Some Random Drummer

Maybe Mr. Boo ought to just rent out one of the Cadets towers for his port-a-potty! They're plenty dirty already. (I kid, I kid...sorta.)

Actually just one! The center marimba was the only age-out, but there's still plenty of room, since I don't think every one of them will be back. I certainly hope so, though. If the pit features from Blue Stars this year were any indication, that group (if they stick together) will be a force to be reckoned with next summer.

As the amount of actual weapon work decreases in shows (in lieu of tossing around red balls, rolling around bass drums, and general dancing/prancing, etc.) the amount of drops will also decrease. That said I think there were a few high profile drops (Bluecoats on the bleachers made it to the montage, I believe) but no more or less than I usually notice in Finals. Pressure always plays a part in these things.

G bugles have a slightly "brighter" sound to them, which makes them seem louder even if (from a decibels standpoint), the volume is actually the same.

Whatever tendencies that particular corps has for their sound (i.e. - that corps' "signature sound") outweighs the difference between the Bb/G sound, and basically no one notices. Except DCP, which swears by a difference.

The Blue Stars only age out 4 of their 30-something members in the percussion section (battery + front). Not sure about the rest of the corps.

I think SCV is going to be the popular choice, but I think they need one more year to inch closer to a title before they can take it all. I don't see them jumping from a non-medal position (even if their show would have medaled in most any other year) to a title. 1a. Blue Devils 1b. Carolina Crown --------------------- (It's still too hard to bet against BD, but I say with good staff retention and the same quality writing/arranging as this year, BD and Crown go back and forth one more time for a title. I give the edge to BD simply because of how hard it is to repeat, although I could easily see Crown getting a bunch of new talent during audition season because of their title and taking another one.) 3. Santa Clara Vanguard (Produces another fan favorite show that, by Finals night, comes within a point of winning it all and a half point of knocking off whoever ends up in second. Gives them the momentum to take it all in 2015.) 4. Phantom Regiment (The loss of their most recognizable face in years [Dean] combined with the fact that their formula seems to have grown a little stale causes Phantom staff to come back with something new and innovative for 2014 - maybe another storyline, but definitely not in the same vein as the last few years. SCV and the Top 2 are too far away to Phantom to break into medal contention, but they separate themselves solidly from anyone below them.) 5. The Cadets (Either GH comes up with another whacky show concept that doesn't quite work out as well as the Towers did, or he plays it too safe. Either way, I think the Cadets drop just a bit next year - they'll be a solid point behind Phantom, battling it out with Bluecoats for the 5/6 spots.) 6. Bluecoats (Another solid show whose strength is in the battery. I say they go back and forth with Cadets all season, but the famous late-season push by Cadets knocks Bluecoats down into a perfectly respectable 6th place.) 7. Boston Crusaders (They continue to RISE, but the ever-increasing quality of the shows above them means it's incredibly difficult to break into the Top 6. They are separated by a point or so from 5/6.) 8. The Cavaliers (I seriously hope to be wrong about this one, but without stronger brass the Cavaliers continue to struggle to reach the top tier once again. They go back and forth with Boston for 7/8, but separate themselves from anyone below them.) 9. Blue Stars (With only four age-outs in the entire percussion section, Blue Stars come back with a stronger show concept to get Top 6 in drums. They start the season in 11/12, and manage to clean their show by Finals to edge Madison, ending a point or two back from Cavaliers.) 10. Madison Scouts (Another fan favorite which will start out competing for Top 7/8, but which inevitably drops in the standings by Finals due to lack of difficulty.) 11. Blue Knights (Really not sure what to expect from them next year. BK has always surprised me, so I'm going to put them in relatively the same spot as this year.) 12. Troopers (Doesn't take the show of their lives to earn a Finalists spot next year; with more solid brass and visual, Troopers earn a comfortable 12th place.) 13. Crossmen (A stronger show concept this year edges the Crossmen closer to a Finalist's position, but they still come up a little short.) 14. Spirit of Atlanta (The same formula doesn't keep paying dividends, and SoA drops out of Finals, much to the dismay of fans, who once again loved their show.) I'm going to pull numbers out of my ### just to give an idea of spread: Blue Devils: 99.00 Carolina Crown: 98.75 SCV: 98.30 Phantom: 97.20 Cadets: 95.00 Bluecoats: 94.75 Boston Crusaders: 92.90 Cavaliers: 92.50 Blue Stars: 90.75 Madison Scouts: 90.00 (Yes, next year is the year 10 corps break 90.) Blue Knights: 88.50 Troopers: 86.50 Crossmen: 85.25 Spirit: 83.75

Carolina Crown - 2013 Blue Devils - 2013 The Cadets - 2013 Santa Clara Vanguard - 2013 Bluecoats - 2012 Phantom Regiment - 2013 The Cavaliers - 2013 Boston Crusaders - 2013 Madison Scouts - 2013 Blue Knights - 2013 Spirit of Atlanta - 2012 Blue Stars - 2012 Crossmen - 2012 Troopers - 2013 Colts - 2012 I can't give rankings to some of the other corps just because I either didn't hear them all last year. Overall, I thought 2013 was an INCREDIBLY strong year for drum corps, particularly in the 7-12 place range. The top 4, as well, were on an entirely different level from years past, and I'm sure SCV's show would have been a medal lock in 2012. The quality of performance and content this year will go down, I think, as some of the best ever.

Does anyone know if you can listen to the brass tape from Crown's Finals run this year? I'd LOVE to hear what that judge had to say...

