charlie1223 Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 (edited) I appreciate your sincerity (and yes, I'm a percussion guy). I truly want to know the rationale for not marching percussion. That's the only reason I wrote him. And I do admit that his reasons have a pretty high bar to cross. I'm willing to hear him out, though, and will give his answer (presuming there is one) all due respect. I've been around marching music for the better part of 40 years and this is the first program of this caliber that I've ever seen not march a drumline. I've seen truly small schools not march percussion and instead ground them in the pit. But this school is obviously not of that size. Despite my initial disdain I really want to know his justification. That's why I wrote him. I've heard directors not value marching percussion because of its limited value for later in life. Marching Percussion is really for high school and college kids and then that's it. If you want to pursue marching percussion after you "age out" then you teach marching percussion to the younger age group. (but as far as mellet percussion, concert snare, trap, drum set, those things have more practical use in the percussion world say for a performer) This point of view does have some validity. And really I don't feel the percussionists at Tarpon Springs should feel that they are missing out on anything or that they aren't being given all the opportunities. Because frankly, just because you "can" have a drumline doesn't mean you "have to you". Edited January 1, 2011 by charlie1223 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fsubone Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 from what I thought I read earlier, I thought you said the synth part was there until finals, due to a rifle killing a synth. I remember Hroth saying he wasn't at finals..he was referring to earlier in the year when he saw them live and the synth WAS in at the impact... if the above is true, there's no avoiding the fact that they WERE using the synth at the impact, almost assuredly duplicating a horn part... now, what this has to do with the singing crap the Cadets are gonna do, I dunno... I have no idea either. The synth part was in there until before Allentown. I'm not sure on what part it was doubling, I was probably one of the farthest people away from the synth for the entire show, all I was remember was that it wasn't there at the end. This really has nothing to do with the Cadets, this really has just become another argument over amps and electronics, and apparently about marching percussion now? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fsubone Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 All I have to say to get back on topic is, GO CADETS! I really think they could do great things with AITA, and I wish them the best of luck this summer. I hope I'm out on tour competing against them again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 *zing* You missed the sarcasm... Yep, I guess. And still do. Looking for that emoticon... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Boo Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 All I have to say to get back on topic is, GO CADETS! I really think they could do great things with AITA, and I wish them the best of luck this summer. I hope I'm out on tour competing against them again. And to get back on topic, we still don't know that singing is going to be a "major" part of The Cadets' 2011 show. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fsubone Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 And to get back on topic, we still don't know that singing is going to be a "major" part of The Cadets' 2011 show. Oh, of course. As I brought up, and others have, if they follow the original, we'll see 15 seconds or so of singing, and that will be the end of it. Not major at all, unless they put their show at only 45 seconds long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaddyt Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 Oh, of course. As I brought up, and others have, if they follow the original, we'll see 15 seconds or so of singing, and that will be the end of it. Not major at all, unless they put their show at only 45 seconds long. And that 15 seconds could fall into the pre-show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaddyt Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 I appreciate your sincerity (and yes, I'm a percussion guy). I truly want to know the rationale for not marching percussion. That's the only reason I wrote him. And I do admit that his reasons have a pretty high bar to cross. I'm willing to hear him out, though, and will give his answer (presuming there is one) all due respect. I've been around marching music for the better part of 40 years and this is the first program of this caliber that I've ever seen not march a drumline. I've seen truly small schools not march percussion and instead ground them in the pit. But this school is obviously not of that size. Despite my initial disdain I really want to know his justification. That's why I wrote him. Fair enough. And if he does in fact respond, please feel free to relay his rationale. I'm curious as well. Schools do a lot of things some would find weird. When I came on board with the program I work with, they didn't have a drum major (which blew me away at the time). For 4 years, we kept it that way, relying on the pit and battery for pulse (which was sometimes interesting depending on the staging of the winds vs. the drumline). This past year, with no constant battery on the field, we had to go back to using a DM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perc2100 Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 What's my kid to do if he wants to march in the battery at that school? Popular argument on DCP: "If a kid plays a reed instrument or piano and wants to march drum corps they should learn a brass or percussion instrument" except for "If a kid plays tenors and wants to march in Tarpon Springs that sucks and they the director should change his philosophies and field a drum line." While Tarpon Springs' battery philosophy is not one I 100% agree with, I do whole-heartedly believe that the band program there is doing everything right as far as developing a consistently great program. Also, a percussionist in HS (in my opinion) should be well-versed in all aspects of percussion: therefor it should not be 'bad' for percussionists to play mallets or aux. percussion for the field show and not exclusively play a battery instrument. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perc2100 Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 Tarpon Springs' website is certainly impressive. Especially under the "Percussion" tab, where I find this sentence: "No band or musical ensemble of any kind can effectively perform without a competent percussion and/or rhythm section." While mentioning "the Pit (in marching band lingo)" the site describes many different types of percussion instrumentation for discovering "the beat". The contradiction is stark, IMO.[/font] You seem moderately intelligent, so I'll assume that you do indeed know that there is FAR more to a "competent percussion section" or "discovering the beat" than a marching percussion section. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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