carcass enough inertia and it'll continue to move forward for a while even though it's dead. CHANGE, CHANGE, CHANGE.....change without a reason or logic to it is rather ignorant and self defeating; we are having buyers remorse right now because of an individual we elected screaming that mantra and see what that's gotten us. Hopefully, we will all learn from "change without thinking" and move forward intelligently.

I am awaiting the crowd to say that you don't speak for them to show up.

..and here we are, quite a few more years at Lucas.

Richard wrote: Do you have ANY idea what a new set of horns cost?! Getting them free or at no to little cost vs paying for them is kinda a huge no-brainer for a non-profit.

..or, the dreaded OR, DCI left it's hard (Corps) base in search of greener pastures and has been burned by it. I mean, once the local circuits were gone for the smaller corps it was all over but the fat lady singing....and she's sings on the field today as per new rules! Whether DCI killed it or not, is up for debate, but apparently it hasn't done much to help it.

Richard wrote: Those awesome reading skills again. You act as though that is an EVIL thing as opposed to a practical thing. The resale of equipment, the endorsements of, yes Yamaha and others. What you can't stand is that it was a business decision, and not a decision based of what you believe is sound quality issues. That, was never brought up SAVE the fact those that KNOW better, because some people actually play instruments of all kinds, saw the passing of the unique drum corps sound. I don't quite honestly see how a rational sane person can't see this. I suppose it's the same people that think we are at 4% jobless rates as well but I digress. The problem lies in the fact when you are no different from another type of marching unit (which are far more common and pervasive), you cease to be unique in the eyes of the vast majority of sane rational people. People pleaded for it NOT to happen, but business is business as they say. This is not some "vast right wing" conspiracy as you continue to tout as a mantra, simply a business decision to try and do the right thing (and I for one as many others think a tragic one). The bigger question, and Hopkins hints at this, is whether or not some people are going to question policies and rules set forth are actually killing drum corps? All I can say the jury is out but the trending isn't looking very good.

No, actually the reasons were all about money. The converse was true that some, that truly understood what was at stake, were VERY concerned that by pressing the easy button drum corps would lose it's uniqueness of sound. I would not say brass lines are less-talented than a decade or two ago, but one does have to ponder that possibility. PS: That is what Halloween is for.

Richard wrote: How out of date is a C trumpet? How out of date is a D trumpet? Actually, the argument that Bb lines sound better was NEVER the argument that DCI put forward..HUGE and often mis-stated fallacy. BTW, people did look better then...possibly because there weren't so many obese people around despite clothing. From Peter Bond's Paper to DCI:

They would have to be deaf if they couldn't tell difference after the sops opened up and were heard. Would be interesting.

Conspiracy theorist? LOL. Gotta love the internet.

Let me rephrase, "I am not for making, or espousing, rules and changes that makes drum corps less accessible than it already is for audience and corps alike." As for market research, yes, I have actually looked around to see how many people are attending shows...the trending is rather telling. I assume you have bothered to look around at finals and semi's, no? Who says the sky is falling? That train left the station when all the local circuits went away. Hopkins is starting to get it, I hope others do too before something is lost in all our perceived, enlightened new drum corps goes like, "The Emperors New Clothes".

Yeah I saw that too. Well, at least THIS year when 5 minutes go by AFTER their show you will be able to hum a lick from it.