flammaster Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 I like the Blue Stars' battery quite a bit. They're not top 6, but they have cajones! Yea I agree! Blue Stars had a great line! and their Front Ensemble was killer! i liked their show a LOT! one of my top five from last year!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perc2100 Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 It sets a bad precedent to think of percussion as a footnote in a performance. Perhaps it's a strategy to win, but it's a bad musical philosophy. Also, I don't buy the notion that Crown's percussion is less talented than other corps. They rose to the challenge in Semis. That tells me they can be challenged this year. Seeing what I saw and heard in Semis, I don't think it's a far stretch to say they could play with anybody given the right repertoire and motivation. I don't know. I think if designers play to their musical strengths (obviously their brass) and downplay their weaknesses (obviously their percussion), it's not a bad precedent. It would be disastrous to design your show to heavily feature the weak link, when you could instead musically design the weaker section to be a more supportive musical voice to the dominant brass section: features can be written to have general effect impact rather than dazzle with crazy chops. That's essentially what Crown's percussion seemed to be like for most of the design last year, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I've known other corps that had weak (compared to brass, guard & vis) percussion sections that tried to squeeze every last .1 in order to be 'good enough' to not cost the corps a Championship. Obviously the best situation is to be really strong across the board: that's why Blue Devils have always contended for Championship, going back DECADES! If you try to push a weaker section to much the deficiencies can 'bleed' into other captions (overall music, Music Effect, etc) and really end up hurting the corps. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 I like the Blue Stars' battery quite a bit. They're not top 6, but they have cajones! I'm a huge fan of pretty much anything Mapes and gromm 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wallace Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 ...when you could instead musically design the weaker section to be a more supportive musical voice to the dominant brass section: features can be written to have general effect impact rather than dazzle with crazy chops. First, Crown's percussion section isn't weak. Their placement was precluded by a design that failed to challenge them to rise to the same virtuosity as the brass and guard. Also, their instructors should have been able to clean the dirt. That's their failure. Lastly, why go to a DRUM and bugle corps show if one is not going to be dazzled by crazy chops? That's what separates it from marching band... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nachfolger Christi Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Thank you, Wallace. As a Crown Alumni, I get beat down for saying this and agreeing with other that say it, but it seems to be the TRUTH. Crown's percussion techs are not doing the job they need to. It is not a talent problem. It is a staffing problem, and right now Crown's percussion seems to be the red-headed stepchild of the corp. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cowtown Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 The battery was dirty but the front ensemble (including the vocals) was pretty good so they ended up about right. I wouldn’t lay as much on the writing as others here have There was a lot of battery dirt at finals this year, need to see the score but there should be a pretty big gap in the spreads…many front ensembles saved their lines from total embarrassment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
actucker Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 First, Crown's percussion section isn't weak. Their placement was precluded by a design that failed to challenge them to rise to the same virtuosity as the brass and guard. Also, their instructors should have been able to clean the dirt. That's their failure. Lastly, why go to a DRUM and bugle corps show if one is not going to be dazzled by crazy chops? That's what separates it from marching band... I've not been to Crown's auditions, and I'm not affiliated, so I don't know what the inner workings are. That being said, are you really trying to tell me that the same level of talent shows up to Crown auditions as does Blue Devils, or Cadets, or Coats? That being said, not all dirt is because the staff couldn't fix it. Maybe that is the problem at Crown. Maybe not. But to say that the section isn't a weakness (regardless of the reason why) is simply not true. Look at the numbers. Its a weakness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perc2100 Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 First, Crown's percussion section isn't weak. Their placement was precluded by a design that failed to challenge them to rise to the same virtuosity as the brass and guard. Also, their instructors should have been able to clean the dirt. That's their failure. Lastly, why go to a DRUM and bugle corps show if one is not going to be dazzled by crazy chops? That's what separates it from marching band... I think your totally misreading my intent 1) Crown's percussion is not weak. However, in comparison to their brass & visual programs that are clearly weakER: the weakest section in comparison. That's just a fact. When all other captions are first or second, percussion is SIXTH. That was consistent for most of the summer. You can blame whomever you want, and as someone with zero connection to Crown I'm not going to point fingers, but the truth is percussion was Crown's weakest section, though I still personally enjoyed their performances. 2) As a percussionist, I want to be dazzled by percussion sections: I loved watching Cadets throw down last summer, really enjoyed Blue Devils' incredible pit, and was impressed by the musicality of SCV's percussion section/writing. What I was saying originally, is there are several different philosophies of musical design, and the most intelligent one dictates you play up to you strengths and downplay the weaknesses. In Crown's case, their brass was a HUGE strength, while the corps also had a strong color guard. They had been developing their visual program to also be a strong point, and that seemed to pay off in 2013 (call it training, design, going to black pants or all of the above). Their percussion, in comparison, was not as strong. IF the intentions of the percussion music design was to focus 100% on effect, try to maximize the Music Analysis & Music Effect sheets, and willingly take hits on the Percussion sheet, then Crown's strategy paid off in spades. Now, that would likely not be recommended as a go-to strategy: the best path to Champion = being solid in all sections. If BD's percussion would've scored higher + Crown's percussion scored lower, BD would be Champion. I know that would've/could've/whatever but it's a risky proposition to hope other corps' don't overtake you based on a section being "good enough." Again, I have no idea if that was the plan. Maybe things happened as some have suggested, with Crown having more talent than performance warmup videos and scores suggest and the staff dropped the ball somewhere. What does seem irrefutable is that Crown's percussion was the weakest section compared to brass & visual, and the design staff was wise to design a show that played up their strengths (brass & visual). Regardless, I look forward to seeing their percussion section hopefully continue to improve this season Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old skool drmmr Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 (edited) I find it pretty interesting that people are knocking the design of the percussion section, saying it is to blame for their relatively low numbers. We all know who is in charge of percussion design, right? Even if his beats aren't the hippest thing on the block, he certainly knows what he's doing. Also, to the talent vs staff argument: I don't think it's either. To say a top 3 drum corps doesn't get top quality talent is ridiculous, on both the performer and instructor sides. What they do have a problem with, however, is talent retention in the percussion membership. Their strongest section in the battery this year was probably the quads. They had a few vets. The weakest section, the snares, zero vets. THAT to me is the big difference. For example: in 2012 the Cadets had very few vets (if any) in the snareline. The snares were the weakest part of that battery. In 2013, a lot of those guys came back and they had a bunch of vets, and we all know what happened next. Edited January 9, 2014 by old skool drmmr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perc2100 Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 I find it pretty interesting that people are knocking the design of the percussion section, saying it is to blame for their relatively low numbers. We all know who is in charge of percussion design, right? Even if his beats aren't the hippest thing on the block, he certainly knows what he's doing. To add to this, at Finals Crown's content was 5th place while their Achievement was 6th. The other two performances at Semis and Prelims the two subcaptions were the same (i.e. content was never lower than achievement). At Allentwon, the last big regional before Champs week, Crown's content was higher than its achievement. So there seems to be some scoring consistency at least at the and of the seasons, that content out-scored achievement. 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.