friceox

Just in time for the holidays, a great shirt for drum corps fans of all ages! https://squareup.com/market/tb-thunder-d-and-b-corps/hawthorne-muchachos-t-shirt

The DCA model simply is not the greatest in the Florida area, it is excellent for the Midwest and North East however. We were fortunate enough this year to have a show within 100 miles of our home base, however after that, the closest show is an 8-9 hour bus ride away. To top that off, the next show is 15-16 hours away. The amount of time and money spent to drive to and from the standard 3 DCA South shows is enough to send a DCI Open Class corps on the road for 2 weeks, culminating at DCI Open Class Championships in Indiana. DCA did provide a solid foundation for Thunder to get back on it's feet after taking a decade off from competition.

The parades don't even come close to covering the cost of taking a corps a couple thousand miles for a couple of days. Trucks, buses, fuel, food, etc.

Unfortunately cell phone service out there wasn't the greatest, so I'm waiting for the person who video taped the performances to get to a computer to upload them.

In lieu of tonight's standstill-only event, thought it would be fun to do a fan poll based on everyone's standstill performances. We're going to work on getting vid's posted of everyone's peformance, so everyone can vote. Please wait to vote until you see everyone! **Moderators, is there anyway to reset this poll and lock it until videos have been posted??**

The 2013 Tampa Bay Thunder wants you to join them on a celebration of the seasons. The celebration begins in winter with New Year’s Day and continues through Valentine’s Day. When spring arrives, a percussive thunderstorm will lead us to a salute of our lost and fallen troops. A big Fourth of July celebration will take us into summer, which will end when the autumn leaves begin to fall. After autumn, we celebrate the holiday season with some Christmas music and take you to a New Year’s Eve Party The Thunder is off to a great start with many new things in place for this year. The addition of Kendall Carrier as the corps director brings a new dynamic to the organization. Kendall is currently the band director of the FMBC 3A state champion, Braden River High School band and has brought new ideas and organizational concepts to the corps. Equally as exciting is the addition of Frank Williams and Dennis Laorenza as co-caption heads of the brass staff. Frank and Dennis each bring over 30 years of experience in the activity to the organization and are very excited to be working together with the Thunder. The Tampa By Thunder still has spots available in each section. The educational philosophy of the corps is to teach everyone who wants to be involved. If you or anyone you know would like to be a member of the corps and have a great summer experience, please feel free to visit http://tampabaythunder.org.

Bump.

Also, FJM won't sell you an individual of a uniform. Well, they will, but it's going to cost you a pretty hefty sum. If the design is a stock design (or was designed by FJM) then you can get them for a minimum of 6 typically.

The show sponsor has to pay for the facilities that are to be used, a set DCA judges fee, hotel stay for the judges, travel to and from the airport-hotel-show for the judges, food for judges, selling tickets & awards (if they so choose). As for the corps who attend, it's all about the date of the show and the location. There's so many shows that historically always fall on the same weekend each summer. The show sponsor then also can pay the corps, which will help draw groups. DCA pays each corps a tiny little share at the end of the season. DCA has no risk in a show financially, their only risk is reputation. They don't want a show sponsor to show DCA in the wrong way, which is why there's a minimum as to how many corps have to be at a show.

Tampa Bay Thunder currently has (2) King Marching Tubas for immediate sale. $1800 each + shipping. These horns are 2 seasons old and come in the rolling King hard cases. please email director@tampabaythunder.org for more information.

Bring in the new year with a new iPad 2! Tampa Bay Thunder is raffling off a brand new Apple 16gb iPad 2 (with retina display). Raffle tickets are $10 and can be purchased online via the thunder website (iPad 2 Raffle.) The winner will be drawn on January 1st, 2013. Winner will receive a new, in-box, Apple 16gb iPad 2 black (with retina display) a $500 value! Click the link below to purchase your raffle tickets today (no limit on tickets purchased). Tampa Bay Thunder iPad 2 raffle

We'll definitely be there! Hope to see CV make the trip down to the Florida show this summer!

I've always been a big fan of the backfield intro in BD 2000.

You should be able to get a letter from the original composer/artist/etc that states it. WGI actually offers pre-made forms to send to music labels. Just dig around on their site for them.

Fork's will accept PO's on the used DCI/WGI Pearl/Adams equipment they start selling in the spring. You have to call and deal with them over the phone at first. GREAT deals on used equipment.

