Gaddabout

Two things stick out in my mind for the Float 80s years ... perfect accelerandos (I know they did this at least twice) and amazing mallets. I mean blow-your-mind mallets. That one guy that had playing Spain was channeling Gary Burton. He was amazing ... and working hard!

Hardimon was born to compose for drum corps. Even as a die-hard BD fan, I was always amazed at SCV as an ensemble. Actually, I thought this year's book was a great homage to those 80s ensembles ... and they got knocked hard on tech for it. Too bad. It was some good Hardimon-esque writing.

I hope they do. Crosby's a great caption head, too, just can't be starting from scratch in the battery and pit every year. Need to have units that are already prepped to learn the show as it's written.

There are some recent jazz fusion recordings that could fit the bill if they went that direction. The stuff from 5 Peace is a great update for Corea/McLaughlin and all of the performances on there are mind blowing. Raju as an opener? Maybe.

Academy only had 19 age outs. If they can avoid mass exodus, they should remain as strong if not get stronger just based on skill. Moving up from 18th in perc is going to be a challenge though even if they keep their kids.

Sure. Thanks for asking. There's a legion of percussion caption heads who are so amazing to me I wish I had time to write a book about them. I hear people on this board ##### about overpaid staffers, but at least in percussion you can always tell a difference between the true innovators and the mere very good. Just the ones from my era sort of hover heavy over the activity ... DeLucia, Float, Hardimon, Hannum ... and the ones carrying on their traditions now. I love them all and it allows me to be free from corps attachment. I get to just enjoy it all. ;)

It was insanely hot that summer and I couldn't believe y'all were out there practicing after 10 a.m. I mentioned this to a friend of mine and he thinks I have my time frame wrong -- it was the new high school and it wasn't built until 1987. I still remember it as 1985. So my memory could be very, very faulty. I think I would've remembered 1987 ... that was the field shark year, right?

Hardimon was all about the ensemble. Up until Hardimon I think most books were written with more tech in mind ... here's our snare feature moment ... here's our tenor feature moment ... here's our mallet feature moment ... etc. etc. Hardimon ignored all of that and seemed to really embrace the composer and refused to overwrite the battery just to score higher. Hardimon's love of classical was so extreme and unique to drum corps, SCV snares used matched grip. For example, Hardimon LOVED press rolls. Now, press rolls are essential to concert percussion but they're sort of counter-intuitive to tech in DCI. There's not much you can do to make a buzz roll sound clean and they don't rate high at all on the difficulty scale. Hardimon found ways to make them more difficult ... splits for snares and tenors, for example. You can also hear Hardimon in the interpretation of the original score -- everything was done in reverence to the composer. He never had this ego where he felt he needed to write past the composer to impress a field judge. He produced a more sophisticated way to write for outdoor percussion ensembles and EVERYONE has followed suit. You can hear his influenced across the board. Hardimon was always a counter-point to Float, who was a snare drummer's dream. You went to Float because you wanted to be challenged. You went to Hardimon because you loved classical music. This isn't saying Float was less musical, but he was allowed quite a bit more freedom in his books because BD plays jazz. They are both titans in my opinion. I think if Hardimon and Float had a child, it would be Paul Rennick.

When I was in college I entered a lot of newspaper design competitions. I always got compliments for balance and technique, but nothing I ever did was so daring or inventive that people remembered it. I wonder if Academy is falling into the same trap. I think Academy has been the technical boxer of the group, hitting for points but not much power. Until they have a unit that becomes their signature -- and I think it should end up being the brass -- I think they will always be lacking a "wow" element that gets people's attention. I don't think you can underestimate that in the competitive aspect of DCI.

Someone needs to write a two-part manual on drum corps life -- one for the rook and one for the parent(s). It should be honest but helpful and positive. Post it on a .org someplace and linked from here.

Screamin' horn solos. Does it really matter what they play? Just give us the screamin' horn solos man. That's Scouts to me.

That would be a great show!

You're probably right and I only saw semis. I liked their book, but I didn't think their execution in semis warranted the score they got, but everybody was HIGH in semis. Judge was boxing himself in early on. This is strictly my opinion, but I thought it was an off year for Cadets battery compared to previous lines. They knock my socks off most years. My ears, this year ... I thought I was hearing a lot of June-like dirt in August. At least that's what I was hearing on the Internet cast. On the flip side, I remain baffled why Regiment's score wasn't higher, but I don't know enough about the pit to know if that was a difference maker. Battery sounded excellent to me, as good as anyone else. Also felt SCV shouldn't have been knocked so hard in tech. That book was tasty. Well written. Perfect for the music they played.

