Dasro_Kast

Hey nice job you guys. I look forward to seeing you next year.

Yes, thanks for the serenade as we were setting up our encore, we felt the love :).

Thanks for the review Jeff. Glad you liked our show. It was certainly an emotional night for us.

Those of us in Carolina Harmony also thoroughly enjoyed performing. I also feel that I can't think of a worse venue than the one they had us in for trying to put on a vocal performance. Hopefully next year we can place the choral groups somewhere that allows us to perform for both crowd AND judges , perhaps with less background noise, yes? :)

Oh no! Good luck, I hope you track down the horn.

I don't know what they used in 2003, but I know in 2005 they'll be using the UMI 1736, UMI's mello 6v mouthpiece.

I just figured I'd give this topic a little bump. With winter camps starting up, I figured a few people would probably ask. So BUMP! :)

You could always question their manhood :P. Seriously, though, challenge them and make them want to play loud. Hype it up, and make it fun, call people out individually and tell them to give it to you. Playing brass if fun, you just have to remind/show your section. Whatever you do, don't try to individually compensate by playing your lungs out. You'll just make it sound worse by sticking out, and you'll feel like crap. The best thing you can do is get the guys in your section excited about playing that horn. Drum corps videos and cd's help out there. Oh, and please don't let them use bad tone. It's all about the diaphragm support B) .

Mellophone! I'm not biased! Actually, I would agree with the recommendation of picking the bari back up, since you're familiar, until you get your chops back, and then assessing it from there.

I've been using a Deg 6V mouthpiece, I don't remember where I bought it from, but it was online. I like it alright, but I just recently bought a new UMI 1736 from wwbw.com to try out, and so far I like the sound I get from the UMI better. I feel like it's a little warmer and more "melloey". I haven't gotten a chance to try it outdoors yet, but so far I like it. I also picked up one of the Kelly 6V's at the same time. I haven't had much time to work on it, but so far it's a tad bit stuffier than other 6 and 6v's I've tried, but all-in-all, it's not too shabby for a plastic mouthpiece. It still has a fairly nice tone. Seems like it would be great for cold weather playing (wish I had it when I was in college, I'll definitely be using it when I go back to play at homecoming in the fall), and it seems a bit softer on the chops. But please, please don't use a trumpet mouthpiece on a mello....you get a bright, unpleasant tone that doesn't blend well in the section. If you're switching from a trumpet mouthpiece, you may feel like you get a fuzzy tone at first, but you will get used to the piece after about a week of play, and your tone should improve.

Hey, I'm not going to knock your horn I'm borrowing :P, It just doesn't resonate as well as the Kanstul in the upper registers :)

I'm using a Deg 6V, and I enjoy the sound I get. The UMI 1736 is the current gen version of the benge mello 6, am I correct? I'm thinking of trying that mouthpiece just to see what it's like, but I have no problems at all with the deg 6v, aside from clarity in the upper register (though I attribute that more to the deg mello bugle I'm using than the mouthpiece). A guy in our mello line is using a Curry Trumpet-Flugel hybrid that he likes alot, and I know he gets a nice, rich sound as well.

No kidding, Keith. I'm still wondering how they stayed on the bus long enough to make it up to Lewisburg, PA :).

I was impressed by everyone's efforts in the DCA South, and I know everyone was (or should be) appreciative of all those who made quite a drive to be out there, especially G-force and Gulf Coast. Music City, I wish you guys could have been at our show as well, but I understand why you guys had to head back. There's nothing like staging travel for a first year corps, so thank you all for coming out. If we all keep working this hard, there's no question that we'll be able to make the South a force to be reckoned with. Best of Luck to Everyone until we meet again!

Yeah, Mike King was my band director my Junior and Senior year of High School, after Bill Pease left. And yeah, I had Mr. Brewington in middle school. Man, that guy knew how to teach young kids music. And I always thought they sounded better called the Tidewater Tides than the Norfolk Tides.

Actually, they call it Hampton Roads now. I'm just glad that I got someone else interested in Senior corps, even if it wasn't mine. See you guys in Georgia. P.S. Holy crap, you didn't tell me you went to Kempsville! That's where I went to High School too.

ROCK ON woodwind. I'm a clarinet player as well, marched clarinet first two years of high school, saw the DCI show in allentown in 94 and realized how awesome DCI is, and switched to marching brass so I could join(even though I still enjoy playing clarinet in a concert setting). I marched tuba in high school, that was a really easy switch, and then I taught myself bari to march in Carolina Crown. I've been playing mellophone since college. Mello's my favorite (obviously, since I've been playing that the longest ;-)), but I would have to say that the lower brass would probably be an easier switch. The best thing that will help you will be to pick one and practice, practice, practice. Watch out, though, because it's really going to affect your clarinet embouchoure, and you'll have to work extra hard to keep that up.

I just joined Carolina Gold. I play mellophone.