DaveBari

:-)

from watching the show in the theaters: BD - marching was clean & pristine! very proud of the visual accomplishments... the quality of the running technique, the choreography is way above the rest. the show overall didn't wow me, kinda got bored in the middle. the brass is what i expected for this time of the season, in tune, and powerful. Cavaliers- typical cavaliers show. not sure why they won the second show, there were other shows way better. i liked the upside down tenor trick. not sure what their show was about... also got bored in the middle. Crown - i really liked the show! all the different styles were impressive. definitely a contender. cool uniforms for the show. was captivated all the way through the show bluecoats- i wanted to like it, it started out interesting... got bored 2-3 mins in and stayed bored for the rest of the time. DIRTY DIRTY DIRTY. SCV- the same unintelligible drill and bendy marching. bored with it, and DIRTY. blue stars- i liked it, i thought their placement should have def been over SCV & coats. the cadets- GREAT show idea, really interesting to watch :-). hats off to jeff sacktig with the weave of the angel/demon uniform throughout the drill, masterfully done! the marching is WAY DIRTY, typical cadet marching. please get your feet in time and your legs straight and i will appreciate the show way more. phantom regiment- boredom throughout. the show left me empty. i understood the sections with the kiss and the shako, but the rest of it didnt tie in at all. nice low brass as usual, very little choreo as compared to cavies, cadets & devs. my ranking: 1. crown 2. BD 3. cavaliers 4. cadets 5. blue stars 6. bluecoats 7. phantom 8. SCV really corps 1-4 will jockey around for the remainder of the season. if its a matter of cleanliness nobody can beat BD. if cadets get their show clean its DEF a contender over cavaliers and BD. crown will get crowd favorite. the rest dont have a shot at a title IMO.

the dot & form arguments run into walls because it should be part of the same system. both aspects of dot and form must be addressed for an ensemble to be successful as a whole and as individual performers. many tips, tricks, techniques, etc have spawned from a wide variety of designers and instructors over the years and evolution of the activity. as the number of performers (or liabilities) increases, then that effects every other performers play. kind of like blackjack. if you are sitting at a table with an amateur player who doesn't have the correct play techniques, it could jeopardize the banks of the rest. my personal preference: all performers must know dots, strong dots (form anchors), half way or check points (spawned from their paths), distance, angle, stride, interval, and shape awareness. the race is who can get all of the performers to the highest level before the other squads. use any means necessary, no matter what, to get to 100.

JOIN THE CRUSADE AGAINST SQUATS!!!

i'm sure they used it to add visual variety in their repertoire. genius.

1. Bluecoats 72.7 2. Blue Stars 71.4 3. Phantom Regiment 67.9 4. Pioneer 65.6 5. Spirit 61.4 6. Madison 58.7 7. Cavaliers 52.2

i agree. only certain corps really need to amp, but if a corps feel they need to.... feel free. agreed! i've marched and taught shows with narration, and it needs to be executed with the utmost taste and setting to be pulled off and gain effect rather than loose it. if drum corps needs scripts then they should re-evaluate their idiom. i think if a corps can add in effectful human voice (pref non-amplified) then its cool. reference boston crusaders, cadets 'vocal amen', cavaliers 2002 "1 and 4" .. these pull off good effects. i for one am SUPER excited about synths in drum corps... i think the corps will do a great job with the ability synths will provide to the sound and effect of the drum corps show. yea.... no woodwinds.. the brand, cost, reed usage, temperature, RAIN would all play negative factors into adding woodwinds into drum corps.... sorry, thats why we have "marching band"

thats according to dci.org's schedule of corps attending quarters.

C & BBb tubas.. dont get confused... your tuba is in "concert pitch" along with all other bass clef instruments. the instrument itself is most commonly pitched in Bb. consult a tuner and play open pitches, look for these notes (Bb, F, Bb, D...) .. if you actually have a tuba pitched in C (more common within orchestra) then your pitches will read (C, G, C, E...) the 4th valve adds full chromatic capability within the low octave and provides tuning alternatives (low B = 2 & 4 rather than 123) you can pretty much turn the horn into an F horn by holding the 4th valve down. i'd practice long tones with the 4th valve down. (4, 24, 14, 124, 234, 134, 1234) etc.

dots and forms: think of modern marching band visual design... we use actual people to make pictures on a football field. "Dots" represent individual positions on the field that in conjunction with the people around you form a picture. While in transit, the pathways from one dot to the next enable pictures for bend and transform from one page to the next. In theory all modern drill is written with straight line paths from one picture to the next except for curvalinear forms that perform "follow the leader" movements, to which the pathway is actually along the form. for cleaning forms, the students should use their dot as a reference to where the form should appear. the picture that they form from using the dots is what the A. audience sees, B. judges see, C. instructors see. so in this way the performers are trained to look around at the people they are marching with to make pictures appear. This is why the "dot" isn't an exact point in space, it is relative to the people around you. Dot books. Dot books are an antequated form of keeping track of drill positions. Since the marching music art form is "music in motion" then it is necessary to capture motion on a piece of paper. Using "pathfinders" on the other hand, you can have a single drill paper to plot the dots and use a ruler to see your path from one set to another (included in this is: your dot, the distance, how many yardlines you cross, the midpoint, slope, angles of travel, the direction change necessary, etc) while a dot book may contain the same information it is presented in a way that is contained only in 1 page per set instead of many sets per song/page. as for the blue devils: its not that much different from any other way people march and rehearse. there are ticks on the field (most corps/bands use) every 4 steps on the yardline to help find the Y coordinate (distance from the hash), and over the course of the season you learn to use the yard marks at the sideline to find your X coordinate (distance from the yardline). lets say theres a curvalinear form. instead of dots, the picture gets sprayed (bd uses alot of paint) and the intersection of the form and your X coordinate gets ticked so you see exactly where your point on the form lies. the dots from the drill page give you your position and also tells you what the picture should look like. certain peoples may have "strong dots" lets say on the yardline and on the hash, so we can use that person to guide off of since he has a strong position on the field (preventing form drift as the performers march).