Figure out what your ACTUAL budget is going to be. Like what's been said before, you're going to need mics, cables, a mixer, speakers, power cords, etc. One of the biggest things you're going to want to consider is HOW you're going to mount your microphones to the keyboards. Do you have field frame keyboards? Are you going to mic overhead or under the keys? I highly suggest making your own shockmounts out of PVC pipe and high tension rubber bands (there's a bunch of how-to articles on the internet on them). If you don't have a shockmount and the microphone is mounted to the keyboard, then expect LOTS of annoying and bad sounding frame noise. Don't skimp on your mixer. Think about the future when you're buying your mixer. Don't just settle for an 8ch mixer because the price is right. How many mics do you think you'll be using in the future? Do your research on your mixer. If it's a 16ch mixer, that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to have 16 full channels. Sometimes the upper channels will be combined (13/14 & 15/16). Check how many XLR inputs the mixer has. Decide whether you want a powered or passive speaker setup. Each has pros and cons. Whatever you end up doing, make sure you establish proper protocol from day 1. Make sure your kids treat the equipment with respect. Make sure they know how to roll up cables, etc.

Bump

For Sale: (60) White Helmets with silver hardware $7 each, $420 for the whole lot + shipping. These helmets have a good amount of wear to them, but they are still in good shape and look great on a field. E-mail efox@tampabaythunder.org for more information and pictures.

I personally will tell you NOT to use a claw for mounting a mic on any keyboard instrument, unless you are using a REAL shockmount. You're going to get tons of frame noise. As to whether to mic over or under for a marimba, yes, you're going to get a better sound with an overhead, but you're also going to get more of the band/corps/cymbals in your audio mix. The band I work with has gone from placing all mics under keyboards in 2010 (with claws), to micing overhead with boom arms in 2011, to micing under the boards with a rope/turnbuckle/shockmount system. We aren't using bungees, but instead we're using heavy duty rope (think rock climbing). We have the rope attached to both ends of the frame and there is a metal turnbuckle in the middle so we can adjust the tension of the rope. We then took PVC pipe and created shockmounts that can slide along the rope into whatever position we want. We then zip tied all of the mic cables to the frames. This helps not only from a look standpoint, but it helps keep the shockmount in the position that we want it to be in. There is absolutely NO frame noise with this system. Whatever you decide to do, don't use SM57's or any other cheap dynamic mic. Get yourself some basic pencil condenser mics. Sam Ash sells an excellent pair of Samson mics for $140 that sound great of marimbas (they're good enough for a certain perennial top 5 corps to use)

For TBT, the high school students missing the Friday of school before Championships isn't our issue, but this year was an anomaly because of the storm. School was cancelled for 2 days in most parts of the state (we draw members from the entire state, not just Tampa), so many of our members couldn't get out of school for ANOTHER day after the cancellations. We are very outright at the beginning of the season to our members about reaching out to their respected high school/college band directors about having to miss their first high school/college football game. Fortunately most band directors are pro-drum corps and allow the members to miss their game, however there's a handful that don't (sometimes it just happens to be a small band program that can't afford to miss kids). I don't foresee DCA changing anything anytime soon, however I would like to see the regional circuit "championships" become more of a bigger event.

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe samples are ok, as long as it's not mimicking what is being played on the field.

Thanks Matt! As Jim mentioned, we're going to be working with Kidsgrove on some of the planning. We'd like to eventually make this trip every couple of years!

Agreed.

The Tampa Bay Thunder Drum and Bugle Corps is in the planning stages of taking the corps to England for DCUK competition in 2013. Many hurdles to overcome, logistics to be worked out but the Board of Directors has approved the initial planning stages for 2013. “The entire experience for members is not just about the competition" states Mr. James Newman, Founder and President. "The Thunder philosophy is about giving our membership the opportunity to perform in general and not only on the field. The personal experiences and being exposed at other venues is really our goal”. The Tampa Bay Thunder has adopted to this type of schedule this summer by conducting multiple performance opportunities around the state this summer and the members and viewers alike enjoy being active within the community. “We realize the financial commitment this will take and it is far from doing in-state performances but in the end the experience is worth it”. The 2013 Audition process should be exciting this November for the 2013 season, as more details become available we will keep future members and the public posted.

Renegades will be on first regardless of their score, since they won't have a true DCA judged score.