BRASSO Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 (edited) . The rules are 100% arbitrary. Lots of people around the country that are wearing orange jumps suits while they're making license plates would wholly concur with this. Edited February 10, 2014 by BRASSO 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amil Muzz Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 I am just going ask a few questions... What is the end game of all of this? What overarching vision do the leadership have for the activity? Who possess it, who articulates it? 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? How many 10-15 more students trying out per unit? More students, more money. More money. Would more students be involved if it did not require 3000-4000 dollars to march? 2. It would allow "drum corps" to utilize more colors. I suppose that's true. Like the same colors found in orchestral and band music? Is it really going to be that earth-shattering and open up whole new vistas of color? What's going to be the cost on the staff side to hire a pro horn teacher? Are corps going to have to get new trucks or another truck to haul new equipment? You will need more money, allegedly from the hoards of new students to pay for these upgrades. But back to the creativity point... Using these "new" sounds to be on the cutting edge. Is the cutting edge to sound more band like? Is it worth making people upset for some glissando effects or to have a chamber brass ensemble. Is the only way we can be creative is borrowing from other ensemble's sound and mixing them with a "drum corps"? How different does a sousaphone sound from a marching tuba anyway? Drum Corps (without the quotes) used to be something unique. I believe in the value of that uniqueness. As a friend of mine said to me today, I have never gotten tired of the sound of brass and percussion. Never. What is "drum corps" offering that is so different from what students get at a competitive band band in the fall. Touring? The experience of working with your fellow corps members and achieving as a group. Yes! Absolutely! I do question the touring model. 30 shows in 50 days, no real down time, no real time to recover, all night bus trips and a couple hours on the floor and right back at it. If you are lucky you might have a 3 or 4 (very rare) day period somewhere in the summer to do tweaks and changes, hopefully is does not rain. Other than that, 5 shows a week with lots of travel. I worry about the safety and the nightly gambles of 8 hours bus trips. I taught a group that did not tour properly, bad tires running lights that did not work, a straight up drum corps jalopy. I would like to think everybody is traveling safely, but I still see corps pulling into parking lots with windows propped open because the AC is out and because of the travel demands it can't be fixed properly. I digress.... Let me come back to where I started? What's the end game? What's the vision? Don Angelica had a vision. Gale Royer, Bobby Hoffmann, Jim Jones (my old corps director) just to name a few. Mr. Angelica's vision was rooted in music. Corps used to take way more musically risks, it may not have been as refined as today, but it was exciting. Check out the '82 Sky Ryders...check out the rifle line, check out the musical meat in that show....it was 10th place. There are "BOX 5" brass sections today who's tuba music consisted of a grand total of 28 bars of rhythm that were not whole notes, I know I counted. Before the end of the season those rhythms ended up being watered..."Box 5." Who possess a vision now? Is that vision inclusive of the activity as a whole or a few? Does that vision include preserving the uniqueness of Drum Corps? Are we just surviving year to year? If the end game is simply to get more students involved how many will fulfill the definition of success? Do we just keep making corps larger and larger? Adding more and more "colors" not native to drum corps traditionally will put more people in the seats? Where's the evidence? With electronics we can make ANY sound we want. The number one complaint of people surveyed at shows is they are getting blown out by speakers by the groups who do not do amplification well. People act as though the activity had moved forward, it some ways it certainly has, but, when I see 40,000 people in the stands at Finals again I know we have stopped the slow steady erosion of a once unique activity. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie1223 Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 People act as though the activity had moved forward, it some ways it certainly has, but, when I see 40,000 people in the stands at Finals again I know we have stopped the slow steady erosion of a once unique activity. ...I didn't realize this wasn't unique??? The fact that marching bands exist doesn't make this any less unique. Even if this had woodwinds it would still be the most unique performance of its kind. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjadtT78NsY Sky Ryders '82 was not that unique. Nearly all their repertoire had been performed many times in similar ways before by many corps. And even their own repertoire was repeated from the year before according to corps rep. Just as there are today, back then there were also orchestras who performed these songs with the same gravitas as a drum corps (but were obviously not just brass choir). You simply cannot find anything that sounds similar to Crown's 2013 performance it is especially unique. