garfield Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 Exactly! Well... here is the massed performance following last summer's workshop. :-) Hey! Pretty darn cool! Is that you on the podium? Get a haircut. :tongue:/> At first I thought the entire shell was playing. Are those parents in the stands? Wow, and yes, that's a great turnout! How long did it take to organize that? Of course, the cynic that I am, and with my understanding of the Lithuanian language being what it is, that could be the Royal Band of Chile and I'd never know it. :tongue:/> Pretty darn impressive, ya' know. And I like the tunes, for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 Exactly! Well... here is the massed performance following last summer's workshop. :-) Love the "guard" uniforms! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielray Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 (edited) Hey! Pretty darn cool! Is that you on the podium? Get a haircut. /> That is Remi conducting. He and I are putting the drum corps together and he was the lead organizer of this event. At first I thought the entire shell was playing.Are those parents in the stands? You do see a few adults scattered in the stands playing. They are band directors that are playing there with their groups since they aren't conducting. The other kids you see on the edges are beginning students. Here they start all beginning wind and percussion players out first on recorder and hand percussion and then move them up to other instruments. This way they can learn to read music and how to develop control on a much more simple instrument, then step up. They're not playing on that first tune.... but stand up and play later as all one massed group. Here is an example - Wow, and yes, that's a great turnout! How long did it take to organize that? It was all organized on a facebook group. First thing is there was a facegroup group that band directors were invited to... to discuss initial plans, qualify interest, etc. Those directors that were interested invited their students to another facebook group for the event. It took a few weeks to put together. Edited February 28, 2013 by danielray Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielray Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 Love the "guard" uniforms! Working on converting them to proper colorguard... step by step. The largest problem... getting kids interested in play at all.... was what was focused on first. Got them interested, did with local resources and more in context of the local culture. That is not an issue... so, now working on teaching kids to march.... teaching dancers how to spin. The plan is to build up the program over the next 5 years... a collection of little corps with young kids that feed into one larger group of older kids. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 (edited) Can't take anything away from your efforts, Dan (or the effort of the lead organizer), but in context... DCI has gotten over 1000 inquiries from people wanting information on starting a group or hosting a show. Let's say that's a 50/50 split - 500 people looking to start groups. What's a good guess average size, 10 kids each? That's 5000 potential kids doing DLB and/or SS. Wouldn't you also say that's a pretty good response for just 6 weeks? Also, consider that SS/DLB were started on a shoestring DCI budget, and that it will likely be self-funding from day one, and you have to give credit for the results so far. Yes, I know you'll say it's the follow-through, the data gathering - the execution - that DCI will screw up. But, as part of that equation, it will be interesting to see if ALL the corps directors get behind the effort and support it. I'd bet the demand is probably bigger than DCI's pipeline and bandwidth can support, so it might take dedicating some extra DCI staff to support it. Maybe hiring a person or company... Are the directors - ALL the directors - going to push the bus if there are 5000 potential new participants? Or are they going to stand aside and continue to poo-poo it? If it's demonstrated that the interest is there, why do so many want so hard for DCI to fail? Why can't the drive-by posters comments be "Hey, great idea! Come on! Let's run with this?" instead of "Lousy start. Where's the webpage?" and "...low bar of success..."? Edited February 28, 2013 by garfield 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielray Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 Can't take anything away from your efforts, Dan (or the effort of the lead organizer), but in context... DCI has gotten over 1000 inquiries from people wanting information on starting a group or hosting a show. Let's say that's a 50/50 split - 500 people looking to start groups. What's a good guess average size, 10 kids each? That's 5000 potential kids doing DLB and/or SS. Wouldn't you also say that's a pretty good response for just 6 weeks? Also, consider that SS/DLB were started on a shoestring DCI budget, and that it will likely be self-funding from day one, and you have to give credit for the results so far. Yes, I know you'll say it's the follow-through, the data gathering - the execution - that DCI will screw up. But, as part of that equation, it will be interesting to see if ALL the corps directors get behind the effort and support it. I'd bet the demand is probably bigger than DCI's pipeline and bandwidth can support, so it might take dedicating some extra DCI staff to support it. Maybe hiring a person or company... Are the directors - ALL the directors - going to push the bus if there are 5000 potential new participants? Or are they going to stand aside and continue to poo-poo it? If it's demonstrated that the interest is there, why do so many want so hard for DCI to fail? Why can't the drive-by posters comments be "Hey, great idea! Come on! Let's run with this?" instead of "Lousy start. Where's the webpage?" and "...low bar of success..."