What recent popular songs would work for drum corps?

[FHdork]

<Are there any songs with harmonic content beyond 1-3-5 and I-IV-V function?>

Bruckner, I was going to come on here and laugh at the very thought of harmonic content beyond basic (if ANY at all) in pop music, but you already pointed out what a laugher it is...AND why drum corps has steered its ship toward complexity.

For all our collective love of VK, they never scored well if their ultimate goal was winning...

[JamMan]

By the way on the pop thing I think Lady Gaga is the way to go. She has more musicality in her songs then anyone on the pop seen now.

Ugh. As an arranger of several of her songs, I agree, but am deeply saddened by this statement.

Folks, Teal Sound just did a show full of popular tunes. These are the kind of songs that need to be in more drum corps (especially because they don't all follow the "intro-verse-verse-chorus-verse-chorus" format).

One reason I hate pop music on the field is the arrangers' ideas to have every note and rhythm be the same for the horns as in the original. This makes, unfortunately, for some incredible boring/annoying melodies.

[luvs me sum mello!]

Muse

[drumno5]

Are there any songs with harmonic content beyond 1-3-5 and I-IV-V function?

Gotta dig into the Steely Dan catalog.

Fred O.

[Steve Knob]

I hear you, no snarkiness felt. However, the expectation has changed COMPLETELY. It started with Wayne Downy going into critique and slamming every 1-3-5 chord out there (kinda like I do here), pointing out that it's a lot harder (more exposed) to play in jazz's harmonic language. Now, let's be honest: 95% of the judges can't tell a maj/min seventh chord from a min/maj seventh chord, but they can hear when it's NOT 1-3-5. And they're not going to argue with Wayne (the epitome of CI, after all)

As a former DCI music judge, and that I know many of the current music judges, I take GREAT offence at this comment. These people are trained professionals, all most all of which I would guess have WAY more playing, teaching, and writing expierence than you do. Before you make anymore uninformed, sweeping statements like this, you might want to actually THINK about what you are about to say BEFORE you put it out in public. Extended jazz harmonies offer a different set of challenges, not just harder.

BITD, BD was playing Pegasus and La Fiesta....1-3-5-7-9-11-13 baby! It's all there, esp Pegasus. Meanwhile, Phantom is playing Russian Easter Overture (is there a single 7th chord in there?), 27th Lancers is playing Danny Boy, Spirit is playing Georgia on My Mind (def has 7th chords..maybe every one of them! but that's all...no 9-11-13) and Crossmen is playing Tiger of San Pedro...CMON!

Having played Tiger in Guardsmen and in jazz band, if you can't hear the extended harmonic language in the tune, it just proves my response to your 1st point. As to your other examples, do you even know what a seconday dominant 7th chord is? A neopolitian chord? Moving to the relitave minor and it's three forms? Are you really saying that we shouldn't listen to Mozart because it's boring because he didn't use any +maj9 chords? Ever studied Bach? Do you know he loved 7th chords in third inversion? There are hundreds of other examples.

As much as I love me some Mahler, you'll have to get on over to his 9th or 10th symphonies for it to get really interesting harmonically.

Again, your lack of understanding and listening ability is proven.

All things being equal, the nod should go to the corps with the most diverse harmonic language. Wayne has made sure of it, with 2010 being his Magnum Opus.

Yes, Wayne is a GREAT arranger, but not every chord in every song can be a +7(#9)13 chord. After a while, THAT will start to sound boring!

/rant off

As I have stated in other posts, DCI needs MORE diversity in music choices, not less. Hopefully more diverse music would lead to more diverse programs in general. As difficult as it is to properly play extended harmonies, try getting 64 brass players, outside, to play perfect unisons and octaves - it's a LOT harder to do than most people realize. Also, it's not the harmonic language that gives all the value to a song, it's what the music is trying to express, be it through extended chords or a single note.

I'll leave with a quote by Arvo Part, the modern Estonian composer (go look him up and listen to some of his music, you might like it!)-

"I have discovered that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played. This one note, or a silent beat, or a moment of silence, comforts me".

P.S. Thanks JamMan. We have been playing "pop" music with Teal for years. This years Dream Theater, Jordan Rudess, and Coheed and Cambria show was really fun to work with, and our audiences seemed to love it too. Year before we did Justin Timberlake and Christina Agulira (sp?), and that worked pretty good too. Not everything "pop" is going to work, but there's a huge amount of great "pop" music out there if you look in the right places.

Edited August 31, 2010 by Steve Knob

[bluecoats88]

well crossmen played paradise by the dashboard light and radar love in 2004, and in 2005 they played a little my humps as well as other stuff.

[bluecoats88]

well crossmen played paradise by the dashboard light and radar love in 2004, and in 2005 they played a little my humps as well as other stuff.

[WOOHOO]

If you know of something hokier and less impressive than the local high school marching band covering a recent Top 40 hit, you let us know.

It was painful when drum corps did it in the 60s and 70s, and it's no less painful now - if anything, it'd be worse, considering how much worse pop music is today.

Pop music has always been terrible, regardless of generation

[mgarside83]

I hear you, no snarkiness felt. However, the expectation has changed COMPLETELY. It started with Wayne Downy going into critique and slamming every 1-3-5 chord out there (kinda like I do here), pointing out that it's a lot harder (more exposed) to play in jazz's harmonic language. Now, let's be honest: 95% of the judges can't tell a maj/min seventh chord from a min/maj seventh chord, but they can hear when it's NOT 1-3-5. And they're not going to argue with Wayne (the epitome of CI, after all)

BITD, BD was playing Pegasus and La Fiesta....1-3-5-7-9-11-13 baby! It's all there, esp Pegasus. Meanwhile, Phantom is playing Russian Easter Overture (is there a single 7th chord in there?), 27th Lancers is playing Danny Boy, Spirit is playing Georgia on My Mind (def has 7th chords..maybe every one of them! but that's all...no 9-11-13) and Crossmen is playing Tiger of San Pedro...CMON!

As much as I love me some Mahler, you'll have to get on over to his 9th or 10th symphonies for it to get really interesting harmonically.

All things being equal, the nod should go to the corps with the most diverse harmonic language. Wayne has made sure of it, with 2010 being his Magnum Opus.

I live by the philosophy that "it's not what you play, it's how you play it."

[mgarside83]

Ugh. As an arranger of several of her songs, I agree, but am deeply saddened by this statement.

Folks, Teal Sound just did a show full of popular tunes. These are the kind of songs that need to be in more drum corps (especially because they don't all follow the "intro-verse-verse-chorus-verse-chorus" format).

One reason I hate pop music on the field is the arrangers' ideas to have every note and rhythm be the same for the horns as in the original. This makes, unfortunately, for some incredible boring/annoying melodies.

Teal sound didn't just play pop music, they were a pop band with drum corps back-up.