Questions for the Dinos!

[lindap]

G Bugles, snare drums with mylar heads and real BASS drums. (Not 16, 18 and 20 inch vertical tenor drums)

BTW, T-Rex's and Raptors didn't play nice. They didn't care about the feelings of other dinosaurs. When they were hungry, they killed whatever they wanted and ate it. Lots of Drum Corps "Dinos" are hungry for real D & BC again. I think it's way past time for a "Dino" drum corps feeding frenzy if you get my drift. Old School people are TR's and R's. Current "Marching musical theater/marching band on Steroids" people are Barney and Dino. (From the Flinstones).........

What about us herbivorouses? oh sigh :-) btw, to the OP, good questions.

[Piper]

Shooting the gun during Madison's 75' show? Hell that was nothing. It was one shot for start, one shot for official timing and two shots to end GE. The judges always raised their clipboards in the air to show that they ackowleged it. That's when I learned what a dog feels like when it's trained not to be gun shy.

[MarimbasaurusRex]

4. What was the first year pit was on the sideline?

6. What was the horn line size (on average)?

7. How are most of the hornlines and marching percussion so darn loud?

4. Up until 1980 grounding of equipment was only allowed during "stop" time (9 minutes of the show had to be in motion). In 1980 only tympani only were allowed to be grounded for the whole show. Other instruments were grounded in 1982.

6. The "ideal" size was 64 but most averaged in the upper 50's.

7. Not all corps "overblew" for volume. Blue Stars brass instructor Don Hill (among others) was emphatic about not overblowing. Drums were larger and tuned lower. This allowed the heads to move more air. More air = more volume.

Rarrrrrr.

[Michael Boo]

4. What was the first year pit was on the sideline?

I'm going to say about 1978. At that time pit equipment had to be carried onto the field by a marching member and carried off, but for the first time they could ground their instrument. It was loudly denounced by some fans as "the end of drum corps."

Try 1982. Full decked out pits weren't until about 1985 though

I've got in my notes that it started in 1981, the same year all the top six corps scored over 90.00 the first time. However, it got off to a slow start. My copy of the 1982 DCI program book has photos (from 1981) of concert vibraphones and xylophones as well as concert timpani, though most corps were still marching everything. The 1983 program book shows there was a definite switch to grounded percussion in 1982.

[MarimbasaurusRex]

In 81 the grounding penalty for a keyboard was only .1, so a few corps went ahead and grounded them. In 82 the penalty was lifted.

[The Oz]

7. How are most of the hornlines and marching percussion so darn loud?

Horns: I'll let horn players address that one.

Drums:

• Mylar heads tuned lower.
  
• 15" snare drums - I played a 16" snare for two years.
  
• Higher stick height - you had to put more energy into the stroke to get useful rebound.
  
• Heavier sticks.
  
• Different style - Flams, flams, flams. Single sevens (aka single sixes). Swiss Army triplets. Tap rolls (these may still be around today. My hearing isn't what it used to be).
  

[Jay B]

I was watching a video of the 1971 Troopers the other day and noticed that the rifles started marching before the musicians did, the gunman ignored the rifles and shot the pistol when the musicians started marching/playing. I think the shot signaled the execution (tic) judges to start judging. GE judges would have started with the rifles. This is pre DCI so not sure how long this practice continued.

[Michael Boo]

In 81 the grounding penalty for a keyboard was only .1, so a few corps went ahead and grounded them. In 82 the penalty was lifted.

That would explain everything. The top corps would have been afraid to "give away" even one tenth.

[tommytimp]

Kilts were the first junior corps to use concert timpani, in 1978, and he still had to mark time in portions of the show. I'm pretty sure 79 was the first year a keyboard was grounded permanently, and it was the Guardsmen. BD had concert timps in 1980, and the Crossmen had a concert vibraphone as well as roto-toms and grounded marching timps with bongos. By the next year, over half of the top twelve had a grounded setup of some sort, with a no-wheels policy in some form or another, I believe. (BD had no penalties at Montreal, and their timp player once said in this thread that his drums had the wheels taken off.)

[IllianaLancerContra]

Kilts were the first junior corps to use concert timpani, in 1978, and he still had to mark time in portions of the show. I'm pretty sure 79 was the first year a keyboard was grounded permanently, and it was the Guardsmen. BD had concert timps in 1980, and the Crossmen had a concert vibraphone as well as roto-toms and grounded marching timps with bongos. By the next year, over half of the top twelve had a grounded setup of some sort, with a no-wheels policy in some form or another, I believe. (BD had no penalties at Montreal, and their timp player once said in this thread that his drums had the wheels taken off.)

IIRC they has to 'move' at least once every (96?) counts or so. A single mark time satisfied the requirement. I remember from Bridgemen history page they got a penalty (0.5?) for the drum line standing still too long and lost a show because of it. They put in a single mark time to correct it. Stop time went away about 82 or so

Also, the Canadian corps presented the Canadian flag, but I don't think they were allowed to compete at VFW or AL championships.

Pits were first allowed over the front sideline in 82 - I recall that Phantom was considered very innovative because they had 2 sets of concert tymps - one at each side of the pit.

Edited September 4, 2010 by IllianaLancerContra