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Is the brass playing less nowadays?


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I've made this observation as well. It seems that a lot of the "meat" in the shows has been relegated to the front ensemble... Don't late the naysayers get to you; you're on to something.

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Ahhhhh...you have struck upon the old "lead trumpeter" joke often heard over the years. To whit: "How many lead trumpets does it take to screw in a light bulb??"

Answer: Ten. One to screw in the bulb, and nine to shrug and say "I could have done that."

Actually it is just one. He holds the bulb while the world revolves around him.

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Actually it is just one. He holds the bulb while the world revolves around him.

Yes. I've heard this one as well. And being a trumpet player myself...well...in the words of Chaucer, "Many a truth is said in jest."

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Brass is playing less and outside of a few runs, their parts are watered down. Of course it’s all to accommodate the visual but….it’s gone a little too far IMO. I’d rather hear a horn line then see them twitch around the field or doing 70 individual characters having Italian fits. It’s just not entertaining to me to watch horn player put their horns on the ground and do a bad little jig.

But whatever, I’m old and will die soon enough, you kids can drive this thing into the ground by turning it into some weird dancing beauty pageant with faux intellectualism in base storylines as engineered by the great chocolate bathers

SCV's brass book this year was a horror show but they looked great !

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I feel like this is a common misconception in drum corps...... those runs are written "smarter" but at the same time more people are playing the full run or part. It's actually way harder to trade 16th notes than it would be to learn a full three or four measures of a run.

and you're right people play less during the show now but they also do WAYYYYY more in show than ever before. When I write shows I try to make sure the winds are only playing about 6:30-7:30 of a ten minute book and only about 5:00-6:00 of a 8 minute band show. People just don't have the iron lips that they once had but at the same time there isn't a need for more brass playing.

it's tougher playing a page full of black notes and running too

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Brass is playing less and outside of a few runs, their parts are watered down. Of course it’s all to accommodate the visual but….it’s gone a little too far IMO. I’d rather hear a horn line then see them twitch around the field or doing 70 individual characters having Italian fits. It’s just not entertaining to me to watch horn player put their horns on the ground and do a bad little jig.

But whatever, I’m old and will die soon enough, you kids can drive this thing into the ground by turning it into some weird dancing beauty pageant with faux intellectualism in base storylines as engineered by the great chocolate bathers

SCV's brass book this year was a horror show but they looked great !

concerts are good for ya then. or a CD..........oh by the way BITD visual drove alot of things also. This isn't anything new

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Brass is playing less and outside of a few runs, their parts are watered down. Of course it’s all to accommodate the visual but….it’s gone a little too far IMO. I’d rather hear a horn line then see them twitch around the field or doing 70 individual characters having Italian fits. It’s just not entertaining to me to watch horn player put their horns on the ground and do a bad little jig.

But whatever, I’m old and will die soon enough, you kids can drive this thing into the ground by turning it into some weird dancing beauty pageant with faux intellectualism in base storylines as engineered by the great chocolate bathers

SCV's brass book this year was a horror show but they looked great !

Well, aren't you just Mr. Sunshine and Rainbows? Don't you think anyone in DCI could continue carrying the torch and keeping the activity alive, or are you very convinced that everyone will run it into the ground?

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the great chocolate bathers

I'm still scratching my head over this one .... am I too old to understand? too young? not hip enough? not erudite enough? is it some DCI or DCP jargon which I have naively yet to encounter or have overlooked?

I need to know ...

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Well, aren't you just Mr. Sunshine and Rainbows? Don't you think anyone in DCI could continue carrying the torch and keeping the activity alive, or are you very convinced that everyone will run it into the ground?

What many choose to forget ( and I can say this because Im old also ) is that if not for the powers to be in recent decades there wouldnt be any drum corps today. There's those few that have nothing good to say or believe that other drove it into the ground BUT even if that were true it doesnt happen over night SO maybe the blame needs to go back decades which just might include those who believe it's todays people driving it into the ground..hmmmmmmm...lol :wow:

Edited by GUARDLING
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I'm still scratching my head over this one .... am I too old to understand? too young? not hip enough? not erudite enough? is it some DCI or DCP jargon which I have naively yet to encounter or have overlooked?

I need to know ...

In 1995 ( 1994) on the PBS telecast, Michael Cesario said: "It's like taking a bath in a tub full of chocolate!!" after Phantom's performance referring to the quality of sound from their hornline...

That phrase will go down in infamy as being awkward from many.

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