dbc03

Intonation issues in May? They won't even break into the top 30 at this rate! PS - hornlines sound bad until they have lived together for a while

This sounds leaps and bounds better than the old recording. You people are nuts. The old recording left me feeling kinda "meh" about the entire thing, but this one has made me kinda excited about it. I look forward to seeing it live and cleaned up!

You beat me to it

Out of pure curiousity, what makes you say that? Just trying to figure out which area of the corps you are talking about before I agree or disagree.

FYI, Kiwanis has been a Canadian corps in name only for several years I believe. I remember talking to some people from there in 2002 and they were 90% Floridian and from other deep south states (they have their camps in Florida I think), and had maybe 3 people from Canada. Someone with a bit more connection might be able to confirm or deny this, and provide more accurate numbers.

I'm not sure if it's been said yet or not, but take lots of pain killers and other medicine with you. I always took a huge bottle of acetaminophine (generic tylenol) and a smaller bottle of ibuprofen for swelling. Plus allergy medicine, cold medicine, VITAMINS (you'll feel a lot better), and excedrine migraine. I know it's bad to take a lot of pain killers, but when I was first starting out at spring training every year I had no choice (My feet have something wrong with them that makes standing all day extremely painful for about a week. Even then every morning I would wake up and barely be able to walk at all for about 30 seconds. It might have something to do with being flat footed, any other flat foot drum corpsers that can confirm or deny that?). Plus, it's nice to have a big bottle in your rehearsal bag, because you never know when you could use a little boost from the candy as we called it on a rough day.

Or a 10 minute power nap if you've got the time and a RELIABLE alarm!

I suggest about 25-30 pairs of socks. It might seem like an overkill, but trust me, once you rehearse on a rainy muddy field once your socks will never be the same. Even after they are washed if you put on a pair of those socks it feels kinda like slipping your foot into a bag made of sand paper. I think I started last summer with 28 pairs of socks, and I told my mom and girlfriend to bring a pack to every show they came to (about 3 throughout the summer). NOTHING beats the feeling of slipping on some brand new socks in July.

YES, definitely take this into consideration. When were packing up to leave Bristol RI this past summer I was pulling my suitcase up some steps with the extendable handle that most luggage comes with these days (same as I had done for the previous 2 summers that I marched) and the handle basically exploded. Luckily I had a homeshow coming up not long after that and a spare suitcase at home that was a couple inches larger than we were allowed to have I would call 14 pairs of socks a very LOW estimate. Depending on the corps you might not do laundry for more than 2 weeks, and trust me, if it rains and your corps stays outside (like they should!) you'll never want to wear them again. Even after you wash them those socks will have a similar consistency as asphalt. I started the season with 28 pairs, and whenever I had my mom or girlfriend coming to the show I asked for a new pack so I could throw out the rattiest ones I had. Nothing feels quite as good as brand new socks in July.

If you look on the first page of this thread I already answered that question and provided a link with the figures

Winning isn't everything. Earplugs. Also, raid the local walmart for those shower baskets with the suction cups. You can put them on your windows and store all kinds of goodies in them. I also liked to have a schedule so I could X off each day after each show. Performing, easily. Circle drill. 13 times... oh god my calves still hurt. It'll make you a BAMF though, that's for sure. An experience you will never forget that is probably nothing like anything you ever expected it to be. Individual showers :P

While I admit that the price of gas is a real problem for corps today, it's not as huge a thing as people make it out to be in the grand scheme of things outside of drum corps. Yeah, prices are around $3 a gallon. I realize that, but when you adjust for inflation gas is quite a bit CHEAPER than it was in the early 80s. It's still a bit higher than the 90s, but not by much. Taking inflation into consideration, gas is about 90 cents a gallon in 1980 money. http://www.randomuseless.info/gasprice/gasprice.html

I'm a Computer Science major and fairly average at playing trumpet. I managed to march in a top 5 corps for two years and another div 1 corps another year. The BS about it being so hard to make a drum corps is discouraging, because there are a lot of people out there a lot better than me that don't think they could hack it in a Division 1 corps. Also, the top 5 corps I was with was about 50/50 on music major/other major.

A good reason for not adding more to Saturday night is that it already runs late as it is. The Cadets barely got to do their victory run through as it was last year, and they didn't get to do any of their other encore songs. I don't have a huge problem with an alumni corps performing on Saturday night, but not until they get the problem of corps hanging around for 45 minutes after scores are announced under control.

We succeeded in being different... that's for sure :P

If it's not going to be my Alma Mater I'm going to go with the Bluecoats so that one of my friends can get his "I marched Crown 2002, but it's ok because now I'm a World Champion" shirt (Not a bash against Crown in any way, just a bash against our 2002 show). If not Bluecoats then I'll go with my other alma mater and say Crown.

Sounds about right to me

Exactly. Leave it how it is for now. If we suddenly find ourselves with 30+ div1 corps then perhaps add a few more to semis

The first thing I thought of when I read this thread was the mello part when Phantom played Amazing Grace. If you have a recording of it, start it at right around 1:30 and it's the high mello that comes in at the end of the phrase (OK, it's two notes...)

I think both perspectives on why corps discourage DCP to their members are correct. They discourage posting because they don't want someones ridiculous comment to be tagged as "Oh, that must be how the Blue Devils think!" It is very difficult for people to seperate the member from the organization at times, and the organizations want to keep the best possible image they can. None of the corps I marched in specifically banned us from reading DCP or RAMD, but we were generally given a disclaimer that if we were going to read it be prepared to read it with the thickest skin possible. It's really easy for people to sit at home and criticise from the comfort of their airconditioned living room. Plus, no matter what the members of this forum choose to believe, DCP is not an accurate sampling of the opinions of drum corps fans.

The Cadets already did this themselves... and it was much funnier the first time in my opinion.

I'd rather see a drum corps adaptation of the upcoming blockbuster hit... Snakes On A Plane!

He was never out of step.

mp3 player you mean. An mp3 is a file type that you put on mp3 players B) I was really confused for a minute when you said you were buying an mp3 on ebay...

He never said that it was all about competition. However they DO hand out trophies at the end of the night, so competition IS part of it no matter how taboo that sounds to some people.