actucker

Do you have a source on this? Its not on their Facebook or on their website.

Politics: supporting the narratives of bitter runners up for decades...

People die in their sleep. We should have stricter regulations and a sincere conversation about how we can make sleeping safer.

That would be all well and good, except that that's not the conversation that will be had in this topic. Instead it will be a string of complaints about how dangerous modern design is (with no actual knowledge of what goes into the implementation of those designs), and those in the know defending said design and instructional staffs. The conversation to be had (and I agree, its a valid one) is not one you will find here. We're now on the third page of the topic, and I have yet to see any actual explanation of safety precautions other than the obvious "rehearsal".

Drum corps hire specialists for this very topic. What exactly is the DCP community going to tell them that they don't already know? They are experts for a reason. Lets not overvalue DCP conversation here. This is a fan message board. Most of the activity could care less what is said here.

I could get hurt walking down the street. That doesn't keep me from getting from point A to point B. The awareness of that possibility simply encourages me to look before crossing the street, be aware of my surroundings, and generally look out for my own safety. Should I not be allowed to walk down the street? There are inherent risks in anything we do. The risks associated with the marching activities are minuscule compared to the vast majority of other youth activities. There is no reason for concern. A few stories, however sad, do not accurately paint the picture of the risks involved in the activity. Furthermore, any performer knows the risks involved with the activity when they sign their membership contract. The idea that staff's are not doing everything they can to ensure member's safety is simply baseless. I also take exception to the notion that members are being coerced back onto the field quicker than their recovery time would require. This is simply not true in my experience. Every staff I've worked with has taken member's well being very seriously, and subscribes to the notion that a member is more valuable fully recovered and on the field for finals than pushing through an injury and potentially ending their season. These corps all have medical staffs on tour prepared to handle any issues, and the number of season ending injuries is no higher today than it was when I was marching. The fact is, bad things happen. It doesn't matter how careful you are, bad things are going to happen. Drum corps aren't doing anything that is unreasonably unsafe, but as it is an athletic activity, there is an inherent risk. Members assume that risk any time they agree to membership. This topic is simply a thinly veiled stab at modern drum corps designs.

12 years ago, a Magic tenor player tripped over a prop/bass drum that didn't get moved at the right time and ended up with his drums on his head in finals. There are stories of injuries dating quite far back in the activity. Things happen. Its not a product of visual design.

Seriously. If you go watch some high school band you'll see just how effective the "just take 40 counts to get there and stay away from each other" method works. Its so obvious when scatters have been detailed and when they haven't.

I think the writing is exactly what the show design calls for. I think the fix for it is in the show construction not in the front design itself.

Also, I could see Markworth ending up at Scouts. With Sparling taking over, and the two of them having worked together for a while, I could see Sparling wanting to bring him in.

I don't know anyone who isn't pretty sold on Matt Jordan at phantom. He's one of Erik Johnson's protege and thats one of the better front ensembles every year. There's a reason he and his staff have been around through several battery staff changes at Phantom.

Ooo-rah and Hooah are different things. The former is used by the Marines, and the latter the Army.

Its not complicated. The final number isn't a priority in the judging system. The rank and spread are the priority. Bluecoats score went up because the corps behind them scored higher, and the judges felt Coats performance justified a certain spread between them and the likes of Vanguard and Crown. When Cadets went on, enough of the judges felt that they weren't as strong as Coats that they didn't surpass that score. And no, the Cadets were not flawless. They were very good. So were Bluecoats.

Yes, there was visual dirt in their show. Interestingly enough, they didn't win visual proficiency. There was also visual dirt in the shows behind them that was as significant if not more so. Incidentally, there are other captions involved in the total score where Bluecoats excelled putting them over Cadets in finals. That's how the sheets work. You don't have to be the best in every caption to be better overall.

Yeah, with the freedom and support Mac gets at Cavaliers, I can't imagine him leaving any time soon. He's had a long standing relationship there, and has a huge hand in the design process (not to mention how the ensemble is run). It would take something pretty serious to pry him away to go somewhere else.

I definitely think that is an interesting prospect, although Crown's design choices are very different from those of Cavaliers or Vanguard when Casella was there. I'm all for seeing his writing on the field again. Not sure how likely that is though.

