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08Hawkeye

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Everything posted by 08Hawkeye

  1. 1) Experience is the best teacher. - more reason if any to be stubborn in any aspect with reguard to deviating from the tried and true mechanisms that works for a person. 2)well played sir... well played. Turn on the scotties . Kidding, sort of. I think playing on the edge in its nature has a timbre of its own. I wouldn't ever expect to hear the same snare sound on the edge as in the center. In fact... I might be a little weirded out...
  2. I might be able to roll with that. -- my question then.. can you have one without the other? Can you (not that I want to... yikes) have a tight grip AND be able to pull it off the head that fraction of a second faster such that you produce the same sound as a loose grip? they seem to be handcuffed.
  3. Spirits drums were carrying them last year, this is the next logical step and a good one at that! Lookin forward to see Spirit performing saturday night... :thumbs up:
  4. Lucky for you I'm fluent in sarcasm. Oh. Sorry. I am right. I've marched. I've taught. I have plenty of idea what I'm talking about. And with posts like your previous one, you will be paid no mind. Clearly my opinion is less biased about the activity in its entirety. You've put in 7 summers (actually 6, according to your bio.. you weren't embellishing were you?) "Way to go." Your resume must be STACKED. Marchers and teachers everywhere should bow down in the presence of your greatness. Because now with your 2 years of competitive marching your have truly achieved jedi status. how'd you do those years? I marched 2 years too - but I don't pretend that there's nothing left to learn. Obviously the Lot has no impact on people. screw the lot right? DCI isnt making $$ off the "show before the show". Vic Firth/IP/Promark don't have hundreds of hours of in-the-lot vids on their website because they just wanna sell sticks. HA. Get over yourself. You must be the frickin god of contra playing, otherwise I can't imagine why anyone would contract an attitude like yours. I guess if just the show is the only place "where it counts" (as you say), then those 12 hour rehearsal days, the bonds you make doing reps over and over, the bus rides, the attention to discipline and focus that the Lot has become notorious for exemplifying -- all that doesn't count. Your shortsightedness to realize the activity is so much more than the 11 minutes on the field is actually a little disturbing from a supervet like yourself. My friends appreciate knowing I give a d@m about what they do outside the lines. Wannabes, never-will-be's, already-were-be's, kids adults family members and friends can all enjoy the lot for what its worth. It gives the opportunity to maybe see how to play an exercise, something you missed in the sheet music, and extra twist on a lick. You can take it home and show up at camp in a couple weeks here and stand tall. It's inspirational. Its brings the crowd into your lap as a player to show off, and as a fan to feel as close to in the line as humanly possible. But then again, all this ... doesn't count right. Definitely, screw the lot. pure. ignorance.
  5. if by "music writer" you mean brass, then I guess that sentence works, if you want to marginalize frontline and battery. -- brass writers from boston 04.. OR Cadets '98/'99 ... The staff is nearly the same with the exception of vis staff and the addition of larivee/aungst/weinstein. There were really very few "replacements". I might be so inclined to say top 6 might have some company in a next couple years .
  6. I'm not a horn player so be gentle: but why would you ever listen down. I guess the terminology I [and i hope all drummers] roll with would be listen BACK or listen IN depending on form and direction of marching, but never "down" or "forward". Listening "down" = phasing. sidenote: i know you were joking about listening to the synth. but the concept of listening down didnt sound too unnatural the way you articulated it.. if i'm wrong feel free to bash - its that sorta day over here...
  7. a few more rows up could have made the difference. standing in front of my high school's pit i could barely hear the battery solos over the band members screaming (p.s. I did NOT design it..) - but up in the tower it came across pretty well. freak occurance?
