Mini Corps Reports?

[Windsor]

Just a little side note: Drills, battery and such as what Xtreme did are not new to the activity. Many corps have done it in the past.

Yes, exactly. Xtreme is not making a claim to be the brand new thing. Our goal was to re-establish or further establish what mini-corps was in the 50's in the midwest, a "mini" corps and hopefully be a major contributor to the growth of more mini corps. (more drum corps is a good thing, right?) ^OO^

For those who wish to park and bark, no problem. I thoroughly enjoy those performances as well. But as mini corps makes the resurgence to its roots, perhaps the "park and bark" (my apologies for lack of a better term) groups could be re-categorized as a "large ensemble" portion of I&E, and as Fran suggested move the mini corps competition outside on a different day for those of us with some twinkle left in our toes. (I ain't no spring chicken either, you know).

[brassomaniac]

I agree Kev. DCA has to come to grips with the fact that there will be more 'full movement' minicorps and that the 'concert' style venue simply does not work. A performing arts venue where the audience has the 'up' look will be necessary. Also, a major attempt to rectify the sheet criteria is paramount.

Let's face it.....that 'park & bark' corps are fantastic, but a certain corps pushed the envelope with a steady 9.5 minutes of music (non-stop) and a full drill. That corps also had a full battery of 3 and a pit of 2 mallets.....the ONLY corps out there to do so. Hmmmmmmm.........I believe that there was no credit given for "demand" or the full percussion.

If anyone has a problem with what I'm saying please feel free to flame on..........I'm entitled to my opinion as one with a vested interest..........

Umm .. from one of the "park and bark" corps':

Even though you didn't get credit for your drill, wouldn't you still have been judged on an even playing field with us musically?

I'm a little put off at the statement that you got "buried" by NOT getting credit. How could it effect you negatively? There was ONLY ONE SHEET - for MUSIC. WE did little movement and got the SAME zero credit for it as you did for DOING drill. So our music programs would still have been compared on an equal basis, on the sheet.

We prepared our show according to the judging criteria, which WAS clearly stated to rank the units according to Musical Technical Ability. THAT was the criteria of the contest, and it seems unkind, then, to label us as Park and Bark because we didn't bother writing for criteria that wasn't on the sheets.

[brassomaniac]

As far as taking mini-corps to the field.: Now that might be a legitimate idea. Then those that want to do a drill , have a pit and guard, etc. can expand the genre and the scoring to include those areas. You're right, THAT would really be a Mini... Corps.

I'm just about the music, tho - the "twinkle-toes" days are over for me. :P

Edited September 6, 2007 by brassomaniac

[tubadon]

They could turn the current Minicorps format to "Mixed Ensembles" with a max of 21 and the Minicorps on the field with a limit up to 35 to cover the gap.

BTW, several corps, including Dream, did full drill back in 2005 because the show was on the field. We cut the drill in '06 when we found out it would be on a stage. Even if they didn't change the numbers format, if they put it back on a field, there would be more drill.

[FPonzo]

There should be some type of "visual enhancement" involved with a show's design, i agree.

The different flavors Is what makes this competition great!

Ok....I believe if you take a look at the sheets, there IS a subcaption that says "Visual Enhancement". (but I could be wrong) Not sure about anyone else, well except for Extreme (...because Jimbalaya said so.... :P ), there were some corps that did do just that....visually enhance their musical show by doing a drill. I also think that Ghost Riders had a small color guard to enhance their music, and the Renegades used a prop to the left side of the stage that they would walk behind in between selections of their show. We (The Golden Eagles) did do some moves, but we do not call it "drill" per se......we call it "Staging". I do believe we got creidt for what we did, because some of the judges made comments on our sheets about our "visual enhancement", and how it positively effected our musical program.

And for the record.......MCA has no say on how the sheets are written, and has no say about the future format of the DCA Mini Corps show. If we want to compete in DCA, we have to abide by the rules set forth by DCA. Sure....we would like to have something to say about how the sheets are written, but I do believe you need to be a member corps of DCA to have any say on what is on the sheets. BTW.....I think the sheets used are the DCA General Effect Music sheets....maybe someone else can back me up on that?

[brassomaniac]

Ok....I believe if you take a look at the sheets, there IS a subcaption that says "Visual Enhancement". (but I could be wrong) Not sure about anyone else, well except for Extreme (...because Jimbalaya said so.... :P ), there were some corps that did do just that....visually enhance their musical show by doing a drill. I also think that Ghost Riders had a small color guard to enhance their music, and the Renegades used a prop to the left side of the stage that they would walk behind in between selections of their show. We (The Golden Eagles) did do some moves, but we do not call it "drill" per se......we call it "Staging". I do believe we got creidt for what we did, because some of the judges made comments on our sheets about our "visual enhancement", and how it positively effected our musical program.

And for the record.......MCA has no say on how the sheets are written, and has no say about the future format of the DCA Mini Corps show. If we want to compete in DCA, we have to abide by the rules set forth by DCA. Sure....we would like to have something to say about how the sheets are written, but I do believe you need to be a member corps of DCA to have any say on what is on the sheets. BTW.....I think the sheets used are the DCA General Effect Music sheets....maybe someone else can back me up on that?

