roosevelt

Ok. We will see which one of us is right sooner or later.

To me that is an awful use of synth since they already had a glockenspiel. I would hope that people use synths to create sounds that you don't already have available to you.

They were a package. I don't see one or two of them staying if they all don't stay.

Mitch Rogers has resigned from the Troopers according to his FB. My guess is Dean Westman, Gordon Henderson, Dan Wiles and maybe Ralph H. will follow soon after.

Caption Head will be Ellis Hampton

How in the world have yo come to the conclusion that synths are helping the brass scores? Brass is a field caption an the guys on the field guys aren't going to hear the synth contribute from their vantage point since the synths are in front of them... nice try though. Now, electronics can and do help ensemble scores if used correctly but many people on here assume that judges never say anything about the electronics being too loud or the low synth to augment the tuba section. I can tell you from hearing numerous judges tapes since the passage of the electronics rule that judges are slamming people on the tapes for this and it is reflected in their sheets and their scores.

Oh for sure... its all relative

That's it? All they need to do is lose the police hats and recruit? Sweet! I am sure they never thought of that....

Well. Yeah, but many people thought that they would fall because of the changes in staff and leadership and many people early season had them picked for the 6-9 range. I remember a few on here that said things like " Cavaliers have no shot at beating crown this year" after seeing them early season. So, in many ways yes they were underdogs this season IMO.

Talked to a few guys on staff at BD this past summer and they definitely were worried about the cavaliers this. So, while they may have still won and all, I can tell you that they definitely were looking out for the green team.

this will not end well.....

Well said.

Wrong! DCI sent Fred Morris in to run the rest of the tour in 2006. Fred told me so himself. To say that CR is managed better than most corps is just ridiculous. There is a reason that nobody wants to work with him and people quit at the end of the season. If CR ever wants to have a chance to come back for good, they need to find someone else to run them who has some people skills and a clue about this activity. Also, DCI is not going anywhere any time soon.

Maybe because the design staff last year were band directors and their band had a trip to China planned for years. It is not really fair to blame their design woes on them taking a trip to China either. The fateful decision to do that show was made long before the trip anyways. Even if they were here in the states the whole time, it would not have fixed that show. Their major mistakes were made well before the season started..... mainly in their design meetings in November when they decided that Relampango would be a good show to begin with.

A 14-15 year old kid does not deserve the same opportunity to march at BD than a 19-20 year old kid. Age and maturity (both physical, mental , and emotional) are contributing factors in a drum corps decision on who is going to be able to handle a summer on the road in addition to talent and individual ability.

Oh I get it. It is one of those make sure your backyards is clean of things..... A minor spelling or grammar mistake verses an incomprehensible post are a little different.

This is so true. There are ALWAYS drum corps looking for people. Hell some of the drum corps that have struggle, have been because they couldn't fill up the corps. One of the central issues I see is every kid wants to march in a top 6 drum corps. The problem is most kids aren't good enough to make those drum corps. Unfortunately, many times those kids that try out at those drum corps think that they are too good to march in a lower tier drum corps and they just stay at home instead. I heard of a kid a few years ago that auditioned at one corps five times and got cut every single year. People told him to go get experience elsewhere and then come back, but he said no every single time. Anyways, there are plenty of opportunities out there for kids to march.

I am not being negative. I do believe that Phantom does put an emphasis on looks over leadership when they pick the DM's. This is obvious to me for a few reasons: 1. They pick 3 rookies to be drum major... meaning there is no institutional memory on the podium. 2. By watching them conduct in many years past (not all), the drum major was not leading the time.. but instead they were locking on to the sound of the drums and communicating the emotions of the program though gesture... sometimes they had folks up there that looked great, but weren't driving the ensemble one bit. 3. You don't really know how solid someone is as a leader until you have seen them during the summer actually leading. Also, you can't really evaluate them as a conductor in a gymnasium in the winter with the metronome going either... but they don't have to because they don't really drive the time. All of this is not to say that what Phantom does is wrong. They have a method that they use and it works for them. Also, there is a reason that they have ridiculous numbers auditioning for DM every year, because they have a reputation of being showman. That's ok. That is their thing.

Phantom nearly did in 1998.

Glad we got that cleared up.

Amazing at what? Giving flashy gestures?

This is one of the most incomprehensible sentences I have ever seen in my life. Tomorrow you need to find your high school english teachers and ask them for serious help. Yes. it is all about the experience, yet you do seem bitter that you are not marching one of the top tier corps by your previous statements. Yes there is. Top tier corps are the ones that finish at the top. Lower tier corps are the ones that don't. I understand the "we are the world" mentality, but in a competitive activity there are competitive tiers.

