ContraMan

Amps? ... AMPS?!?!?!?!? Y'all are playing WHAT KEY instruments?!!!!? You came from where just to march here? When I was here, it was me and the rest of the neighborhood kids!!!

1974 Vanguard 1976 Blue Devils 1979 Troopers

1985 Suncoast Sound 1988 Blue Devils 1989 Phantom Regiment

1990 Star 1993 Phantom Regiment 1996 Phantom Regiment

I think one of the things that made it so interesting was the way that it emoted such a really strong reaction out of people and a lot of it not being cheering.

:: sighs :: My favorite show of all time. And I didn't even play an instrument, let alone know what drum corps was. What a great show... I'd kill to march this show, not just see it live!

Hey all, I have a very lightly used Schilke-Helleberg tuba mouthpiece for sale. Purchased new one year ago from a local music store and used only six months. Only damage is light shank marks from use. Excellent condition and will include plastic case in sale. $75 + shipping. Contact me via email for more information and pics.

w/Stp: Although I have to admit I love Star 90 more... Star 93 gets my props.

There is currently a 2 valve Getzen G contrabass down here in Pensacola that someone has offered me. Please PM me for more details.

I'm hoping a good word could be put in, but I honestly believe the 4th valve is a very useful addition for getting some of those lower notes in tune. Thanks for the info though.

Not too sure how often a mouthpiece falls out of a sop, but I definitely wouldn't recommend using a Monette for the field. Too expensive an investment for damage to happen to it or for it to get stolen.

I'm going to have to say the Yamaha YBB 201C. As a top action horn, the make is consistent and the sound is good (no 4th valve makes for sharp C and B nat. below the staff). As a marching horn, it is light enough not to cause too many problems for the shoulder. The drawback has to do with the way the valves are situated as the marching horn. Very uncomfortable. Now if you're going to use the convertible Kanstuls, the 5/4 marching horn plays just as well as the normal 5/4 non-converting marching horn. As a concert horn it has weird ergonomics. Don't know how it plays rearranged that way.

Actually they're not as similar to Hellebergs as you think. The funnel shape is fairly similar but the rim is more like a Bach style mouthpiece (which I admit, I don't like Bach style rims, but this one works excellently with me). The cup diameter is bigger than a Conn Helleberg by about half a millimeter (a difference). The throat I think is also more open. The added weight makes for dampening overtones so the fundamental is more present. After speaking with the designer, he's preparing a more Helleberg-style rim he's calling the MF-3H and a more bowl shaped cup mouthpiece called the MF-3B. Drop him a line. His email is on the website. Mike Finn Mouthpieces

well... best overall line I'm going to have to say... is Kanstul. Very consistent and well constructed horns. If I were to build a hornline though... Dynasty contras, Kanstul euphs, Yammie baris, Yamaha or King mellos, and Kanstul sops. Hey, Old School... will y'all ever do a 4 valve 5/4 Bb marching tuba?

And of course I want to clarify that they should TRY it beforing BUYING it.

I got a MF 3. Also known as the Big MF.

1990 Star of Indiana followed in short by: '91-'93 Star, '03 Regiment, '89,'91-'93 Regiment, BD 1988, Suncoast 1985... the list goes on and on...

Um... Star of Indiana UPDATE: NM, he has it on there already.

I'd downed the hot water quickly. My friend had been drinking his with reservation. I still got cold water cuz my thirst wasn't quinched :P

