You know drum corps is dying when.............

[atlvalet]

Mics don't improve the sound. The perform must improve the sound by not trying to overblow the instrument and using good technique. Then the better sound can be amplified and heard by all!

That's right. Mics don't improve the sound. They degrade it. It doesn't matter how much the performer improves their own sound when you're amplifying a crappy mic through crappy speakers. DCI can't afford speakers in a concert setting that will accurately reproduce the sound of a live instrument. You are showing a basic misunderstanding of the quality of live versus recorded sound.

[Tom Brace]

Drum Corps is dying. Less than 25 corps in world class (of which some shouldnt be) 15 corps in open class. smaller crowds. having to charge over 125 dollars to see a show to cover the costs due to lack of audience.

Stand on the side line and listen to the crowd. It wont be as loud as you think. When you sit next to a big group of family or former corps members they scream louder. so you think everyone is screaming loud. Years ago everyone was screaming. stand on side line and listen and watch,away from your group, just dont drop a pin when you do it. ha ha

Do I want drum corps to die. No. But when people pay a lot of money and dont like they have the right to express thier opinion. When they stop coming it will be dead. I got to go knead the dough to make bread now, and hang the clothes to dry and watch a rerun of I Love Lucy.

I spent less than $20 to see a drum corps show. Seven corps. Pretty good bargain.

I also went to Semis and Finals. Two seats at each...primo location and a Finals DVD all in a package for $500. So, I guess what I am saying is.

Enjoy I Love Lucy. Isn't free TV something?

[Tom Brace]

You forgot fans who love the new shows and hate the old shows. I don't only love the old shows, Phantom 2008 FAVORITE show of ALL time, but I quit going to see something I don't find entertaining anymore. Everybody doesn't fit one mold and by the way if you think drum corps IS band, then yes, drum corps IS dead.

Last year Cadets.

This year, I really liked Bluecoats.

[Tom Brace]

Simply don't refer to it as drum corps. DCI doesn't want to touch the drum corps connotation with a 10' flag pole, hence "Summer Music Games."

Thanks for being the word police.

I prefer to call it Drum Corps...thank you.

[jpaul]

You mention a couple of times that corps are playing obscure music. To that, I say...God forbid somebody hear something new that they might like. Y'know? I had never heard Emerson's Piano Concerto until Spirit played it...and now I like it! Go listen to Bizet's "Jeux d'enfants." Have you ever heard of it? I didn't even know it existed until yesterday, and now I love it. Look at that - I was exposed to something new and unfamiliar, and now I like it! Good for all those corps choosing to play music outside of the "norm."

Oh, you silly kids with your positive attitudes and open minds . . . when will you ever learn?

[TAFL]

I don't know if I'd go that far . . ."Bolero" was ingrained in the national consciousness back in the 1970's with the movie "10", and I gotta think most people heading to see Blast! would at least have some familiarity with "Simple Gifts".

However, you make a good point on the "drum corps audience", though . . .I think we've all seen about enough West Side Story and Metheny for now.

Plus being familiar with West Side Story, plus Kenton (and many other jazz performers) have been played in many different settings over the years that it's safe to say at least a portion of the audience has heard Malaguena before, and so on.

Unless one posits an audience of teenagers who've listened only to Top 40 radio and MTV in their lives.

[Tom Brace]

Yeah, original poster. Go do one of these other things. Just don't dare express an opinion on the direction of an activity that you love.

DCA in September. Enjoy that.

And the thing about expressing an opinion is people are entitled to do so. Others are also entitled to evaluate and dismiss the opinion if needed.

See, your opinion doesn't necessarily have to matter. And...neither does mine.

[liebot]

Just for fun and to throw some more fuel on the fire...

You say one is the other but the other is not the one. So how do you distinguish drum corps when all marching bands are not drum corps?

When someone asks about what you do (in this idiom) do you say "I go watch marching bands that are drum corps"? How does that clarify the answer to the questioner?

(I have my own answer so don't try to tell me what to say. I'm asking about your answer to the question.)

This whole argument has been stupid for all time, and yet so many, trying to prove how smart and enlightened they are try to tell the rest of us how wrong we have been for all these years. *sigh*

You distinguish them by saying "This marching band participates in DCI, has a unique instrumentation - which you could then explain even further - and is not directly linked to any educational establishment such as a high school or college."

Or if you wanted to be even simpler you could say "I'm going to go see a marching band that has decided to call itself a drum corps." Because that's really the only way to differentiate between the two. If I was a band director and decided to have a field band that featured two-valve G bugles, mylar drum heads, and no electronics or woodwinds, would it be considered a drum corps? What if I still wanted it to be called the East Sheboygan High School Marching Band? Would that be acceptable?

I don't understand the confusion. Saying "I like rectangles that are squares" wouldn't really clarify anything to anyone if they didn't know which characteristics were exclusive to one or the other.

Edited August 26, 2010 by liebot

[Tom Brace]

I don't know if this was brought up before, but the use of the mics was more for the affect...the distorted affect than it was for amplification.

The idea was to get that sound. A sound you can't get without a microphone and it sounded like a compressor on the board.

[mlubandgroupie]

It may be dying to you...but to this n00bie bando it has only begun to come alive.

To that group of preteens/early teen kids, standing on the platform, after the Atlanta show, waiting for the train, talking about how they can't wait to march for BD, Cavies, etc drum corps is not dying for them.

It might not be the drum corps of your past, but it is the drum corps of their future. Will their life lessons, learned at the hands of drum corps, be any less than yours because - they played a different keyed instrument, marched in a different style, or performed a show not to your liking?

Does that mean the old drums corps is any less relevant than the new style, NO - just means all things must evolve or they die.

I hope I can age in the Drum Corps world as I am attempting to in life - with grace.

It is ok to dislike a particular show, and that does not mean you have to dislike that corps or drum corps as a whole. (ie: I loved BD's 2009 show, but not their 2010 show. I loved Cavaliers 2010 show, but not their 2009 show.)

Edited August 26, 2010 by mlubandgroupie