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Forget Woodwinds – Beware of WGI


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Dont even begin to tell me about technique and todays colorguards. You watch any guard toady and you will find multiple individual errors that arent fixed or addressed because the sheets dont "warrant" it.

This is true for ALL sections in regard to visual aspects...not just the color guard.

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  • 9 years later...

Fascinating to look back ten years (to the day!) and see what people here thought about future trends.

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On 8/18/2009 at 12:42 PM, Appleknocker said:

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.

That screaming-for-every-catch thing gives me a headache, is extremely distracting, and really takes my ability to enjoy a performance. It almost makes me dislike the group/performance simply because their staff/parents/fans are obnoxious. 

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7 minutes ago, billj said:

That screaming-for-every-catch thing gives me a headache, is extremely distracting, and really takes my ability to enjoy a performance. It almost makes me dislike the group/performance simply because their staff/parents/fans are obnoxious. 

My one "old grumpy former drum corps guy" complaint LOL. Screaming guard moms (and dads...sisters...brothers...groupies...) should be designated to a specific section which is then soundproofed and insulated with foam walls and nets (in case one of them flips their #### on a missed catch and tries to jump.) Yeah we had beach balls flying around the stadium...but beach balls don't scream "THEY'RE ALWAYS READYYYYYYYYY!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

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On 8/19/2009 at 5:22 PM, byline said:

Well, I've taken this comment on before, and I'll take it on again. Yes, it can be compared. That's because the type of demand has changed over the years . . . but once guards started spinning and throwing their equipment, it was always complex, at least commensurate with what the judging sheets demanded at the time.

There is a huge level of demand in, for example, throwing a heavy (especially compared with today's standards) rifle in a quad, nailing the rotations, body positions, position of equipment in the air, keeping the feet where they're supposed to be without stepping out of position (which I see waaay too much of nowadays) and not dropping. All of which guards were doing constantly back in the '70s because they had to. Anything less got them deductions (tics) from the judges. And they were doing this all day long, day in and day out, with rifle lines that were generally rifle lines for an entire show, not a segment or segments.

So guards then were trained in technique, trained to nail all the little stuff, trained to do all of this while marching, sometimes even during high knee lift (which they also had to execute uniformly and correctly, lest they be ticked), and each individual was expected to execute all of these details without ticking. That contains its own inherent demand, and that level of demand is something that I remain unconvinced that guards of today could do as well simply because they're not trained in that way, the sheets don't demand that they perform a tickless show, so neither the performers nor the judges expect that. As with guards then, they are trained, but in a different way, and many perform what they are trained to do exceptionally well. But to claim that ability and complexity cannot be compared ignores the essence of what guards of yesteryear did.

You can't compare when subjects and content are different..oh and by the way tics were just as subjective...I taught and judged under both..yes guards were trained in technique but what makes you think they aren't now and with way more responsibilities

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57 minutes ago, GUARDLING said:

You can't compare when subjects and content are different..oh and by the way tics were just as subjective...I taught and judged under both..yes guards were trained in technique but what makes you think they aren't now and with way more responsibilities

Yep. "Dirt" is present and has always been present in every caption no matter what era. You hear the same complaints from some of the percussion community complaining about stick heights, body carriage, ramming 16.27 million notes into 4 bars, etc. Granted we didn't have kevlar but we also didn't play inverted flam flucky 3's on a left hand lead behind our backs. The cats doing this stuff now across all captions are doing more whether we like to admit it or not. That doesn't mean they're more talented...but I would agree that they do more. 

EDIT: Just to add this so there is no drummer confusion - I am well aware that there is no such said beastie as an inverted flam flucky 3. I made that #### up because it does sound like something that we would invent as a new hybrid rudiment. I did, however, have a fellow drummer describe to me what was clearly a simple diddle hybrid that he stated was called a "Husqvarna." THAT #### made me LOL. 

Edited by Weaklefthand4ever
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5 minutes ago, Weaklefthand4ever said:

Yep. "Dirt" is present and has always been present in every caption no matter what era. You hear the same complaints from some of the percussion community complaining about stick heights, body carriage, ramming 16.27 million notes into 4 bars, etc. Granted we didn't have kevlar but we also didn't play inverted flam flucky 3's on a left hand lead behind our backs. The cats doing this stuff now across all captions are doing more whether we like to admit it or not. That doesn't mean they're more talented...but I would agree that they do more. 

Yep...for sure

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So, how many of these former thoughts were contrived and formulated under a regime that included one of the, if not the, most influential people in the activity who is now gone.  Edit: Well, all of them obviously.

Those of us who have hung around to see the future get a pass on our old predictions.  Time to own up to predictions for the next ten years.

 

Edited by garfield
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I'll start:  My own experience leads me to believe that the future will have fewer shows, more "scripted" show formats (not the corps' performances), and more centralization of functions in order to create a clearer identity that better aligns with whichever performance idiom best reaches the potential marching members.  DCI's influence, WGI's influence, BOA's influence... does it really matter?  Don't they ALL represent a "natural" path of evolution for a growing music student?

It seems to me that there's more to be gained by an alliance than by trying to dominate/defeat one another.

Edited by garfield
clarity
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