I guess you could consider this a quasi review considering there was no show but at least a little taste of my day. I met my friend over at our school. It was the decided meeting place because he lived 18 miles in one direction and I, 18 in another. So we met in the middle and went to lunch first. For those of you who have heard of Firehouse Subs and have not tried it, go there and get yourself something. They make the best fricken subs on Earth. After lunch, we started on our trek to head West to Pascagoula. We had discussed some non-drum corps topics and at least a few drum corps topics such as asking what each other's favorite show was, champion and non. Favorite drum line and hornline. Overall favorite selectiosn of music. It was quite fun and helped pass the hour and a half drive to the show site. We get to the show site somewhere around 2:30 and I tell him I'm excited as I look for a parking spot. He said that when the show was going then he'd get excited. That thought changed immediately when he saw Regiment's drum line rehearsing behind the baseball field. It was quite funny because he was just saying something about waiting for the show and then yelled out "I SEE DRUM LINE!" and then immediately, "FIND A PARKING SPOT!" I found a parking spot rather easily considering it was four and a half hours till show and one and a half till the workshop. We got out and I quickly looked for the ticket booth or ticket line in preparation to get the best seats possible. I found it and happened to meet a few people I knew in high school from the all-county band. That was a small treat in itself. Asked for where I wanted to be in the stands, I said, "Two tickets as close to the fifty as you can get me and as high up as you can get me. I want to see drill!" They got me section H row 19 seats 24 and 25. This put me up close to the forty and half-way up the stands. Nice spot, drill could be seen and they would be playing right to our ears... not over or under. Back to my friend I ran with his ticket and my own and off we were to see the work of Regiment's drum line. A few people had already gathered there and chit-chatted with us for a bit but we were mainly watching the rehearsal. I kept looking back to my friend after each point that they stopped and he either said "that was a lil dirty" or "ok, now they cleaned that up." This went on for about half an hour. Dirty... cleaned it... something else dirty... cleaned it up somewhat... typical drum corps rehearsal. We then followed the drum line back on the other side of the baseball field to the practice football field where the rest of the corps was doing visual work. This lasted for about another 30 mins or so and I made a bold move. As they broke up, I asked one of the mellos which one Mr. Seidling was. He pointed out the gentleman and I walked straight up to him, introduced myself and shook his hand. I told him how happy I was to see Regiment back in white and he said the kids were happy about it too. I also had told him I really loved the show and was pulling for them for taking the crown at finals. He smiled and said, "Well, we're ahead of our schedule and that makes things even more exciting for us." I wanted to say more things, but I knew he was busy. Our conversation was interrupted by his phone ringing and I just stepped off. It was still cool to get to meet him, however short the introduction was. We headed back up toward the show entrance area and I and my buddy found ourselves really getting taken by thirst. There were no water fountains around the stadium and concessions weren't to be opened until the workshop, some half-hour awa. I jokingly said, "We shoulda brought water bottles." He agreed to this statement. While we were passing the souvie trucks, I noticed a multipack of water bottles in the back of the Crossmen truck. I politely asked the lady setting up the souvenirs if I and my buddy could have a bottle. She said yes and we got the bottles. I was thankful to her for that gesture and off we were closer to the beginning of workshop. Hot water was better than none. The entrance to the stadium was now clogged with more people getting tickets, getting ready for the workshop. I met a band director of a high school from my county and quickly found out that it was his band who had taken probably around 70-80% of the super seats, hence the quick sell out of them. Into the stadium my buddy and I went. We quickly found our seats but went back down to the concessions, which had now opened up, to get some water. Hot water is better than none, but cold water is better than hot. Back to our seats we went and we waited the last little bit of time before the workshop. The corps had gotten on the field, hornline on the East side in arc, drumline in the center of the field and guard on the West side. Mr. Seidling was introduced by the show's main sponsor and off to the workshop we got separated. My friend stayed in front of the drum line, I bolted toward the hornline to get my first really good view and hearing of this famous line and the new contras (I'd been wanting to see them to see how the weird 3-1 piston setup was doing for them). The hornline started with some breathing exercises as recommended in The Breathing Gym by Sam Pilaflian and Pat Sheridan (two world famous tubists who were consultants with the Regiment). Then the warmup began and I got my first full taste of that characteristic dark Regiment sound... 15 feet from the contras in the arc. Side note: for those of you who worried about the loss of that Regiment sound when they switched to Bb, don't. The sound is definitely the same and by far just as glorious as in G only in Bb. King really did their homework with these horns. After warmup, they began to play parts of their show and this is where they really impressed me. Control of dynamics and blend was definitely a feature of this installment of the Regiment hornline. The canon motif was played with pure passion and I got a lil misty. It was beautiful to say the least. We got to question and answer time and I asked about how many had auditioned for hornline spots. Somewhere around 250-300 people for 68 spots. Intimidating, but then again, I like a challange. ^0^ Others asked about this and that and all sorts of little tidbits that I found myself not paying attention to. My focus was on the King contra. It looked good, but a bit wide. Probably made it difficult for close intervals. Oh well, they did sound good on them. The entire corps got back together for full ensemble rehearsal and we all parked up into the stands. I watched for about 10 or so minutes and then got a little bored with the repetition. I headed down to souvies and looked around. Told the peeps at the Scouts truck (hoping it'll make it back to the corps) that I was really happy about the results that they were bringing in and that I loved the new uniforms (for all of you who don't like 'em, go suck an egg or something :P ) I stopped by Kiwanis' small table and talked with one of the corps moms to see how they were doing. She seemed enthusiastic in saying that Kavies were having fun and that's what this is about, right? FUN! After looking around the souvies (no shopping, didn't have the cash flow), I came back around and noticed a table representing Force de Louisianne. I came over and said "Hey, I've seen y'all advertise on DCP." The gentleman in front of me said, "Yeah, I post on there pretty often." This is where I got my chance to meet James (you know him as USMPiano). We had a fantastic conversation that lasted probably somewhere around 30 mins maybe a lil longer: all the while, Regiment still on the field. When I look back on that, not getting a chance to see them perform their entire show on the field, was I regretful? Nope. After all that, I went back to where warmups were going on. Kavies had been set up for some time and Crown had just pulled in. Scouts had been marching to their warmups. I paid some attention to Kavies because I had a friend I wanted to shout out a "hi" to. All to the point when Crown came out. I got to meet Bob Chreste and then I watched them practice for a while. There were a few around me and I happened to find some of them were Regiment peeps. Since the show was getting close I decided I should head back toward the field, but not before I could meet Mike from Mike's Memoirs. Now here's a pretty cool cat. I encourage all to read on his memoirs. Meeting him was pretty fun in the very short time I did. I tried to get back around the way I came toward warmups but it was locked off, I had to go all the way back around to the ticket entrance to get back in. The National Anthem was sung and getting back to my seat was plain he**. The entrance line was huge and people couldn't get to this place or that place in the seats. The first 2 mins of Kavies show was watched standing on the stairs. Now about Kavies show, it's pretty old school, play, stop, play, stop... Did I enjoy it? Yeah! My friend commented that their drumline was dirty dirty dirty and I know that the hornline needed lots of work. Could this small group reach it's full potential by Orlando? Possible. Top 17? Another possibility. Finals? No. Too many good corps out there. But like I said before these kids were having fun. And this show was a feel good, sit back and enjoy show. Entertaining unless you HAVE to personally judge them. I say sit back and watch, forms aren't the greatest and hornline could project better, but it was great fun. Overhead the clouds had grown serious and the show was called for 10 mins... then for 30 mins. Lightning and thunder now very apparent they told us to go under the stadium. Here we stayed until the rain passed, hoping for them to continue. It was not to be so. Not even standstill... To say the least, I was crushed that I couldn't see any of the other shows. I also felt gypped that my $30 wasn't being used for a show but rather a 'donation'. My friend and I enjoyed the day and we did get some out of it. We headed back home and my sincere hope was that I will get to be part of a hornline arc next year. Not just a fan, but someone that gets to make the fans stand up and cheer.

