lowbrasswhole

It is true, there is a group that is going to start this year in Cary, NC. It is an offshoot of Platinum indoor, so it will be called Platinum Drum and Bugle Corps. Info will be coming out shortly. It is not an easy ting to start a corps, so your help and support would be great!!!

The corps ahead of them all had amazing musical productions. Cavies, not so much. I do not think the drill design was as good as previous years. I think it has something to do with the fact that sometimes, show ideas that are great ideas on paper, sometimes become difficult to make happen on the field. Phantom is a good example of this. I think the theme that Cavies used this year was too limiting for them, and painted them into a corner. With the staff changes, it will be interesting to see what happens. Could they be looking for a new identity now? Can SCV?

I disagree completely. Crown does have their own identity. Their brass sound is BETTER than Star ever was. While their style does seem to have similarities to old Star, remember that Star does not exist anymore. I think we should embrace the similarities, as we wish Star was still around, and maybe this would be what they would be doing... one could only hope. The brass sound is uniquely theirs now. If you blindfolded me, and put BD, Cadets, Cavies, Phantom and Crown in front of me, I could easily tell them apart. The rest would be tougher as they tend to generate a generic sound. These five are distinct with their sound. Thats identity. Their use of body movement is another level than even Star was doing, which makes it their identity now. Their choice of repertoire is not a very good argument as well. Part of why people love drum corps is to hear music they know and love performed. It's nice to see new tunes out there, but we also like to see new takes on the classics. I do not regret seeing the Cadets do WSS again. They had a great take on it. I would say SCV's approach to Martha this year was more like the Cadets take on it than it was on their own corps historical relationship with it. Where is the identity of that. There are groups that are searching for their identity, and some seemingly on a continuous basis. Crown is not one of them. They found it!!!!

Fer real. I guess I can buy the argument for that the same as the one for amplifying keyboards. It's valid, if not preferable. Why push it when it can be easier and clearer, and performed better with a mic. Aside from the fact that I do not think you should have to plug in a drum corps (or marching band), I like the use of amplification, sound effects, and synthesized keyboards. I do not like it, however, when if covers the horn book. My opinion is that it does not enhance. Is it here to stay? Most likely. Too bad.

Most noticeable where SCV, Crown, Blue Devils and Cadets. Did I see a BD baritone soloist play into a microphone in the pit? Bad choices. I like the added colors available to be used, but doubling the hornline book should be an artistic license thing that pit arrangers do away with. Why don't we have all of the music produced in the pits, and just have people on the field doing drill only, making pictures. It will make it so much easier to execute drill, and play music.

I am not sure I understand your point. Why does Crown have to bring something MORE original to the table? Blue Devils arent doing anything more original than Crown is, and Cadets certainly are not. From a show concept standpoint, Crown has them both beat IMO. BD has nothing in their show that is innovative enough to spread to other corps (the chairs sections is awesome, but is not going to be something every corps does in the future), however, Crown is pushing the activity even further down the road with body movement, especially while playing. You can see their evolution in recent years, and it is only getting more involved, and it is spreading to other corps. I think Crown is the most original corps in the pack this year. Does this translate to a win? BD and Cadets are smoking hot right now as well, and all three deserve the title, or at least a shot at it. It will probably depend more on WHO is judging tonight, especially in visual performance and effect, which is where Crown is scoring lower. If they get a favorable push from those captions, they can pull it off. If not, it goes to someone else, and that's OK. The stage is set in a similar fashion to last year. I think that BD had a stronger show last year, and Phantom overcame their Visual issues on finals night scoring. This year might see a similar thing and that would be super neato. I like the drama going into the last night of thinking that any of three corps could win. Having this thing decided already is no fun at all.

This makes sense. They held back on volume and it payed off in the brass scores. This could be the end of loud in drum corps, as it transitions to BOA with Lucas field pushing them over the edge.

I know a tuba player marched 93 and 94.

Other--- Jimmy Hoffa!!!

In raleigh, Crown of course. What I am wondering, is when they will get their due from the JUDGES, who seem to resist putting Crown where they are ACTUALLY performing, which is top 3 (IMO). not a crown homer, here, either. i am a cadet borg or sorts, i guess. what harloff is doing with those people at crown is AMAZING. Hats off to them.

You have a point. I thought BD was pretty incredible tonight. They do not seem to have been affected...not nearly as much as Cadets were. I do think Cadets will pull thru and kill the next two nights. They work so hard already, did they need another reason? Maybe its genius motivation.

This I believe...the delay hurt the cadets performance level tonight. They were not on, and Blue Devils took advantage big time.

Hey, this is exactly our marching band show this year...too the teeeee!!! 84BDSop- I would like to see you, or someone, be more specific about which parts of the narration don't work. Hopkins asked you a direct question...I, for one, am really interested to see your response in this debate.

Easy and clean usually wins out, unfortunately. It is really hard to come up with a number and criteria that bridges this gap...so it will always remain subjective. I will personally favor difficult vs. easy....but to a certain degree. We are talking about achievement in the end. How dirty? How hard? The cavies and blue devils are really great at masking their level of difficulty. It looks hard, and it sounds hard, but when you peel away levels and really look at what is going on, the real tough stuff visually is being performed by tacet playing members. Rarely is there tough music and tough visual demancds at the same time. In a sompetitive world, this is genius how they wrap it together and produce it.

