[Blue stars comeback]

Now with saucedo at brass I think we can expect great things !

[Blue stars comeback]

After such a heartbreaking semifinals night, what can we expect from the Blue Stars 2013 season?

[Crossmen Audition Method]

Everyone has a chance ... That's why they call it an audition.

[Most Underrated Hornline]

How could you call those writers lazy?! These people work their tails off to make sure that the horns play as successfully as they can! You can never call any aspect of drum corps "lazy".

[Most Underrated Hornline]

SCV Bluecoats Spirit Crossmen.

All great sounding lines. Crossmen had a VERY mature and unique sound. The flugel line helped that, but they are doing some great things there. I will always have my love for Aaron Goldberg as the caption head, he was given a ###### deal, impossible books to work with pretty much. But Jason is doing a GREAT job also. I'm 100% okay with the brass staff and hope they are there for a long time. They are great at teaching the style of the music that the Crossmen play also. Some tasty musical stuff going on in Texas!

SCV had immense improvement from last year. I felt their book was the most lacking. But #### those mellos!!!! JD loves his mellos... and I like how this brass staff and line handled his agressive writing. You didn't lose thIe aggressive nature of the music but kept things within the realm of good brass playing. That wasn't always the case at Phantom.

Bluecoats have consistently had great sounding lines for quite some time now. Has a lot to do with writing. But the writing is getting old for me, every show sounds the same to me now! But I'll keep the brass sound. Good stuff.

Spirit had some great stuff going on as well. Very mature sound, very mature playing. Great balance. Great writing. Stood in front of their warm-up arc in Allentown, they get a REALLY pure sound. And they carried it onto the field pretty well! Really enjoyed their performance.

I have to say horn lines across the board are really starting to get great. It used to be some ratty lines in the bottom half of the top 12. But you can talk about good horns all the way back to open class lines. Oregon Crusaders, amazing stuff. And the other top open class lines aren't to crappy themselves!!!

It's nice to see good teaching going on across the board. Yeah there are some lines that are a little behind.. but they are catching up!

Now my challenge to all the arrangers, write books to where your horn line can shine!!! Putting random runs interrupting melodic lines is not the answer, and frankly it's not hard to play F major scales up and down, even my slow trombone fingers can do that. Just don't be lazy, really take the time with voicings, that can really make all the difference in an impactful moment. Let your brass lines play some music also! It's okay to have a phrase develop. Too much stating 4 bars of the melody then we can't recognize the music anymore.

How could you call those writers lazy?! These people work their tails off to make sure that the horns play as successfully as they can! You can never call any aspect of drum corps "lazy".

It's been getting better. I'm just tired of hearing "drum corps" arrangements. If your team choses to play a piece of music, something about it was effective to make you want to play it, so keep the integrity of the piece!

Also it's so much easier to clean something that makes musical sense. It's easier to shape it, to really make it effective.

Okay, I could go on forever, but these are just my thoughts on some great sounding horn lines, and a little bit of my OPINION on the state of brass playing and arranging in drum corps.