Bone-Tone Lord

Had I written the proposal, I would have set the limit at nine or ten in order to allow one of every part in a small ensemble (three trumpets, two mellos, three bari/euphs, and one or two tubas), but I'd much rather the limit be six than 154.

There are very few subjects on which current corps members like myself agree with DCP. However, full-field amplification is one of them. There is not a single brass player in the activity who wants to have the whole ensemble amplified, and the only people who could conceivably support SCV's mini-hornline are the people who were actually in it- and even then, I can't imagine they would have put that in the show had they been in charge of designing it.

The most important thing on here, obviously, is the ban on full-field amplification. It never should have been allowed in the first place, and its death is the most needed on-field development in the marching arts right now. The additional four members seems like a pretty good idea. If a corps can't afford to feed, transport, and equip an additional four members, then they probably shouldn't be on the road in the first place because it would take next to nothing to cause that corps to fold. Besides, the proposal doesn't require corps to march 154, just like the current rules don't require corps to march 150. I'm in favor of adding a second brass judge- it doesn't really make sense to have twice as many judges for percussion and more than twice as many members for brass- but making this change would only make sense if the additional MA judge was not added. Updating music analysis seems like a fine idea. Then there's the scoring proposals. First of all, if you follow DCI because of the scores and competition and would stop going to shows if they weren't judged, this is the wrong sport for you. Even the members who the scores actually affect only care about them for maybe 10-15 minutes after they come out each night unless it's a regional or something big happened like Boston pulling ahead of Cadets or Colts pulling ahead of Troopers, and that's only for members of the affected corps. This activity is first and foremost about the performance, not the competition. Even members who switch corps do so more because they want to perform harder shows better than because they want to place higher. With that out of the way, let's talk about the proposals. Let's start with the one that actually affects corps placements: Hopkins' ordinal rankings. Trying to read something written by George Hopkins is a distressingly similar experience to reading something written by Donald Trump, but from what I was able to get out of his non-standard formatted word salad with ellipse dressing, he wants total ranking to be based on the average of the caption's rankings, with GE scores used to break ties. The current system uses the sum of caption scores with no tiebreaking system. This would make a caption spread of .001 the same as a spread of 10, and make it much harder for a corps to make up for deficiencies in one caption. It would screw up how seeding for San Antonio works, and I have no idea how they'd get around that. This seems unnecessary. It's not the worst proposal imaginable, all personal thoughts of its author aside, but it doesn't seem good enough to be worth the costs. On a related note, we have the proposal to not release scores until July 1. The full text of this proposal states that corps would still be judged and scored as usual, but the scores would only be given to the corps, and if I read it correctly, corps would only get their own scores and not anyone else's. That seems like a fine idea. In early-season shows where scores are all over the place anyway (in 2016, I marched in a show where we went up by two while everyone else at the show dropped dramatically on one night, a show where most corps had normal gains of around one to one and a half points, but we jumped by nine, and two nights later, after having a parade day, dropping by two while the other Open Class corps stayed around the same and the World Class corps got rained out) and there aren't full judging panels, they mean even less than they normally do. Personally, I feel like it might be best to combine these two- only give placements rather than scores until July 1, and then switch to normal scoring after that. Then there's the biggest change: Increasing the size of finals. It does make some amount of sense with World Class growing and Open Class increasingly being World Class but cheaper, and my corps would be one of the most likely to benefit from the change. However, it does feel like it sort of cheapens the experience. Concerns about the length of the show are unfounded, given that there are plenty of shows with similar, if not significantly larger numbers of corps, like the regionals, but the sense of achievement for members if we make finals because it got bigger will be somewhat diminished. Ultimately, I'm inclined to favor it because giving more people a chance to perform another show and giving the audience the chance to see those shows one more time is a pretty big positive in the end, but I'm not going to be all that disappointed if it doesn't pass. If it does, people will still see it as an achievement to get top 12, just like people see it as an achievement to get top 15 today, or top six, or top three, even when those tiers don't get you into another show, and the initial weirdness it'll have for those of us who march both before and after the change will fade before long.

Trombone bells are significantly smaller than baritone bells, so the same equipment won't work.

The hip capes (other technical terms include waist capes and half skirts. All three were used interchangeably during the season) were removed after Allentown (the first show without them was Monday, August 7 in Erie, PA) because the vis staff thought they made the technique look dirtier. Personally, I liked them way better with the capes, and our semis placement was the same as our Allentown placement, so I don't think they made any difference. The drum major uniforms were because of the trombone solo. They wanted the soloist to be in the same uniform as everyone else so people wouldn't be distracted and just thinking about how the drum major was playing a solo, and they felt it would look weird to have one of the conductors in a different uniform than the others, especially since the two drum majors switched spots for the solo, so all three conductors had red uniforms. The grey uniforms were used for parades, retreats, and when both a Colts and Colt Cadets drum major accompanied Bill Symoniak for his volunteer of the year recognition.

The people you're calling "poachers" paid a hell of a lot more than you did and are the entire reason there even is a show. When you paid at most $129, you don't get to complain about someone who paid $3700 plus 11 weeks work taking your seat when you're not even there (99% of the time when I've seen a current member take an empty seat, anyone who bought the ticket there doesn't show up for multiple corps afterward- and when they do return, the members have always moved without issue). If they behaved the way OP described, it was in direct response to OP behaving the way they did in the post.

