Jump to content

Oregon Crusaders 2017


Recommended Posts

19 hours ago, luv4corps said:

As per their website:  All-days are 5/26 - 7/7.

You should not start All-days until you have at least 80% of members present.  Too many holes to make drill learning effective.  Volunteer staff is strained to the limit.  Would you want to arrive at All-days only to find out that the majority of members are arriving later?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

30 minutes ago, dcifanforlife said:

You should not start All-days until you have at least 80% of members present.  Too many holes to make drill learning effective.  Volunteer staff is strained to the limit.  Would you want to arrive at All-days only to find out that the majority of members are arriving later?

 I don't know. Practice with even just 50% of marchers present is still far better than no practices, with nobody present, imo. Practices do not include just drill. They include brass and percussion sectionals too. And sectionals practice is better than no sectionals practice.

 All this said, Corps with lots of college aged marchers in their ranks, all things being equal, are far better off than Corps that have lots of H.S. marchers in their ranks. No matter how talented a H.S. marcher is, if he or she is in H.S. English class learning how to appreciate Longfellow, while his or her competition is out on a football field somewhere learning how to appreciate Liszt, the latter Corps will always have a distinct competitive advantage in competition that summer.

Edited by BRASSO
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, BRASSO said:

 I don't know. Practice with even just 50% of marchers present is still far better than no practices, with nobody present, imo. Practices do not include just drill. They include brass and percussion sectionals too. And sectionals practice is better than no sectionals practice.

 All this said, Corps with lots of college aged marchers in their ranks, all things being equal, are far better off than Corps that have lots of H.S. marchers in their ranks. No matter how talented a H.S. marcher is, if he or she is in H.S. English class learning how to appreciate Longfellow, while his or her competition is out on a football field somewhere learning how to appreciate Liszt, the latter Corps will always have a distinct competitive advantage in competition that summer.

From a fiscal standpoint it is pretty hard to justify a 41 day spring training when the average is 33 days for all other world class corps. Spring training is expensive. Your fixed costs are about the same regardless how many members are present. Oregon Crusaders are showing four different sites for spring training and for the June 25-July 1 week that have yet to find a location.  For me it is all about an organization spending their money wisely.  Oregon Crusaders income for the season will be the same if they have a 41 day ST or 33 day ST. Gaining competitive advantage  comes at a cost.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gotta chime in on this one being from the beautiful PNW!  Yes, we do not start school until around Labor Day and yes, some of our schools are not getting out until mid-June or later (colleges included)!  We not only have a minimum number of days each year we have to conform to, but also have a minimum number of instructional hours as well.  This year was unique in that some places had snow/ice storms and simply couldn't prepare for it, thereby delaying our schedules even further.  All that said, these members won't give it any less effort than those members who were out in May (not that it was implied, but you know...).

As a side note, OC's brass camps were being held in Texas - so even those "in-state" members would have had to travel "out-of-state" :D   

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, dcifanforlife said:

You should not start All-days until you have at least 80% of members present.  Too many holes to make drill learning effective.  Volunteer staff is strained to the limit.  Would you want to arrive at All-days only to find out that the majority of members are arriving later?

I can tell you that from what I've heard ... OC will move in 90% of their member on day 1.

Things seem to be going very well.  I was at camp this past weekend and heard 75% of the show.  Its pretty incredible.  I can't tell you anything, I don't want to get in trouble by the corps police, but its going to be pretty cool.

Take that for what its worth.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, dcifanforlife said:

You should not start All-days until you have at least 80% of members present.  Too many holes to make drill learning effective.  Volunteer staff is strained to the limit.  Would you want to arrive at All-days only to find out that the majority of members are arriving later?

They work on more than drill at Spring Training so...

Plus, any rehearsal will improve the corps.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/2/2017 at 9:50 AM, BrassSoundsMatter said:

I can tell you that from what I've heard ... OC will move in 90% of their member on day 1.

Things seem to be going very well.  I was at camp this past weekend and heard 75% of the show.  Its pretty incredible.  I can't tell you anything, I don't want to get in trouble by the corps police, but its going to be pretty cool.

Take that for what its worth.

What a very tantalizing post.  Can't wait to see what they've done with the compass rose logo - something I have always thought had enormous visual potential.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Well, I didn't watch opening night.  Instead, I took in an OC 'Sneak Peak' run-through which was also posted to their subscription facebook OCVIP page.

A few thoughts...

-Pleasantly surprised by the hornline.  Sounds big with all sections well represented.  Back to 16 tubas!  

-Battery & pit will be strong.  No surprise there.

-The Enya ballad is really working.  Will be a crowd pleaser for sure.  I've been struck by the fact that the melodic sequence, while simple,  does indeed 'encompass' one note.

-Many examples of 'encompassing' visually as well.  They play with this idea quite a bit.

-Bones of a great show.  Electronics are not overdone.  

Edited by luv4corps
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I too donate every year to see what they're up to in spring training, always a 30$ I'm happy to spend.  Obviously I'm not going to give away anything specific.  But:

  • Tim Snyder's presence has more than made itself known in the brass.  That's all that needs to be said about that.  They're absolutely explosive.  
  • Percussion is as great as ever.  
  • Guard looks stronger this year.  
  • This is a super easy to listen to, beefy, beautiful, and exciting musical program.  It's a pretty seamless/organic mix of all three sources.  If you like melody, you will quite enjoy this ballad.  
  • Can't get a super good read on the visual program yet but they're flying at times, looks exciting.  

All the parts are more than there for a very strong season from them, can't wait to see how everything fits together.  I sense more clarity than last year already.  I can tell this show will get a ton of listens from me.  

Edited by DrumManTx
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...