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Another open letter to DCI.


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Dear DCI,

I spent the last 10 years of my life, religiously following drum corps, and had the opportunity to march for a couple (Blue Stars 2005, Minnesota Brass 2010). Over those 10 years there have been experiences that I'll never give up, people who I'll never forget, traditions and philosophies that I practiced in the military, and even now going through college. In my opinion, DCI has lost its roots to the history of Drum Corps.

In 2005 I auditioned for the Cavaliers, and the first thing that Jeff Fiedler said to us was "If you're here to win, then you don't belong here. Either go two thousand miles west, or a thousand miles east to do that." These were words that as a rookie, I had no idea why anyone would not strive to win. Later on in the month, Chad Armbruster called me up, and said we have a spot open if you want it. Thinking that I'm planning on joining the military, this may be my only chance to join a corps, so I took it. For the first half of the season, I thought, "if I don't join the military after this season, then I'm going to go back to the Cavaliers"; I even strived to get better at the Cavalier style of marching, for practice. It wasn't till mid season, for our home show, that we added the Star of David to the drill, and premiered it for our alumni, and families. There wasn't a single person in their seat when we hit that chart, people were crying, the crowd erupted, and cheered till they couldn't talk anymore; even now, just recalling this instance brings a tear to my eye. When this happened I started to realize, that maybe it isn't about the scores, maybe it's not about me but that it's really about being with the people around me, the alumni, those people we were performing for. From then on, it was all about those around me, not going back to the Cavaliers or a division one championship contender. Shortly after, I went to the doctor to find out that I had gotten bronchitis, which was really close to pneumonia; I refused to quit, even for a day to get better, I kept going no matter how bad it got. It even earned me the nickname 'coughdrop'. After a lot of dead grass, even more sunburns, and finally getting to finals; when we were getting ready to march on to the field, I heard someone say "These guys deserve to win everything", sitting there at the end of the show, watching possibly the longest standing ovation ever, and seeing people all around us crying as we marched off. During retreat, all I could think about, was Fielder was right; it's not about winning, not about the scores, not even about us, it's the fans, those people who go to one or as many live shows as possible, that without, we wouldn't exists, I wouldn't have gotten the experience, and made the friends that I have.

Now I'm not going to sit here and talk to you about G vs Bb's, or amps, voiceovers, synths, or even an old school having only a 50 yard line with marching pit members. Because even with the changes along the way, the appeal to the audience has stayed there. From the 88 scouts playing Malaguena, to the 95 Cavaliers playing The Planets, to Phantom 89, 96, 03, 08, even now bringing back Nessun Dorma and making who knows how many people cry. I even enjoyed Jersey Surf's 'amped' phone call "about packing enough underwear" while having "a good band show, with his drum corps". Some corps still uphold the integrity of how important the audience is, and ignores the scores. Now I'm sure you already know one of the corps I'm referencing to, and before I talk about them, I just want to say that I respect the corps, and members, and all the hard work they have been through to put a show on the field. But when I was watching quarterfinals in the theaters, they announced the future corps coming up after intermission, and for each corps, people cheered, and it louder each time, until the Blue Devils. You could hear a pin drop, when they announced the Blue Devils, even when it came time for the performance. The focus was not there, no one cared at this point of time, why not? Why are the fans, the audience not interested? I guess the better question is, why are corps being rewarded for a technical show that takes all interest away from the fans? I don't know one person that I've ever marched with, that would willingly stay in a corps to win a title, on the basis of losing the audience. I have a friend, who I served with in the Navy; he left the Cadets after 2005 when they did it, refused to march for them again. This activity is no longer about the audience, and I appreciate the corps who stick with it, but it seems that in order to win, the corps have to break their bonds with the fans.

As I said before, I only marched one year of junior corps, then I joined the military. I spent my age out year (season), on deployment off the coast of Somalia doing piracy operations. The only thing that kept me sane, was looking at the scores every night. Finally seeing a corps that deserved to win more than once, rise to the top, made the deployment that much more enjoyable. When I got out of the military, I joined Minnesota Brass; just remembering the kind of respect that they gave the Blue Stars in 2005, with loaning out their horns to us, and sharing the field during an encore. In Minnesota Brass, I saw even more respect between the corps, in 2011, when there was a marriage proposal with a couple of MBI members, the Govenaires stayed behind and played for them. Another instance was when the Buccaneers stayed off to the side, instead of marching off, to cheer on Minnesota Brass, for the championship run. They cheered for a corps that was potentially going to end their 6 year championship streak. The fans stayed behind to watch a cancelled encore, after retreat. I saw a corps member in a wheelchair, and they pushed her around the field to make sure she was involved in the show. In 2005, we were told to have respect for all corps, and it doesn't matter if they were in front or behind you in standings. The fans have respect back in DCA, and they want to be there and cheer for everyone, especially since the shows are designed around them being entertained, in DCI, I think they've lost that respect.

