Drum Corps Nation

I have various friends who have marched G-men and taught at G-men in recent years, and in talking with them, here's what I think are the main problems: 1) Dynasty Horns are killing the brass and and music captions. The reason why the Glassmen don't play as loud as the other corps around them is because if they do they'll get hammered by judges for tone quality. Blue Devils got away with using Dynasty horns for a long time mostly through clever writing ("it sounds bright because it's jazz and we wrote it to sound bright"), and even my Blue Devils friends explained to me how they heavily modified the horns so that they weren't so bright. I taught at a high school that had all Dynasty Baritones, Mellos, and Contras, and that was the very first thing that I changed. It's amazing how different a Yamaha or King line sounds compared to Dynasty. Even the latest Jupiters are producing warmer, darker tones than Dynasty. The Dynasty horns also had terrible intonation problems. I was testing one of the euphoniums at a conference recently, and the horn was playing 4th line F 25 cents flat when the B flat was in tune (for those of you who don't play brass, that's a note that is actually supposed to be a little sharp on the horn). As of last year, Glassmen were the only top 12 hornline using Dynasty. 2) Glassmen, from an outsider's perspective, are the least fan-friendly drum corps in the top 12. They announce their programs really late, usually just relying on a little picture to suffice until late spring before they announce what they're actually playing. They don't post a lot of media or anything like that on websites or youtube. Recently they had a family day performance and someone posted it on youtube, and a friend sent me the link, where I discovered that the video had been removed after only a couple of days. It's almost like they want everything they do to be a big secret. 3) Staff Turn-over. I think in the last 4 years the Glassmen have had 3 different visual caption heads, 2 different brass caption heads, 2 different drill writers, 2 different percussion arrangers, 3 different colorguard caption heads... A lot of people are talking on this thread about how the staff needs to change and they need to get new people in there and whatever, and it seems like they've done that. To me, and I have a lot of experience in the drum corps world, the corps that are able to build off previous years and constantly improve are the ones that keep the same team around and work together well. The Glassmen need consistency. Not more new faces. 4) Design. The Glassmen, for about the last decade or so (possibly longer) have been known as the "boring corps", even by people within the Glassmen family. A lot of people in this thread have been talking about how Glassmen have no identity, or no clearly definable one. And in my opinion, I think that this "boring corps" mentality has permeated the Glassmen organization more than people realize, to the point where I don't think that the designers are considering all options when they decide what they want to do. Sal Salas went to Madison and did a very Madison-esque show in 2003, and everyone loved it. Why? Because audiences love latin jazz. It's pretty much that simple. Look at Boston in 2000. Latin show. People loved it. Glassmen in 2008... played Pee Wee Herman. 2009... mostly Music of Joseph Curiale. 2010 - Music called the Prayer Cycle. This stuff is all pretty obscure. If a corps wants to make a surge, you can't do it with shows like these. Crown surged with music like Bohemian Rhapsody, William Tell, Candide, music that no matter who is playing it, you're gonna dig it because it's classic stuff. The Glassmen need this kind of a show. They need to stop overthinking it, and not feel like there's a type of show they can't do because it doesn't seem "Glassmen-y". 5) Anyone who is being completely resistent to the things that I have mentioned so far, IMO, is preventing the Glassmen from breaking into the upper ranks. If that's Brian Hickman, Sal Salas, the Caption Heads, the Board, then those people are standing in the way. 6) Recruiting in their area is certainly difficult. Someone's already mentioned this so I won't elaborate. With all of that said, I think it's rather miraculous that the Glassmen have managed to stay so consistent in making finals while the corps around them have fluctuated, especially considering how every year for the past few years people on this board have been counting them out of finals really early in the season (like in November). But that's not what this thread is about.

Walter/Wendy Carlos show?

Drumline. Hornline is also a word. Colorguard too. I don't care what spellcheck says.

Ohhhh... that Geoffrey. He's so fickle.

If they have a great show and perform it well then I'd be cool with it. I haven't really liked a BD show since 2003, but I haven't seen them this year so I don't know if I really want them to win this year. So far, of the corps I have seen, I want Crown to win. I don't care if it is cheesy, it's fun and that hornline can play.

I believe they had a bus breakdown. Perhaps they're borrowing a bus from Colt Cadets?

Obviously this is a terrible thing, but are you insinuating that today's drum corps staff is more concerned amplification than member health? Are you saying that amplification is what's wrong with drum corps today? Or irresponsible staff members?

So you agree with me then. If the winner was supposed to be the "cleanest", then we'd still be using the tick system.

Define "gimmick" in this context. It's drill. Very effective drill. How can that be a gimmick?

I think that some corps still have identities and some don't, but that's to be expected. Corps aren't localized anymore. They're not isolated. The Boston Crusaders aren't from Boston anymore. The Cadets aren't from anywhere anymore. Staffs change and swap out and so do designers and corps directors. I think a lot of corps have been able to survive these changes with their image intact, and some haven't, but those who haven't are constantly reinventing themselves.

My favorite closer: Star 93 - Medea's Dance of Vengeance. In fact, that's probably my favorite "movement" of drum corps ever.

Madison uses Yamaha, Blue Stars use Jupiter (I think), and Spirit uses King. I marched Cadets in the late 90s. All three of the corps you mentioned have excellent brass staff and if you develop the necessary skills for your audition (work on long tones, lip slurs, clear articulation) and prove to them at camps that you're willing to work hard to improve between camps, you should be able to make any one of those 3.