There IS some memorable music as of late. The promise of living this past year by Crown was Fantastic as was Slalom. Those were tunes I left the stadium humming and have enjoyed listening to on CD. You are right though, we are not really hearing tunes straight down like we used to back in the 70's and 80's, but we also are seeing selections of music in the programs that are too wide in scope to be played straight down... unless of course everyone plays popular music or maybe some jazz charts (which would have to be cut down and snipped). People ARE trying to do things to ensure the activity. There are programs being cut and budgets being sliced all over the country and the fact that we are not losing more corps should tell you something about the long term viability and brand name of DCI. Does that mean we are safe? No. But it does mean that the activity should make it through these tough times. Even the NHL folded for a while and made it back. A few more notes: One of those things you mentioned to adding to the cost is the price that Hal Leonard and other publishers are making corps pay for music. One way corps have cut down on this cost is by doing original music, which many people complain about for not being known or "catchy".... it is a bit of a lose lose situation. You mentioned the cost of Electronics as being an inhibitor to corps survival. I couldn't disagree more. First off, electronics are not that expensive in the grand scheme of a drum corps budget. A really maxed out electronic set-up would be about 15k. That is not that money in a drum corps budget. More importantly, it can help some of the smaller corps come across as bigger / fuller / more mature sounding if the electronics are used correctly. So, it can actually help some of the smaller / lower tier corps if they use them well. Finally, you mentioned CR and Southwind not being taken care of. Southwind's revenue stream dried up and CR was mismanaged. DCI stepped in to help CR by forcing them to take a year off and get things right (like they did for troop). CR's problems have been due to a combination of a reduction in revenue and financial mismanagement. So, I don't know what DCI or the rest of the activity could have done for them except fund these corps with some imaginary revenue source. I disagree completely. It IS about the kids. The fact that we have higher insurance rates, better (and safer) buses, physicians and sometimes even medical teams, nutritionists, and larger admin teams points to the fact that corps are doing what they can to operate in a manner that is best for the kids. Unfortunately, these things cost more. As far as the sight seeing thing goes, I don't think kids get into drum corps wanting any of that. They are there to rehearse. They are there to work. They are there to compete. BUT if you do want to start a corps that doesn't rehearse that much than I am sure you could... just dont expect to have a lot of members in it. Those kinds of kids that don't want to rehearse, work, and compete don't want to be in drum corps... they do summer camp instead. That thread was not good, BUT I don't think people realized the girl was blind until things got pretty far a long. I am not sure though since I never had any desire to read any of it. This is where I am really confused. You talk about the activity changing, but you also mentioned how things were better in the past. So you don't want it to evolve, you want it to go backwards.

You know that this is all one run on sentence right? You are right, some drum corps don't emphasize education as much as they do competition, but they are in the minority. Even some of the top corps do put an emphasis on teaching and the member experience over competition. With that being said, I don't think every corps is obligated to take on younger kids that aren't developed yet and develop them (like you suggested they should). That would hold the corps back and negatively effect the older members of the corps and effect their experience. So, have them go march a lower tier corps or a Open class corps and get that experience and training so that they can be ready the next year.

Yeah, but there is a flip side to that argument. Rolls at 140 feel different in the hands than they do at 160. The amount of rebound and use of the back fingers may be different enough that cleaning a roll at 140 may not help you much at 160 (in some circumstances). We see this kind of stuff all of the time in drum corps. People will write the drum book and guard work in the beginning of the season when the opener is at 160 and then at the end of the season when it has been reefed up to 180 to "increase effect" the drum parts feel different in the hands (i.e requiring a different approach to the instrument) and the guard work doesn't fit or looks silly because it was meant for a slower tempo (like watching cheerleaders do their cheers to the fight song when it is too fast). This has a similar affect on what we are talking about with the horns. If you do everything in a controlled manner and working on balancing, blending, tuning, and cleaning at a messo forte for most of the season until you "get it right" than turn the volume up you are probably going to be in for some problems unless you have super mature and talented players. You can't simply turn the volume up on a horn line like it is a stereo. What it takes to play (and move) at those top volumes takes practice and development. When your approach has been the texas band model of "everything is in the box, and no stuck-outs" you have these performances that are emotionally uncommunicative (see the last few years), because they are too afraid to step outside the box. To me, what the cavaliers have done the last number of years has really not been a brass approach, but an ENSEMBLE approach to listening and blending (which they did really really well). The problem with that though is when you lack the talent and training from the individual members to be able to play controlled for most of the season and then let it loose later in the season, than you are in for a world of hurt - and I suspect that the talent level from 2002-2006 was probably a few notches above what they had from 2007-2009. So, when your approach is about eliminating stick-outs (i.e. an ensemble approach) you are kind at the mercy of the weaker players in the line when it comes to playing loud.