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Upgrading the judges


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I use binoculars sometimes in the stands. Can't the drum judge use them too? And before any of y'all say he might not be able to hear the phrase from the stands, allow me to say first that if you can't hear it in the stands, maybe it shouldn't matter.

On the other side of the spectrum, judges should be empowered to penalize performances in which the staffs' reactions are signficantly out of sync with the audiences'. I mean, we're supposed to be accounting for audience engagement, aren't we? Few things are as disengaging as certain staff groups screaming and waving in a distracting way. Call it conceptual aural vision or whatever you want, the performance isn't for the staff. That's the fact.

HH

When you're judging a particular caption, yes it matters. There is a reason we have effect judges. Its their responsibility to judge the intent of what can be heard and so on. The brass or percussion judge's job is to judge what those captions are doing, and how they are doing it, regardless of whether or not its intended to be at the top of the mix.

So no. You can't do it with binoculars.

And how, precisely, do you expect the judges to penalize the staff for cheering out of turn? How can they be sure that it was the staff, and not just a poorly informed crowd? How can they focus on the staff's reactions while they are trying to judge their own captions? Would you really try to justify hiring a separate judge just to police the crowd for staff members who care about how well their students perform?

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When you're judging a particular caption, yes it matters. There is a reason we have effect judges. Its their responsibility to judge the intent of what can be heard and so on. The brass or percussion judge's job is to judge what those captions are doing, and how they are doing it, regardless of whether or not its intended to be at the top of the mix.

So no. You can't do it with binoculars.

And how, precisely, do you expect the judges to penalize the staff for cheering out of turn? How can they be sure that it was the staff, and not just a poorly informed crowd? How can they focus on the staff's reactions while they are trying to judge their own captions? Would you really try to justify hiring a separate judge just to police the crowd for staff members who care about how well their students perform?

I see a LOT of people come from the field of the corps performing and shouting at shows. They have "passes" around their neck. I would guess that a timing and penalties judge could look around for that and curtail it a bit. The threat of getting caught with a penalty may be enough to curtail some of those overzealous staff members...

ph34r.gif

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I see a LOT of people come from the field of the corps performing and shouting at shows. They have "passes" around their neck. I would guess that a timing and penalties judge could look around for that and curtail it a bit. The threat of getting caught with a penalty may be enough to curtail some of those overzealous staff members...

ph34r.gif

Yeah, I think its just people making a mountain out of a mole hill. We're not talking about a concert hall here, where silence is expected between movements of a piece. If someone is making more noise than you want to deal with, say something. If you're not willing to speak up about it, then don't complain about it. But this is not DCI's problem.

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HOWEVER...

I'm sure you understand that these instructors have spent a LOT of time with the students. Sometimes staff cheer to drum up applause, teach an audience when a 'moment' is, or even to cover up dirt (I've known staff members who cheer loudly when a judge in their caption is close to them to try to distract the judge). But sometimes it's positive reinforcement to hype their students. And sometimes it's actually genuine enthusiasm to see stuff they've worked on come together. As a teacher, there are times when I see a student perform and they nail something we'd been working on for awhile, or they have a great run and I'm genuinely excited to watch them perform.

If you want to mandate controlled response from staff, you need to mandate controlled response for all which is not cool (and not going to happen).

wait,.............I don't need to be taught to understand any particular show,........if the staff wants to cheer about a certain accomplishment and disrupt the paying fans, write a note and tell the corps later,..............but if 5000 fans all miss a particular point in a show where the staff thinks crowd responce is due,...............well,...........maybe it isn't,............

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maybe you should mandate staff can watch from the track.

they can watch from the stands every night at the end of rehearsal, unless they are too busy heading to the showers first to care.

unless there is a staff area in the stands, or the staff pays for the seats, they shouldn't be there.

you would let me walk into the stands and sit in the aisle on the 45, would you? no, because it would be disruptive to the people that paid money for the seats near me.

Edited by soccerguy315
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actually it does matter, and no, with binoculars, it wouldn't work.

I love all the armchair percussion judges who have never done it, and think they have the solution. If you haven't done it, you have no appreciation for how it works, and how so manyof the inane ideas tossed out here are to "make it better".

:thumbup::thumbup:

Exactly. My jaw literally dropped when I read "use binoculars" or "if you can't hear it in the stand maybe they shouldn't do it." I'm all for debating philosophies of judge on the field vs. in the stands, but you're right about the armchair judges :doh:

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wait,.............I don't need to be taught to understand any particular show,........if the staff wants to cheer about a certain accomplishment and disrupt the paying fans, write a note and tell the corps later,..............but if 5000 fans all miss a particular point in a show where the staff thinks crowd responce is due,...............well,...........maybe it isn't,............

You're right: the SCV "Vanguard" yell thing = their staff not being able to program moments into their show.

Or did you think that somehow magically caught on by random fans and just spread through out the country during the season

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maybe you should mandate staff can watch from the track.

they can watch from the stands every night at the end of rehearsal, unless they are too busy heading to the showers first to care.

unless there is a staff area in the stands, or the staff pays for the seats, they shouldn't be there.

you would let me walk into the stands and sit in the aisle on the 45, would you? no, because it would be disruptive to the people that paid money for the seats near me.

That's unnecessary. Not all corps have housing sites every night where there are even stands, much less ones the staff can see the corps from a box level. Not everyone gets awesome pro football stadiums to rehearse in everywhere they go.

The staff needs to be able to gauge the show from box level at a real show.

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On the other side of the spectrum, judges should be empowered to penalize performances in which the staffs' reactions are signficantly out of sync with the audiences'. I mean, we're supposed to be accounting for audience engagement, aren't we? Few things are as disengaging as certain staff groups screaming and waving in a distracting way. Call it conceptual aural vision or whatever you want, the performance isn't for the staff. That's the fact.

I'm going to ignore that first part because, to be blunt, it's just kind of goofy (and not in the good way).

What I think you might be forgetting is that staff are audience too. They get just as excited (sometimes more) seeing their students achieve and perform well as the rest of the fans. Remember, the staffers are huge drum corps fans as well.

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That's unnecessary. Not all corps have housing sites every night where there are even stands, much less ones the staff can see the corps from a box level. Not everyone gets awesome pro football stadiums to rehearse in everywhere they go.

The staff needs to be able to gauge the show from box level at a real show.

then they should do it quietly. They are encroaching on paying customers. They should be thankful for the opportunity to be able to watch from that vantage point and not be disruptive.

Are they all disruptive? No. But it is definitely not rare.

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