mikita21 Posted August 17, 2010 Share Posted August 17, 2010 Yep, I'm done with watching DCI anymore. My ticket won't make a difference, but I will be better off not seeing any of that anymore. Goodbye DCI. You will deprive yourself of a lot of entertainment if you do that. For my own peace of mind, I have started calling it "Field Theater" -- and it is stunning in every aspect. No, it ain't drum corps, but that doesn't make it fascinating to watch. Guitars, keyboards....hell, I don't even like the guy who sits at the drum kit. That's not drum corps, either, but there it is, and it's often inside a show that is otherwise OK to great. Field Theater and Drum Corps. I like 'em both. But I like one a whole lot more........... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GUARDLING Posted August 17, 2010 Share Posted August 17, 2010 I meant to ask... Who are your relatives in the Honor Guard. I can harass them in Scranton. HEY Andy....maybe if I decide to head to Scranton I will stop by Alumni practice say hi buy ya a beer and talk Drum Corps with a real DrumCorps Guy...no bull.......lol..if not soon ( kinda burnt on DC this week ) I guess im gettin soft...lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted August 17, 2010 Share Posted August 17, 2010 I appreciate the answer, although their reasoning seems pathetic. If it were not for the vets who started drum corps, these kids would be playing ping pong somewhere. I find it even more ironic when a corps like Jersey Surf has a whole patriotic theme, complete with red, white and blue banners and leaves out the flag. In the term "color guard" the "colors" are the American flag. I guess "changes" like this strike me as completely disrepectful to the original activity. That's one reason why I will absolutely never refer to these bands as drum corps. Corps were using faux American Flags in the early 70's to avoid flag violations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted August 17, 2010 Share Posted August 17, 2010 The old fossil that used to run the Clifton, NJ, Mustang Band comes to mind ... They were into a PAC 10 style that was almost an embarrassment to the band community. The guy would really tear into kids if he heard they were even thinking of doing corps.There are quite a few of 'em out there ... Bob Morgan was a GREAT band director at Clifton HS for a loooong time. Yes, his band did a "show band" style show....chair step, swinging side to side, that sort of thing. But quality-wise, they were hardly an embarrassment to the band world. He had the guts to enter them into some local competitions, though he had to know the drum corps people judging were not going to give his band a real shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted August 17, 2010 Share Posted August 17, 2010 Agree with you Jami. Although some pits are too loud now in DCI, amps definitely keeps the pit players from breaking their wrists trying to match the powerful hornlines' volume. It's always been a complaint from my friends in the pit. They have to play wonderful parts as loud as possible and it's completely lost in the ensemble anyway. Some corps struggles with the balance, but amps do help pits to be heard while playing a reasonable volume. odd. i rarely have issues hearing pits at DCA shows, and at DCi this past weekend, I wishing I could hear the battery and brass over them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted August 17, 2010 Share Posted August 17, 2010 Modern history has drum corps with collage music majors instead of kids from the street. Given that DCI corps kids DON'T EVEN COME FROM THE SAME GEOGRAPHICAL AREA OF THE CORPS THEY MARCH WITH!This year Boston had I believe 4 members from the Boston area! WHAT CAUSED THIS? WE took kids from the towns that were not into sports as we knew them. Baseball, football and basketball. This left a void that drum corps filled. Then came soccer. ANY kid can kick a ball whether they have ability or not. Times change. I the 40's and 50's most of the Holy Name members came from Garfield...by my era the Garfield natives were a very small minority...and that was pre-DCI. We came from all over the tri-state area, from smaller corps in (for example) the Garden State Circuit. One reason the town did not go out of its way to help us was due to that very thing...The Epochs (a GSC corps) were formed by people from our feeder corps, the Plebes, because few of them ended up in the big corps. Band directors have always been AGAINST drum corps. AND MOST STILL ARE! Some love it, some hate it, and a bunch are someplace in between. SO, where do we get members from? Most of todays youth would much rather spend hours playing video games rather than take a chance on joining something they have to work hard at. I am sorry, but that is just plain wrong for so many of today's students. Look at the academic loads kids have today, the incredible demands