Eggbert

Aren't those Gauchos?

It would take some practice. There would still be those that specialize in visual, but everyone can do something musical and/or visual with the right training and enough time. Yea, verily. As I watched one of those cool 8x8 drill block moves from cavies on this year's broadcast, I thought... They've taken thinking within the box to a new level.

81 horns (9x9 block) 54 percussion All do visual guard work in the show. Players switch between music and visual depending on the needs of the show segment. Brass and percussion instrumentations adjust accordingly. Players move in and out of the pit as necessary. No parking. No DM's. :)

Hashes? We don need no steenking hashes.

Darn tasty too. At least when it's made of drum corps people you know it has the highest quality ingredients.

Classic!

The hard part is getting the amps to learn their drill. Lazy ########!

That is so sad! Talk about throwing the baby out with the bathwater. We were right there with you in 81 (Blue Stars 16 Defenders 17). We had a VERY similar thing happen in 79 or 80 (getting foggy these days) at a pool in Talladega. There is a certain desperation that kicks in between 12th and 17th place and the staff goes a little nuts. Hey Johnric, you've got to have some good ones. Let's hear it! Jim, we used to swipe Phoenix's street beat (a very cool legend of the one eyed sailor type thing), but we knew better than to play it within earshot or those guys would come over and kick our butts!

Z just reminded me of a good one. Northstar had this cool little mallet part that they would play as a cadence. I dunno if it was tico tico or something like that, but it was really catchy and we heard it every night. So we ended up figuring it out one day and, as a joke, actually played it coming off the field after retreat one night when Northstar wasn't there. Needless to say our instructor almost had an aneurysm and said that if we ever.... EVER... did that again, he would have us KILLED. Good times. :)

Teddy Heumann used to do that. Seemed to fit the music really well and have a lot of flow. I always liked that team aspect, that we were making formations together instead of every man for himself to his dot. It's easier with dot books but we always thought that was kinda bandish. Obviously we couldn't have the visual designs of today without them. Surprised no one has mentioned Blue Stars stick chicks. Their main job was to move from set point to set point, sighting their position and marking out perfect step size. There were also little ways to cheat and mark the field. Bottle caps were useful, big enough to see but only if you know where to look.

Every now and then we had to get back at the staff. It's only fair when they say "last time" and then do three more runs in the dark. You've just got to do a little something that gets under their skin. This is one of those things and it started very innocently. Some songs just sound good on xylophone. The Maxwell House percolator song, Flight of the Bumblebee and this one: http://www.tv-timewarp.co.uk/midi_files/Ex...ainKangaroo.mid One day we were on break noodling around with some of those things that sound good on xylophone and that song came up, along with several tv show themes. As we figured out the notes our mallet instructor comes running over blue in the face, waving his arms and screaming that we should NEVER EVER play that song again! What if another corps heard us play that!?!?! God forbid! We could never hold our heads high in DCI again! Whenever things got tough all we had to do was play the first four notes. ARGH!!! Better than nails on a chalkboard!

He did? Cage... Hendrix... what's the difference, right? Got music history? Geez. Missed the point entirely. If you can't find music in the world around you... you might be a redneck. ($1 to Foxworthy)

Balls (preferably out)

This has got to be one of the most senseless posts ever. (the original post) Dude, you're not helping.

What if the saxes were in the key of G?