Mello Dude Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 In your very humble opinion of course.... Absolutely. Unlike the "pro anything" crowd I do not speak in the "we" vernacular to make a point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2000Cadet Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 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. Only when Cadets do it right? RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbc03 Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 Good point, actually. But when DCI goes belly up in 10 years, all of this will be irrelevant anyway. When I first became acquainted with DCI about 10 years ago people were saying the same thing. This "inevitable" demise of DCI just keeps getting push back and pushed back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mello Dude Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 When I first became acquainted with DCI about 10 years ago people were saying the same thing. This "inevitable" demise of DCI just keeps getting push back and pushed back. Well, until there is "truth" in marketing applied it will go on for some time I would think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jplattSCV Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 Oh, yes....because rosewood is impervious to the sun, rain, heat, humidity and handling of a drum corps summer tour, as long as the performers just don't strike the bars quite as hard. (/sarcasm) point taken. Your are very right there. We actually had two sets of bars that we used. One stayed out of the sun, the other was used during rehearsals. We still cracked bars on the show set even without them being in the sun very much at all. They were however on a truck baking. Heat is heat. But 2 months of sun and heat alone won't crack bars. I have a set of wooden deck chairs that have been in my back yard for 10+ years. They look great. But, I'll bet if i smacked them with a stick every day they would disintegrate. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie1223 Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 In response to charlie1223's last two posts earlier this morning: I suppose the powers that be can change DCI into whatever they want. But let's try to remember that DCI would never have existed (much less changed drum corps into what we have today) without the financial foundation provided by fan revenue. If you want the esteem of music educators at the expense of the audience that DCI currently enjoys, you would be best advised to have a plan for how to underwrite (or eliminate) the tremendous costs of creating, equipping, operating and moving DCI corps all over the country. Don't have that yet? Then you'd better keep the fans in mind. Uhm... and why aren't we allowed to have both? It's not about the esteem of music educators. It's about the esteem of the kids who currently march drum corps. The way society is now, if you're going to be spending all that time and money doing drum corps it should help you in a multitude of ways. Also, its foolish to think that gaining the esteem of music educators is somehow AGAINST what the fan's want. The fan's generally want loud chords and good music and show design. The technique used in drum corps does not hurt that. It only enhances that so your point doesn't really hold water. You mentioned attendance. Attendance has been on a downtrend since 2004. Those who care to look deeper than at just one show (finals) are aware of this. And I think it's safe to say that amplified pit is not the solution to that problem. No one ever said that amplified pit would solve the problem of attendance... but that is not the only problem that needs to be solved (if its even a problem at all. Sorry but I just won't take your word for it. Where is the decisive evidence about attendance? I would love to see where you are getting your facts from just so we can all have some proof to work with, and then have a discussion about the number of reasons why it is what it is) You know what would get a lot of people in attendance? Football... why doesn't DCI just host football games and then millions of people will watch it. Just have the corps performances during halftime. *fixed* Also, you said the word "attendance" and I said the word "fans". Two different things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fifer 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. No. It's supposed to be about the OP's (inaccurate) assumption that there will be lots of amplified singing in The Cadets' 2011 show. But, seeing that it is a clevery disguised bash Hopkins thread, the moderators are allowing it to morph into any vaguely related topic any poster wants to bring up. If it were about any other individual or corps, the moderators would have closed it by now and suggested that anyone wanting to discuss "the slippery slope" would open a new thread on that topic. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie1223 Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 Oh, yes....because rosewood is impervious to the sun, rain, heat, humidity and handling of a drum corps summer tour, as long as the performers just don't strike the bars quite as hard. (/sarcasm) Right... another uninformed person. Some corps do not use rose wood. But those that do, do not use it all the time. They are two different sets of bars used. Once for practice (which is usually synthetic and another for show (which would be the rosewood). Any percussionist can appreciate the sound of a rose wood marimba over a synthetic bar any day. The amplification allows for the front ensemble designers to be more careful in their arranging and can thus choose rosewood for the unique sound is has to offer. By not using the rosewood all the time it can be preserved as well as possible. But by only being able to use them during the show, the EQing that is done during practice often changes because the sound of the bars are, of course, different and marimbas can often be softer in a show than they were in rehearsal. However, the instruments given to these corps is obviously