deltaray

I'm not going to write a long response to this as I was going to. Suffice it to say that emotions run high and when it comes down to it, these folks expect to do well or win the title, when they don't, they get mad like anyone else. Don't think that the Blue Devils are above being unprofessional at times just because you where in them. No corps is.

I have a video of it, I'll try to put it up on Youtube later. I think at first it was someone coming from the Blue Devils (go figure), but then later it sounded like it was coming from another corps to the right of them.

Can we get an official answer from someone from the Cavies please? Its been about 10 years since I've talked technical about these things so forgive me if I goof it up. The reason why I doubt embouchure is because they bent the tone what sounded like more than a whole step down. When I played a 2 valve contra versus a 3 valve tuba, it was much harder to do this on a tuba than on a 2 valve bugle. The drum corps instructors I had said this was due to the nature of 2 valve g-bugles, you had to actually pitch bend to reach certain notes in the base scale and you could do so pretty far without hitting the next overtone by accident. But I was never able to pitch bend a tuba with embouchure alone more than a whole step away from a note without going up to the next overtone. Since drum corps now have 3 valve and even 4 valve instruments, I would expect that the Cavies pitch bend came from slide movement. Either way, it was impressive to me that they stayed remarkably in tune with each other during the bend. I guess if you practiced it enough though... It could be my ears where deceiving me. It might sound like a whole step or more simply because the whole corps was doing it at once. Actually, watching a video of them on Youtube now, I think it might be more like a little more than a half step.

I love pitch bending in general and the Cavaliers subjected me to about 30 seconds of heaven. It was great. Thank you. My question is, were they pitch bending through their slide or through their embouchure? I'm guessing their slides because now that we're on 3 valves, its harder to pitch bend the way you used to be able to.

That was PHuqing awesome! Great job Phantom! How appropriate that they beat BD by .025 points after all these years. I think there were a few BD sopranos that were mad if you heard them during America the Beautiful. Sore losers.

This was the first DC show I've been too since 2001 I think and I was blown away. The corps overall have become more creative and are creating much more entertaining shows than before. Moving warmups that bleed right into the show are new to me, when did that start? There also seemed to be more elements that lent themselves to 5.1 surround sound. I think it was the Boston Crusaders who played the song from the Matrix and quickly moved horns left and right to create the left-right swell. Pretty cool. Some show specific comments I have: *Blue Stars - Great show, it was very creative and well executed. I like the bicycle theme and it should go over well in Bloomington of all places (Bicycling town). *Glassmen - One of the first entertaining Glassmen shows I've seen in a while. I think my daughter is going to like this show with the balloons. I was happy to hear them play something New Age (Enya I think). The woman next to me said "They couldn't have done that in a dome". Haha. *Bluecoats - Another great show that was very entertaining. I think they could have made the whole show a bit more uplifting. It is based on Rocky after all. Loved the singing part. Is there ever going to be a year when we won't have to explain to the person next to us about the Blue/boo-ing thing? *SCV - I had been waiting for 12 years to John Adam's Chairman Dances put on the field and they did it. I actually think the whole song could be a single show, but that might be risky. Thank you Santa Clara for putting some more interesting avant-garde music out there. *Cadets - If there is one reason that DCI shouldn't allow amplification, its the Cadets. Sorry but I'm not fond of this show, all the talking distracts from the corps itself, which is bad. Some corps used amplification really well (like the Cavaliers using it to amplify the slide whistle to set the Samauri themed mood, or the Scouts using it to provide a stereo effect). *Carolina Crown - Great music, seemed very clean. I love Clair De Lune. I don't have to hear anyone else to see that they are the new Star. I think that they need a bit more visual aspect to their show. Hopefully they will keep it up in following years and become a contender. *Phantom Regiment - WOW WOW WOW WOW!!!! This show was one of the best I've ever seen. I felt like I was in a gladiator movie. And it was dangerous too, have their been any injuries yet? I'm thinking that on the DVD at the end of the show it will say "In Memory of so and so (1989-2008)". This show has the feeling of old drum corps shows (like when they kill the drum major), which I think is good. Corps/crowd interaction is a good thing too. I am Spartacus! *Cavies - Great theme, good visual design. I liked it. Oh and pitch bends, I love pitch bends! I was hoping for some better drill, but then again I was in the 10th row so I could only see what they showed on the screen for drill. Tomorrow I'll see it from higher up. *Blue Devils - Well executed, but this show just doesn't do it for me. Maybe if I saw it a few more times and knew the music better.

I know they didn't all play on one night and its too early to say, but wow, 4 corps within half a point of each other at the top? And Crown is one of them. That's exciting! I hope Crown pushes their way into 3rd this year. We really need to see new top contenders because its been the same old 6 corps at the top for the past 20 years. Way to go everybody!

Just to get some more information out to people. I created a website 3 years ago called Bloomingpedia (http://www.bloomingpedia.org/) Its basically a wiki (like Wikipedia), but with information focused on Bloomington. Its now one of the largest of these types of "city wikis" in the country. You can go there and find some information about restaurants and local attractions. It doesn't have everything there, but its a good start and you might be able to answer some of your questions. If not, you can always ask in the forums. There are even a couple pages on drum corps related topics there, you are very welcome to contribute: Drum Corps 2008 Drum Corps International World Championships Star of Indiana Memorial Stadium You can imagine how excited I was when I found out finals would be in Btown. And I was joking with Bill Cook (I work at Cook) last year that it might happen. He didn't think it would because of the lack of hotels.

I hope more corps are being housed in Bloomington than this, it will be awesome to drive around town (I live in Btown) and hear drum corps all over the place. Anybody know where the Glassmen are going to be?