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alumniof Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 Having sex isn't unique. I still like it. It's not about being unique. It's about being entertaining. DCI is boring. And it's not loud. And as much as you want to deny it, people respond to volume. It's just the way life rolls. Take the music educators, parents, relatives and their friends out of any stadium, what percentage is the general public? General public doesn't care. Personally, I'm waiting for DCI to allow robots on the field and the caption heads have joysticks - or better yet, just program them into the software. I mean, really - why play instruments? That's a lot of effort and they can never be in tune - and all that practicing. What a waste of time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alumniof Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 (edited) From the future: DCI is unique. Nothing was unique about Carolina Crown in 2013. They played band instruments. Look at the two clips below. First is the 2047 Los Angeles Wind Angels (I made that up - don't steal it. Smirk) and the 2013 Carolina Crown. You simply can't find something so similar. Pfft. Edited February 11, 2014 by alumniof Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie1223 Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 (edited) From the future: DCI is unique. Nothing was unique about Carolina Crown in 2013. They played band instruments. Look at the two clips below. First is the 2047 Los Angeles Wind Angels (I made that up - don't steal it. Smirk) and the 2013 Carolina Crown. You simply can't find something so similar. Pfft. your links didn't work. Try this format (media)link(/media) but with brackets instead of parentheses. Edited February 11, 2014 by charlie1223 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amil Muzz Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 Charlie1223, I am not going to even compare '82 Sky Ryders to what Crown did this season. Not at all the point of what I wrote. I am not going to get dragged into a superficial old vs. new argument. Again, not the point of what I wrote. I used the Sky Ryders as an example of the musical risks and exposure the was inherent in the activity then. The uniqueness lies in the totality of what people were willing to try and encouraged to try. One big difference, however, was there there were about 10,000 more people watching that performance and they were on PBS (DCI Midwest instead of Finals I believe. In terms of public exposure, there is a stark difference. I will ask you. What's the end game, here? What defines the success of the vision? Is it artistic? Is it financial? Is it the creation of new groups? Is it bringing new people into the DCI thing? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeenThereDoneThat Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 D.C.I. is headed into irrelevancy and obsolescence, to the delight of B.O.A. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRASSO Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 (edited) I will ask you. What's the end game, here? What defines the success of the vision? Is it artistic? Is it financial? Is it the creation of new groups? Is it bringing new people into the DCI thing? Who knows ? I don't get the sense that even DCI knows. Do they have a 10 year plan ? A 20 year plan ? A vision for their future ? A roadmap on how to get there ? Maybe they do, but it sure as heck hasn't been articulated to the public, thats for sure. Theres an old saying : " if you fail to plan, you plan to fail ". Maybe the end game, is the end of the game. If so, they just might be are on track. Edited February 11, 2014 by BRASSO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amil Muzz Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 (edited) Who knows ? I don't get the sense that even DCI knows. Do they have a 10 year plan ? A 20 year plan ? A vision for their future ? A roadmap on how to get there ? Maybe they do, but it sure as heck hasn't been articulated to the public, thats for sure. Theres an old saying : " if you fail to plan, you plan to fail ". Maybe the end game, is the end of the game. If so, they just might be are on track.Exactly, you understand. There is no end game; just a bumbling, fumbling, stumbling attempt at what? That is what I do not get. What's the real upside? Who is going to benefit? If the idea were TRULY to get more students involved, the first order of business would be a real discussion of the amazingly expensive burden placed on the members and families. But as long as there are long lines of kids and parents willing to pump life into the drum corps machine. The Drum Corps Mentality of overcome at all costs gets used against us all to often. Believe me...I know, I got stories. Edited February 11, 2014 by Amil Muzz 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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