A brief lesson in GE from a barbershop choir

[Michael Boo]

I received this link from a judge with the comment that it reaffirmed their belief in what is truly General Effect. I think he has a point.

We can learn what is entertaining and effective from other activities. I just never thought I could learn that from the barbershop genre.

The following is a performance of "76 Trombones" by the Masters of Harmony, a huge barbershop choir from the St. Louis area.

Watch it to the end. It keeps getting better and better.

And please add your comments about what is General Effect to you and what drum corps might learn from this AND other activities. Feel free to add links to examples.

[RickCogley]

This is outstanding! Such a great performance, and a well-deserved standing O!

I think GE is about making the audience feel an emotion strongly. This did it for me!

[AZFan]

i seriously laughed out loudly when they did the "full octave about the score" part in the crazy falsetto.

To me GE is the combination of "selling the show", having a quality show to perform and how either the music relates to the marching (for music ge) or flip flopped (for vis. ge).

[DrinkinOuttaCups]

That was SO COOL.

Awesome! Loved it!

I am sending this to all of my friends. This is the kind of video that deserves to be watched at least once.

[Bill L.]

That was great ! I loved it !

Now , "How do we judge it ? " What if I hate the color orange ? What if I am burnt out on 76 Trombones ? What if I thougt there was so much movement in the front that it took away from what everyone else was doing ? Would I give it the same marks if I loved or hated these 3 things ?

Just askin' ?

Bill

[BRASSO]

Talk to any highly successful performing artist who makes a good living performing before audiences in their craft ( not a teacher at High School or University per se ) and almost without exception they will tell you how important it is for the performing artist to engage the audience in their performance and to elicit an emotional and visceral connection from the audience with their performance. Everything else is subservient and secondary to that. Especially when that audience member is paying for the performance. It is clear that these performers understood their audience, responded appropriately to that audience, and as a result they received an overwhelmingly positive response to their performance. Nobody in that audience seemed to care a wit that half of those on stage during the marching band skit in the last stanza there were out of step. Audience members were looking at " the forest, and not the trees", and as a result the emotional connection to the audience trumped intellectual perfection.

And as with with most ALL Performing Arts audiences,.... it will every time.

Edited November 29, 2009 by BRASSO

[idontwan2know]

I've been told the visual person for this group is a former BD member.

[Wadep66]

Great Performance.

I really like how they used the element of surprise and visuals as well as the vocal. Who'd have thought a 4:30 rendition of 76 trombones could be that entertaining. I didn't count how many times the verse repeated but it was a bunch but they never lost me.

[TomPeashey]

wow great stuff

and definitely a drum corps influence.... check out the Man From La Mancha segment with the Hawthorne Caballeros uniforms and color guard work... someone on their design team loves drum corps

[lowend]

In Man of LaMancha, they throw in a little move from Blast at 2:56.