Music City 2014

[3rd&10]

Ahhhhh therein lies the rub young Danny from WA. They are not giving up (cue inspirational music) and these plucky upstarts will keep the corps going!

Git 'er done.

It appears making top 25 for one day will magically result in new sponsors and funding (according to cixelsyd) and the dedicated staff that bought magic beans and grew 11 horns to over 60 can now do so with money as well.

By the way, you probably should replace "they" with "he".

quote name='danp8161' timestamp='1380567485' post='3325524']

As a Director of an OC corps, I feel they did it right in shutting the corps down the way they did. They knew they could not continue , so they cut it off. That gives the members plenty of opportunity to seek out another group. No promises to the staff and then have to tell them they won't get paid. It's easy to sit back and arm chair quarter back what they should or shouldn't do

[MikeN]

Mike

[N.E. Brigand]

7th Regiment has grown up in the middle of a hotbed of drum corps recruiting for World Class, Open Class and DCA corps, yet still presented better-written and -taught programs every year with fewer members that Music City.

Music City placed higher than 7th Regiment in 2010 and 2013.

I am sure the DCI membership surveys would prove that the bulk of the Open Class are converting woodwind players to brass instruments. Ask the Raiders. They made do with a lot less.

Music City placed higher than Raiders in 2011, 2012, and 2013.

Both 7th Regiment and Raiders had been around for some years when Music City came on the scene four years ago. Probably M.C. deserves more praise for their quick climb than criticism for not climbing quickly enough. Fifth place after five years! Star of Indiana hadn't placed higher than sixth after their fifth year (admittedly in World Class, but I suspect Star was better funded than Music City).

Oregon took a season off and came back to move to the top of the ranks in a year.

That was Division III, wasn't it? From a corps with a long history. It still took them another six years to medal in Division II / Open Class, and then two more years to win.

one of the largest (if not largest) corps on the field each season

By my count, they were the fourth largest O.C. corps this year, behind BDB, SCVC, and Gold (for the last corps, I'm counting the acrobats).

[Stu]

Look I am sure the design & teaching staffs of Music City were wonderful men & women that had the best interest of the members at heart. However, they were not good designers or teachers AS DEFINED BY THE RESULTS THE CORPS REALIZED ON THE FIELD. Ineffective does not mean a lack of commitment, it means producing less than desirable results.

This is irrefutable.

Somebody did a good job recruiting a whole bunch of HS and college kids to march in the corps. Kudos to them.

Somebody did not do a good job writing and teaching, period. Do not kid yourself and think the other Open Class corps do not face similar challenges. The 7th Regiment has grown up in the middle of a hotbed of drum corps recruiting for World Class, Open Class and DCA corps yet still presented better written and taught programs every year with less members that Music City. Oregon took a season off and came back to move to the top of the ranks in a year. I am sure the DCI membership surveys would prove that the bulk of the Open Class are converting woodwind players to brass instruments. Ask the Raiders. They made do with a lot less.

Yes, I have attended World Championships every season that Music City participated and witnessed their performances live. Best of intentions, not so much with the results. The Music City design team & tech staff was not able to translate one of the largest (if not largest) corps on the field each season into a competitively successful one.

Did I miss a season when they were anywhere close to a medal before this season? Was the visual design strong? Could the corps march well? Play in tune?

Was the color guard EVER close to the top?

Cmon, be honest. You guys worked hard and probably impacted kids lives in a positive manner. But did you make them a good drum corps? No.

Your entire diatribe here ("... they were not good designers or teachers AS DEFINED BY THE RESULTS THE CORPS REALIZED ON THE FIELD. Ineffective does not mean a lack of commitment, it means producing less than desirable results. This is irrefutable."), is thus applicable to "all" Open Class Corps which have yet to beat BDB and SCVC and won DCI OC; and it would also be applicable to "all" World Class Corps which have never beat BD, Cadets, Cavaliers, SCV, Regiment, and Crown and won DCI WC. You must, and I mean must apply your same reasoning to all of those corps to be consistent and not hypocritical!

[cixelsyd]

Look I am sure the design & teaching staffs of Music City were wonderful men & women that had the best interest of the members at heart. However, they were not good designers or teachers AS DEFINED BY THE RESULTS THE CORPS REALIZED ON THE FIELD. Ineffective does not mean a lack of commitment, it means producing less than desirable results.

This is irrefutable.

You may be entitled to your opinion, but opinions are not "irrefutable".

Somebody did a good job recruiting a whole bunch of HS and college kids to march in the corps. Kudos to them.

Somebody did not do a good job writing and teaching, period. Do not kid yourself and think the other Open Class corps do not face similar challenges. The 7th Regiment has grown up in the middle of a hotbed of drum corps recruiting for World Class, Open Class and DCA corps yet still presented better written and taught programs every year with less members that Music City.

