snaredude08

Ditching Sparling and bringing back Beddis would be the complete opposite of modernization. Tastes differ, I guess, but I've never met very many people in drum corps who like Beddis's writing, whereas Sparling's is already fantastic. Beddis just writes as many notes as possible without any consideration for musicality -- total opposite for Sparling (who still manages to get a lot of notes in despite caring about musicality). Second, I was never particularly impressed with his lines at Crown as far as cleanliness goes. Maybe I just don't like the way he tunes? Dunno. And third, I've never heard great things about the general vibe at lines he teaches at from the few guys I've known who marched under him. Of course, that could be hearsay as much as anything, so take that with a grain of salt for sure. But more generally, I just don't think corps-age guys really want to march under him any more. His prime was a while ago, IMO, so he's not the awesome young guy that attracts the best talent anymore.

Totally agree, that whole group on lines is on fire lately. Personally, I thought the best choice could be Tim Jackson, since there's already some Rhythm X staff there and, unlike the Pulse guys, he's not currently affiliated with another corps that I know of. But either of these would be fantastic, along with several other possibilites. And as for wanting to give Aungst more time since he's new to the group... that's what we all said about Hannum in 2012 and Beddis in 2007. He could be different, but why waste 2 or 3 more years on that chance when the previous attempts have failed? Meh.

I hope this finally gets the message across to Crown that their decade-long strategy of hiring older, retired percussion staff who've been out of the activity for a while isn't going to work. As long as they keep trying to fix percussion with "safe" people (Beddis, then Hannum, then Aungst), they flat out won't be attracting the talent that they need. Clean the whole staff out and get someone fresh if you want to have any hope here, Crown.

So does this mean he's edging out Schlicher, perhaps? That'd be a shame, in my opinion. It goes back to the point I made earlier in the thread about groups just recycling the same few tried-and-tested old guys instead of going for broke with new blood (though I definitely wasn't expecting Aungst to show up again when I made that comment). Crown's now done it twice, with Hannum and now Aungst. I get that they want a little more security and stability, but still... come on.

I'll never understand why, when a percussion program is weak, everyone automatically starts naming old, retired guys to fill the spot. There are always uber-talented up-and-comers who would do fantastically in those spots (given a few years to build), and it would be a lot more interesting. I wasn't happy at all when Crown hired Hannum a few years ago, or Kuhn at Phantom... they could have given a new guy a chance to shine, but instead, it's just the G7 recycling the same few names over and over and over...

I agree. For the past decade or so, BAC has been viewed as "Rennick-lite". They tend to draw staff from UNT and from Rennick's summer lines, and they drum with a very similar style. This is causing them both to not have enough of a distinct style and bleed too much of their talent to whatever line Rennick is currently teaching.

What about the Cadets batterie Finals 2009? I've heard about it, but I've never seen footage of it, and I've heard it's pretty spectacular.

Yeah, seriously. Even at the time, I knew it was too good to be true.

Slight deviation here. I just saw Aimachi perform in exhibition for the new winds division that WGI is coming out with in the next few years. They have the full instrumention of a typical marching band minus the batterie (so brass, woodwinds, front ensemble, and guard). Honestly, I have to say that it worked wonderfully, and I'm a guy who thinks (and still thinks) that woodwinds for drum corps would just be kind of pointless, given how they would be so completely drowned out behind every other instrument. So maybe the crux of woodwinds is this, that their true best outlet may come to be in indoor marching settings and not outdoors? The reason I say this is that it was definitely more balanced for all sections of the winds than we normally see in an outdoor setting, where the numbers and scale of the field I think make it less plausible.

Yep. Kind of like how DCI's marching bands have sounded good for the past 40-ish years.

I've noticed that, for whatever reason, when this subject comes up, people seem to get themselves all bent out of shape over this comparison being made. People seem to say "OMG STOP TRYING TO TAKE AWAY FROM CROWNS SUCCESSES" and I don't really get why people think that's what's going on here. Comparing Crown to Star is a compliment, point blank.

Yeah, we had this a few years ago, but they cut it down because of money. Bringing it back would be ideal.

People in the general area of Lassiter and neighboring schools have a stereotype among everyone else nearby of being rich, self-absorbed snobs... I don't know how true it is, but this certainly doesn't help.

Good gosh. George Hopkins is one of the most unprofessional leaders in the activity, and he's an embarassment. Slam me with strawman arguments about how I just don't like woodwinds or something, but it's true. I couldn't care less about what happens to instrumentation or amps or whatnot, but if he's so passionate about DCI expanding and being taken seriously, as a CEO and mascot for one of the most prominent organizations in the activity, he can't make his internet prescence read like a 12-year-old's Livejournal. The lack of professionalism he shows over and over and over in how he deals with the public is well-documented and, as far as public relations go, his retirement from Cadets cannot come soon enough.

Per the grapevine, Matt Jordan is now also the pit arranger at MCM... pretty cool.