Changing Drill Vs. Changing Music

[trumpetcam]

Exactly. Music is still the foundation. When a house needs remodeling, you dont often change the foundation. Sometimes you have to, and its usually a nasty job, but normally its the siding or the roofing, or paint, or body moves, or a drill impact, or...

see what I did there

You guys are all proving my point!

But, IMO, the visual community does not often see it this way. I see corps often changing drill that is perfectly fine and musical because the viz community wants something more flashy as opposed to functional. The visual community is way more demanding and finicky when it comes to corps changing the things THEY want to see.

The whole idea of this thread is that music is and should be the focus and drill is a result of the music. With no music, there would be no need for drill. I just think our visual people often can't deal with this reality and try to find ways to make the whole activity fit their agendas.

How many times have you ever seen a music judge effectively try and "call" a show? It happens, but not nearly as much as the flipside. The visual guys are the ones who tend to have the biggest spreads and the ones who seem the least concerned about burying a corps on a given night. I just don't get the feeling we have as many educators in the visul community as music. Sure, most are not band directors, but isn't dci also supposed to be an educational experience that teaches the members about music, life and how to be a productive member of society?

It just seems the visual aspect of dci is mired in politics and who likes what visual style, less than the education of the staffs and members.

I wish they could realize they exist because of the music. Most of the great drill writers do...

Edited July 17, 2009 by trumpetcam

[josh161]

It is Much easier to learn 20 or 30 new dots than 4 or 5 pages of music. Thats why

[trumpetcam]

It is Much easier to learn 20 or 30 new dots than 4 or 5 pages of music. Thats why

I disagree. We all look at things differently. I have a photographic memory, so I get the music aspect much quicker, where as I tended to botch drill changes for a day or two until they sank in. Don't know why, but drill was always tougher for me than learning new music changes.

[jwillis35]

Good question! Here are some things to keep in mind:

1. Each corps handles this differently (the design phase), so the changes that often occur in the summer may focus more on visual or music depending on what was not completed at spring training, or what was planned for later in the season, or they are affected by scores and the comments the judges are giving them.

2. The late fall and winter months are typically spent on music. The music arranger has a short period of time to put some stuff together for the first camp, then with each additional camp there will be more music. It is difficult for a visual guy to write drill or sketch when the music is in a constant state of flux until perhaps April. At least by then they can start blocking due to weather and a somewhat complete music book. However, even then there will be changes musically until they get things right.

So what I am saying is that by the time you see these corps after spring training, chances are that the music book will be in better shape than the visual. This is because of the constant re-writes and editing that takes place all winter long. The visual, at least for most corps, doesn't really take shape until spring, and often times spring training is where the real work gets done. If the weather is bad during this period then there will be delays (i.e. corps that play their entire show but must stand for the last song or the last minute or so until the drill is finished).

[km1934]

Exactly. Music is still the foundation. When a house needs remodeling, you dont often change the foundation. Sometimes you have to, and its usually a nasty job, but normally its the siding or the roofing, or paint, or body moves, or a drill impact, or...

see what I did there

Ooooh..... clever!

There are also a lot of music changes and tweaks that are made throughout the year to fit drill.....like cutting people off parts, or changing voicing because the drill isn't an arc like when the hornline learned it, or it just can't be cleaned etc. So there are concessions made for the drill musically. But yeah, if you're talking rewrites, it's going to be drill most likely. It's just easier to learn new dots than a new piece of music....like everyone else in the thread has said.

[soccerguy315]

I disagree. We all look at things differently. I have a photographic memory, so I get the music aspect much quicker, where as I tended to botch drill changes for a day or two until they sank in. Don't know why, but drill was always tougher for me than learning new music changes.

most people do not have photographic memories

You can march together with the people around you decently if you know generally where you are going. Not well enough to do really well, but well enough to make it through a show while you become more comfortable. If you know the general area of your next dot, you can get there and make your intervals equal on both sides of you.

You cannot do the same kind of guesswork + teamwork to play the music. You either know what the next note is, or you don't. If you don't, you can lay out, or guess, both of which are significantly worse than placing yourself between 2 people in the general vicinity of your dot, IMO

[Jeff Ream]

here's the thing...often times, the original visual ideas may not be presenting the musical ideas in a way that works. so often, the drill gets changed because a better idea comes along...or by being told a better idea is needed.

given that corps start working on music way before the visual, i'd say odds are complete overhauls of the musical book really arent needed by July.

[corpsband]

I'll add a few more:

1. The music book *is* still being cleaned right now. A properly written book should be hard enough for the performers that it will only be completely clean late in the season. Beefing up music is never as effective as writing tougher in the first place.

2. Visual designers plan and plan but once you see the product on the field, there are always things that aren't quite the effect you were looking for so changes naturally occur. Seeing the performance can also inspire new / better ideas that didn't just didn't occur to the designer when writing.

3. It's now standard fare to have the new visual ending waiting in the wings for the late July push. Those changes are generally visual because of time constraints.

[crfrey71]

To me, it's pretty obvious why you don't see many rewrites in the music. If you rewrite one piece all together, than you have to scrap the drill, as well. That is twice as much work.

[Richard]

To me, it's pretty obvious why you don't see many rewrites in the music. If you rewrite one piece all together, than you have to scrap the drill, as well. That is twice as much work.

Right. I think the OP is suggesting that the music should be rewritten so that the original drill can be kept the same, which sounds like a pretty bad idea.