If you truly understood #1, I don't think you would have written your original post, because understanding #1 completely negates your original post. You still haven't been very specific about what it means to "please the crowd". The crowd isn't some collective mentality. The crowd is very diverse and all wants to see different things. So what exactly do you want??? And when you tell me what, I'll tell you what I want, and they will be different, and then we'll be right back where we started. See? I'm sure everyone who has ever marched has thought, "It'd be really awesome to do a show like this", and some of them have become writers, and some of them haven't. I have written lots of shows for lots of different types of groups. It's a lot more difficult than picking a theme, picking some music, writing some drill, and teaching it. There is a very fine line between an awesome show and a cheesy show. And the corps directors and designers aren't out there trying to write to the judges either. Usually they are trying to write to the fans and the crowd, but want credit from the judges because of the competitiveness of the activity. I know a lot of show designers who write for DCI corps, and I have never once heard any of them say "Screw the crowd, the judges are gonna love this!" They write to please as many people as possible, and I think that your views represent only a very small portion of the overall audience. The audience is mostly parents (band parents), high school students, band directors and music educators, college band students and staff, etc... and those people are used to watching high school bands that do BOA, USSBA, winterguard, indoor drumline. Likewise, the instructors and designers and performers of DCI are a conglomeration of these other activities, and it's only natural for DCI to bring in elements of design from those other activities. My point is that your comments insinuate that the solution to this problem (the solution being pleasing YOUR tastes) is very simple. And it's just not.

The modern contra weighs anywhere from 20-35 lbs, depending on what brand the corps is using. Yamahas and Kings are relatively light and easy to march with. The Dynastys (only Glassmen and Pacific Crest use them now i think) are heavier because of the fourth valve section. Jupiters, last time I picked one up, were surprisingly heavy, and the only corps I know of that use them are Phantom, Teal Sound, and Academy. In most cases, a contra is lighter than your standard 4/4 concert tuba. The pain changes based on what you're doing. Obviously, when you're holding the horn at carry, you're going to feel a lot of pain in your arms as the muscles start to fatigue. But even when the horn is in playing position, you'll feel pain in your shoulders and arms after a while, and this changes from horn to horn, based on what kind you're using and the balance of it. The weight of the horn, whether you're holding it at carry or playing position, will also cause pain in your back and will make you want to not stand up straight. The counter for this is focusing on your abs, squeezing them and using them to maintain good posture. Abdominal muscles are also vitally important for maintaining your balance when marching or changing directions. Basically, the added weight of the instrument makes everything you do more difficult and more painful, and as a contra player, it's your job not to let anyone know that when you're performing or in rehearsal.

People are only talking this way because they like Scouts' show better than Boston's. They're overestimating the impact of show likability on the scores.

I would love to see this happen. Especially with so many deserving corps this year.

I started playing tuba 6 months before I auditioned for a corps. I switched from saxophone as well. A year later I was in a top 3 drum corps. Nothing is impossible. However, being a contra player is something that's a little different than playing any other brass instrument. Overall, your music will probably not be that hard. As long as you can pump out the sound without getting crass, you should be fine musically. Most rookie contra players are just not ready for the physical. You sound like a pretty big guy, which is good. I've known several 300lb-ish people who have played contra and marched extremely well. But the biggest thing is that if you're going to march contra, expect to be in pain for the majority of your summer. Playing contra hurts if you're doing it right. You have to learn to mentally deal with that pain, ignore it, get past it, and focus on the task at hand. One of the best contra players I have ever seen was a 5'2 120lb girl from japan. She was mentally so strong that muscle mass was not a factor.

Firstly, I'm not convinced that BD has been the cleanest corps in the past two years. Secondly, The winner isn't necessarily supposed to be the cleanest. Third, for every winner, you're going to have a lot of losers out there, so there will always be backlash. I remember people complaining when Phantom won in 2008. This is not just a BD thing.

I would LOVE to take that challenge.

I completely understand what you're saying, and I think I understood all that from the original post, but I think you're not getting two things. 1) What entertains you is not necessarily what entertains everyone else. And 2) writing an entertaining show is not as easy as it might seem. Especially when you have to write something that is both difficult enough to earn credit from judges, entertaining enough to get the crowd responding, and most of all, achievable for the 150 people that you don't even have yet when you write the show. Please keep in mind that a lot of the people who are out there writing the shows and teaching the corps right now are people who marched in the same era and love the same shows that you do. They're not out their trying to ruin the activity. They're doing the best that they can and they're doing it because they love the activity, certainly not for the money.

You're right, there's always the risk of rain. I've been at two finals performances that risked rain delays (Orlando and Foxboro). But I still feel that if DCI went so long without ever doing indoor shows, they can go just as long again. OR, if they feel like they must do indoor shows, they should pick indoor environments with better acoustics. I really don't understand why DCI made this 10 year commitment without knowing all the facts. They should have done at least 1 year in Lucas Oil before signing away the next decade.

What's the rule for that situation? What if 4 corps tied for 12th at semis. Would they all get to perform on saturday night? (Yes I realize this is highly improbable and virtually impossible, just curious)

It's not just about "adjusting" for timing issues. The recordings are simply terrible.

I think you mean "look where the people before "change you can believe in" got us.

The Short Answer: Yes, the Crossmen are capable of making finals this year. The people who are out there saying that Spirit has it locked on are saying that because they like Spirit's show better. But, a good show DOES NOT = General Effect. GE is more complicated than that, and the Crossmen have lots of GE in their show, they just need to clean it. Spirit needs to clean, Glassmen/Colts/Troopers/Academy need to clean. Whoever cleans the most between now and semis is who will get into finals. All of these corps are close enough in points right now to make that happen.