Pits

[tommytimp]

Star of Indiana in 1988 had their pit dressed in concert black, tuxes for the men and basic black gowns for the women, much like you'd expect a symphony orchestra's percussion section to look. (Which was a bit odd; Porgy and Bess isn't strictyly symphonic music at all. But at least it was better than the CIRCUS!!! GET IT??? look from the year before.)

It's intersting how times change. in 1986, the Glassmen started the year with their pit on the field, then DCI or DCM told them they had a week to get the stuff OFF the field or face disqualification. Then Phantom does the opposite in 1994 and 94 and they're geniuses. I always kind of resented the parlor tricks played with the pit for the rest of the corp's "benefit," like putting 10 yards or so between sections like Madison did in 1992, just so the horns could park and blow in the pit at the end of the show. Last I checked, hearing Madison's hornline wasn't aproblem. Why screw with the pit for a whole show just for that? Same thing with the stupid symmetrical pit Star used in 1993. The show wasn't conceived symmetrically or antiphonally, why guinea pig the pit like that?

[triplefunk]

You two both make good points which is why I’m asking

As far as the shako thing, I think it would make the pit members more anonymous and therefore, less distracting. When I see a pit member’s face, its get me wondering, takes me out of the show and sometimes I am making really superficial judgments that could go against the member and transfer against their corps.

I don't know. From what I've experienced, it seems to me that a part of the pit duty is to connect with the audience. if you are wearing a shako/aussie you are to be emotionless, stern, straight to the point. and when playing in the front ensemble you have to do the exact opposite, you have to give that emotion that can't be given by brass.

Long story short... I believe the pit is perfect the way it is... connects with the crowd, sells emotion to what is going on. Just my .02

[TerriTroop]

This topic hits home for me. The Troopers pit stopped wearing hats in 1985 - much to the chagrin of many vets and a probably few reluctant staff who didn't want to fight the issue with our drum caption head - basically due to two upstarts from Texas (yes, 1 was me) who argued from the "we can't do our job well in hats because we can't see the DM, etc." stance. Jim Jones signed off on it (to our amazement), and so it stuck.

Looking back, I should have kept my mouth shut. Now I prefer pits with hats. I very much like the visual of the pit person cranking out a zillion notes in a mysterious way underneath that hat! I also like the way it connects the corps together, front to back. Also, I agree that the pit is underutilized visually, but not in the way you think: GET THOSE KIDS ON THE FIELD. Get them some kind of functional equipment and get them MOVING. That would do more for bringing pits more fully into the body of the corps for the summer than anything mentioned so far. I think pits should have the benefit of doing more than a token basics block from time to time.

Others have already mentioned how the pit is over-written with fluff and filler. It's true. I've done it myself because that's what you're expected to do. You can always water and weed out parts later, but often you don't. But sometimes the fluff and filler is brilliantly effective, so you have to be careful. But if you can get the whole pit on the field doing something effective musically and visually, I think that would add points, not take away from perc performance. (Can you imagine this comment: "Did you see that pit march!? man!" That would rock! )

As an aside I'd like to mention one pit in particular from 07 that was extremely well-written and functional: Blue Knights. Most of what they played was impressively integrated into the whole soundscape. Knowing that particular Shostakovich the way I do (I toyed with writing a concert perc ensemble arrangement of some of the 10th and have loved the 1st piano concerto forever), I was thrilled to hear what they did with the original content. Very true to the score while adjusting it perfectly for the drum corps venue. That is what every corps should aim for, IMO.

[Slow Adam]

Patriots in the late 90's-2000

Kiwanis 2000

There are pictures on corpsreps.com