Which corps will add woodwinds?

[Keith Laubhan]

I don't have to imagine the awesome colors that woodwinds would bring to the fold. If I want that sound, I'll listen to a good marching band.

Drum corps is unique in that it's sound is characteristically all brass and percussion. It's a sound that I like and that is different than marching band. I'd sure be bummed if that sound just up and disappeared. No disrespect to DCA, but DCI is by and large the caretaker of the artform, for better or for worse, and a rule change there would have dramatic effects on the rest of the activity.

If you want those awesome brass and woodwind colors, please go see a marching band or a wind ensemble. Please don't ask an artform I love to go away for your listening pleasure when you already have access to the alternative.

[bawker]

All of those "issues" you brought up have solutions. Remember, those marching bands (that you haven't heard) play outside. They get rained on. They get SNOWED on. They play in much broader variance in weather than drum corps (August heat AND December cold). I don't even care of the instruments are made out of plastic, as long as they add new colors to drum corps! (only half kidding)

I have no problem with the emotional attitude "I just don't want woodwinds, period!" when left at that. But when people try to use "logic" to justify why woodwinds shouldn't be used, I'm compelled to argue.

Why are BOA regionals and Grand Nats in domes, then?

Look, I've heard plenty of marching bands live, from Rocky Mount back in the day to Marian Catholic in the late 80's and on into the the Plymouth-Canton's and Tarpon Springs of today. I'm well versed in what they can and can't do as much as the next person here.

Yeah, they've got plastic instruments and colored ones and everything else under the sun . . .but they usually sound pretty bad. The instruments with any decent quality aren't out in everydays and in the heat each day to bake.

Think your average parent wants little Suzy to take her expensive LeBlanc or Buffet clarinet outside and then have to pay to repair it after it cracks in mid-July?

Adding woodwinds to any measurable degree will cost money . . uniforms, buses, gas, etc. . . so "logic" dictates that adding them will:

1) cost more money . . .

2) ruin the unique sub-niche we've established with drum corps, and . . .

3) probably drive fans away who aren't music educators or band kids

. . .and on a completely "illogical" note again, there's no tone color any woodwind can add that will ever improve on an all-brass drum corps.

[soccerguy315]

In short...

Adding woodwinds means adding buses. One, if not two, to balance out the current drum corps musical ensemble.

Adding buses also means adding uniforms, instruction, storage space, equipment, food, insurance, FUEL for that added bus (or two), etc etc etc...

So, in recap, NO drum corps can financially afford to do all that. Not even the one being run by the most vocal proponent of adding woodwinds.

They can't add extra buses... but they could march 56 horns, 6 piccolos, and 10 saxophones...

You're right it wont happen in so much as adding to the corps proper. What I believe (but pray never) will happen is they will allow mic'd soloist and small ensembles that'll play during segments of the show. Or one of the synth woodwinds as mentioned in an earlier post.

yeaaa. And they already passed the rule to allow soloist brass and small ensembles to be mic'd... so "since we can mic them, why not let someone play a clarinet into the mic instead?"

[Hrothgar15]

Do the math. We're talking enormous expenditures here when it's all added together. One bus + uniforms + added staff/instruction + food + fuel + equipment + storage etc.....

I'm sure I can't tell you off the top of my head what it cost a corps back in the day to add a set of contrabass bugles when they were approved. But I can tell you that adding buses and all that other stuff listed above TODAY to corps who are barely breaking even (or worse) is something they will not rush out to get behind. And that's just the administrative "behind the scenes" side of it. Directors (aside from one) don't really want anything to do with it. The thing that will (and has) effectively killed the woodwind thing in DCI is that the instructors have never really been all that much in favor of it. And when it comes to matters of instrumentation, generally speaking, if it doesn't fly with the instructors, it doesn't fly.

What if the member limit is kept at 150, but the brass-only limitation is removed?

[Michael Boo]

The only difference is many of you who said a&e would never be added didn't realize the amount of momentum those proposals had in the instructors room year in and year out for the past (almost) 20 years. It was inevitable. There is no such momentum for woodwinds. Has never been. And according to the overwhelming majority of instructors I know and talk to, there really won't be.

...

As someone who has sat in those meetings for over a couple decades, I've got to say that what you speak is profoundly accurate.

Please allow me to expand upon your insights.

The instructors who would be voting on woodwinds in drum corps are BRASS and PERCUSSION instructors. Unless there is a groundswell of woodwind instructors added to drum corps brass and percussion lines, there is NO political pull among the present instructors to see their influence diluted by the addition of another line of instruments.

Now if woodwind instructors somehow take over, the paradigm could change. Let's say a few dozen woodwind instructors clandestinely conspire to get hired in drum corps by working hard to become brass and percussion instructors, keep their motive secret while they learn what they need to know to instruct brass and percussion and then infiltrate the activity en masse, THEN there would be a realistic chance that the instructors present in those caucus meetings would want woodwinds on the field.

The chance of a meteor hitting the earth and turning us all into Kenny G devotees is far greater.

[BOSMarcher]

If the rule gets passed, I imagine they would be used for color purposes only (I miced solo in the pit). A woodwind line would not be feasible as woodwinds tend to get messed up if they are wet. There are several shows that get rained on every year. That would be a large, unforseen cost to drum corps. If they chose not use them for that show, there would be a large gap in the music if there were ever any woodwinds.

I don't see this rule ever passing. If it does, they will only be used for solo work (like a soprano sax or something). You guys can quote me on that... I don't think anyone will be saying I told you so.

[FTNK]

I'm approaching this in a similar way to Bruckner8.

I was just thinking this today. Heard the sax studio at my school playing some ensemble pieces and it sounded really good. What if you had, say, 64 brass (which was the standard for a long time) and 16 saxophones. Now you would pretty much limited to altos and tenors, since bari saxes would likely be too awkward to march DCI-level drill with. Maybe you could have some soprano saxes too, but I think the best bet would be to split it 8 each on altos and tenors or maybe 6 altos, 10 tenors. Anyway, in the top corps, the majority of this saxophone section would be Music Ed. and even performance majors. 16 talented, experienced performers blending together and working hard all summer, adding the unique sound of their instrument to that of the brass line? Yes plz. That would add some really cool stuff to some jazz charts.

Another thing I imagine is a corps (let's say The Cadets, because it's what springs to mind) flying around, doing their thing, and there's a single piccolo part riding on top of the musical texture, sometimes blending with the brass and sometimes being featured, adding just that little bit of something to the sound. You wouldn't be able to hear the piccolo over the hornline all the time--certainly not at the FFF impacts, but if you arranged it right and had one stud player (lot of competition for that one spot) it would work and be pretty cool.

Like anything else, it would be not what you do but how you do it. If arrangers just had the woodwinds covered up by the brass most of the show and the stand in a block and play very fast scales to show off technique every once in a while (which I see a lot of BOA bands/arrangers do -- not a huge fan of hornlines standing and playing technical passages just to show technique in DCI either) then it would be less worthwhile.

[rut-roh]

They can't add extra buses... but they could march 56 horns, 6 piccolos, and 10 saxophones...

And which team of instructors do you envision is going to actually want something like that?? (I don't know of any who want more than ONE piccolo in their own marching bands! Let alone SIX?!)

If they're going to add woodwinds, it would not be a case of subtracting horn players, but adding woodwinds to balance. And that means adding vehicles to the caravan.

[ScarletKnight]

What about adding some bagpipes in there too?

[Michael Boo]

What about adding some bagpipes in there too?

That would be feasible only for shows about the Apocalypse.