That's right! - there is an allowance for Visual Enhancement, and the sheet does allow for credit to be given. So I guess a corps will an effective visual program should be able to max out whatever a judge might be willing to give - although I admit that couldn't be much, given the structure and criteria of the sheet.

The sheet clearly directs the judge to choose the best musical unit.

I'm not disagreeing with the contention that changes could be made to encourage and reward visuals. Just responding to the comments about the scoring Friday and the corps that choose NOT to do drill.

My point is two-fold:

One - we all knew the criteria going in - if you wanted to do a drill for the audience - THAT is absolutely OUTSTANDING! And I'm sure that is was entertaining and effective. But, we all knew there would be little credit given. It's a music and music performance effect sheet.

Two: to suggest that a corps was "buried" - I assume you mean the score was too low relative to others - BECAUSE you did not get credit doesn't wash.

We were all judged on Music and Performance Effect and were ranked and rated based on that alone. If a corps finished farther back than they liked, it was only on that criteria.

Finally ... I think "Park and Bark" is an extremely unflattering comment, considering the quality of music performances Friday - at least the ones I saw. I'd also like to think that our corps was a little more musical than that.

Edited September 6, 2007 by brassomaniac

[Donny Drum Corps]

Hindsight is 20/20... but after the fact, I would not have done any movement in Ghost Riders this year, or at least until the "visual enhancement" is credited as "simultaneous achievement" while playing.

I don't think that we were credited for having a color guard or doing any movement either, because like Tom said, there is no place to get credit on these existing sheets we are currently using. I am not blaming anyone but myself for thinking that it would recieve credit. I was expecting the judges to notice that there was more demand from moving than there is standing still.

Did it hurt us? Well, we spent too much time worrying about something that wouldnt help us to score higher, so I guess in some sense it did. We could have spent more time on music, instead of being concerned about getting people to know drill cues.

But I also realize that it was our own fault to assume that we would get credit for it. When I watched ALL of the higher placing mini corps, I knew then we had made a mistake in programming. We made personnel choices that took away 2 musicians to include the guard. There is no place to score higher for utilizing a guard. Again. I cannot blame anyone but myself and the GR administration, and I am NOT doing that. I am old enough to realize when I have made a mistake.

I know that it added stress to Friday's rehearsal by trying to get everyone in the "drill". People that were worried about the drill probably didn't play as well as they did standing still. It just added another element to think about, with no possiblity of return from doing it. I was even nervous that people would forget their moves and make us look bad. An ill timed turn around by other members caused me to get set late to play a solo and come in not as confident as I would have liked to.

I don't know if we could have placed any higher with the level of competition that was at the mini corps show without doing any movement. The bar has been raised so high by the Renegades and Star Untied that the old stand bys such as GR, Erie, Mass Brass et al. really have their work cut out for them. It has really evolved into a special event.

I know that the highlight of the weekend for me was playing a duet with my son at mini corps. I am not upset at the placements at all. I learned something from it.

I just wish we would have beat Erie so I would not have to be reminded by Mr Cheesey Poof every time I saw him on the weekend. LOL. He was walking around the Stadium like a rooster for God's sake. The rest of the guys were very cool but that Cheesey guy was strutting around like he just won DCI or something. LMAO. Nick. Gary, Gene, Jeff and the rest of the Erie guys all were very humble and gracious. I dont know why "poof master" was acting like that. Something should be done about people who act like that. It's bad for the activity. ROFLMAO...

Donny B)

[brassomaniac]

Ok, I'll conceed that exposing your corps to a drill could very well have risked some performance effectiveness.

Although I saw GR (sorry didn't get to see Xtreme) and I thought they were pretty freakin' great!

The corps that are serious about the mini-corps genre will have to decide whether a true "mini-corps" is what their aiming for (guard, drill and all) or a stage group kind of thing focused on the music.

I don't know where this will go, but I see the future of our own program as a musical group. And I doubt that we'll be going down the road of drill and color guard anytime soon. We took some hits for using music stands - but, I don't see what is wrong with them -musicians read music. We didn't ask our players to memorize the music . We used over 20 tunes this year and were regularly adding new players right up until the Wednesday before DCA, when we worked one of our Mardi Gras drummers into the show on set - so it was not even an option for us. But of course, being "in the stands" eliminates the possibility of drill.

Who knows, we might take a different approach in the future. Or, maybe we'll find a place in the large ensembles, if that category is created.

But.. any...way... The mix of styles and approaches , IMHO, sure made for an GREAT show last Friday!

Edited September 6, 2007 by brassomaniac

[Donny Drum Corps]

Then why was El Chestus acting that way?

[brassomaniac]

Then why was El Chestus acting that way?

Having his BIG day in the Sun, Donny! Don't know him, but just maybe he don't get out much!

Hell, I was walking around pretty proud myself, just to finish in the NEIGHBORHOOD we were in!