  8. Don't take this personally.. there's just no nice way to ask... have you ever really, thoroughly tuned a snare drum? I mean sat down and spent an hour or two tuning a snarline? I truly don't sense any aura of clear, definitive comments. Like a fortune cookie... your comments kinda sorta work for a number of things.. but c'mon. Your whole post basically said... heads dont retain tension forever, and they need to be tuned frequently. We do agree on a couple things, however. You're right I don't expect the guts or the head to hold tone forever - depending on your definition of "very long" - particularly when weather is a factor. Nothin you said negates the fact that the guts most positively can be EASILY tuned to a pitch (tuning fork works nicely). We also agree that Mr. McIntosh is no dummy, but i'm sure for the purposes of the posted video, he wasn't going for absolute tonal quality, rather (rather quickly) demonstrating that its doable, and how to do it. Fact of the matter is, if you want to produce a dry snare sound, and you come to realize that hey, tuning the guts to an F, loosening the the tension and cranking the top head accomlishes that - whatre ya gonna do? reiterating: wrong. very much.
  9. Failed attempt at humor after realizing you're wrong. Everyone realizes that this was an intentional visual element and you're still trying to defend your "offstep" accusation? come to terms already. How's the line go.. something like "If you know what you're talking about.. you won't have to tell anyone, they'll already know." BINGO. So stop trying to trump what those kids accomplished with "oh it was home crowd" or "I think I saw something on the DVD so clearly they didn't deserve it." -- i.e. YOUR politics. Tell me sir, when was the last time BD or SCV finished particularly POORLY at finals? If by doing "extremely well" you meant that BD hasn't been out of the top 5 since 1974, well then I guess its not just the West coast advantage. Or if you meant that 2005 was SCVs worst finish EVER? and they still got 8th?!, well then you're still wrong. Which is it??
  10. This just in: A recent study into the Drum Corps activity shows excessive weight loss can occur. [/sarcasm] So dci has side effects..? what else is new. I think i still have those d@mn knots under my shoulder blades and its been two years.
  11. [/tuning discussion] We know who the winners and losers are...
  12. Just be solid. If you don't give them any reason to look down on your performance... they can't. Be tough. Achieve. Lead. ...Win.
  13. Seeing as how 5 of the latest threads are about the E word or the S word... I thought I'd try to push a little variety. Anyone headed to Austin in a couple weeks? Discuss...
  14. You sir, have clearly not watched Cavaliers Drumming for a New Millenium DVD -- McIntosh shows exactly how to tune the individual snare strands. I'd even go so far as to say the strands are easier to tune than the tension of the head.
  15. Responses: 1) yep. takes a lot more attention to control to use the "little" muscles to control the the stick, instead of the fulcrum pressure/squeezing many are accumstomed to. 2) dito - hence why I had mentioned sometimes I find myself giving in to the urge and using different grips for different musical passages... I need work as well. This was actually one of the things that ASTOUNDED me watching brent play.. how he can produce such sound with seemingly ssuch a loose grip. amazing. 3) I think the pinkies are a mental thing. tell yourself to tuck them away. dont practice bad habits. no ones perfect... but you can get pretty close with practice :) 4) I only use moeller in a few drumming contexts.. but that is truly an entirely different thread. maybe if i get some time ill even start it :). Its awesome to see the adoption/acceptance of new percussive elements into one's repetoire. Becoming versed in different techniques, philosophies, implementations and learning styles can ONLY make you better and more knowledgable. This is just another gun in the arsenal. Keep practicing sir, and now when confronted with discussion on this technique you can add your two cent on what seems to work in what situations, and put it to use where appropriate. happy drumming. sw
  16. On the contrary sir, I already have premium seat tickets to this show [/tour goggles]
  17. Touchè. Zzz's retracted on account of a technicality.
  18. I was referring to the water rule in general. I.E. microphones were introduced, and look what they did the last 3 years. Water is introduced, and who knows what will happen. I was also being sarcastic in my first post about Cadets screwing it up, just wouldn't be surprised if they pulled something completely ridiculous, ergo "screwing [the rule] up," as their reputation as of late has afforded them. the water jug post was in response to SpiritOfJSUFan's saying an accident will happen where someone trips and bumps or drops a jug of water onto the amp or mixboard. - my post you quoted was simply saying everyone in the corp has a water jug, with no horror stories yet about spilling on the electronics. And even though an "accident" by nature is unintentional... this would be a very unlikely accident. clear up your confusion?