Congrats on getting a topic to remain mature for a bit! What's next? Good question. I think that the really drastic innovations have already been explored and done, so I don't think there will be another big bang. The innovations will come in small increments now. Cadets are onto something with their fast drill, and hornline pushing the volume to the max (in the Bb era). This is significant because all drum corps are concerned about the ensemble score, and keeping everyone in the box is important. This keeps the volumes under control and the sound balanced and error free. Cadets are doing this, but still pushing the envelope to be louder. The louder volumes are more exciting. Cadets are also (this year) getting into the set up, impact, set up, impact mold that keeps you involved. Cavies are at their best when they are completely committed to their concept (machine, spin cycle, frameworks, etc) and this is going to spread. Bluecoats touched on this with Capture and Escape in 2003. Design will become less sectionalized, and more flowing, I think. I would certainly love to see more emphasis on the musical programming like Phantom. Being able to play music is the core of the activity, in my opinion. Having said this, I think the main innovations will be on the visual side. I just hope that the music stays in the mind set, and the visual works to enhance it. I think the ballad as we know it will disappear. There have been many reviews this year about how their attention dwindles during these sections of the show. I think it has to do with design...the ballads are just not effective in some of the shows, usually because the don't flow well. What I can see is shorted ballad like sections, but no full out ballad. BOA bands have been ahead of the DCI gang for a while in terms of creativity and innovation. They can take more risks. We see bands imitating corps, and we also see corps imitating bands. The entire activity has become so formulaic, it would be great to see some edgy stuff that is different. I like that the cavies break routine and do 007, and Chicago, and BJ, then turn around and do machine, and spin cycle. I like how cadets re-invent themselves. I wish Blue devils would do something different. When they do, thats when they will be at their best, truly. I also see the activity growing a bit, and the use of amps and electronic instruments will increase. The Pandora's box was opened. It does give another level to create...so they will use it. I miss acoustic drum corps, but accept were we are going.

The Charlotte show ended up being very nice. The weather was nice and everyting was a bit damp for a while. The field did not look to be in good shape, both from the rain, and all the bald spots in the grass. I would not have wanted to march on it, and I saw at least two falls...but I am glad they did go with it. The crowd seemed to be a good size. There were not many moments that got the crowd going...maybe the crowd was a little tired...but the shows just did not have enough exitement in them. I would way the best responses of the night would be the Cadets, especially the ending, and the first big impact for Cown. The later got a great response. Since this was the only show I could attend, I just wanted to soak it all in. Cadets are awesome. It is a BOA show, but on steriods. It is so much more and it is very well done. The innovation seems to be pushing the speed up, and jamming big moments all over the place. It has a good flow, and the narration isnt bad at all. They are on another level from CC and SCV. CC should have placed higher than SCV and the crowd was a bit dissapointed (home town and all)...but our eyes and ears wanted the placement as well as our hearts. We saw the shows too. Colts were reallllllly good. Scouts were good, and had some really cool things in their show. The most obvious thing for them was their fist impact point that they play full out, backfield. Turn em round guys, add 2.5 to the music effect. Southwind was good, too. I liked all of the new uniforms...SW, Colts, Mad, CC...they all looked fantastic. It was a good night.

What if the person reading the narration was a BOY, instead of a GIRL? Would that change the message a bit?

cornets can play loud...very loud. if you play a cornet like a trumpet, it will sound almost like a trumpet. If you want it to sound like a cornet, you have to slow down the air and warm it up a bit. I would say, en masse, trumpets would end up sounding louder as they produce a brighter tone...when played correctly, than a cornet. I don't think it would be a bad thing to have an all cornet line. I think OSU still does use the Bb cornet. British style brass bands can pack quite a punch on the volume meter.

Magic 02 was it, tenor drums?

There are valid reasons why letting people come in your ranks is not good. There are thousands of dollars worth of property that can be damaged. If only the people who are trained to use them are allowed in ranks, then it decreases the risk of damage. If you are moving, and playing even, then you are open to personal injury. If some guy darts through the corps and "accidentally" bumps your horn while playing, you may have a trip to the dentist. First, it is a safety issue. Then it is a respect issue. How individuals deal with this is important, because to an outsider, it can cause a PR problem. There are many examples in this thread about how to handle the situation. Organizations should have policies in place to deal with it. One is to have tight ranks. If people see a space they can cut, they might think about taking it. I worked with a band that liked to troop move in single file. While it looked impressive to have a 160 person single file line, it left itself open to ranks being broken because you had to wait forever for them to pass, and if they stopped, there was no way around. tight formations can help with this because it looks less liely they can pass thru successfully. Sometimes it is unavoidable. There were times in college marching band where fans tried to do this. Sometimes we just had to let them thru. And ti always ###### us off.

Also, consider the age of the kids. Crown has younger kids to train. I would be willing to bet that the scores are comping frrom the field judge, who is hearing whats up close. The ensemble scores might be fine, even though the field scores aren't high yet. I have not scrutinized the recaps, so I am not sure. Maybe I am way off. They sure do sound good these days. t

He was specific.

A Triple Crown for the Horse Show....Cute.

The concept is not really new. Countless BOA bands have already done things similar to this. Kennesaw mountain and Avon and many others. The Cadets will put their spin on it and make it their own, and perform it to the max.

Faust is a literary work that inspired a TON of music. One way they could have gone was to feature music from the many Faust inspired works from Berlioz, Wagner, Liszt, Gounod, and even Mahler's 8th Symphony. Instead they chose to tell the story using other music that could invoke the imagery to support the story. I have no issues that there isn't music of Faustian heritage in Phantom's show, as they are making it work quite well. One wonders, though, that if the music were actually from some of the tunes inspired by the sotry in the original, how would it help their scores as the music would then REALLY be supporting the theme. HIndsight is 20/20, and I still love that show!!!