Crown Percussion

[Pete Freedman]

As many have already said, all of that novelty of "doing something new" wears off after the first 15 seconds. At some point, there has to be some kind of music going on to support the idea. Novelties and stunts have been a part of our activity for a long time. But those novelties are usually seconds long, not minutes. They typically are part of a larger picture that supports the idea musically. The Bridgement blindfolded drum solo was a 30 second snippet that ended a 2 minute drum solo that had variety, musicality, virtuosity etc worked in. If it had just been the same pattern over and over again blindfolded for two minutes, people would be saying the same thing about that moment that they are about the muffler solo.

The fact is, while they may have gotten some credit for originality, that's still a really long portion of the show that includes a lot of standing still and playing not very interesting music on metallic percussion. How many other corps had whole minutes of their show when nothing happened?

I think you're suggesting the muffler section did not vary the technique; is that correct? And was therefor relatively easy to do? That would cause it to not contribute much to both field percussion and ensemble percussion (whatever they're calling those now). Also the demand aspect of GE, although the execution portion of GE could still be reasonable since the mood created was effective.

But that would only affect that portion of the show, and since they didn't sit out much of the show it shouldn't hurt that much.

There are plenty of easy brass solos and ensemble portions of shows. It doesn't all have to be super difficult all the time. I guess that's the main point: why do you feel an easy section should cost percussion points when just standing and not playing wouldn't have?

FYI: The blindfold analogy doesn't work, because if they had put on the blindfold for a much longer time it would still have been rewarded.

[mingusmonk]

They were a little hamstrung by the muffler section. They did almost 1 full minute of percussion feature, choosing to be static behind music instruments that had an interesting and generally effective timbre. But that was too long. The effect of the timbre change could only be explored so much. And after about 30 - 40 seconds, there was nowhere left to go and judges had to be asking "what are we contributing at this point?" And it was too long to stand still. So they added body that looked shoehorned as opposed to being part of the unified voice. It didn't look like if fit the part or the whole. It looked like they needed simultaneous demand and didn't realize it until it was too late.

Then the horns came in with their high brass feature. So the drums mounted back up, and then randomly came back in for another 60 seconds of what felt like completely unrelated battery ram feature. This became another reason that the muffler section was too long. If you were insisting on the battery feature as well, a more briefly stated muffler/gong plate section could have breathed life into what ended up being a protracted and disjointed attempt.

I have heard that Evelyn Glennie had some specific requests as to the nature of her work being arranged. True or not, the arrangement of this section of the show did not do any favors.

[mingusmonk]

Now back to Crown Perc 2015. Interesting staff moves. Some small but deliberate tweaks on the battery/coordination side. I think this is a plus. A change from Markworth to Nunez in front and design is significant. I'm not disparaging Nunez here. I like his work. I have interacted with him a few times on the adjudication side of things. Just pointing out that he and Andrew Markworth are very different characters. It will be interesting.

[actucker]

I think you're suggesting the muffler section did not vary the technique; is that correct? And was therefor relatively easy to do? That would cause it to not contribute much to both field percussion and ensemble percussion (whatever they're calling those now). Also the demand aspect of GE, although the execution portion of GE could still be reasonable since the mood created was effective.

But that would only affect that portion of the show, and since they didn't sit out much of the show it shouldn't hurt that much.

There are plenty of easy brass solos and ensemble portions of shows. It doesn't all have to be super difficult all the time. I guess that's the main point: why do you feel an easy section should cost percussion points when just standing and not playing wouldn't have?

FYI: The blindfold analogy doesn't work, because if they had put on the blindfold for a much longer time it would still have been rewarded.

No, I'm suggesting that once the novelty wore off, the muffler portion of the show, from a big picture perspective stalled out entirely. There was no musical direction to it, nor was there anything interesting going on visually. The whole show stops for over a minute so some guys can make some metallic sounds. It has nothing to do with varying techniques, or being easy. It has to do with there being nothing there to support a minute of metallic sounds.

As for the blindfold section, I disagree. I don't think they get any more credit for a minute of it than they did for the first 30 seconds. For the lack of better words, its a shock and awe kind of effect. Once you get past the "oh, they're blindfolded" effect, there has to be something to sustain it. If that same blindfold moment were longer, with no additional content or motivation to draw interest, it wouldn't have been as effective.

Edited September 25, 2014 by actucker

[boxingfred]

I am no longer worried about Crown's percussion. They may not win next year ( who knows) But, They'll no longer be in the bottom half.

[afd]

It's kind of interesting but Crown had better placements in the late 2000's than the past few years. 2007-5th, 2008-4th, 2009-2nd and 2010-5th. Since 2011, 6th, 6th, 6th and 7th. Is the caption much more competitive the last few years? I don't think they have gotten any worse. You have to remember that SCV was not doing so well before Rennick took control of the perc. program.

[Jeff Ream]

It's kind of interesting but Crown had better placements in the late 2000's than the past few years. 2007-5th, 2008-4th, 2009-2nd and 2010-5th. Since 2011, 6th, 6th, 6th and 7th. Is the caption much more competitive the last few years? I don't think they have gotten any worse. You have to remember that SCV was not doing so well before Rennick took control of the perc. program.

the caption is incredibly competitive.....and, the judges are not afraid to throw out spreads and actually manage numbers as opposed to tenthing everyone in order of appearance

[CrownBariDad]

From Crown's FB page: Tom Aungst Talks Percussion.

http://www.carolinacrown.org/web/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=506&catid=88&Itemid=553

[doubleratamacue]

I find it quite interesting that no one has really commented on the fact that while Tom Aungst is heading up the percussion caption at Crown in 2015, Thom Hannum is still writing the drum book.

[actucker]

It's kind of interesting but Crown had better placements in the late 2000's than the past few years. 2007-5th, 2008-4th, 2009-2nd and 2010-5th. Since 2011, 6th, 6th, 6th and 7th. Is the caption much more competitive the last few years? I don't think they have gotten any worse. You have to remember that SCV was not doing so well before Rennick took control of the perc. program.

Have you ever compared them side to side?

This:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_ab0MJkYw8

is not in the same league as this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZASdJznA2w

The approach in the past few years hasn't been uniform, there are a lot of instances of individuals blowing out of the sound. There were lots of rhythmic clarity issues (understand that I mean a lot in the context of world class level drumlines). All of this with a much less complex book. On the surface, both lines seem to be ramming a ton of notes, but the range of rhythmic responsibilities and musical demands on the 2009 line is far and away more demanding than that of the past two or three years.

Yes, percussion is incredibly competitive. It was incredibly competitive in 2009 too. Crown's program is not as strong as it was in 2009. This is not meant to minimize their accomplishments, or demean the members or staff. Its simply an observation.