cadets 2004 blue devils, 21st century corps.

sounds like a typical cadets spring training hornline :-)

1. Blue Devils B - Concord, CA 2. Santa Clara Vanguard Cadets - Santa Clara, CA 3. Teal Sound - Jacksonville, FL 4. Oregon Crusaders - Portland, OR 5. Citations - Burlington, MA 6. Revolution - San Antonio, TX 7. Memphis Sound - Memphis, TN 8. Raiders - Wayne, NJ 9. 7th Regiment - New London, CT 10. Dutch Boy - Kitchener, ON 11. Legends - Kalamazoo, MI 12. Capital Regiment - Columbus, OH 13. Music City - Nashville, TN 14. Velvet Knights - Pasadena, CA 15. Racine Scouts - Racine, WI 16. Les Stentors - Sherbrooke, QC 17. Blue Saints - Sudbury, ON 18. Colt Cadets - Dubuque, IA 19. Spirit of Newark/New Jersey - Newark, NJ i took this list from drum corps who are attending world quarter finals. any of these spots are subject to 1 or 2 slot shifts. thanks for reading my opinion.

1. BD 2. Crown 3. Phantom 4. Cadets 5. Cavies 6. Bluecoats 7. Blue Stars 8. SCV 9. Glassmen 10. Boston 11. BK 12. Madison ------------- 13. Spirit 14. Colts 15. Troopers 16. Crossmen 17. The Academy 18. Jersey Surf 19. Pacific Crest 20. Pioneer

i think the tempos have gotten faster, there are more challenging visuals (jazz running, YAY!) and "deeper" shows. its more athletic.

ive marched for several years and prided myself on my shining technique for my instrument and my shoes. recently i've been thinking about the shine of shoes.. i know some marching shoes come with a glossy type shine, and others tend to dull after a while.. i am a strong supporter of the KIWI high gloss shine. however, i was spray painting music stands one day (to get graffiti off) and the high gloss paint i was using reminded me of shoe shine... so i took an old pair of marching shoes, wiped the dirt off, took the laces off and laid down a coat of spray paint on them... they TOTALLY looked shinier than the KIWI high gloss wax polish.. im thinking about experimenting with this for this summer's corps and was looking for feedback on this idea.. im not sure of the long term wear and tear on the paint (chipping or cracking etc).. the shoes become a little sticky when i spray as opposed to the wax shine. ive heard lots of stories of ppl spray painting shoes, socks, feet, etc... in emergencies lol.. but im talking about on purpose..... GO!

i know other people are offended and appalled by the drum corps idiom's use of electronic instruments... but i for one am SUPER excited to hear the new realm of sounds that the synth will enable corps to use. i have no doubt that it will add to the shows music GE if programmed into the show properly. im sure it'll take a few years to refine what sounds good and what doesnt with the new addition. cant wait :-)

cbc 04- dinkles, awful they actually provide ZERO shock absorbsion contrary to their ads. bd 05- MTX (yay) bd 06- vipers... best marching shoe invented. just like rehearsal sneakers, and the most comfortable.

in clifton nj, there was a shadow to the left of all the performers/guard equip and such like that.. the video was VERY fuzzy (there was a close up to the vanguard baritone soloist or during bluecoats) and the picture was TOTALLY pixelated, LAME. The volume was NO WHERE CLOSE to loud enough!!! the "wall of sound" during BD's show just sounded like a white picket fence... LAME LAME LAME!!!! we worked hard to make that loud as hell and the theaters or dci didnt care :-( not to mention.... the commentary and audience participation was the LAMEST THING ive ever seen in my life. that one lady who commented about bluecoats vs blue devils was the worst next to the high school band geek. lame, super lame, even hella lame.

BD hands down wins the lot.

i lost 25 lbs marching cadets baritone. i worked at pizza hut at the time so i gained it all back within a week of coming home and working :-( i loose the same amount around each marching season, when im home my diet goes to hell so i get fatter again.

if its anything like 07 or 08 it will be LIFE CHANGING

BLUE SMOKE!!!! "UP in FOUR, down in FOWAAAAAAAAAA" "SEEEEEE YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" (in the food line for sandwiches) "ITS NOT A PICASSO!!!!!" "YOU GOTTA BE FIT TO HAVE GREAT ####!!!" (FITS= feet in time) (####= tongues in time) "mystery tour 2005!"

i teach both and marched both... i just think about counting while i walk and it helped transit the thought process.

hi, i've recently gotten a HS band director job.. and i looked in my percussion closet and found 2 pearl snares with good quality harnesses.. and 6 other snares that are used with slings... i was wondering if i could install harness attachments to these drums that used to use slings... has anyone ever done this? your thoughts are appreciated :-)