Are they teaching kids how to read? And how often did you have to adjust on the fly to a changed book? In defending drum corps elsewhere, I've always had to dispel the myth that drum corps kids don't know how to read. Maybe that's how it was back in the jurassic age, but I know that's not how it is today.

Apparently a snare fell during the show and rattled the group. Or something to that affect.

They do shows in Phoenix in June and they're always great. The one in August two years ago was great. I assure you even on natural turf it was 100+ degrees on the field, and I couldn't even imagine being in full uniform.

I'm thinking about taking on new beginner students. I haven't taught in awhile but the extra income would be nice and I sort of miss the interaction and excitement for kids who are new to the stuff. Going through my old curriculum I estimated a solid handling of the 40 basic rudiments @100 bpm required about 200 hours of earnest practice, which is what I called intermediate level skill. The next level was the same rudiments @124 bpm, which required an additional 100 hours of practice. I called this Grade 2 intermediate. Grade 1 advanced was the 40 @144 bpm, and Grade 2 advanced required an additional 40 hybrids @124 bpm, leaving the time required an open-ended process ... that's where the learning curve always seems to sharpen for most every student. All told, I promised I could get a serious student to Grade 2 in about 18 mos. (I did this myself in about 13 mos. but I was obsessive and literally tore the skin off my hands doing it ... not really advised) Does this seem about right to you? Any other suggestions?

If I thought the marching was suffering I'd say no stands, but IMO, there's more marching and movement in the drum line that ever before. Don't see the purpose of going without stands. These kids today deserve a break.

I hate to be obvious, but your questions are better answered by contacting the staff directly. Give them a few weeks to get back to answering their e-mail/phone calls, but most staffers are anxious to talk to newbies -- recruiting is part of their job. Make sure you know when their camps are -- that's mandatory to attend even if you're not sure you're ready to audition. Showing up is as almost as important as nailing the audition. There will always be better players out there who won't stick because they can't raise the money to travel or whatever.

It was Gilbert High School in Gilbert Arizona. My brain is straining to remember more details. That was a long time ago, man. I got the impression every one there was a staffer or volunteer because they all seemed ... older. LOL But when you're 15, everyone older than 17 seems ancient.

For the Bluecoats, I select Danny Elfman's Serenada Schizophrana. It's dark, it's complex, it just screams Bluecoats to me. No Tim Burton treatment here. You have to go further down the road with this one. Show design would have to cross a line maybe drum corps isn't ready to cross to get across the imagery of the music.

Thanks for the answers, and I hope this thread inspires more VK story telling. Summer of 1985 VK came through my neck of the woods and so, not thinking of it, I showed up at their high school stop and videotaped them practicing. They stopped and I skulked -- I thought of it as simply walking back to car, but they called it skulking -- out of the stadium. I had my keys out ready to unlock the door when I was accosted by ... lots of angry young men. And I say men because I was a 160 lb. high school sophomore. They let me go, not quite convinced I wasn't some spy from another corps ... or something ... but they did let me stick around long enough to watch them do a little dance on my VHS tape. And I still went to their camp that fall because I thought they were DCI bad ******. LOL If I hadn't failed math and English that fall, I probably would have been IN that show I was asking about. I didn't think about it until you mentioned the year ...

I can't remember if it was the 007 show or some other one, but VK did a show where the woman who danced with a member of the guard was revealed to be a man in the wig. Just one of those classic VK moments. Anyway, I seem to recall the man in the wig was the corps director, but my buddy is doubting me because it would be against DCI rules. I agreed with him but could not shake the memory of it being the corps director in the wig. Could one of you vets settle this very serious, very somber, possibly-going-to-come-to-blows debate?

That show would require the guard to carry air guitars. No?

This statement disqualifies anything positive you had to offer in an attempt to qualify the statement. What exactly are you suggesting happened? It implies you are in the know about something truly nefarious when in fact you're wildly speculating because you don't like how the judges' sheets filled out. It's not quite libel, but it's pretty **** close.