StickTrick

I would play with a tuner all the time. Work on centering each pitch with long tones on both trumpet and mellophone. You owe it to your corps to be an amazing mellophone player, but you need to keep improving as a trumpet player. You need to play straight through the horn. Don't try to bend pitches. You are probably way too tense. Check yourself out in the mirror. You have to be your biggest critic.

Phantom Regiment is clearly elite right now. 3rd place in 2005 and 2nd in 2006. They have the best drumline and brass in the world. Some might say they should have won this year. They are right up there with Cavaliers and Blue Devils.

Boston Crusaders v.s. Everyone... nobody likes this corps except the people directly affiliated with it.

Well, Troopers bought a new G line in 2004, I think. Definitely the biggest reason that corps won't go this route still is that you can't sell 64-72 horns very easily. It's really easy to take a brass line that is a year old and sell an entire contra section to a band program for $15,000 or so. Pretty much your only buyers of G bugles are senior corps now.

This is awesome. I wish every corps did this instead of being secretive in the off season.

I think Crown actually sold all of their horns to Avon High School last year. Rumor has it, they are switching horn companies this year. I know that I-2 Percussion has used some of the pit equipment from the Cavaliers in the past.

it's hard to tell... no way academy would be 10th any other year. i mean, they were great but still CLEARLY a non-finalist division I corps. in general i really don't see a lot of those lower corps making finals. the show design and talent level is just not there at all.

I have to think that the bottom 3 or so of the top 12 from years past wouldn't make top 12 today. The level excellence is so much higher in nearly every facet. I love the 90's Colts shows, but I really don't see any of those shows beating Glassmen or Spirit 05/06. And no, it's not just the whole G v.s. Bb ordeal either.

I think there's probably way more Capital Regiment kids going to Bluecoats, Cavaliers, and Cadets than Troopers. Why would you not want to try a top corps in the immediate area than fly all the way out west to a corps that hasn't made finals since like 1986 and was inactive last year?

i heard that they are doing an all-american show featuring bernstein's jeremiah symphony, some william grant still stuff, and souvenir de puerto rico piano piece. i also heard they were getting rid of the cream and going to mostly black with a splash of purple.

i'll second that. i thought they sounded and looked pretty good. it's not like they live college marching band for 3 months, competing against other top notch groups with no other outside distractions. they are one of the most entertaining marching bands i have ever seen that execute at their level. ^OO^

Cadets 05, Cavies 04, Crown 04

I'm really not a fan of this. This does not sound like innovative Bocook, to me. He really havs been diggin that 9 chord since 05. I'm not into playing with the Long Ranger. I really liked 05 and if they had nixed the 3 minute drum feature and vocals in their ballad, 06. Hopefully Hide & Seek will be cool.

These things, like SINFONIA for the brothers of Phi Mu Alpha are pretty sacred. Even if you did find out what it meant, it probably would have little effect on you if you are not a real Cavalier. It's more about the experience and not so much about the yell. It's like wanting to know what the secret sauce is and then not actually buying the Big Mac. I don't really care what SPLOOIE means because I have my own secrets within other organizations.

i agree with an earlier post. i have always found that if i use a ton of pressure and force air through the instrument, i'll be fine and be able to hit all the high notes whenever i want. something the mouthpiece comes out the back of my head, that's when you know you're doing real good...

it's just an acronym that wouldn't really mean anything to you unless you really marched there

this could be a great show... imogen heap is amazing and right up their alley... symphonic movement will be really cool with jay bocook working his magic.

i'm going to go ahead and say it- blue stars in finals this year, spirit out

1) phantom 2) cadets 3) blue knights 4) spirit

it's still cool to call trumpets or tubas by sops and contras.... it's not a big deal either way. they are what they are.

You won't get your camp money back because even if you didn't like it, you got meals and an educational clinic on marching music paid for. If you pay tuition fees upfront, you should be able to get that back.

Star 89, Crossmen 95, Glassmen 01 & 02, Madison Scouts 04 and all of the 90's Colts shows... All pretty solid.

05 was great because of the clarity of that show in the hornline. I wouldn't say they were underrated at all that year. I think that the 06 show should have placed higher, but 05 was a 7th place show and drum corps. I don't think that hornline would have been as clear as they were if they were playing a challenging book like Phantom or BD. However, the 06 corps had a top 4 hornline. I gotta believe that with addition of Lee Beddis and his staff, the corps is going to get a surge simply based off the fact that the corps will not outplace the percussion by 5+ placements.

1) Blue Devils 2) Bluecoats 3) Phantom Regiment 4) Cavaliers 5) Carolina Crown 6) Cadets 7) Santa Clara Vanguard 8) Blue Knights 9) Boston Crusaders 10) Glassmen 11) Blue Stars 12) Colts

yea, as long as it's not a pop show or something... it would be cool to see them go back to the 92-96 style shows.