snaredude08

I think part of the problem here in people's thought process is that most people here don't follow WGI at all. They only see gwaltney's competitive results in dci, which don't tell the whole story. When you look at the area where his program has much more stability and consistency (music city mystique), the outlook is way, way different. In the PA caption (ie, the music caption, or the equivalent of the percussion caption in dci), I don't know if they've ever scored out of the top 3 in their entire history, and they won it at some point in the past few years (the exact year, I don't remember). So that bodes very well for pr.

I'm pretty sure the "no WGI" rule (which is unbelievably stupid) was a new development last year. It would explain why they had such an uncharacteristically bad year. Of course, they saved it by hiring a guy who draws a huge portion of talent from UNT, who participate in PASIC and not WGI. That way, it won't matter much that they can't do WGI. But still...very bad move as far as last year goes. What were they hoping to accomplish that made that huge dropoff in talent worth it? Not a whole lot, it seems...

Rennick has already stated outright in an interview that SCV's keeping the cymbals. No need to worry. And as to the limited tambor thing...yes, that's true, but that argument could be extended to all marching percussion, and really, drum corps in general. The activity is an absurdity (not that it isn't awesome regardless). We aren't trying to achieve solely the best sound possible. If we were, we would be in a concert hall.

I find it interesting that, in this thread, when a percussionist gives their experience-based opinion on why dutting is important, all the naysayers just kind of disregard it, yet when one comes along that is opposed to the dut, suddenly the view is "OMG THEY PLAY DRUMS SO OBVIOUSLY THEIR OPINION TRUMPS EVERYONE ELSE, I WIN." Here's another thing to ponder. How many of the percussionists that oppose duts played in the era of kevlar? The difference in articulation between it and plastic heads is pretty stark. Or, to put it another way, you can hear two fleas ****ing on kevlar. Trying to get a silent attack on that stuff is absolute lunacy. And also, without trying to be obnoxious, it is true that, to a certain degree, if you've never spent time playing or teaching percussion, your knowledge is only going to be so good. I mean, how would you feel if I, obviously being a drummer, posted some smug, self-satisfied bit on how brass players these days are soft for using [insert common brass practice here]? You'd roll your eyes, and rightly so. I'm not saying your opinions are invalid, but they certainly carry a good deal less weight than someone with similar experience but in drumming instead.