? The point is why the hell was it launched when it was, rather than waiting to put all the materials together, have forms for people to register, kits they could download, a series already put together.... INSTANT ACTION. It was hurried to launch because of the DCI meeting in January. This is the criticism... that it was rushed and put out there before it was fully complete. What was the sense of urgency here, if not trying to throw it together for the meeting? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 One other thought, Dan, and forgive me in advance because I really do admire the effort that went into managing the Moksleivių Dainų Šventė orkestrų pasirodymas ("Students Song Festival Orchestra" (thanks Google translate))... You say, on the one hand, that only the best of the best of DCI is the proper ambassador for the activity, yet, it's apparent that the Festival Orchestra is playing at near the level of excellence of a good high school band (again, not taking away from any of their efforts). I just wonder, while we're talking about size of inquiries and all, why you wouldn't be putting your efforts into developing a small group of excellent players to represent the activity in Local Lithuania (BTW, it doesn't look like the "dead of winter" there!). This seems to be a "showcase" event. Why not limit it to the best of the best attract even more? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 (edited) The point is why the hell was it launched when it was, rather than waiting to put all the materials together, have forms for people to register, kits they could download, a series already put together.... INSTANT ACTION. It was hurried to launch because of the DCI meeting in January. This is the criticism... that it was rushed and put out there before it was fully complete. What was the sense of urgency here, if not trying to throw it together for the meeting? Jeesh, Dan, which is it? It was put out to demonstrate the capabilities of DCI, in such a way as to attract a bunch of interest, and it apparently succeeded in that effort. Now you want the issue to be WHY it was launched when it was? It succeeded (so far), is why it was done when it was done such a big deal? If DCI had the chance to prove what the seven might miss if they bolt, wasn't it pretty shrewd to put it out when it was? (BTW, the discussion about what the seven might miss happened months ago). Do you know when this effort was started? Is it reasonable to shoot it down because it succeeded in showing what capabilities are there for ALL corps to support? It's success so far is a fact; I still think the issue is Will the seven support it? Heck, agree to spend money on it? Put the shoe on the other foot, Dan. You'd be pretty happy if your effort to prove a point played out perfectly AND the effort succeeded in getting 5000 pairs of eyeballs on drum corps, wouldn't you? Edited February 28, 2013 by garfield 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielray Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 One other thought, Dan, and forgive me in advance because I really do admire the effort that went into managing the Moksleivių Dainų Šventė orkestrų pasirodymas ("Students Song Festival Orchestra" (thanks Google translate))... You say, on the one hand, that only the best of the best of DCI is the proper ambassador for the activity, yet, it's apparent that the Festival Orchestra is playing at near the level of excellence of a good high school band (again, not taking away from any of their efforts). I just wonder, while we're talking about size of inquiries and all, why you wouldn't be putting your efforts into developing a small group of excellent players to represent the activity in Local Lithuania (BTW, it doesn't look like the "dead of winter" there!). This seems to be a "showcase" event. Why not limit it to the best of the best attract even more? Because the ENTIRE program is only a few years old... and this actually is the best of the best we've got so far. Music is not taught in schools here. There are separate music schools that operate after school and on weekends, but they are only in the cities. The kids you see in that video are all under 18 and don't come from the music schools. They come from private run band programs set up in rural areas to teach these kids how to play. Teachers and admin staff are 100% volunteer, it's free for the kids and a few years ago, none of this existed at all. But, I am bringing the "best of the best" to them.... to inspire them and to teach them (a group from Blue Devils and Scott Johnson is coming over in May). I'm hoping to make this an annual thing that will help raise the standard here and inspire local kids to march in the US and then come back here to teach. Anyway, the whole purpose of this program is not to create the greatest competitive drum corps out there... it is to take kids that are growing up in some difficult circumstances, that don't have a great support infrastructure, and help give them life skills that could genuinely impact their future. This is very different than what G7 corps do... so, it is not an apt comparison. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 One other thing... Of the over-1000 inquiries about DLB/SS, the vast, vast majority of those came from within the US. Again, potentially 5000 kids or more marching and playing, or interested in doing so. If it proves to be THAT successful in the US, each and every single corps in the country that now exists will be the ultimate benefactor, in myriad ways. I wonder how smart it would be for the Seven to bolt away from that. In perspective, it's apparent that a compromise was easier to reach than most are concluding. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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