JimF-LowBari

The DCA shows that I was part of in the late 70s were on the prize money system. But there was a minimum amount (for each placement) that the sponsors had to give to have DCA sanction the show. Still remember this conversation 30 years later: Corps member: Why the #### do we go to DCA shows and get our brains beat out. If we go to an RCA (small Sr circuit) show we'd win. Larry Hershman (corps BM): We make more money coming last at a DCA show than coming in first at an RCA show!!!! THAT'S WHY!!!

Not sure how you read my post Steve. I was think of corps getting either prize money or appearance fees not both. In the either/or case show sponsors could budget roughly (hopefully) the same amount of money for the corps. IOW - Under the Prize money system a sponsor budgets X amount of $$$ for the total amount and then figures out how to split it. Never worked a show but have heard enough horror stories of corps losing their ### when a show had a smaller than expected crowd and the show expenses couldn't be met.

Edit: forgot to copy the blog addie: http://historical-drum-corps-publications.blogspot.com/ Looking at the DC History blog and saw the following from 1962. 1. Optimists ............... 86.20 $700.00 + trophy 2. Blessed Sacrament ....... 84.45 $500.00 + trophy 3. St. Catherine's ......... 82.80 $300.00 + trophy 4. Yankees ................. 76.55 $200.00 + trophy 5. St. John's .............. 60.35 $175.00 + trophy 6. Grenadiers .............. 57.10 $125.00 + trophy Man $700 probably wouldn't fill up a bus gas tank. :( Anyway, do any contests still give out "prize money" for how corps do in a show. Or do the corps get an Appearance fee no matter what position they come in? And when did this change roughly. PS - Have a CD recording of retreat during a DCA show from 1970. Announcer actually says "In ..th palce, with a check for....." for each corps. Will have to listen again to get the amounts.

Gettysburg Brass Band Festival June 17 will be the only live Juniors I get a chance to see. Event isn't on the calendar but Cadets and Crossmen will be debuting their show to the general public. We usually start the show and if I change quick enough I can see both corps.

And keep checking back folks.... This site grows almost every day with new stuff at the top. Just had an old pic of my corps posted :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

Must be a PA thing. Only time you read what $$$$$ gets pulled into Harrisburg is when an event is lost or close to being lost. Happened few months ago when DCA told Hershey to kiss off for DCA Champs. Also when HERCO or Derry Twp gets pissy about the Antique car show in October. Did see a small (misleading) article on DCA in the Scranton events mag when we were at the Dunmore hotel. Don't know if anyone reads it outside of tourists after they are already in town. Judging by the amount of words written DCA ranked right up there with the Italian fest.

After I quit marching I filled it with job and starting a life out of school (finally).... When I quit going to shows I filled it with marriage and working at my church. (Still can't believe they wanted me as council VP. ) Now with Alumni I'm parading until my feet give out (not a joke)......

Spinning a rifle??? What haven't you done in corps Bruce? Man, thought I was special for doing parade Euph and field show Honor Guard for parts of two years. :P

Ahhh, fond memories when we first bought our house in Camp Hill. The 80-something old lady neighbor saying "This is a nice area. And you know what kind of people live over there (pointing towards da 'burg)." Then not so find memory of me almost biting thru my tongue to keep from saying "Yeah #####, people like ME!!!".

You can take the boy out of the East Shore, but you can't the East Shore out of the boy. :P

BRRRRAAAPPPP!!!! <$1 to Barney Gumble of the Simpsons> Huh... you say sumthin' Ben?? ^0^ :P :mmm:

*sigh* Tried to look at RAMD this morning and first 20 threads appear to be from the cross posting ####### ###holes. Guess I'll just try to search once a week or so for stuff from the people who actually care about Drum Corps.... Ticks me off as RAMD helped me get back into doing corps and have met some of the good people there .....

Neither it came after me ^0^ Guy in HS band was recruiting for a startup corps (that nevr really got started :( ). Him: Wanna join a Drum Corps Me: Why ask me, I don't play drums??? (True quotes....)

Archiving thought: Gonna start a "What Happened to DC in the 60s" thread when I get back from vaction end of the month. Just too busy now to put together stray posts, stray thoughts and the "What the #### Happened to the Cities" class I took when I was on church council. LOT of good info on what really happened to a lot of corps and it's needed from time to time today. Will archive it on my PC (there's a scary thought) when it's needed in the future. RAMD Usefulness thought: IMO, unmoderated or at least groups that allow any jerkface to post is an idea that has outlived it's usefullness. OK - the church class didn't have #### in it's title but it should have. Most informative thing I did when I was coucil VP. (Man were we hard up for people to serve.)

Hate to say it but what has happened to RAMD, especially the last few months, has changed my mind to be for moderated news groups. I joined after RAMDs "Glory Days" and still found a lot of info that I never knew before. What made it intersting is a lot of it came from people who related it first hand. And you'd be surprised who many names from RAMD I recognize on DCP. Now it's turned into the personal playground of a bunch of cross thread posting ####heads who post just to get a response form someone. Whadda bunch of losers.

Yeah and bad timing Ryan. There are a group of trolls that do a drive by of RAMD once in a while. And a few days ago was once in a while.... :( Whadda friggin' mess......

