BRASSO Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 (edited) The influx of WGI guard judges who are not versed with what wholistic design involves is a negative. That all happned about 12 years ago. In 2001, the Cavaliers won their DCI Title with a superb Visual Show... " Four Corners ". If one has access to Fan Network, they can watch the entire field percussion line at the 3.50 mark to the 6.40 mark essentially stand in the far right sidelines facing the backstands and not playing, nor moving a muscle.The percussion field judge does not go with them there ( no reason to ) Thus, for approx. a third of The Cavaliers show in 2001, the on field percussion section does not play at all. It simply stands at attention away from the audience. The brass line on Finals finished in 4th place. Yet the Cavaliers won a DCI title in 2001, and pretty comfortably too, over the others. How can this be one might ask ? Simple.. its the Guard and the Visual. Can anyone here imagine a DCI corps winning a DCI Title if the Guard section did not move a muscle visually for approx 3 minutes in the show, and with the Guard coming in say 4th ? Of course not. It would be unthinkable and out of the question. Such a Corps would be positively buried on the current judging sheets if it happened on the Guard and the Visual side. The pathway to doing well in DCI is thru the Visual side, not the Musical side. And its the adult Show Designers.. mostly Visual... that are mostly being judged these days in DCI field competition. These are but one of the quite noticeable visible " changes " that has taken place in Drum Corps as we have evolved. Edited April 4, 2013 by BRASSO 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDale Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 I'm not so sure all of the corps should concentrate on making a more appealing product to the masses initially - I think they should focus on making a more appealing product for their core (no pun intended) audience first, as they seem to have lost some of it along the way. But...that is not what wins. We have seen for quite some time what wins. That is the goal. I am auld I guess, but until the sheets are written for entertainment getting the score, nothing will change. I routinely listen from 75 to 86 in my car and never buy the CDs anymore. Nor the DVDs. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 What will make the DCI product a better fit for mass audiences and more attractive to former members and fans. Two vastly different demographics; you cannot reach both with the same product. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soccerguy315 Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 agree that the design is too much of the score... execution only gets you tenths in captions around the ballpark whole number that design puts you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slingerland Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 (edited) Thus, for approx. a third of The Cavaliers show in 2001, the on field percussion section does not play at all. It simply stands at attention away from the audience. Ok, but how many of us have seen symphonic concerts where the timpanist and bass and snare drummers counted out 567 measures of rest? (If i remember correctly, the pit was quite active during that whole segment, so it's not like the entire percussion section was tacit). I have to say that if the choice is the Cavaliers battery being quiet during a section of music where their contribution wouldn't help, or the old school 1960s style of writing where the drum line is playing 6/8 march rhythms during romantic ballads, I'll take the former. It's better music making. The only other option would be to say that nothing could be played unless battery percussion would be appropriate, which would limit the overall range of styles. Edited April 5, 2013 by Slingerland 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 In 2001, the Cavaliers won their DCI Title with a superb Visual Show... " Four Corners ". If one has access to Fan Network, they can watch the entire field percussion line at the 3.50 mark to the 6.40 mark essentially stand in the far right sidelines facing the backstands and not playing, nor moving a muscle.The percussion field judge does not go with them there ( no reason to ) Thus, for approx. a third of The Cavaliers show in 2001, the on field percussion section does not play at all. It simply stands at attention away from the audience. The brass line on Finals finished in 4th place. Yet the Cavaliers won a DCI title in 2001, and pretty comfortably too, over the others. How can this be one might ask ? Simple.. its the Guard and the Visual. Can anyone here imagine a DCI corps winning a DCI Title if the Guard section did not move a muscle visually for approx 3 minutes in the show, and with the Guard coming in say 4th ? Of course not. It would be unthinkable and out of the question. Such a Corps would be positively buried on the current judging sheets if it happened on the Guard and the Visual side. The pathway to doing well in DCI is thru the Visual side, not the Musical side. And its the adult Show Designers.. mostly Visual... that are mostly being judged these days in DCI field competition. These are but one of the quite noticeable visible " changes " that has taken place in Drum Corps as we have evolved. Except they were 1st in both Music Effect and Ensemble Music, and 2nd in percussion, and 2nd in visual performance. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlamMan Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 (edited) The Drum Corp activity needs 5 things to re-energize the activity: 1. Corps need to be diversified in their style & identity. What happened to Jazz, Spanish, Scottish & British style Corps? These corps were big crowd favorites back in the day. Drum Corps fans are tired of the generic nature of Corps today. 2. Music needs to be more accessible & popular. The music that is currently played by most Corps is generic high brow symphonic gobbledygook. 3. Drum Corps uniforms are an absolute joke today. Other than Madison, Phantom & Cavies, everyone else wears a costume. 4. Drum Corps must return to recruiting local members. 5. There needs to be another Drum Corps circuit besides DCI. DCI killing off DCM & the other Drum Corps circuits has proved to be bad for the activity. Edited April 5, 2013 by FlamMan 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie1223 Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 What will make the DCI product a better fit for mass audiences and more attractive to former members and fans. I'll start. Less WGI guard influence. Looking at recaps recently and the listings of those in charge of judging it is way too many WGI guard judges. I attended WGI finals last year and found it to be boring and adventures in designers egos.....sound familiar? DCI does not have enough groups to fill the stadium with those there to perform. We need to change direction and remeber thse who brought you here. DCI and corps should NOT try to attract former Members/Fans, especially if they are from decades past. For a product that changes as frequently as DCI's it shouldn't waste resources/shows trying to attract people it has already lost. It should try to simply retain the people it has. If it does this then they minimize the losses of fans they have year to year while making the product better. And if people who are already attracted to DCI keep coming back it will only grow the base. And lets be honest, if a show in the past 3 years has not seriously enticed you to come back you really won't love anything a corps would offer to get you to come back anyway... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slingerland Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 (edited) . Music needs to be more accessible & popular. The music that is currently played by most Corps is generic high brow symphonic gobbledygook. Yes. More Bieber, less Barber. The problem isn't the source material, it's the WGI mashup approach to the music itself. Make the music effect scores dependent on basic principles of good composition rather than moment to moment effect, and you make it less likely to see 3 different pieces hacked and pasted into one 3 minute arrangement. Edited April 5, 2013 by Slingerland 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRASSO Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 (edited) Except they were 1st in both Music Effect and Ensemble Music, and 2nd in percussion, and 2nd in visual performance. I don't think anyone could put forth a compelling case that a Corps can win a DCI Title if the Guard stood at attention facing away from the audience for a full 3 minutes ( approx. 25 % to a third of the entire on field performance show ), and not move a muscle. You can do this however ( as was done ) with the on field percussion line and win a DCI title. And this is my fundamental point here. Its impossible to do similar non participation with the Guard. And thats because of the influence of the Visual on the score sheets of today, imo. Edited April 5, 2013 by BRASSO 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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