BorisTS

I didn't march until later, but I heard that there was some kind of mild rivalry, probably for the reasons you said-- both are from Ohio, and for a while the two corps weren't that far from each other competively. Someone told me that Glassmen and Bluecoats used to try to out-wait the other at retreat before calling a "ready, front" so they could be the last corps to yell (the "G!" and "Bloo!", respectively). I don't know if that's true, since the people who told me didn't even march during the early to mid-90s. Ever hear of anything like that?

Glassmen have a retro G-men shirt-- it's baby blue with the old "big G" logo in orange. Another shirt has the old Glass City Optimists logo. (Sorry if it sounds like I'm shilling for my old corps a lot-- it's just that I'm more familiar with their merchandise).

I don't have the 2002 DVDs. What did he say?

I thought I heard somewhere he was a military guy and got called back into active service. I remember that some website used to have pics of them-- I'm almost postive there were Glassmen euphs, which I want for obvious reasons. Glassmen have small logo lapel pins, which I liked-- I had one with the old logo which I have sadly misplaced. I'd be into cuff links, but I don't think that'd be a big seller.

They started using some euphs again last summer.

My favorite judge comment on over-hyping: I don't remember what show or the name of the judge, but he was doing field brass at some show in '04. He was hanging out near the baritones and euphoniums during the hit of the ballad when someone caught his ear. His comments went something like: "One of the lower baritones is really sticking out here...by a lot. Wow. In fairness, he doesn't appear to be blowing out his embouchure, but he is overblowing the horn more than it can take, more than filling it up. Wait a minute-- your lower parts are using euphoniums. How are you even doing that?!"* *I was not the euph player, although like me, the guy was a bass trombonist the rest of the year. He was using his 1 1/4 G mouthpiece while doing this.

I believe that he tuned it to A, actually. (Or at least he did at some point during the season).

Uh, why? I don't write drill.

My favorite part about when Thompson wrote for Glassmen was that his drill paper had the high school hashes on it. I don't know if he's since changed that, but every year somebody would forget when writing down their dots.

2000 was the first year it *was* legal.

No, this tribute show would definitely be tacky. There's over a century of great music from New Orleans that could be used without some cheesy hurricane theme. If you want a show title, "The Big Easy" or "Tales from the Crescent City" could work.

This doesn't count since it was just for a soloist, but the 2001 Glassmen were in G except for the solo flugelhorn, which was B-flat. I'm really glad I didn't have to be the one switching from lead G soprano to B-flat flugel (or vice versa) right in the middle of the show. In 2002 the entire hornline went to B-flat/F.

I don't think that playing Irish music is necessarily a huge competitive hurdle (it's nothing so bizarre or subtle that a talented arranger couldn't make it into an effective show). However, I think the Irish theme is weird and forced when you try to fit it to music that doesn't really have much to do with Ireland specifically, ie "Irish in the Civil War" or that bit in the program notes about Oliver being set in Ireland (or maybe I imagined that). Other corps try to come up with silly show titles sometimes, too. It's just a minor thing that doesn't matter all that much. Keep your Irish theme (shamrocks, the color green, whatever else you do)-- It just doesn't need to be "Irish this" or "Irish that" for everything. If Blue Devils had every show titled "Such-and-such Jazz" it'd be odd, too. Just stop the old "If you don't like the show you're hating the members and everything they do" bit. It's silly. Liking everything every corps ever did no matter what would be insulting to the members. And yes, if after I saw a show a member asked me if I liked it or not, I'd tell them even if I didn't like it. PS: Play something by Flogging Molly. Do it well and people will like it, and it's even Irish.

I think I've heard about this drum corps bar before. Someone want to give me some more information about it in case I ever want to road trip someday?

I remember after he died, a lot of his instruments, stage clothes, and such were auctioned off. In addition to the dozens of guitars and basses, he had pretty much every voice of brass instrument from piccolo trumpet down to BB-flat tuba (although, as you mentioned, french horn was his main axe). I kind of wanted his bass trombone since I'm a Who fan and that's what I play, but I didn't have the cash. (And it was a Yamaha or something anyway).

Now, Bob, that's not true- there's the occasional chicken or tractor.

Let me guess: The unison fanfare near the end, Larry? What I wouldn't give to have marched that show. -Neil

Marching french horns (and all french horns) have about twice the tubing as their mellophone counterparts, except for the previously mentioned F-alto french horn (I think Dynasty makes one, maybe?). They aren't a pain to hold-- they're still much lighter than a baritone. Some of the really old french horn bugles, though (perhaps the piston/rotor era?) were wrapped differently and were a lot longer.

In 2000, while we (the Glassmen) were out west, we were in Wyoming at some point. We met up with the Troopers one evening, played and marched our shows for each other (in uniform), and ate dinner together. The contra players from both corps bonded over their K-90s, which we both used at that time. Maybe this wasn't a life-changing event, but it was a cool way to break up the monotony of rehearsal and just watch some drum corps.

I wish I had taken more pictures every one of my five years, but especially my age-out year. I had the digital camera then, so it wasn't even like the previous years where I'd take a few with a disposable camera and find out that a lot of them sucked after I got them developed after tour. I was just too lost in thought a lot of the time, and I spent the rest waiting for the right moments to take pictures. As it turns out, you don't know which are the right moments until later. Luckily, some people have filled in a lot of the gaps, but there's some things that I wish I had more pictures of. (And not just the guard girls. :))

I played a note flat one time. I'd like to fix that.

For whatever it's worth, when people say "inhale to release" they generally don't mean "suck air like a Hoover." *That* would probably cause some odd sounds and bad releases. It's much gentler, not much more than what Jayzer describes as stopping blowing. The reason other people freak out over that is they associate "stopping" with closing off the throat or mouth, producing that ugly, choking, biting off of the sound (which seems to be most popular with contra players, for some reason). I don't think that's what Jayzer meant. If you inhale slightly at the end, you can't do a hard glottal stop or close your jaw and it also serves as a timing device ("Inhale slightly on beat 1"). If Jayzer's instructors preferred to not inhale slightly at the release, I'm sure they also mentioned to not close off anything in the mouth. (He can correct me if I'm completely confused here :) ). Go with whatever your instructors say, and definitely don't close your mouth on the release. EDITED for clarity.

I just wanted to further the rumor about harmonicas. Some of them might be in G-- this is where the confusion sets in.

Question: If a corps does 4'33", do they still have to pay a licensing fee? Silent drill is pretty cool sometimes.

Shh, Bob. You don't want to give any of the current members any ideas-- they could cite "historical precedent." I would have loved to see all that...too bad I couldn't make it out to the Toledo show for the alumni event this year.