free of charge. And I happen to know that some organizations are contractually obligated to use rosewood on their marimbas even if the designer/ arranging does not prefer them. Rosewood, I would say, are not meant for outdoor playing and are in some cases more easily damaged by the elements. But since corps gets 11,000+ dollar instruments for free every year they are obligated to follow the rules of the contract. The companies want to show case their rosewood bars because those alone increase the price of a marimba by over a few thousand dollars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie1223 Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 No. It's supposed to be about the OP's (inaccurate) assumption that there will be lots of amplified singing in The Cadets' 2011 show. But, seeing that it is a clevery disguised bash Hopkins thread, the moderators are allowing it to morph into any vaguely related topic any poster wants to bring up. If it were about any other individual or corps, the moderators would have closed it by now and suggested that anyone wanting to discuss "the slippery slope" would open a new thread on that topic. I see the bias!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monoemono Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 Oh then you must know a better way to play marimba? You must have marched in DCI pit before? You must obviously have experienced playing mallet percussion in a number of different venues? Please, inform yourself before you start making generalizations about the pit. It's easy to make those opinions if you don't know anything about what it means to play percussion in a pit. I don't know anything about playing a marimba, nor did I claim to, nor did I even mention a marimba in my post. I do know something about playing a trumpet, having played that instrument in a dozen or more different contexts. In each of these situations, I have had to adjust my playing technique on the instrument--to a greater or lesser degree, depending on the setting. Playing lead in a jazz band requires a radically different approach to the instrument than playing second trumpet on a Beethoven piece in an orchestra--perhaps, even, different equipment. There are probably a lot of instructors in the classical and concert band worlds that would be horrified by what is considered to be the "correct" approach to playing lead trumpet in a big band, as compared to what they teach the trumpets their ensemble. Does that make them right, and the jazz band guy wrong? I don't think so--different and correct approaches for different situations. You know, corps are being judged on technique right?! The pit is being judged on technique and since I'm assuming you know nothing about mallet technique you shouldn't be saying anything about what you expect the technique for mallet playing "should" be like. I would expect the technique for playing a marimba in a 50,000 seat football stadium in a drum corps to be different than the technique for playing the same instrument in a 1,000 seat concert hall in a wind ensemble. Just like all the other instruments in those ensembles. That is all. Drum Corps has changed not only because designers and synths have changed but because the KIDS doing the activity has also changed. They aren't "off the street" kids anymore, and many of them are middle class kids in college. And even more of them are music majors more than ever before. Most of the people in drum corps developed techniques from their middle school/ highschool band program which all teach how to play in a certain way. It only makes sense to continue that same approach into drum corps. Kids actually do drum corps now to get "better" because drum corps teaches them skills (musical skills) that they can apply to their own playing away from the activity. If Drum Corps was do whatever you want, play loud and "raucous" then none of the people who are currently doing drum corps would want to do it. Drum corps kids haven't been "off the streets" kids in forever. I was one of those middle class music major types. But when I walked in the room and they handed me a two valve G bugle, I rightly assumed that things were going to be different. Why is it bad that they did things differently from my h.s. band? I learned a ton (and different things) from both. Isn't that why kids do different things? I would hate to think that today's kids aren't flexible or open-minded enough to learn and apply different techniques and ideas. If that's the case, they will have a hard time as professional musicians. BTW, I prefer my drum corps loud and raucous, it was one of the reasons I signed up! It wasn't until recently that drum corps gained the reputation of actually being a positive experience for musicians from a musical stand point. I don't know that this is a fact. And it only gained that reputation from maintaining a strict set of technique guidelines that allow for students to grow in areas outside of drum corps as well as within drum corps. The only reason drum corps has gained any respect in the larger musical world is because of these developments in technique and using appropriate and correct technique (technique that isn't implemented because someone said so but because it is the most effective and efficient way of playing the instrument) I'm aware that many drum corps have closely aligned themselves with the concert band world, in fact many of the instructors split time between the two. I am not necessarily a fan of the results that this marriage has produced, so you may have a hard time convincing me that it's a good thing. I also have a pretty wide palate of sounds that I would consider "good sound", depending on context, so perhaps we are involved in a fundamental difference in philosophy where music is concerned. Is there one "correct" technique to playing an instrument? I'm not sure there is. You're forgetting about the kids... as people on here always do. Not in the least. I was one of those kids, after all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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