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Forget Woodwinds – Beware of WGI


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Yet another thread just opened regarding the fear of DCI adding woodwinds. But it seems to me that the more immediate concern should be over drum corps being significantly affected by a move away from show designs that focus on music and movement and toward shows designed around the color guard and WGI-type themes.

You need only look as far as Blue Devils 2009 for an example of this as a trend that show designers are taking and, more significantly, that judges are rewarding. And with judges rewarding this design style, it won’t be long before many other corps follow suit and, as a result, change the face of drum corps forever.

And if finals remain in Lucan Oil Stadium (with its crappy sight lines and disturbing echo), corps will have even more reason to play/march less and act, pose, do gynmastics, move chairs, etc. more.

So while everyone is so worried about woodwinds, drum corps is changing significantly right under our noses and few seem to be saying or doing anything about it.

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Yet another thread just opened regarding the fear of DCI adding woodwinds. But it seems to me that the more immediate concern should be over drum corps being significantly affected by a move away from show designs that focus on music and movement and toward shows designed around the color guard and WGI-type themes.

You need only look as far as Blue Devils 2009 for an example of this as a trend that show designers are taking and, more significantly, that judges are rewarding. And with judges rewarding this design style, it won’t be long before many other corps follow suit and, as a result, change the face of drum corps forever.

And if finals remain in Lucan Oil Stadium (with its crappy sight lines and disturbing echo), corps will have even more reason to play/march less and act, pose, do gynmastics, move chairs, etc. more.

So while everyone is so worried about woodwinds, drum corps is changing significantly right under our noses and few seem to be saying or doing anything about it.

You sir, or madam, win the grand prize.

I've been thinking the same thing for some time, but just haven't had the energy to participate in the debate that is sure to follow.

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Yet another thread just opened regarding the fear of DCI adding woodwinds. But it seems to me that the more immediate concern should be over drum corps being significantly affected by a move away from show designs that focus on music and movement and toward shows designed around the color guard and WGI-type themes.

You need only look as far as Blue Devils 2009 for an example of this as a trend that show designers are taking and, more significantly, that judges are rewarding. And with judges rewarding this design style, it won’t be long before many other corps follow suit and, as a result, change the face of drum corps forever.

And if finals remain in Lucan Oil Stadium (with its crappy sight lines and disturbing echo), corps will have even more reason to play/march less and act, pose, do gynmastics, move chairs, etc. more.

So while everyone is so worried about woodwinds, drum corps is changing significantly right under our noses and few seem to be saying or doing anything about it.

I would agree.

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Yet another thread just opened regarding the fear of DCI adding woodwinds. But it seems to me that the more immediate concern should be over drum corps being significantly affected by a move away from show designs that focus on music and movement and toward shows designed around the color guard and WGI-type themes.

You need only look as far as Blue Devils 2009 for an example of this as a trend that show designers are taking and, more significantly, that judges are rewarding. And with judges rewarding this design style, it won’t be long before many other corps follow suit and, as a result, change the face of drum corps forever.

And if finals remain in Lucan Oil Stadium (with its crappy sight lines and disturbing echo), corps will have even more reason to play/march less and act, pose, do gynmastics, move chairs, etc. more.

So while everyone is so worried about woodwinds, drum corps is changing significantly right under our noses and few seem to be saying or doing anything about it.

I guess I missed some news along the way--woodwinds in drum corps? I heard about some sax action at I&E but what exactly is going on with DCI that there's a real concern about WW in my beloved drum corps? Perhaps a link, I don't want to bog down the thread.

Shows have been designed around the (do I call it color guard?) visual aspect for years now and command too great a percentage of judging captions. At Finals, my friends and I felt the guards or non-musician people were often more of a distraction than complimentary to the corps. Felt like we were at the (bad) ballet with drum corps people in the background. Guess it's art but why?

Edited by tommyfromhowardst
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Yet another thread just opened regarding the fear of DCI adding woodwinds. But it seems to me that the more immediate concern should be over drum corps being significantly affected by a move away from show designs that focus on music and movement and toward shows designed around the color guard and WGI-type themes.

You need only look as far as Blue Devils 2009 for an example of this as a trend that show designers are taking and, more significantly, that judges are rewarding. And with judges rewarding this design style, it won't be long before many other corps follow suit and, as a result, change the face of drum corps forever.

And if finals remain in Lucan Oil Stadium (with its crappy sight lines and disturbing echo), corps will have even more reason to play/march less and act, pose, do gynmastics, move chairs, etc. more.

