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What's going on with Crossmen?


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I always wish the best for Bones...I hope they go in a different direction with rep and arrangements in the future.

me too lance...meeee toooo :P

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I believe this is year 5 (not year one) for Mr. Guidry.

Year four. And year one with the current design team around him, and YES, I think that does make a difference. Also year one of having more direct guidance from other people on the design team assisting him with that arranging process. You seem to think four years is enough, that there is absolutely no promise or worth in anything he's given them, and should be discarded. They obviously disagree and are willing to mix and match some of the supporting pieces and see if they can make something happen with him. Maybe they'll move on if it doesn't work out in the end this year. I really don't know. Regardless, I think Aaron Guidry is a very gifted musical arranger who is learning and adapting and gradually getting better at what he does in the DCI arena. I know I enjoy this show musically more than anything the corps has done since he started arranging for them in 2007.

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A combination of a lot of things. It was not the best winter in terms of recruiting and they've had problems filling those last few spots as far back as spring training. When I saw them back in June, they had people working into those spots, and some of them just didn't pan out and quit. Then other kids got injured and more holes opened up. It happens. I don't know if they have people for some of those spots right now and they're just not all the way through the show yet, but I know from experience that jumping into a spot mid-tour can be one of the most stressful and least enjoyable experiences for both the member trying to learn the show and the staff who has to get him in there. When I had to get a kid through the show like that when I was on staff, we often had kids come in, learn part of the show, decide it wasn't for them and quit. And this was when the corps was a solid finalist. It's a difficult process and can be very frustrating for everyone involved.

That clears it up.. and it makes sense. It's tough to properly maximize a show with several holes too ( as I'm sure you know) With multiple holes there is the natural tendency to " drift " march with the other marchers, marching around these holes. It's hard for the remaining marchers. I wish the Crossmen nothng but the best as they persevere forward... and like others here, I did notice some solid improvement last night from earlier performances from the Crossmen this year.

Edited by BRASSO
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Wasn't that nice of the Crossmen organization, members and fans to provide Mr Guidry a 4 year on the job training opportunity.

Year four. And year one with the current design team around him, and YES, I think that does make a difference. Also year one of having more direct guidance from other people on the design team assisting him with that arranging process. You seem to think four years is enough, that there is absolutely no promise or worth in anything he's given them, and should be discarded. They obviously disagree and are willing to mix and match some of the supporting pieces and see if they can make something happen with him. Maybe they'll move on if it doesn't work out in the end this year. I really don't know. Regardless, I think Aaron Guidry is a very gifted musical arranger who is learning and adapting and gradually getting better at what he does in the DCI arena. I know I enjoy this show musically more than anything the corps has done since he started arranging for them in 2007.
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Wasn't that nice of the Crossmen organization, members and fans to provide Mr Guidry a 4 year on the job training opportunity.

In my experience, that's pretty much the way most corps do it.

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Yeah, BD/Downey really is a fantastic analog to Guidry/Xmen. So much in common.

I'm guessing you mean "Downey/BD." And yes, given that I stated "with respect to my musical taste," they have a great deal in common: they both arrange in such a way that does not please at least one fan's ears.

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Wasn't that nice of the Crossmen organization, members and fans to provide Mr Guidry a 4 year on the job training opportunity.

Let's see, it almost got them back into finals two years ago.

Like I said earlier in the thread, something is lost from his arrangements from the Band world to the Corps world. Is it the person who is doing the voicing?... Might be. Or is it that he is better with having more instruments to color up the charts, that might be a part. I also like the midi files that I hear, I don't care for the performance as much.

I'm going to use The Heat of the Day for argument sakes as it is a song I'm comfortable with and have looked closely at many different versions recently. As far as this season, I'm ho-hum with Crossmen right now. The arrangements, I'm cool with most of them. I like The Heat of the Day but I at the same time do not compare it to 2002. They are totally different charts but what Guidry uses is from the source material and is 90% true to the original... Also I'm speaking from experience with this song, I'm currently working on a show I design/coordinated for a HS group with this song in it. I took notes when I heard Guidry's take on the chart.

The 2002 version is treated as an opener, Chuck Naffier put the middle (the piano solo) in the beginning, then he broke down the remaining 8 minutes quite well, he used the original ending as a transition into a ending that he based off of Minuano chord changes. Translation, Naffier played around with it . Also, without looking at the two scores, I would say the 02 book is harder. Guridy has this as a second tune and it needs to be treated different. He used the beginning of the original twice with the first quotes from the pit followed a hit that was original and based on First Circle. Back to the guitar quote, a entry to the million note sweepstakes and back into the song proper. He follows the format of the song to the end with an original ending based of the the guitar groove from the Metheny version. He played around with the cart too, just as much as Chuck did but each have their own style. Not taking a position on which one I like better, I believe Guridy was aware that he was writing for less talent while Naffier was writing for a group on the top 6 bubble.

What many on here are probably not being truthful with is that many on DCP are very anti electronics where Guirdy is very much at the front of its development. The use of electronics as a separate instrument is probably what throws many off to his charts.

Now as for my opinion on the problem with Crossmen... Staff. Not saying their bad, the staff has no constancy from year to year. I believe this is the 4th drill writer for them in 4 seasons. I think they have had different caption heads every season in about every caption. When things change from season to season, you start back at square one. This is showing in the performance side of things. I jokingly said for Crossmen to call me for visual help last night :cool: Performance is the bigger of the concerns over the design IMO and is what needs to be addressed first.

Edited by CloudHype
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I'm guessing you mean "Downey/BD." And yes, given that I stated "with respect to my musical taste," they have a great deal in common: they both arrange in such a way that does not please at least one fan's ears.

Not quite a true statement. From my understanding, Dave Glyde has a lot to do with the way the music is laid out. Look as the BD staff page, they have 4 arrangers: Johnson (Percussion), Wunderlich (Front Ens), Downey (Brass), Gylde (Music Coordinator, Arranger)

I don't think Wayne Downey has forgotten how he arranged from the 70's - the late 90's.

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I'm guessing you mean "Downey/BD." And yes, given that I stated "with respect to my musical taste," they have a great deal in common: they both arrange in such a way that does not please at least one fan's ears.

Ahhh. Thanks.

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Because jazz in drum corps is boring....especially latin jazz (i.e. Madison)

If anything makes drum corps sound like a HS group, its jazz......not even the HS that goes out to BOA competitions, or any rather.

Remember when phantom did really good when they played jazz....oh wait.

If I was a perspective member and a corps tried to market jazz to me as their forte, I would definitely bail.

It's better to market yourself as "a corps that plays smokin jazz and gets huge ovations" than "texas' only world class drum corps... where you can march before you are good enough to go somewhere else."

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