Either the talent or the instruction is a problem, as even with a less demanding book, the battery and front ensemble were simply not as clean as the groups ahead of them in percussion. They didn't come in 7th in percussion because of pacing issues. As for the design issues, whether it was intentional or not, a weak section was exposed. As I said before, I don't know who made the decisions, or why they were made. I simply know that it wasn't going to take a small amount of time to get the entire brass line to that high brass moment, and it wasn't going to take a small amount of time to get them back from it. We can argue all day about what percussion books were musical, or not musical. That's entirely subjective. I felt that Hannum's writing was appropriate in terms of supporting the brass. That doesn't change the big picture design issue that exposed a section that was not prepared for that exposure. Whether that lack of preparation was an instructional problem, or a talent problem is irrelevant. That design flaw is still there.

I'm not sure what part of my argument your disagreeing with here. I'm not suggesting that there weren't percussion features. I'm suggesting that those percussion features were only written because of brass needs. Your post would seem to support that point. Because the brass moments were the priority, they were ok with exposing a weak percussion section to get them. I'm sure that had an effect on their GE numbers, as those features rambled on and didn't bring a lot to the table musically or thematically. They had to explain the car muffler thing in the preview show, and both theater shows to the audience to argue their point. I'm sure that came up in critique often as well. Again, Crown is strange from a design standpoint. When they program percussion features, its out of necessity for what they have planned for the brass. For some reason, they are having trouble getting the kids to perform at the same level as other programs. What I'm curious to see is whether or not they make a change in order to make that happen.

Even then, its not a secret that that's how the Cadets do things. Kids that go there, go there for that experience. Gone are the days where whatever corps was local to you is where you marched. The kids handled the disappointment well, and I'm sure it wasn't easy, but I don't feel bad that their experience held up to what they signed up for. I would be more disappointed for them if they had done something differently. I've known several people who marched there, and they all took pride in that tradition.

Fair enough. I was just perusing a recap for outlying numbers. Didn't take much time to look at them across multiple recaps.

The two major percussion features in the show were designed specifically to set up a transition for a moment the brass wanted to create (the switches in and out of the high brass/frisbee feature). If the brass designers didn't want that moment, I doubt the battery would have had that exposure. One of those features was spent playing a sticking exercise on truck mufflers. In the mean time, the front had pretty much zero exposure in the entire show. That's hardly programming to feature the percussion section. The brass is the pretty clear priority in terms of programming exposure, more so than most other corps I saw this year. I'm not suggesting that I know where those programming decisions come from. Again, the Crown percussion thing is a strange beast. Hard to tell if its Hannum, Klesch or someone else making those calls. In the mean time, their percussion execution numbers continue to be low compared to the rest of the corps. I could definitely see a justification for making a change.

Fixed that for you.

Go read any of the several threads that have an ongoing conversation about how there is no such thing as a perfect score.

All of this is based on checking out some recaps and what I saw during the season. I am in no way suggesting that any staff SHOULD be let go. I'm simply pointing out where there could be things to react to from an administrative standpoint. Obviously I know nothing of the inner workings of these corps, so whether or not staff members are at fault for results is not my call to make. I wouldn't be surprised to see a change in percussion staff at Crown, although I said the exact same thing last year. That's a strange beast, as the shows are clearly designed to showcase a fantastic brass section with percussion generally being an afterthought. I don't know what motivates those choices, as I'm not on staff. Perhaps they are writing to the members they think they can recruit. Who knows. But after several years in a row with percussion numbers well below the rest of the corps, I wouldn't be surprised to see a change in reaction. This is not said to be a slight against that staff. I have no idea what goes on in their rehearsals, so I can't tell you if its their fault that the percussion numbers haven't kept up. I can tell you that it has to affect their recruitment. A program that's consistently in the middle of the pack in percussion is going to draw different talent than a program that is in the top 3 or 4 every year, regardless of how good the rest of the corps is. If they do make a staff move, it will be interesting to see who that will be and if it is a name that can draw. The Colts just missed finals, and their music numbers seem to be the culprit based on the recap. Could see there being some potential changes there. I know that percussion staff is in their first year and was working with some pretty green members. Definitely seems like there could be some design changes at Spirit and Madison. Both shows seemed to have potential when they came out of the gate in the beginning of the season, and seemed to have some fairly serious pacing and continuity issues. Academy's guard finished 20th in semis (corps in 15th), and Boston's guard finished 13th in semis.

Oh good grief. It was an extremely well designed show that you just didn't like. The kids won a bronze medal. I'd say their staff and design team did just fine. They just didn't do as well as BD and Coats. Last time I checked, they are allowed to drum corps too.