Maybe in your opinion, but evidently not in the opinion of the judges.

Oregon took a season off and came back to move to the top of the ranks in a year.

The Oregon Crusaders did not take a season off. They have competed every season since they started as the Southern Oregon Crusaders in 2000.

I am sure the DCI membership surveys would prove that the bulk of the Open Class are converting woodwind players to brass instruments.

No argument there. Some world class units do the same.

Yes, I have attended World Championships every season that Music City participated and witnessed their performances live. Best of intentions, not so much with the results. The Music City design team & tech staff was not able to translate one of the largest (if not largest) corps on the field each season into a competitively successful one.

Not sure what your definition of "competitively successful" is. The only other corps you named were 7th Regiment and Raiders. In what way have those corps been more "competitively successful" than Music City?

Did I miss a season when they were anywhere close to a medal before this season?

So only corps who "medal" are any good? Sounds like elitism to me.

Was the visual design strong? Could the corps march well? Play in tune?

Yes, yes, and yes.

Was the color guard EVER close to the top?

So only corps "close to the top" are any good? Sounds like elitism to me.

Cmon, be honest. You guys worked hard and probably impacted kids lives in a positive manner. But did you make them a good drum corps? No.

I guess you are entitled to your opinion. However, you are not entitled to express it in such a rude manner.

I have seen all kinds of marching music ensembles over the years, from all over the globe. High school, college, all-age. Scholastic and independent. Honestly, of all the corps at DCI Championships this season, WC or OC, not one of them deserves the level of criticism you spew here. I can see just in a couple of viewings at shows that every single one of them has effective teachers, and good designers. Darwin was onto something with that "survival of the fittest" idea - the relatively few corps we have left in DCI have raised the bar on quality.

If you still want to single out one such corps and criticize them relative to other corps... I get it, you like your grapes sour. But to personalize it by calling their instructors "very ineffective teaching staff" is just pointlessly off the rails.

[Latrobe's Finest]

We're talking about the 5th place OC corps which placed in the top 25 overall, beating two WC corps, right? I'd say their staff was effective.

[cixelsyd]

Ahhhhh therein lies the rub young Danny from WA. They are not giving up (cue inspirational music) and these plucky upstarts will keep the corps going!

Git 'er done.

It appears making top 25 for one day will magically result in new sponsors and funding (according to cixelsyd) and the dedicated staff that bought magic beans and grew 11 horns to over 60 can now do so with money as well.

By the way, you probably should replace "they" with "he".

I was wrong earlier. Maybe your flavor of choice is not sour after all. More like bitter.

So Music City only made top 25 "for one day"? Was there a secret contest held late Friday night in the parking lot? Not only did I miss it, I cannot find the results anywhere. Who are the top 25 now?

Meanwhile, I think you know the difference between what I said ("can attract new sponsors") and your spin ("will magically result in new sponsors"). Try not to twist the words of others - it tends to lead to thread closures.

[JKT90]

I think a few of the posters are misinterpreting the comments made by those on staff at Music City, and they are certainly free to correct me if i am wrong here...first of all, there are a couple ways you judge success and progress - inwardly and outwardly. Judging inward progress begins by looking at where you are, what you started with and how far have we come from that point. Outwardly judging success begins with looking at how you stack up against the competition...

You have to take care of your business internally and begin to gain momentum and gauge success with a different lense than simply saying you aren't successful because you haven't achieved this or that. You gauge success on small victories, how many kids returned to camp year over year, how recruiting is going, how quickly have we added members year over year, how is fund raising, etc...you get your backyard taken care of first, then you look outward. I believe those on the staff who commented are saying that from an internal standpoint, what they started with and where the ended a few years later showed a lot of progress, trending in the right direction, rounding the corner, can see the progress made, etc. And ALL of those are imperative to it translating on the field. It takes time to build from nothing, and in fact the accomplishments the staff members pointed out are all positive. Keep it up!

[3rd&10]

no, we are talking about the staff that was in place for the first four years...

We're talking about the 5th place OC corps which placed in the top 25 overall, beating two WC corps, right? I'd say their staff was effective.

[3rd&10]

If you think that will result in a large sum of revenue coming into the corps, you are sadly mistaken.

I was wrong earlier. Maybe your flavor of choice is not sour after all. More like bitter.

So Music City only made top 25 "for one day"? Was there a secret contest held late Friday night in the parking lot? Not only did I miss it, I cannot find the results anywhere. Who are the top 25 now?

Meanwhile, I think you know the difference between what I said ("can attract new sponsors") and your spin ("will magically result in new sponsors"). Try not to twist the words of others - it tends to lead to thread closures.