murppie

I know for me personally during a show I'm not always a fan of standing up and going nuts. Why? Because I paid a lot of money to hear every note from the corps and especially at the end you get some of the most intense moments out of the corps. A great moment in mind was in 08 when Regiment won, I didn't hear the last minute or so of the show. Not during their performance nor the encore when I moved down to the 4th row. Don't get me wrong, it was intense and epic and you could feel the power of the sound they were putting out, but I literally couldn't hear anything over the cheering of the crowd. Is this criminal? No, its just how it is. I also am a huge fan of giving every corps a standing ovation when they are done with their show. As a teacher I always make my students do this in the stands because as I tell them you ALWAYS applaud the effort. Every one of those groups is working hard to put out a performance that their kids are proud of, but somebody has to come in last place, and that doesn't mean they sit on lawn chairs instead of rehearsing. Anyhow, just my $0.02

I totally agree. But all else has to be equal first ;)

If Quarters influence finals, can anyone say Bluecoats? If memory serves they were on the heels of the Phantom Regiment and first place in Brass.

Yes, the Cavis honestly looked dirty last night. And I love the Cavies visual program, I think that the drill writer is a genius and their demands often times borderline insanity. However it honestly didn't look clean to me compared to the corps who duked it out in the middle. Not quite agreeing with this no corps could do it thing. I think any corps given the time to practice their stuff could do it. Hence why all shows are incredibly difficult in their own way. Just a thought.

Hats off to BD. Those guys put in a ton of work and therefore looked and sounded pretty great. Congrats.

I dunno, the one thing I miss when I watch older DVDs then the newer performances is.....marching timps!

Hitting the nail on the head here. They still have screamers, but shows aren't "hey listen to him scream" as much as "listen to that corps"

Ok, a couple of things I've seen come up many times on here. The first one is that bugles are "better made for playing outdoors." You can make trumpets the same bore as bugles and have the same effectiveness. I truly don't believe that there is any huge inherent advantage to a bugle or a trumpet, I will say as a brass player, musician, and educator that I believe the sound in corps has gotten better in the last 10 years, coinciding with the switching to Bb/F. Secondly, many people are nailing it on the head. I was once told "most corps are non-profit organizations, but would rather not be" Reselling old horns to former members or (you've been waiting for it...) Middle/High School bands is a good way to get some money. It just makes sense to have something that a larger group uses

Well, I have heard rumors of the CSO buying their tuba its own seat, maybe look into that for the future? ;)

Now granted most of you have probably put a lot more thought into this, and I'm doing this when its late and I'm tired. However, I've always felt that on most of the DVDs and recordings I've heard using the Bb horns have sounded louder than those using the G bugles. Now this might be because of different recording styles/whatever. Just an observation.

I have to agree here on most aspects here. (Actually, upon second reading of this I swear my name must be Patrick.....but its not) My two bits of advice for this whole mellophone thing are 1). Try to make it sound as much like a French Horn as possible (because we can all agree it is the most beautiful sound ever) and 2) make sure it projects because I'm sick of wussy mello players!

Yes!! I think that many people who work with corps test drive their stuff in BOA (or other competitive HS circuts) I mean it makes sense if you're going to try and be competitive in DCI to at least give stuff a test run to see what you're going to have to really work at.

As much as I would love to say yes (both as a former corps member and current music teacher), it will never happen. Especially with the way mainstream music is going today. Attention spans are getting shorter, hence "great" songs like "this is why I'm hot" are popular. Also, I agree with the whole length thing, shows are just too long. If you were to split up the songs then we might stand a chance, but even then its considered "boring" because "it has no words" (an exact quote from about 10 of my freshmen in my exploring music class)

I think the best packages always include food. I'd recommend cookies because they are easier to eat and share. Also, I think the most entertaining thing I ever recieved in a package was some wacky pictures of friends, along with the National Enquirer. I think that thing must have made at least 30 passes all around the bus. It was a riot. Another thing that you might not think of as much is a good book or CD. I got one mid-tour and it totally helped me mentally make it through.