placed on them for both scholastic academic work, extra-curricular participation like marching band, sports, clubs, etc...the non-scholastic things they need to do...the high pressure of getting into college, with all the work that it takes to make yourself an attractive potential student....holding down jobs in this economy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chasgroh Posted August 17, 2010 Share Posted August 17, 2010 Times change. I the 40's and 50's most of the Holy Name members came from Garfield...by my era the Garfield natives were a very small minority...and that was pre-DCI. We came from all over the tri-state area, from smaller corps in (for example) the Garden State Circuit. One reason the town did not go out of its way to help us was due to that very thing...The Epochs (a GSC corps) were formed by people from our feeder corps, the Plebes, because few of them ended up in the big corps. Band directors have always been AGAINST drum corps. AND MOST STILL ARE! Some love it, some hate it, and a bunch are someplace in between. QUOTE SO, where do we get members from? Most of todays youth would much rather spend hours playing video games rather than take a chance on joining something they have to work hard at. I am sorry, but that is just plain wrong for so many of today's students. Look at the academic loads kids have today, the incredible demands placed on them for both scholastic academic work, extra-curricular participation like marching band, sports, clubs, etc...the non-scholastic things they need to do...the high pressure of getting into college, with all the work that it takes to make yourself an attractive potential student....holding down jobs in this economy. ...I think someone would be interested in coming out here to sunny SoCal and checking out the band camps I'm doing...and the 400 or so kids doing them with me...you know, the ones who'd rather be "...playing video games." LOL, you betcha! I currently teach 3 HS programs here...two of my directors marched drum corps (one in Marion Cadets in '75 as DM, the other at VK for 3 years and aging-out in SCV) and the third just got back from nats. All are very unfriendly toward drum corps...heh. cg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigW Posted August 17, 2010 Share Posted August 17, 2010 Corps were using faux American Flags in the early 70's to avoid flag violations. Makes sense, was why 1980 Bayonne used the special flag at the end of their program, I'd wager. I know it was a 48-star flag that was used when the Westshoremen would use that gi-normous sucker at the end of their shows for DCA finals to avoid potential issues like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDale Posted August 17, 2010 Share Posted August 17, 2010 ...I think someone would be interested in coming out here to sunny SoCal and checking out the band camps I'm doing...and the 400 or so kids doing them with me...you know, the ones who'd rather be "...playing video games." LOL, you betcha! I currently teach 3 HS programs here...two of my directors marched drum corps (one in Marion Cadets in '75 as DM, the other at VK for 3 years and aging-out in SCV) and the third just got back from nats. All are very unfriendly toward drum corps...heh.cg Well, yeah! Dr. Dale Riebesehl, Music Director Alexander Hamilton High School Milwaukee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigW Posted August 17, 2010 Share Posted August 17, 2010 Well, yeah!Dr. Dale Riebesehl, Music Director Alexander Hamilton High School Milwaukee LOL, so, Dale- I guess you're an encourager rather than a discourager? I think many who discourage simply don't get it or never did get it, or on one case I'm familiar with just dislike marching band intensely because it's something they're simply not very good at and they couldn't be. I went to school with this cat, and he wrote a thesis on the evils of corps and competition band. His main quaklification was his trying to stumble around at WCU with a tuba and a bad back, largely clueless as to what was going on. I had to stick a Westshoreman on one side of him and an exprienced guy from a respectable HS competition band on the other to sheperd him around. A former student of mine got a job saying in the interview that "anyone who marches can't be any good as a musician". I need to corner the little prig and remind him about how many district and regoinal bands he managed to get into (something like 2) as "great" as he claims to be and how many I pulled off while marching Westshore in HS. (MANY MORE) Let's see, I learned to quickly memorize music (useless skill I guess, huh?) Learned to play across the ensemble (again must be useless)... developed a better tone quality.... ended up with 2 degrees... yeah, I guess Corps was a hindrance to my musicanship, LOL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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