So while everyone is so worried about woodwinds, drum corps is changing significantly right under our noses and few seem to be saying or doing anything about it.

been building this way for a while

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Yet another thread just opened regarding the fear of DCI adding woodwinds. But it seems to me that the more immediate concern should be over drum corps being significantly affected by a move away from show designs that focus on music and movement and toward shows designed around the color guard and WGI-type themes.

You need only look as far as Blue Devils 2009 for an example of this as a trend that show designers are taking and, more significantly, that judges are rewarding. And with judges rewarding this design style, it won’t be long before many other corps follow suit and, as a result, change the face of drum corps forever.

And if finals remain in Lucan Oil Stadium (with its crappy sight lines and disturbing echo), corps will have even more reason to play/march less and act, pose, do gynmastics, move chairs, etc. more.

So while everyone is so worried about woodwinds, drum corps is changing significantly right under our noses and few seem to be saying or doing anything about it.

I think this one has already happened. Virtually all of DCI's visual instructors and judges participate in WGI. Guard seems to dominate an ever larger portion of the visual sheets. My impression is that WGI has inspired a lot of DCI design this entire decade.

I also agree that if we really have 8 more years of finals in LOS, everyone is going to adopt WGI-style programs. Let's face it, they work really well indoors and a "blow the stands down" traditional drum corps design does not.

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Yet another thread just opened regarding the fear of DCI adding woodwinds. But it seems to me that the more immediate concern should be over drum corps being significantly affected by a move away from show designs that focus on music and movement and toward shows designed around the color guard and WGI-type themes.

You need only look as far as Blue Devils 2009 for an example of this as a trend that show designers are taking and, more significantly, that judges are rewarding. And with judges rewarding this design style, it won’t be long before many other corps follow suit and, as a result, change the face of drum corps forever.

And if finals remain in Lucan Oil Stadium (with its crappy sight lines and disturbing echo), corps will have even more reason to play/march less and act, pose, do gynmastics, move chairs, etc. more.

So while everyone is so worried about woodwinds, drum corps is changing significantly right under our noses and few seem to be saying or doing anything about it.

You are exactly right. I started noticing this a year or two back,....and this year even more. The crowd is turning into a WGI crowd, when every time a "soloist" tosses a 4 or 5 and catches it, all you here is a bunch of little pre-orgasmic screams. At first I would wonder what the scream and applause was for,...then I started to watch for it, and lo and behold, that is what it was. Just like being at a WGI show,...enough to make you wonder.

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Ya! Let's go back to color guard doing nothing but drop spins. It's oh so entertaining.

If you don't like guard integration, might I suggest getting your music heavy fix from a symphony, jazz group, or rock show.

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Meh.

It's kind of understood that WGI and BOA are where the ideas are now, and DCI now follows along so it can achieve the same kind of scholastic relevance . . .that way it can ride the other activities coat tails. Lest we forget, DCI can't get that yummy public school system money that a lot of WGI and BOA units can, and has to do whatever it can to make a dollar or two to survive.

Ever since Dan Acheson and company decided to primarily market to the marching music enthusiast in the late 90's, each change (multi key, amps, electronics, more shows in domes away from the elements, woodwinds in the pit . . .or more . . .soon) is part and parcel of morphing DCI into a primarily indoor activity that will end up as the summer cross-pollination of WGI/BOA.

Not to be Chicken Little here, but don't be surprised when you see the proposal for amped woodwinds in the pit in another year or two.

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Ya! Let's go back to color guard doing nothing but drop spins. It's oh so entertaining.

If you don't like guard integration, might I suggest getting your music heavy fix from a symphony, jazz group, or rock show.

that's not the issue at all. modern guards are outstanding. the guard judge was finally added to the panel around 2000, and i think this was a good thing.

the activity seems to be morphing itself to a place where the guard is the focus of the entire show, and the other sections provide background music. i don't have a problem with a killer flag feature on the 50 yard line, because it is incredibly impressive.

my beef is that the top shows are starting to look a lot like wgi shows you see in the independent world class: academic, technically proficient, and almost void of any relation to the music. the music is only there because it has to be. we see guard performance and design expanding its role on the sheets, and it is a bit alarming.

i don't necessarily think that one section of the corps is more important than the other, but dci claims to be "Marching Music's Major League", but the music is starting to take a back seat. more and more it looks like "WGI - Summer Division" and i don't particularly care for it.

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