As far as I know, no corps currently have a policy explicitly prohibiting using DCP, given that such a policy would be impossible to enforce. However, it is generally discouraged, and most corps DO have a policy restricting members' use of social media while associated with the corps. This generally consists of a) Not saying things to make the corps look bad- it's generally assumed that if you're bashing your own corps on a public forum, you don't really want to be there, and if you're saying stupid stuff about other corps, or even some non-drum corps topics if your profile image is a picture of you in uniform, you hurt the corps' image to potential new members; and b) Not causing a panic- for example, if there's a storm and the bus has to stop at a Walmart for an hour, don't discuss it while it's happening, as concerned parents with limited information can quickly turn "Sheltering at Walmart from this storm" to "Tornado kills 150." Given DCP's image, posting here while identifying yourself as a member of a particular corps might fall under part a, and even if it wouldn't, members generally avoid it just in case. I'm a current member, though for the stated reasons I won't say where, and when I mentioned something I'd seen on here to another corps member, their response, and I quote, "Why the hell do you use that site?" There's some actual worthwhile stuff on here- for example, a discussion of venue security policies- but what it's generally known for is "G BUGLES ARE THE BEST! ELECTRONICS SUCK! GET OFF MY LAWN!" and unfortunately, that's what quite a bit of it is.

How dare they not let you discuss the most minute details of evaluations of 150 random strangers' performance?! What has the world come to that people can't obsess over the tiniest bits of statistics of a youth sports league?

I don't know about the other voices, but G sopranos are very visibly smaller than their Bb counterparts. They're pitched nearly an octave higher.

While I don't want to see DCI in its present state add woodwinds overall, it would be interesting to see what would happen if they established a regular marching band instrumentation division (or two, to go with the two brass-only divisions) with woodwinds alongside the existing brass-only divisions. However, I just don't see there being enough support and interest to run both. It would probably be better for BOA to bring back its summer program (they had that in the 70s and 80s- my high school band performed in it), but allow independent groups in addition to scholastic groups rather like WGI. Unlike DCI, they could possibly require woodwinds alongside brass, percussion, and guard to avoid being in as much competition with DCI itself. I doubt it would ever be as popular as DCI, but it could possibly do some combined events with DCI, rather like what DCI currently does by having a few DCA corps performing at its events. It could be described there as the "all-instrument class," rather like the "all-age class" they currently use when DCA corps perform at DCI events. Perhaps DCI could even add a drum and fife corps division for woodwind-only groups.

Well, I just looked up all the models of trumpet I currently know are used in drum corps (including both of Kanstul's G models- I'm pretty sure Les Stentors use one of them, and they have the same numbers listed anyway- one has a "powerbore," but they don't explain what that means) and compared them to this one for bore and bell size. Here are the results: Yamaha YTR-4335GS: .459" bore, 4 7/8" bell Yamaha YTR-8335S: .459" bore, 4 7/8" bell Jupiter Quantum 5000: .460" bore, 5" bell System Blue SB10: .459" bore, 5" bell System Blue SB12: .464" bore, 5" bell Tama by Kanstul KTP: .470" bore, 5 1/6" bell Kanstul Model 100 and 102 Powerbore: .470" bore, 5" bell Andalucia AdVance Series Phase III (includes two models, identical except that one uses Kanstul's powerbore, which is still unexplained): .469" bore, 5 1/4" bell The Andalucia horns seem to be identical save a slightly larger bell and a shepherd's crook, which is an aesthetic/ergonomic feature (it makes the instrument slightly shorter than a regular trumpet, and is described as being intended to replicate the look and feel of a cornet). It's the same as the difference between an open and closed wrap F attachment on a trombone- none save for the look, although one takes up a little less space. Given that baritones, euphoniums, tubas, bass drums, and guard equipment extend much further from the body than trumpets anyway, it really doesn't make any practical difference. The larger bell might make things a bit louder, but considering what the larger bell on a sousaphone compared to a normal tuba does, it may not be an improvement overall. Ultimately, I doubt we'll really hear a significant difference as a result of the horns, and if we do, I don't think we'll be able to tell the difference between a change in equipment from last year and a change in instruction or overall skill level from last year. Considering I'm marching in a corps that goes on later than them this year and won't see them until championships anyway, I'm highly unlikely to really be able to listen to them anyway.

This thread has enough salt to open a McDonald's. You people need to calm down. Drum corps has always been just band.

Honestly, having been there as both a spectator and performer, I thought the sound was just fine except for right in the endzone, and considering that all the horns, speakers, and drum scoops are pointing away from you there, that's to be expected. Having been in the mid-level on the side 1 35, between the 40s in the 100s, in the 600s both to the front of the section on about the side 1 30, to the middle of the section around the 35, and in the front of the section right on the 50, and finally in the side 2 end zone, it's fine anywhere except there, and even there it's still not horrible. If anything, the echoes enhanced the clean horn cutoffs. I'd recommend the 600s. The view is spectacular- when I was on the 50 it looked like I might as well be watching the high cam on the jumbotron- and the sound quality is still pretty good. During semis and prelims, the members of corps who've already performed tend to come up there- I saw the entire Colt Cadets go up there this year for the Colts- and it's always interesting to hear their take on the shows.

This is the saltiest thread I've ever seen, and I saw this site after Blue Devils won.

It's always annoyed me that the CDs don't include non-semifinalists. Now that they're not getting videos and APDs, VPDs, and Fan Network are all down, it's critical that these corps get on at least SOMETHING for exposure. They can't grow if DCI doesn't let people know they exist.

What exactly are Crown's hats? I've heard them described as shakos, but they certainly don't look like shakos to me.

Heh.

First Crown did it. Then OC did it. And now Cascades. Why does everyone love that style of hat so much?