I was actually introduced to this song in my "K-12 content literacy class" by a vocal ed. major. But I mean, listen to it. (and watch the flash thing if you want :P) Its just so moving with so much power behind it!!! Prayer of the Children by Kurt Bestor http://www.woodyulmer.com/prayer.html

So yea, I can't agree with that more. I osted it somewhere else too, Scouts are incredible this year. As for the rest of his review, in my opinion, had some hits and misses. I really actually enjoyed Glassmen's new take on New World Symphony. It was just not what I expected but really well done. Drill was a bit sloppy but eh, whatever. Boston played for the first time I've heard them with some balls. There was no room for timidness in that hornline. My one complaint was "Sing Sing Sing" just didn't seem to fit in too well. Crown, eh. Nothing really stuck too well with me from that show. Except that they played some Sarah McGloghlan (yea, I didn't spell that right) song and like 50 people around me were like "woa!" when we recognized it. Scouts. Wow. Enough said. Cavies..... Hmm..... I really enjoyed their 2004 show. 2005... Hmm.... It just seemed like it was full of gimmicks. In 2004 I thought that they propelled themselves with an incredible combination of their music and drill. This year though, I didn't feel they were nearly as clean as they were in mid-June of last year. Also, as cool as the whole baseball thing was, it was just out of right field. (pardon the pun :P) The fire thing they did was really cool, but are the ladders necessary???? I mean come on, seems like something a rich high school might do, not the Cavaliers. Oh well, thats my two sense on it. I mean overall not bad, definitely not 2 points away from the Scouts though.

I've got a question. I thought that this drum instructor I know marched for Northern Aurora. I'm not sure if thats the actual name, but does anyone know if a corps by this name exsisted or what? Maybe its Northern something else? Any help would be appreciated

J.D. is definitely the one responsible for those licks. If you listen to the early season recordings of the group you won't hear them. Then J.D. comes and visits the corps and says (at 9:15) "Mellophones, we're putting this in. Memorize it now" He is quite the visionary.

I have a similar thing. You're using too much pressure when you play. Most likely with the high notes. My advice is re-work your chops. As a horn play I did this by setting my horn on a table and buzzing into the mouthpiece withouth touching the instrument. I dunno what you can do with the tuba. Hopefully you'll correct this sooner rather than later. I unfortunately have a white scar on my lips from this. Its not so much fun. So less pressure!!!!

The best thing you can do is practice it slowly with a met. As the first response mentioned practice it slow enough till you're making no mistakes. Otherwise your brain is just storing up those mitakes for that one time you're performing it. (we all know thats when they come out) Its gonna suck playing it slowly but it will work out in the end. Remember, practice doesn't make perfect. Practice makes PERMENANT!

Well, we all know why so many Texans do corps right? .... Cause they can't stand summers in Texas :P

Hm... not sure about the whole switching from low to high thingy. Its a little weird if you ask me. What I recommend is focusing moreso on your tone than anything else. Do long tones, lip slurs, bending of notes, ect. If you focus on these exercises and get your tone to be beautiful in the low to mid registers, then you'll be fine and you'll strengthen your chops

The only thing I've really heard about the Yamaha Silent Brass system is that it tends to make some notes on your instrument out of tune.

Ok, I know I'm the young kid that everybody loves to hate, but I do know about Mello playing! A few exercises you might want to consider are doing "lip trills" if you will. Basically slurring between open partials in the staff starting from C-E and going up (to E-G ect...) Its absolutely essential that you don't use pressure when doing this. Phillip Farkas had this exercise where you put the horn on a table and just touch your lips to the mouthpiece and go as far up the harmonic series as you can. It'll work wonders. The last thing that I know has really worked well for me is just playing. I know what you're talking about feeling drained after going through the show once or twice. You've jsut gotta flow on. And I mean air flow. When you get tired the tendency is to crunch and use pressure, however if you relax and flow you'll be able to get the music out 100% of the time. (I must've just made Kevin Rabon and J.D. Shaw proud, that came right out of their mouths)

Sounds like a good gig, I just don't know where the Hudson Valley is :-P