San Antonio Regional

[Kamarag]

Judge 1 on field. Judge 2 in box. General consensus is Judge 1 was more consistent with reality. :)

TIL "general consensus" means whatever makes my corps look better.

[zigzigZAG]

Seems to me that BD has tremendous variety in their drill and demand.....some relatively demanding and some....not so much. They out-execute everyone so far. That said, the aerobic demand for Cadets and others would have to exceed BD, which would make it quite challenging for those corps to achieve a consistent, high quality sound (brass) when doing higher velocity drill that also has directional changes.

This is been BD's method for the last decade - aim lower, but get cleaner. No one can ever correctly claim that slow movement - be it walking or "body movement" is nearly as demanding as fast and aerobically-taxing drill. When you play a wind instrument and are winded, it is diabolically difficult to keep your playing at the highest level.

That, for me, is what's unique about DCI.

But we'll get honks on here claiming that this argument is 'tired' or just 'hating', but demand is something that anyone who tries to be objective can clearly see and understand, especially if they've marched.

[tesmusic]

Gee Marie, could you maybe hide your favoritism a little.

[tesmusic]

So glad there are so many judges, helps with consistency and accuracy...oh wait.

I thought that the sheets were written to prevent bias, guess I was wrong.

[zigzigZAG]

Fast marching (playing or not) isn't nearly as demanding as many people think it is. It just *looks* hard. Devils do things that *are* demanding and make them look easy. Since about 1976 or so.

Dude, what are you smoking? I've marched, as have most everyone on this forum, and the difficulty of correcting for harder footfalls from faster and longer strides on the embouchure - affecting tone quality and intonation, among other things - plus the significantly increased aerobic demands, requiring more oxygen even while players can't breathe normally, is the most difficult thing a brass player can be asked to do.

Unfortunately, some judges don't understand this, and I'm not mainly speaking about brass judges. If you're a WGI person with a background in dance or spinning and you judge GE or visual, you just can't get it if you've not done it - i.e. if you haven't played a brass instrument and marched corps. Thus we have different interpretations of demand, and the GE that an undefined "demand" generates.

I'm tired of honks coming on here and claiming that somehow it's magic that significantly slower walking or smaller strides is actually - voila - demanding because a group wins doing it and makes what's easier look easy. Just not true.

Edited July 20, 2014 by zigzigZAG

[Cappybara]

TIL "general consensus" means whatever makes my corps look better.

Not sure how a judge in a press box can determine cleanliness better than one on the field. Remember the first few weeks of competition when the percussion judge remained in the press box (you know, when Crown won percussion a couple times) and people wrote those percussion scores off simply because the judge wasn't on the field?

I think it's okay to write these off too. I'd definitely take the word of a guy up close.

Edited July 20, 2014 by Cappybara

[Cappybara]

Gee Marie, could you maybe hide your favoritism a little.

How original. Point a finger and claim bias. Easy to do it, isn't it?

[chaddyt]

This is been BD's method for the last decade - aim lower, but get cleaner. No one can ever correctly claim that slow movement - be it walking or "body movement" is nearly as demanding as fast and aerobically-taxing drill. When you play a wind instrument and are winded, it is diabolically difficult to keep your playing at the highest level.

That, for me, is what's unique about DCI.

But we'll get honks on here claiming that this argument is 'tired' or just 'hating', but demand is something that anyone who tries to be objective can clearly see and understand, especially if they've marched.

Yes it's true that one element of visual demand is the "athletic" aspect. But that is not the only thing that can define demand. I am not anywhere close to being a BD honk, but there are some things that they've done visually over the past few years that I really have no idea how they got so clean just because of how the drill develops, members coming into (and continuing) a form in the blind, etc.

And yes, they do make stuff look easy. And yes, many times it's not. And yes, that is demanding.

[Kamarag]

Not sure how a judge in a press box can determine cleanliness better than one on the field. Remember the first few weeks of competition when the percussion judge remained in the press box (you know, when Crown won percussion a couple times) and people wrote those percussion scores off simply because the judge wasn't on the field?

I think it's okay to write these off too. I'd definitely take the word of a guy up close.

What if the judge in the box is assessing different criteria than the one on the fiel? What if, instead of looking at every stroke and tap, he was looking for and listening to section timing, ensemble balance and blend, and ensemble cohesiveness? It just might be that some lines are strong both upstairs and downstairs, and some might not be.

[Kamarag]

is the most difficult thing a brass player can be asked to do.

Except that it isn't, and any brass instructor worth is salt will tell you that (slow, long phrases are FAR more difficult to play, no matter what your feet are doing. Example: Adagio for Strings). You're also making the assumption that hard = good, which is clearly not necessarily true. It doesn't matter how hard your show is if you can't achieve it. There is no reward in the attempt.

The key to the whole argument is right there on the sheet: VARIETY.

What the Blue Devils do is master many skills, and move from one to the other. Certain other corps master one or two (which may indeed be incredibly difficult) and beat you over the head with them for eleven minutes. I'll take the former, thanks, as will most good judges. Cadets have learned this, and have adapted to it over the last couple of years. They've transitioned from a corps that had two speeds (crazy fast and ballad), to a corps that is displaying a wide variety of styles and tempos. That's a good thing, too, and they are being rewarded for it.