TAFL

Fixed.

Stone Ground Seven or Lezghinka or Black Market Juggler or ....

Nah, it's the pitch that sounds when playing a written C. If you play a third-space C (treble clef), you sound a B-flat or G or F below it. If you sound a written G on a G horn, you hear a D. A written B-flat for a B-flat trumpet will sound an A-flat.

Bluecoats had a rehearsal day here, so I did get to hear Bluuu's snares this past year. Didn't care for the sound. The playing was impressive--the sound wasn't.

Those old, metal triples were heavier than anything I've seen since. It was a relief when the quads came in--and the quints I've played recently still don't come close to those triples.

Speak for yourself. My music is intended to be interpreted as music, no more, no less. It is never intended to be interpreted as a painting or a video or a ceramic ashtray fresh from an elementary school art class. You seem to be trying to speak for a whole bunch of people without having any standing to do so.

Allowing for only five grades possible is good for sorting things out on a gross basis--and horrible for sorting things out on a fine basis. When multiple corps can rightly be described as meeting the criteria "consistently" then box 5 does nothing to sort among them. An obvious solution is to double the number of boxes. The box for "consistently" meeting criteria can then become box 7 or 8, and box 10 is reserved for "unwavering in meeting criteria" (or "I didn't see a #### thing wrong"). Thus, all the corps that otherwise would get bunched up in box 5 can now be rated using three or four boxes. Where ratings may range from box 3 to box 5 currently, they'd range from box 4 to box 10, providing a finer look at achievement. Identical ratings for multiple corps in a given sub-caption is just fine. Indeed, identical ratings for multiple corps in a caption is just fine, when it comes down to it. If you have two or three really hot drumlines that all rate the same at the top of the heap--then you've had one hell of a show for drumlines!

I'm with you. I prefer to tune the drums to my ear and then muffle them to what sound I want. The drums we have came with foam applied and were dampened more than I wanted, so I'll be pulling the foam off and working from blank heads. I am interested in learning about all of the available options these days for dampening, just in case I want to try something new.

Straight from the bell tower of Notre Dame to a gig near you... If I hunched over a kit like that for an entire set, I'd likely never be able to walk upright again!

Wow. So a lot of good music would get dinged on the harmonic functioning thing, eh? That's sad.

Sailor Bubba sticks out as unique--there are always lots of Klingons, etc.

The choice of grip is purely aesthetic. I prefer matched grip, both aesthetically and for instructional purposes. Had a kid show up to a rehearsal, he was center snare at his high school. Really sloppy left hand. I had him switch to matched grip and instantly his playing improved dramatically. Far too many schools have directors who are horn players and don't know squat about percussion, so the instruction these kids get is horrid--particularly when dealing with the left hand in traditional grip. I don't have time to straighten out the messes and build that left hand in traditional grip when a switch to matched obviates the need and looks better. The only time I've taught traditional grip was for use with a period reenactment group. We were strapping on side drums and traditional grip was required to play them. In that situation, one has to take the time to clean up left hand messes.

That's a windmill, Don Quixote.

Seems to me that scoring more points in the first half of a football game doesn't involve winning anything. Heck, scoring more points in the second half also may not involve winning anything. The final score, at the end, is all that matters. The team with the higher score at the end wins the game. To suggest otherwise is ludicrous. So, if your contest has two nights or is set up with prelims, quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals over four days, it still isn't over until the whole shooting match is over. You can eliminate corps along the way for not scoring enough points to continue all you want. You don't have a winner until the whole thing plays out, however. Corps X may have outscored Corps Y in the second quarter and it matters not, for only the final score matters. Or are we expecting trophies for the "winner" of the first quarter of the Super Bowl? Then the second quarter winner? And the resulting first half winner? A prelims score is nothing more than an indication of who's leading after the first period of play, which horse is leading early in the race. I have no dog in this race. I'll now sit back and resume giggling at the nonsense.

One learns defensive scoring in that instance. Our parade charts are scored in seven parts. They also work well without the contra, so we can go with six. We can also do without one other part, so five works. It's even possible to get nice chord coverage behind the melody with only four of the parts covered (though I wouldn't want to have to do that). Our standards library is getting worked over in the same fashion. Can you tell that was a lesson learned in agony? We had an exhibition once where we had no sopranos show up. Bumped our single mello player to soprano, then covered mello parts with bari and contra(!) (we had extra baris at that performance).

We'd have to ditch the marching snares, use thinner mylar (YAY!) heads on our concert snares, use sticks with a great deal less mass, and consign the snare line to vastly different parts with vastly fewer notes. The tenors would disappear, essentially. We'd have unison bass parts, so could get rid of a few bass drums. We'd also have to cut most of the battery players, as we wouldn't need them all for our concert hall. Of course, we'd also have to decrease the number of keyboards for that true concert hall feel. And get rid of the sound systems. Then nobody in the stands could hear squat. ####, this concert hall stuff just doesn't seem to fit in with marching music arts....

It may have something to do with not being in an orchestral setting. And if they can't adjust from venue to venue, they're not very good players. Just sayin'.

True. It doesn't take huge numbers to do a parade, though. Around here, we don't get paid for parades, so it's entirely for the fun of it and recruiting.

My wife marched high school band and had never seen a drum corps. I showed her some video of old school corps in action and she fell in love with the guard work. She's now part of our guard. She doesn't even blink when I mention having to travel with Kansan somewhere on corps business or mention planning to see a show, as it's just a part of our lives.

Did you ask her why she chose to join the carnival?

Chutes and Ladders!

It detracts from the visual package.

There is a corps in Fargo. I think I have contact info that the Chamber of Commerce sent me--I'll see if I can find it. I've not contacted the corps to find out if it does more than parades. Valley City used to have a corps; I've not contacted anybody in the city to find out if it still exists.

Gee, there was an article linked to on these boards not long ago about a young man who left the Cadets and went to the Blue Devils because he, also, didn't care to continue with the Cadets style of physical grind. I do believe the Blue Devils just won this year's title with that very same young man as a marching member. Your supposition is looking mighty weak.