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How does this community feel about fielding cymbals?


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What DCI WC corps are marching cymbals in 2011 ?

well...

to my knowledge, the following corps marched lines in 2010:

Santa Clara Vanguard

Colts

Academy

Spirit

Crossmen

Pacific Crest

Teal Sound

Jersey Surf

Cascades

Pioneer

i have no knowledge of what lines will be cut, but i speculate that spirit's line might be going away with new staff being imminent. i have absolutely no evidence to back this up.

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As much as I agree with you on ALL points... It is an unpopular view as drum corps is about parents and friends getting to feel good about little Bobby and Julies participation. Also you do not have very popular opinions with the percussion community on DCP because you seem to be one of the only perc folks musical enough to understand the concept of maintaining a groove and/or timing and tempo without dutting.

As a percussionist, I cannot disagree more with your rant.

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As a percussionist, I cannot disagree more with your rant.

I understand how you feel, and why you feel that way. I am assuming that you are either a current MM or a current instructor. If not at least someone who marched after speach was allowed on the field. See it used to be done without dutting or speach as it was illegal to do so. Not all corps did but I marched in FULL FIELD COVERAGE formations and hey... I can promise you that physics are the same today as they were back then. Sound travel didn't get slower in the 90's causing this necessity. In fact I am not the only person with this attitude. Here is a segment from Frank D's article that got a whole bunch of percussionists upset by rocking their boat.

Duts are the poor man’s Dr. Beat, itself an over-used abomination which, truth be told, is almost single-handedly responsible for the nearly total elimination of “feel” from all music played on the field these days. Many of today’s instructors were weaned on this vile formula and consequently wouldn’t recognize a groove if it waltzed right in and gave them a lap dance. The worst part of this soul-killing disease is the ease with which it is transmitted to the students who devour it like mother’s milk and are consequently convinced they can’t live without it.

Ask any studio musician what it’s like to play to a click track. The best description I ever heard came from Art Blakey, who called it “musical root canal”. It takes focus away from listening to the other musicians and creating a unity of blend and feel, and instead places it on slavish submission to a mechanical device. Science fiction writers were once fond of predicting the takeover of human society by robotic artificial intelligence. Ironically, it’s the arts that have been co-opted and we are either blissfully unaware or downright complicit.

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well...

to my knowledge, the following corps marched lines in 2010:

Santa Clara Vanguard

Colts

Academy

Spirit

Crossmen

Pacific Crest

Teal Sound

Jersey Surf

Cascades

Pioneer

i have no knowledge of what lines will be cut, but i speculate that spirit's line might be going away with new staff being imminent. i have absolutely no evidence to back this up.

Interesting list....

Santa Clara Vanguard - 7th

Colts - 13th

Academy - 14th

Spirit - 16th

Crossmen - 17th

Pacific Crest - 18th

Teal Sound - 20th

Jersey Surf - 21st

Cascades - 22nd

Pioneer - 23rd

Hmmm....

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Interesting list....

Santa Clara Vanguard - 7th

Colts - 13th

Academy - 14th

Spirit - 16th

Crossmen - 17th

Pacific Crest - 18th

Teal Sound - 20th

Jersey Surf - 21st

Cascades - 22nd

Pioneer - 23rd

Hmmm....

Lets not get into placing. even if BD had a cymbal line they would still be high up in the rankings.

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Lets not get into placing. even if BD had a cymbal line they would still be high up in the rankings.

His point might have had something to do with the fact that cymbal lines are more likely to be fielded by corps that have extra spots to fill.

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Like fish in a bucket.

They're just cymbals, people.

That statement dismisses what other people LOVE. I mean, it's just marching band, right? They're just trumpets. It's just a synth. They're just guard.

In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter, yet here we are. :thumbup:

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I have no problems placing my faith in current DCI designers whether or not they feel that having a cymbal line (and subtracting those membership numbers from another section) completes their vision of a production. While I enjoy a good cymbal line (of which, IMO, there are few in DCI and far more mediocre cymbal lines), and as an educator I completely understand the value of a cymbal line to give another option to aspiring members, I can take or leave them either way. I think a cymbal line is obviously the least vital section of a drum corps, and obviously the one section that a corps can successfully compete without. But with great instruction, musical design, and staging a good cymbal can add to a show's effect, albeit minutely.

I've never sat at a show and watched a slew of cymbal-less corps and think, "SCV is next I've been dying to see a cymbal line." Conversely, I've never though "this show would be better without cymbals." To me it's a wash. I do find it unfortunate when corps use cymbals as a guard prop (Madison last year being one of worst offenders in memory, and Cavaliers of the early 90's to a lesser extent), as usually the guard fails to exhibit the same proficient performance level as every other section. But I get the reasoning behind the guard using cymbals as 'props' and it doesn't bother me too much.

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I still have to remind myself that this is drum and bugle corps, when a cymbal line is considered the least vital section, yet synth and amplification is essential.

Nice!

SO, with people saying that so many of today's cymbal lines are mediocre with the exception of SCV. The question I then have is what makes a cymbal line good? Or rather, good enough to not be so easily dismissed?

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