Ok, so I got this mouthpiece made by a gentleman named Mike Finn. And after 4 or 5 hours of practice, I'm sold on it. I've been playing on the Schilke 66 and Schilke Helleberg for a while and just felt that even after all the work I've done I just wasn't getting the darkness I've been wanting. I had never used a heavyweight mouthpiece so this was to be an exceptional treat. I got the chance to buzz on one for about 15 mins and thought, I really need to invest in one of these. I purchased one and then played it on my own horn and found even better results the more I worked with it. A darker sound and much richer lower register. The higher dynamic ranges were able to be reached without needing to hold back so much. My loudest was louder because the sound wasn't breaking up. Transition between notes became much smoother and slurs just felt easier on this monstrosity. After using the Schilke mouthpieces, the rim transition wasn't very difficult at all. Of course Schilke's rims aren't exactly like a Conn Helleberg 7B. Very comfortable rim and I didn't feel fatigue even after that seemingly long practice (after a few days off of playing). The deep "soft" funnel as someone else I've spoken to has said, is pretty big and yes, more air is needed to keep better sound production. There is also a lot less resistance than I'm used to. At least a few times in the beginning (shoulda done my breathing exercises) I got a little lightheaded, but that soon passed. So, I'm going to continue working with it, although I AM completely sold on it. I look forward to even more fascinating results in the future. For a look at the mouthpieces, click here.

I think it has something to do with 88 being a 'bride's maid' and 89 being the bride... both of them are good in my opinion.

I might suggest using a regular conn-helleberg. Why not get the right piece and make the right sound from the beginning? The sound isn't in the mouthpiece... it's in the player. The variables vary much more from player to player. One person could sound just as good on a Bach 24AW as someone else on a Conn-Helleberg.

BD had a female contra player in the late 90s who was 5 feet nothing and she marched well. As for range and things, it is a change for lower instrumentation but if you maintain a good embouchure and proper playing styles the loss shouldn't overcome the advantages. If all else fails, you can always work high range on the low instrument... mwahahahahaha. What type of mouthpiece are you using?

This is a sad situation. I do hope that things will get better over there.