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DCI membership votes overwhelmingly to allow ALL brass instruments in


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Going on the assumption that all of this is true...

Why hasn't DCI commissioned a marketing study to properly identify their niche market and the demographics of the market? Even though it is 'non-profit' drum corps is still a business driven by the fans buying power. If the fans do not feel the price is worth the experience, they won't spend their disposable income on it.

If ill-informed decisions are made that alienate your niche market, they will stop buying the product. When they stop buying the product, there will be no money to produce the product.

I'll give this 1 shot although its been beat to death for years...........................just a question..............you are assuming that MOST, MANY ...ALL dont like the new product? as far as lowering prices..thats cool,,,lets get stadiums to lower it also..then busses, schools for corps to stay in..reharsal facilities .etc etc..thats would be great

Edited by GUARDLING
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It has been stated the the recent round of changes regrading instrumentation will....

1. Get more students involved.

Show me the proof, show me evidence that more people will be drawn to "drum corps" as a result of instrumentation changes. More students will come just because someone said they would?

Oh now there you go.. being way too naturally curious and inquisitive for DCP. DCI should have a standing headline that for every change they implement, it will, in their words " get more students involved ". Its been a rationalization utilized for approx. 35 years now, and please don't ask for any research data to support such utterances or you'll be branded a " hater ". So please sit down in front , or move to the back, and be still, ok ?

Edited by BRASSO
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hmmmm really? there's some spectators that now think they are designer, directors, fashionestas, etc etc...if someone changes a sock color there are some which predict the end of the world.....hilarious.....funny thing ( just my own experience ) I have a few friends from my marching days....that were the absolute worst at what they did but now critique crown or bd.....but not from a point of preference but a point of what they all do wrong...lol.......priceless................but....hey maybe youre right...were all spectators I guess...some pay some dont I guess

You seem very impressed with yourself.

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Nice try. It's like mentioning single moms, children and Christmas. Here's the reality, just because you're a kid doesn't make you special or us adults who were once kids should idealize you because your biology hasn't peaked. Drum Corps is not about kids for me. But, for your argument, let's make it about kids. How about learning something new - like a bugle. How about respecting tradition. How about respecting alumni which laid the history for you to associate yourself with. How about realizing it's not about you, it's about the ### in the seat and/or something beyond yourself (it's all about me generation). There's nothing niche about marching band. A fan of kids? How about you become a fan of adults. What a crap society we live in. Everybody and everything is disposable. Wal-Mart attitude.

If I was a show designer I would not want to design a show to entertain someone with that kind of attitude. If I was a marchign member I would not want to perform for someone with that kind of attitude either. So, I guess that means you'll be watching an empty stadium because without them, you have nothing to enjoy. The kids are the performers. The designers are the producers. And the audience consumes the product. You need all three fat and happy. It's not JUST about one of these branches its all three together and they have all slightly different needs.

Edited by charlie1223
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I've held all along the drum corps is and has always been a form of marching band - from its inception to now. I don't know if it's shame or something else that riles people up when they hear the two likened (especially by the unenlightened masses), but it's pretty tired and played out in my book. Drum corps is drum corps because of the experience and the people, not the key or number of valves of the horns they're holding.

Besides, the percussive instrumentation is the same between marching band and drum corps - why don't we get mad about that?! :P

the bell front bugles and marching brass were developed because of the AL VFW days of the activity. The visual look of the ensemble was initiated by the activity as they wanted all voicing to resemble the bugle. All modern marching bugles and brass is based on Zig Kanstul's designs. It would be fascinating to hear his take on this...

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I find it...unsettling in some way I guess, that a very short time after posting on their facebook page that they will be releasing a recap of the meetings on Wednesday, and soliciting through a link to "sign up", DCI posts this link.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=4386210094365

What are they trying to say? Not just coincidence that it is Madison? Almost like a kind of slap in the face to those who might oppose some of the "desires for progress" of the current artists? At least that was my first impression.

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Woodwinds would be an extreme change

Who says ? The Fife and Drum Corps has resisted any and all changes in the use of their woodwinds in their Drum Corps for over 225 years. Not a thing was changed in instrumentation.. nor uniforms... nor show exhibitions in over 2 centuries.. How has this resistance to change worked out for them ? Well, its all relative to be sure, but there are more Fife and Drum Corps on the Eastern seaboard from Maine to Florida than the Drum and Whatevers in DCI, and as such more people in a given year ( from Jan-Dec ) will see and hear a Fife and Drum Corps perform ( as they do more parades, exhibitions, etc ) than a DCI Drum and Whatevers on the Atlantic seaboard, I prefer the Drum and Whatevers ( sans windwinds ) over that of the Fife and Drum Corps, but woodwinds are not "an extreme" at all to the more visible Drum Corps that most people see and hear on the east coast now these days ( especially now that the DCI Drum and Whatevers Championships are no longer on the TV anymore, and go into secrecy mode for approx. 42 out of 52 weeks of the rest of the year.)

Edited by BRASSO
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If I was a show designer I would not want to design a show to entertain someone with that kind of attitude. If I was a marchign member I would not want to perform for someone with that kind of attitude either. So, I guess that means you'll be watching an empty stadium because without them, you have nothing to enjoy. The kids are the performers. The designers are the producers. And the audience consumes the product. You need all three fat and happy. It's not JUST about one of these branches its all three together and they have all slightly different needs.

My issue with this is only that 2 of the branches are PAYING the other 1. That to me means that the paid branch has a responsibility to those that are paying. Those that pay have done their part in making that branch fat and happy, and deserve their interests to be served.

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Going on the assumption that all of this is true...

Why hasn't DCI commissioned a marketing study to properly identify their niche market and the demographics of the market? Even though it is 'non-profit' drum corps is still a business driven by the fans buying power. If the fans do not feel the price is worth the experience, they won't spend their disposable income on it.

If ill-informed decisions are made that alienate your niche market, they will stop buying the product. When they stop buying the product, there will be no money to produce the product.

Most likely, had such a study been undertaken and even a preponderance of the evidence taken from the study had supported their position, they would have cited the study.

As someone else pointed out earlier in the thread, most (if not all) of the previous changes like this one have only cited as the reason, "It's about the kids." "It will grow the activity" What would lead anyone to believe anything is different this time around? Did they not allude to just that in the podcast?

Others suggest that despite the "it's about the kids" argument, the preponderance of evidence from the other changes appear to indicate that it's actually about the designers and arrangers.

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