MikeD Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 I noticed you use a lot of examples from scholastic marching band. A lot of us are not interested in scholastic marching band, myself included. (I do not enjoy the sound of a scholastic marching band and would never pay money to see one perform.) Could you instead provide examples of the same techniques you are describing with electric cellos and such as implemented in a drum and bugle corps setting, since that's what the topic of this forum is constrained to? Since to me they are all the same, using examples as I do works just fine for me. Hopefully DCI will permit any instruments to be used someday. You are free to not read what I post if you so choose. Doesn't matter to me. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrinkinOuttaCups Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 Since to me they are all the same, using examples as I do works just fine for me. Hopefully DCI will permit any instruments to be used someday. You are free to not read what I post if you so choose. Doesn't matter to me. But...but...you're wrong! On the internet! And I am right! This must be fixed immediately! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 But...but...you're wrong! On the internet! And I am right! This must be fixed immediately! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N.E. Brigand Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 What's wrong with having an amplified string instrument? For me, there's nothing wrong with the instrument, just with the amplification. I think drum corps (and even marching band) should be acoustic --I think that creating a beautiful sound sufficiently big to fill a large outdoor venue is the essential challenge of the activity, and that electronics enable groups to cheat their way past the challenge-- and you don't. Our show featured an electric cello this year. Fascinating. You know what you should've played? Tan Dun's music from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which was a beautifully-acted, beautifully-filmed martial arts film (with only a fair script, though) from about ten years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChwyNiblet Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 Seriously? 70 pages of this? lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 (edited) I know little about TS other than how great they are, but I doubt they are 'slighting' any students education as percussionists. The band I work with has had a year where we had only pit percussion. Why? Not enough kids to fill both pit and battery. Our MB is a volunteer program that takes a lot of time between rehearsals and performances. We just don't get a lot of support from parents or from the middle school directors when it comes to the marching band. There are 150 in concert bands and 300 in orchestras, yet we march only between 30-35 musicians right now. The year we had just a pit (of about 7 or 8) we told the two kids who did want to march to recruit more drummers...and they did, so reinstalled the battery the next year. This year, we only had 3 full-time pit, so the battery actually marched about half the show and played in the pit for half, because the show music I arranged made the most sense that way. I've done a little looking into TS music program and, I believe, the facts don't support the several contentions here that they can't support a battery percussion section. If 2010 were a one-off year, or even if the last two years were particularly low on marching band attendance, then not marching a battery would be explainable. But searching videos shows that TS has not marched a battery at least as far back as 2004. Yet, in each of these years, the field is covered with many, huge and amazing props (money spent on visual), the band has amped woodwinds, and the pit has averaged 18 to 20 playing members (yes, 18 to 20!). A rough count of the ranks show a consistent number of playing members on the field (around 75) and guard (around 35) in each of those years. I also did some searching of the census data for Pinellas county and nothing shows to suggest that there might be a dearth of under-18 population suggesting not enough kids to fill out the band. The overall population of Pinellas county is nearly 3 times higher than the population of the the 3 counties that surround it. While I realize that anyone can build a nice webpage, a look at TS HS page shows a very sophisticated music education program, and a very deep and well-funded booster program (looking at the boosters' filings on Guidestar). They have many music programs from which students can choose. So it appears to me that the fact that TS does not march a battery percussion section is a deliberate choice on the part of the director, and that the problems posited here to excuse, or explain, his choice are thinly explained and substantiated, at best. I have written the director and am hopeful that he provides his rationale. And Mike, forgive me please, but asking the drummers in your school to go out and recruit more playing members strikes me as profoundly wrong at its core. It should be the responsibility of the music educators to attract percussionists to his/her program. To dump the responsibility - and blame - on fellow students is a massive cop-out, IMO. I recognize that fielding a total of 35 playing members in your school would be a reasonable rationale for not marching a battery, suggesting the other drummers didn't recruit enough players is not excusable. Full disclosure: I am not a music educator. But my brother is a 25-year band director in TN, and is a USSBA judge. He did a show of Chicago's music as far back as the late-'80's and didn't march a battery because he didn't have enough drummers, so he parked a drum set in the pit. It worked well and they won several competitions, but he took significant flak from other band directors for his choice. He also took significant flak from parents in his own district for not marching a battery. I do understand, vicariously through him, the difficulties in school system structures (elem to middle to HS) that sometimes exist. But I also believe that cooperation between music directors is possible if the importance of battery education is emphasized. I believe that at TS the director has made the choice to not emphasize it. I'm hopeful that he suggests some other reason if he replies to my email inquiry. Edited January 3, 2011 by garfield Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 Elementary level? Marching percussion? I doubt you'll find very many elementary programs focusing on that. Or are you referring to percussion in general? Our music program has plenty of percussionists...just very few who choose to do marching band. Maybe TS is the same way. BTW...don't assume that the HS director has anything at all to do with what the lower grades do with their programs...in my district each level is 100% independent. I realize all too well that battery techniques are not taught to beginning drummers (and rightly so, IMO). But having "plenty of percussionists", and not having a sufficient number who are proficient with a pair of sticks (not keyboard mallets) is quite contradictory, isn't it? Do band directors, in general, build their programs around what instruments most kids want to play? Really? So a director would march 35 flutes and two trombones if his student population demanded it? According to the example set by TS the answer is "Yes", and all the other, less-popular, instruments would simply be sampled in the pit. But he'd still have one hell of a visual program, wouldn't he? (/sarcasm) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2000Cadet Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 What the heck is this thread about again? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mello Dude Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 What the heck is this thread about again? Originally how crappy and cheezy amplified voice sounds in a supposedly instrumental drum corps show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 What the heck is this thread about again? It's about the slippery slope of drum corps following the scholastic music world into the realm of WGI with electronic music background. Beginning with the emphasis on visual, continuing to the acceptance of open instrumentation and voice, and potentially ending with drum corps looking more like Tarpon Springs 2010 than Cadets 2000. Agree or disagree, that's what this thread is about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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