  19. These videos show the middle finger fulcrum pretty well. The "index finger point" may not be as pronounced as perhaps sday88 saw from the troopers, or I mentioned with CapReg, but I'm sure this is what this thread is basically about. being taught by mr. montgomery can be a humbling experience let me tell you. Stand warned, this man is louder at 6 inches than I am full out - video does not do it justice. for you naysayer's of "the gap" - the flam thing video shows his grip is indeed closed, but still relaxed. grab a drink while the videos download. - I think they default to RealPlayer so you can't have more than one video open at a time, but you can download them all at once.
  20. Mr. Holst no doubt converted to satan'ism after that show.
  21. I've generally played most my "career" with the stick borderline on the side of my thumb, and the top knuckle of my index finger. It seemed to allow me to play as I wanted, with control, speed, whatver. Plus it adhered to the mostly-followed "no-gap" conformity. Not til 2006 was I exposed to the middle finger fulcrum and looser grip. I'll preface this by saying I'm not great at it yet, even after a whole season. But it is definitely a technique CHANGE and takes some getting used to. 2 steps forward, 1 step back sort of thing. As Adam said, I found myself using the index finger for some passages, and the middle finger for others. All that being said, I'm really converting myself and my students to the technique, both to the best of my abilities. A couple points to consider: 1) Sound Quality. Argue all you want on this, I simply don't even care, I know I'm right. The BEST sound quality WILL come from letting the stick vibrate through the stroke. I USED to be taught, that vibration in the stick was energy that could be going through the drumhead. WRONG. Not to flame the cadets, I know they have drum trophies, good for them - but their sound quality has truely been just.. gross. However, people look past it because rolls at 200bpm sound sweet. When you squeeze the stick at the fulcrum too hard, you choke off the sound and it does not carry like it does when you let the stick vibrate. NOOOOO!!!!! "squeeze the stick into the palm." NO! You don't need to squeeze at all. Just stop your wrist at the bottom. That's it. I admit, I had trouble hearing this from my caption head - it didn't make sense to me. but like all good things come... practice... and I got better. When you squeeze ANY stroke you're murdering the length of sound you COULD be producing. Try it. stand at the back hash. have someone else sit in the stands premium seats. play a set of 8s with each technique and ask the person which was louder. The sound simply does not carry. This squeezing the stick talk segues nicely into.. 2) the "gap" [flame-suit on, zipped, hood up, mask down] Here's why I disagree with the no-gap rule. I hope we can all agree one of the pillars of rudimental drumming is to eliminate any sort of tension. yes? great. Ok experiment. put your hand out, with your other hand put the stick in it. wrap your fingers around the stick. if you closed the "gap" ... you havent even played anything and you ALREADY have tension in your hand. It takes force/muscle/effort whatever you wanna call it JUST to close the gap. A litte, maybe, but its still there. This is physically unnatural, and at its core NOT conducive to fluency of the stroke. I took the time to describe these elements because they are both pervasive technique ... highlights (for lack of a better word)... of the middle finger fulcrum technique. The fact that the index finger happens to fall of the stick and/or "point" is if anything laziness on the players part. The index fingers is utilized for stability and control, but can easily be tucked under the stick without affecting the nature of the middle finger fulcrum. And, I promise your hands wont be as tired at the end of the day, and your index finger won't frickin bruise and hurt. The middle finger allows for stick shock with the regular extension of the finger. The index fulcrum absorbs the shock going sideways against the finger bone. After 8and200 a few times, or a beefy show segment? ouch! I got a good look at some drumlines this summer, but wasnt exactly looking for this in particular, so I'll see if I can find some videos and/or pictures tonight. But I know for a fact Cap Reg 06 snares were very uniform in this technique, whether the notes they played were clean or not - the uniformity was there. Blue Stars are also doing this since Brent Montgomery came to town - they drummed very well and are only climbing the ranks. The difference in sound is apparent for the trained ear. For myself I might even cringe at a clean roll when I see white knuckles pumping out the diddles. But for the average fan who might just be looking for ripped rolls or tears, its a little harder to notice. In that case, thats only part of the scorecard, uniformity of technique being the other. Obviously the one that does both better wins, so therein lies the tradeoff.
  22. I'm not sure why I overlooked this thread, but I have what I think will be quality input, as I was taught both front finger and middle finger fulcrums. I'm at work, so look for a post in a couple hours.
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