Crown Percussion

[garfield]

I, for one, thought Crown was better than last year. The battery book was better. I thought their execution was improved. They could have used a bit more razzle dazzle in the muffler feature. The body movement in this show was just OVERDONE. I would have liked to see more content in the pit. However, they righted the ship this year. Crown alum should be happy about that. It takes time to create a percussion section that is as prolific as their brass.

All in all, it was much better, but the sections in front of them were outstanding. SCV was just sickeningly good this year. BD would have swept all the captions and broke 100 had it not been for them. (JK) I mean, as clean as the Cadets were with their paradiddleapalooza, all they managed was a fourth place finish-a strong fourth place finish IMHO. That just shows how tight the race was this year. I could argue that in another year Bluecoats might have taken the Sanford. They were great!

I learned a new word today!

[xandandl]

must be another example of that "drumspeak" we hear more and more about.

[fsubone]

Crown was 2nd in percussion in 2009. So the question is, what happened after that?

[Scottishfan]

At the start of the season I remember a lot of posts about how little Crown's brass was actually playing and that the percussion was being given more focus.

As a brass guy, I thought that Crown's drumline (esp. battery) were really good, but there was so much amazing writing and performing by others that they didn't move up the standings.

[Cappybara]

At the start of the season I remember a lot of posts about how little Crown's brass was actually playing and that the percussion was being given more focus.

As a brass guy, I thought that Crown's drumline (esp. battery) were really good, but there was so much amazing writing and performing by others that they didn't move up the standings.

I'm not going to pretend to know anything about percussion because I really don't... But I do feel like Crown's percussion this year would have placed higher if that was their percussion section in 2013. They seemed to have improved a lot in one year.

[Scottishfan]

I'm not going to pretend to know anything about percussion because I really don't... But I do feel like Crown's percussion this year would have placed higher if that was their percussion section in 2013. They seemed to have improved a lot in one year.

Cappy, I rarely feign ignorance, because I am more than capable of achieving the real deal. Like you though, I thought they were really good and a step up from the last couple of seasons.

[dcsnare93]

This was a common argument last year as well. Percussion is always stacked. The standard is high among the top 12. Crown has lived in 6th or 7th the past two or three years, and its not because all of a sudden percussion programs have gotten it together and left them behind. They were middle of the finals pack. It is what it is. Lets stop with the "everyone gets a trophy" point of view and actually talk about what's going on. While the rest of the corps is in the top 4 or 5 in their captions, the percussion consistently places lower. We can debate the reasons for that ad nauseam, but the fact remains, they weren't as good as the other groups ahead of them. Whether that is a good percussion section among a lot of good percussion sections, or unacceptable considering the calibre of the rest of the corps is simply a matter of point of view.

However, a lot want to insinuate that "any other year" Crown would be higher in percussion. No, they wouldn't. The fact that they haven't been is evidence of that. We've seen a similar product from that caption the past few years. And yes, recruitment is part of the problem. I know of several members that marched there for a year, and left to go to other programs that wouldn't place as highly overall because they felt they could get more out of another organization. When you're a championship level corps, and you have members treating you as a stepping stone in a specific caption, that's a problem.

Don't get me wrong. The members work hard. I don't claim to know why the section has struggled. I'm simply pointing out that those struggles are real and regardless of how we try to justify it, the fact remains that it has in fact struggled to get into the mix with the top level programs with any kind of consistency. Who knows if these staff changes will help. Aungst certainly has a proven track record of success at every level. I'm sure he'll put together a staff that is more than capable. The smart thing about the move is the fact that Aungst is a name everyone knows. His sticks are commonly used, he's still running one of the top scholastic programs in the country in indoor season. The kind of members a championship drum corps wants to attract will absolutely know who he is and it will be a draw. I'm not the biggest fan of Crown's shows as of late, but I am a fan of any drum corps, and hope that this coming summer will mark a step in the right direction for Crown's percussion program.

I actually agree with what you're saying.

I think their "struggle" in percussion is due to a number of a different things, one of which is execution. What I saw and heard from them this summer was an improvement over last year in that regard, yet they fell a placement. Incremental improvements when you're middle of the pack simply won't cut it in this caption, it's stacked. I wasn't trying to insinuate "any other year", as I simply don't think that would be the case. The lines placing above them are on another level.\

I'm not a huge Crown fan myself, but thrilled to see Aungst going there.

Edited September 12, 2014 by dcsnare93

[Jeffe77]

Crown was 2nd in percussion in 2009. So the question is, what happened after that?

I believe that's the season where they lost 2 snare drummers including the center snare Ashley. Her tendinitis forced her to step down and go to the pit. They also went from 5 quads to 4 in the middle of the season. I do recall before this all happened they had a great start to the season placing 1st and 2nd against other strong programs. Then their placement suffered after the injuries. You would think reducing the upper battery from 14 to 11 would make it easier to clean, but to no avail. Lee Beddis (Cap Head) left for Madison in 2011.

Edited September 12, 2014 by Jeffe77

[Jeff Ream]

Just an fyi to anyone who thinks coming in 7th had a huge impact on their placement...if Crown had been as high as 4th in percussion they would still have ended up in 5th place. They would have had to be 3rd in percussion to move their overall placement up to 4th. Even if they had been 1st in percussion they would have still placed 4th. Of course, placing that much higher in percussion would have had an impact in other captions, at least slighlly.

true. but a year ago, percussion could have cost them a world title

[CrownStarr]

I believe that's the season where they lost 2 snare drummers including the center snare Ashley. Her tendinitis forced her to step down and go to the pit. They also went from 5 quads to 4 in the middle of the season. I do recall before this all happened they had a great start to the season placing 1st and 2nd against other strong programs. Then their placement suffered after the injuries. You would think reducing the upper battery from 14 to 11 would make it easier to clean, but to no avail. Lee Beddis (Cap Head) left for Madison in 2011.

We also lost a bass during spring training and had to replace him (I think it was bass 3 or 4). But to be clear (because I misread your post at first), 2010 was the year when all that happened, not 2009. Also, Lee didn't leave for Madison until 2012.