With all things considered, I think I'm going to have to part ways with DCI, maybe temporarily, maybe permanent, depending on how things turn out in the future. I will always remember what my time in a junior corps taught me, the life values, or when they refused to teach me the definition of 'easy', 'quitting', and 'failure', and the new family that I made, and will never forget. I will stick with DCA, and will return to March again for Minnesota Brass, and will enjoy the comradery between the corps, members, and fans. I feel that DCA will never lose its history of playing for the audience and alumni, more than technicality.

While it is great to use this forum for discussion, if you are truly serious, I suggest you post on DCI's Facebook wall or writing them a handwritten letter.

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I was hopeful after last year we had seen some change, but after seeing everyone live at Allentown, I felt it was more like 2010 than 2011. I'm not done with DCI, and yes, I realize shows I'll never ever watch on the dvd's may win, but there is still good out there.

When you consider the 20th place corps got some of the best reactions all summer long, that should send a huge message

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But DCP probably represents a more drum corps savvy segment than most. I'm not sure the opinions expressed here can be dismissed out of hand.

Sure they can. This is a tiny speck of the total audience for DCI, numerically speaking utterly irrelevant.

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"The corps I liked the most didn't when. Sure, looking at recaps it's obvious that they had Championship brass, but lower vis & percussion. But my favorite corps show lost to a corps that clearly performed superior. Therefore I'm gong to publicly pout and whine and be a drama queen making statements like 'I'm leaving drum corps' to dozens of strangers in a completely meaningless context. THAT will show Blue Devils and DCI!!"

:rolleyes:

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I'm sorry but a preference for a different era does not constitute an uneducated opinion.

Attending a 2012 show and moaning and groaning about how it isn't like the distant past is an uneducated opinion regarding modern drum corps (IMO, anyway). Why would anyone in 2012 go to a DCI show and wish it were like 1972? Would anyone attending a 1972 show expect that it would be like 1932?

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The disconnect between what so many GE judges prefer and what so many audience members prefer is a problem for DCI.

It is how they are cliniced.Also, look at the new sheets on the DCI website. "innovation" figures prominently on the GE sheets, I also believe it is also to be seriously considered on every other World Class sheet. Who was the most 'innovative' this year? Only one real answer to that, whether anyone likes that answer or not.

The judges doing what they are asked to do as best they can do it by the DCI members. BD read the sheets a bit more thoroughly and exploited the bejesus out of the innovative angle, whether anyone likes the outcome or not.

Performance issues also hurt the two more enjoyed contenders this season. People forget that there's more to the total score than a powerful as heck horn line that played at an insane level or a marvelously engaging story and horn book. 3rd and 7th in percussion really hurt those contenders.

Or are we to just forget that the percussive art is also to be considered in "DRUM Corps?" :satisfied: It may not be well understood by many fans... but how much does one care to weight it? And I'm a horn guy speaking out for the percussionists out there.

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Sure they can. This is a tiny speck of the total audience for DCI, numerically speaking utterly irrelevant.

I know this is off the topic - not that that matters any more - but I've always found the idea that DCP is "tiny" or "irrelevant" when compared to the total audience. With nearly 30,000 members and about 2500 regular posters (people with 100+ posts)

And those regular posters are pretty representative. You have current marchers, prospective marchers, alumni, progressives, traditionalists, marchers, band kids, staffers, parents, and so on. The sky-is-falling DCI killed drum corps types get a lot of the attention, but they're really a small portion of DCP. DCP itself is very much representative of the drum corps community.

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Sure they can. This is a tiny speck of the total audience for DCI, numerically speaking utterly irrelevant.

No kidding. I'm heard exact figures on how much Blue Devils make from souvenir sales: they are not hurting for popularity in any way. People posting on RAMD DCP certainly are not the end-all/be-all of majority of drum corps fans. The entitlement of so many people on here (the "my tastes = what's 'best' when it comes to show design") continually appalls me. I would think a forum full of so many FMM's the attitude would be less...naive

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I was hopeful after last year we had seen some change, but after seeing everyone live at Allentown, I felt it was more like 2010 than 2011. I'm not done with DCI, and yes, I realize shows I'll never ever watch on the dvd's may win, but there is still good out there.

I hope you are right. :ph34r:

I never care who wins (unless it is my old corps, of course!). I usually like corps down the placement list from the top. I can still admire and understand how the placements were reached, but for me as a fan, it just does not matter to me.

When you consider the 20th place corps got some of the best reactions all summer long, that should send a huge message

Why? Their show was fun, for sure, but IMO it worked for them because of its uniqueness. If there were 5 or 6 shows like that, it would get REAL old. Plus, they had nothing to lose placement-wise, and lots to gain fan-wise in performing that show.

Oddly enough, at West Chester a couple about my age attending their first corps show EVER did not pick them as a corps they liked best.

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