Drank it *sheesh*

After I signed off I started thinking about horn changes from 1950-1969 and.... well.. it's like.. WOW. Others can correct me if I mis-speak, but in 1950 the horns all only had one valve. This gave the arrangers a limited amount of notes to work with to arrange recognizible music. Also there were only three voices to work with. I have some early 50s recordings on CD (what a mix of technology :P ) and it's interesting what was done under such conditions. Voices were soprano, tenor baritone and bass baritone. The sound of the bass bari is very close to the baris we use today and the tenor is somewhere between that and the sop. If you want to see what these baris look like I have some pics of mine in Flick at http://www.flickr.com/photos/14488996@N00/tags/baritone/. If you have any more questions on them just let me know. 1962 (pretty sure that was the year) Caballeros and another corps (can't remember for sure) started using Contra basses. Think there is a pic and possible article on this in the blog I mentioned earlier. Some mid voice also appeared but can't remember the year. In the early or mid 50s some horn players started using steel wool or sandpaper on the tuning slides to make them move easier. This allowed them to use the tuning slide as a second valve. Then horn manufacturers started making horns like this with a ring attached to move the slide. These are the piston/slide horns you might read about. Sometime in the (late?) 60s the piston/rotor horns showed up and were used until late 70s/early 80s.

I'm more familar with Drum Corps and the American Legion (AL) so I'll give the capsule there. The AL Posts started Senior corps for the members (World War I vets) and then started Junior corps in the late 1930s as the WWI vets got older. Because the VFW and AL were military groups the judging went heavy on military precision and less musical and entertainment areas. This included pre-performance inspection of the corps members unis and equipment. Senior corps broke away from AL/VFW shows in the mid 1960s when DCA was formed and same thing for Jrs when DCI was formed in the early 1970s. The AL and VFW Championship Drum Corps contests were actually part of the National AL (or VFW) conventions and were one of the "things to see" at the conventions and not really a big deal unto themselves. If you can snag a copy of the "History of Drum Corps" there is a lot of info on AL/VFW and early corps history. Another group sponsoring corps at the time were the CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) and other churches. If you're looking for AL/VFW scores check srcorps.com. I can't think of any sites that give a history of the 50s/60s, just lists of scores and corps names. Also there is a blog that just started with Drum Corps News articles from 1962 (and more to come) not sure if it will help but here's the link http://historical-drum-corps-publications.blogspot.com/ Ask here if anything else, I'm also interested in DC before 1974 (when I started).

Isn't that the new flavor of Special K coming out? Heavens knows they have enough other flavors right now.... *sigh* When you're old like me you actually have to eat stuff liek Special K. On topic: Can't really vote as I took most of the 90s off and haven't really had a chance to see too many Jr corps since. :( And comparing 70s and 80s is an apples vs oranges thing.

Well this is an Alumni group and great thing I've noticed in smaller Alumnis is the feeling of "whatever it takes" to continue with the corps or help the corps. Besides the ex-guard member learning to "tune her ear" we also have an ex-sop who switched to Bari because the corps was light on Baris at the time. And of course no one laughs when the pencils come out to start marking fingering on new music. (Or when people like me got their first 3 valver... ) Never was a music major so the only big time ear training I had was years playing in corps. Wierd thing was after a 19 year layoff I could still "hear" in my mind the sound a G Bari makes playing the G scale. I bought an eBay special 2 valve Bari and gave myself three months to decide if I could still do corps. Wife thought I lost my mind as she could hear me in the cellar play (off of sheet music), stop dead, swear, play part of the G scale and then half yell "There it is". Then I told her that the only way I knew I was starting on the right pitch was to play the scale starting at G until I got to the right note (There it is). That was over three years ago (already? ) and I found the old cliche of "more than one way to skin a cat" really applies in learning (or relearning) to play. Hope the new people mentioned in this thread find instructors who are more interested in finding ways to help them learn instead of "you do it my way or the highway".

Know a person who went from guard to Bari without being able to read music very well. The horn instructor taped himself playing that persons charts so she could get a better ear for what to play. It also helped in learnig to read the music. I came back from not playing for 19 years. At the start my biggest problem playing at home wasn't fingerings but starting on the wrong tone (playing open E instead of open C, etc, etc). First few weeks a lot of time was spent just finding the right pitch.

More Div II/III involvement - good More voice for non Top 12 corps - good Have to agree with audiodb on seperate Div II/III classes. Seems theses two classes have different goals and ways of operation. Wonder how much input they had in the Spring meeting. Possible that all talking about Div II/III was done by Div I people????? Edit - Forgot to say Thanks Jonathan

Well the threads are out on predictions on what the corps will do in 2006. Here's one for what will happen in the new season outside of the corps themselves. Fell free to add what you think will happen or a wish list of what you hope will happen. And you don't have to tell which is which. :P Here's mine Junior side: More All Age/Jr/Alumnis perfoming at same show. (And I'll be in one this June :) ) Div II/III gets a mention at the telecast: "Want to do Dum Corps but don't think you're ready for what you see tonight. Here's an idea...." (My theory is all corps sink or swim together. DCI and DCA have finally gotten that idea. Edit: Just read jwillis' thread on the DCI spring meeting, possible tie in with this line) Rondo gets a note before the telecast saying: "Psst, after 21 they can't march in their corps". Can't tell if he uses it though. :P DCI realizes that having 100s of people show up at a big corps tryouts is not only a good thing but a challenge. The challenge is how to hold on to the 1000s of people (DCI wide) that are cut. More corps info via internet all around (including video).

Not sure if it's 'cause I have connections to some Alumni corps (even if they don't use that term :P ) or just because I'm back in DC during the Internet age. But whenever I get an email from a corps it's a 50/50 shot that the msg is about a gig or news about a corps family member (good, bad or sad). My wife was never connected with corps but thinks it's great how the corps that send these emails watch out and care for each other. ^OO^