perc2100 Posted January 19, 2013 Share Posted January 19, 2013 ok, not bad ideas, BUT how does WGI feel about this drumline thing? If these competitions occur during the DCI season, I suspect WGI won't care since they are out of season. If anything, WGI drum lines (minus front ensembles, apparently) who have local members who aren't marching drum corps (or alumni who are aged-out) can have an additional performance venue with this new venture. This could end up being something that A) WGI percussion units could make maybe a little bit extra money (if they charge members for performing/competing) and B) WGI percussion units can get a leg-up by getting an early start drumming with some folks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcibrando Posted January 19, 2013 Share Posted January 19, 2013 DCI should partner with WGI to have an indoor corps circuit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamarag Posted January 19, 2013 Share Posted January 19, 2013 DCI should partner with WGI to have an indoor corps circuit A much better idea would be for the local/regional indoor circuits to jump on board with DCI and DrumBattle/SoundSport. They are *much* better equipped to help things along on a regular badsis. As cool as WGI is, it's not a "circuit", and isn't designed to be. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRASSO Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 (edited) 1. to say that hundreds of corps back in the 50's and 60's sounded great playing G is in correct. I've heard TONS Heck, I marched in the late 90's, and the talent level in 2013 is light years higher than the talent level when I marched! Actually, imo, it is more accurate to state that there was both MORE talent combined with LESS talent compared with years ago. This is because there were hundreds ( 60's ) of more Corps back in ( for example ) the 60's, 70's, so the musical talent that was excellent in those days was dispersed among a much much wider swarth of Drum Corps. Likewise, because of the dozens or hundred more Corps in these years, there was also much less talented musicians marching than when you marched ( 90's ) and that of today. For example, if we took the best 150 brass players in all of Drum Corps in 1975 ( Senior and Junior Corps ) in my view that 150 would be just as good ( perhaps a tad better, who knows )musicians as the best 150 brass musicians playing in all of Drum Corps today. And we could find many more brass musicans playing in the Corps of DCI in 1975 that were for certain worse musicians than what we find in DCI today as well. What is also true, imo, is that the brass instruments ( including mouth pieces ) are better constructed technologically today than that of 1975. Also, that the musicians of 1975 were playing on comparatively inferior brass instruments,and thus more difficult to play musical instruments, than that of today. Finally, I believe that its fair to say that ( for example ) the top 3 brass lines each year in this decade are collectively better talented in these top 3 Corps than the top 3 brass lines of both 1965, 1975, and 1995. Edited January 20, 2013 by BRASSO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Boo Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 Speaking as a percussionist of 48 years, the talent level of percussionists in corps now is light years higher than it was in the mid 1970s largely due to the fact that there are so many more high school marching bands that train the members in techniques that didn't even exist when I was first learning the craft. Just looking at mallet playing, not only were we limited to miniature instruments we wore around our necks, but the Burton Grip for four-mallet vibe playing, (the grip almost universal used today), was just getting exposure and the Stevens Grip for four-mallet marimba, (which did for marimbists what Burton did for vibists), were heard about only in the most academic of circles. The first Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC), where many were exposed to new methods via clinics and masterclasses, wasn't until 1976 in Rochester, NY. I was at the PAS Day of Percussion in Chicago in 1975 (which PAS states was the precursor to PASIC) and there was only one marching event...a panel discussion. While I am emphatic in believing the talent level of today's percussionists is higher, the talent potential of those who marched as my contemporaries was certainly just as high. They (and I) didn't have the opportunities of today. Speaking again as a percussionist, we didn't have WGI Indoor Marching Percussion as a training device, we didn't have YouTube videos for inspiration, and we didn't have the hundreds of marching technique books that are readily available now. If a high school band had anyone to work with their drum line, it was someone who knew how to play the NARD (National Association of Rudimental Drummers) rudiments, if that. Those of us who knew timpani and mallets learned it from private study, usually outside the school. What the members of yesteryear accomplished with a relative lack of formal training was incredible for its day. What they could have accomplished with the educational opportunities available to school band members today—and the awesome palette of percussion instruments that are all but standard across the country—involves conjecture that would make many of those earlier percussionists weep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.