Actually, there's a pretty significant difference between saying "Within this group of 12, I would have switched around Corps A and Corps B" and saying "Corps C didn't even deserve to be here in the first place." Furthermore, my rankings were based purely on my opinion of the shows' entertainment value, whereas some of the posts in this thread have indicated that the Blue Stars were not deserving based on execution and content. Again, I loved the Troopers' show. And in fact if we were ranking Semifinals performances I would have put the Troopers in my Top 12 for entertainment value. But this thread asks people to rank within the Top 12, and the Blue Stars were in the Top 12. It just seems to me that the people who choose to ignore that and say they didn't deserve it are doing those members in the Blue Stars who worked to earn their spot a disservice. I don't want to make a big deal out of it - it was mostly a tongue-in-cheek commentary. I just think implying they weren't a Finalist calibre group in the first place belittles what they accomplished, is all.

11:10 - "Those were the best rim shots EVER." You hear that? EVER.

Properie never seemed afraid to give out high scores to corps that went on early this year (see Boston coming in 4th in drums in Allentown, etc...) or drop a corps that normally does well but had a bad night. More judges like him would be welcome.

This is what I was going to ask. Realistically, though, if a judge sees a dropped rifle, a missed attack, or a bad release during a preshow, does that not affect their perspective when the judging officially begins? Or are they not supposed to watch or listen at all, so that they don't see/hear those things?

To be fair, look at the Blue Stars recap. Brass: 17.4 (12th) Percussion: 18.2 (8th) Music Analysis: 16.9 (16th) J. Kennedy alone practically dropped the Blue Stars out of Finals. Each corps can say it got slighted in some caption on just about every night. Troopers definitely deserved higher than a 16.4 in Music GE, but anyone who says the Blue Stars were below Oregon Crusaders in Music Analysis is clearly kidding themselves. That said, Troopers had one of my favorite shows of the year and I sincerely hope to see them in Finals next year. Watching them be an annual contender for the Top 12 certainly sets my mind at ease.

I'll bet the Blue Stars really appreciate being told they weren't really in the Top 12 this year... (Note - I'm not saying I didn't really love the Trooper's show this year. I'm just commenting on the number of people here who are putting the Troopers in their rankings as if the Blue Stars didn't really earn their spot in Finals. They did, and they had a hell of a performance on Saturday night. It just seems like a bit of a slap in the face to their members, in my opinion, to imply that they weren't really Top 12 worthy.) That said: 1. Carolina Crown 2. SCV 3. Blue Devils 4. Cadets 5. Phantom Regiment 6. Boston Crusaders 7. Bluecoats 8. Cavaliers 9. Madison 10. Blue Stars 11. Spirit of Atlanta 12. Blue Knights

So is the Holsinger officially scrapped, then? That's really disappointing, but the music they have lined up still sounds amazing.

Wait a minute. We're talking about an unhealthy band and music culture in our schools? I think if we can have $60 million high school football stadiums, then we can suffer some less-than-friendly band parents. (Edit for clarity - The author of the article is saying that the band and music culture grows out of our obsession with high school/college sports. I get that. What I don't get is why that's the band peoples' fault. Yes, sometimes kids are "entertainment adjunct" to the "real event," which is football. But personally I would take being a side-show to some other club or team over having my funding cut.)

If anyone is looking for a percussionist of any sort, I have a friend who goes to Northwestern University for music performance (their music school is quite good) and is looking for a spot in a corps. He plays mallet percussion primarily, but marched snare drum throughout high school, so he could fill in any spot in the battery or front ensemble. Contact me for contact info.

The way it has been explained to me before is that the mouthpiece for a brass player is like the fulcrum for a drummer - the thing which enables the production of sound and which is manipulated to change what comes out of the instrument. But again, I'm a drummer, so I have no idea.

Random question - where is the Michael Gaines to SCV rumor coming from? I've heard it numerous times, and not just on these forums. Has there been some indication that it might happen, or is it just a rumor that has gotten a lot of play? Also, how long before Phantom goes for new percussion staff? They are clearly in contention for a title in the next few years, but they won't be able to do it without a Top 5 percussion section.

Stop giving George Hopkins ideas.

Thanks for clearing that up. I was wondering if I was doing something wrong, but I didn't think so. I may simply re-write the entire thread in Pages and then paste it all at once; continually changing one thing and then another is causing all sorts of problems to pop up. Also, I had another question: How do corps deal with students whose college/high school academic year ends after the summer move-in begins? If, for example, I attend a university whose year ends in late-May/early-June, but wish to participate in a corps whose move-in date in mid-May, what is the general policy? I see on the Blue Devils website that they work out individualized solutions, which is great, but is that the norm? How much would someone miss if they moved in two weeks late? Lastly, is it expected that new members attend every winter session? Travel costs can be quite expensive if the corps you wish to audition to join - for whatever reason - is not close to home. (I'm thinking mainly of the corps out west, for students who live/study on the East Coast or the Midwest.)

Thanks! I'm continuing to review different websites as corps put out their dates and audition information. I'm not through everyone yet, as I'm having a really hard time getting the formatting on this thread to show up the way I want it to. It looks fine when I enter in the information, but then when I preview or submit the post, fonts change, font sizes change, spaces changes, spaces disappear . . . it's frustrating, to say the least. Bear with me while I get through the rest of these, and feel free to point out anything I've missed.

I've added some more audition dates and information as they've been released (Crossmen camp dates, Academy 2013 Membership application, Blue Devils camp dates, etc.) Also, I seem to be running into some difficulty with the formatting. Every time I try to add a line break between each corps and the next corps' logo, they seem to disappear - or doing so in one area causes the others to run into one another. Is there a way to avoid this? The post, as written when I edit it, looks fine, but then it appears on the forum with errors. It's a small issue, but I'm OCD about these things.

Wait, I'm confused. Then what is this? I thought the Finals audio was out, but just not the videos. When are those released for 2011, and am I off-base in assuming that the earlier link is the 2011 Finals Audio? What is the schedule for 2012?