Music Ensemble Caption is Crap

[GuyW]

.....Instead of higher faster louder, we would have softer, simpler, more controlled. I know there were plenty of incredible shows during the tic era.....

LOL! I thought it was we old school guys who championed louder / higher!

Softer, simpler, more controlled? Yeah - I've heard there's music like that...drum corps even played some...

[euponitone]

Softer, simpler, more controlled? Yeah - I've heard there's music like that...drum corps even played some...

Like....No WAI?!?

[Rocketman]

I would rather see and hear CLEAN with great design. Demand doesn't have to mean FASTER faster run run run jack the tempo jack jack jack. Slow is very demanding. Soft is very demanding. Long extended phrases are very demanding. Unfortunately, none of those things get the credit they deserve anymore.

[Medeabrass]

Apparently the corps directors (or at least enough of them) thought not...I suppose it's because it's still purely percussion...at a level where you DON'T want a brass judge working it

I here ya...It's just funny to me that they thought it was OK for a percussionist to judge brass in the music ensemble caption but feel there aren't qualified brass guys to judge the pit from the stands. I understand that it's the corps directors who decided this but there's many decisions they make that make me scratch my head. There's just something about this caption that just doesn't seem right to me and I'm trying to sort it out.

[JMS0527]

I don't think you need quite as deep an understanding of the "other side of the coin" when judging Ensemble Music or Music Effect

I'm not a brass player...I think I held a trumpet once...but I still feel comfortable enough with the thought of judging Music Effect...yeah I know it's not Ensemble Music..but take it FWIW

[raphael18]

... or, we can keep things the way that they are, since most of the judges in the caption seem to roughly agree on the placement of corps from night to night.

I'm against this thought entirely. To me, each caption should be permitted to fall where it may. You may have a 5th place corps overall, but your hornline is first, your drumline is 10th, and the guard is somewhere in between. It's easy to get into the habit of following the heard and saying that a show is 4th place top to bottom, heck it may be true, but when nearly every caption score is the exact same on the sheets...I think that's lazy judging.

That said, from what I've seen, this year is much better than it has been in the past. Perhaps that is the reason for the changes in scoring and placement - groups are being rewarded more for what they are doing. Sure, there are still the usual glass ceilings and barriers that must be busted through - but overall, I'm much happier with this year in this respect.

Does anyone else remember the year where the corps that won drums at semis didn't even make finals? That's how it should be - if you earn it, you should be aloud to have it.

[MikeD]

[start using a tick system?]

So, your point is that corps have shows that are too "difficult" to execute cleanly?

No, just that ticks are not an adequate way to evaluate the type of arrangements/visual designs performed in 2007. The increased complexity is what led to the demise of the tick system...it is just not an adequate way to measure the totality of the 'performance'. It's not just about 'execution'.