Humid and Sticky Houston

[BigBird]

Anyone who thinks the Blue Devils 'pick higher levels of difficulty' while the other top 5 corps are displaying 'basic high school skillsets' is clearly watching through Blue Devil colored glasses.  Just check out the last 90 seconds of Santa Clara's program.  Every one of the top World Class corps is performing high levels of difficulty.

The fact that - as many people have pointed out - the Blue Devils are winning the Visual Analysis (Comp) caption is of concern.  I really like the Blue Devils program and it is fine with me if they 'park and play', casually walk to their next set, etc.  And I agree that there are visual effects you can create while in place and those movements deserve credit.  However, if 80 members (more than half the corps) spends too much time in one place it does not create as much effect as another corps that offers more visual content.

In my opinion, SCV should be scoring higher in Visual Analysis (Comp) than the Blue Devils.  Their visual program is superior in that caption.

I see where you got confused but he's not saying any other of the other corps use "high school level skillsets." He's simply saying they use harder visual techniques than just "high school level skillsets." Which is what everyone who hates on BD seem to judge by

posted from the DrumScorps app

[Chief Guns]

46 minutes ago, Midwest said:

I played percussion. I have watched both shows many times. BC and SCV are better corps, better show design, better percussion, better drill, better GE, better Visual. BD deserved to win in 2014. They didn't deserve to win in 2015 or this year. 3,5,10 years from now, no one will remember this BD show.  Most people who respond the way you did are from the west coast. Let's hope the judges from the Midwest will see things differently. My bet is SCV will win finals. While I prefer BC, I can't deny SCV show design and performance is excellent. BD show is something slightly better then a high school band show design. 

Jig is up BD!!!!! All that winning you do out there on the west coast year after year comes to and end when these midwest judges get ahold of your show. Thanks for bringing this to my attention cause i always wondered why BD scores so high and..........oh wait.......just realized 15 of BDs 17 titles have came in central/eastern time zones............nevermind.

[Mead09]

We were at the show last night. It is the first time that we had seen either BD or SCV live and truly there  is no comparison. The BD show has so many interesting and memorable, clever visuals that the show duration goes by in a flash. You can't help but recollect and smile. The SCV show is good but it really is hard to recollect any of the key visual moments. 

Quite honestly, if the shows were reversed i.e. BD had the SCV show and SCV had that of BD, SCV would be winning by a mile.

Looking forward to seeing them again today in San Antonio and maybe the dome will provide a different perspective? Also really looking forward to seeing BAC

 

[Cappybara]

1 hour ago, Midwest said:

I played percussion. I have watched both shows many times. BC and SCV are better corps, better show design, better percussion, better drill, better GE, better Visual. BD deserved to win in 2014. They didn't deserve to win in 2015 or this year. 3,5,10 years from now, no one will remember this BD show.  Most people who respond the way you did are from the west coast. Let's hope the judges from the Midwest will see things differently. My bet is SCV will win finals. While I prefer BC, I can't deny SCV show design and performance is excellent. BD show is something slightly better then a high school band show design. 

you should go into comedy

[Candid Insight]

52 minutes ago, Mead09 said:

We were at the show last night. It is the first time that we had seen either BD or SCV live and truly there  is no comparison. The BD show has so many interesting and memorable, clever visuals that the show duration goes by in a flash. You can't help but recollect and smile. The SCV show is good but it really is hard to recollect any of the key visual moments. 

Quite honestly, if the shows were reversed i.e. BD had the SCV show and SCV had that of BD, SCV would be winning by a mile.

Looking forward to seeing them again today in San Antonio and maybe the dome will provide a different perspective? Also really looking forward to seeing BAC

 

I can understand how it is 'hard to recollect any of the key visual moments' in SCV's show.  That might be because of the complexity.

Here are some of the visual highlights (with the time they occur in the show):

1) 0:49 Formation of O around snake props (blind set)

2) 1:48 Snake props remove people from company front - turn them into small snakes.

3) 2:00 Low brass plays while emulating the heads of snakes

4) 2:30 Entire brass line is eaten by snakes and disappears in 10 seconds

5) 3:05 Ingenious flow into > pattern - fast development

6) 3:15 Flags 'answer each other' as brass does 'call and answer'

7) 5:08 Rolling drill pattern right using 4 files followed by guard effect

8) 5:45 Snake effect

9) 5:55 Huge rifle toss (7 rotations?) brass running left - files into echelons

10) 7:00 Snake movements

11) 7:10 Snake flag, eventually becomes separate flags as they peel off (snake shedding skin)

12) 7:58 - 8:02 Form a single line within 4 counts - clever transition, blind set, no recovery time

13) 8:35 Almost kaleidoscopic effect into a blind file set

14) 9:45 Blind transition to circles - no recovery time

15) 10:10   Kaleidoscopic effect center stage

16) 10:15 Weaving movement through center (including guard) - very intricate

17) 10:58 to the end tremendous amount of motion while playing – very complex.

 If you view the You tube video that is posted online from the North Texas show the timing should match up.

SCV has performance problems and they will need to clean those if they want to catch Devils.  But the visual show is impressive.

 

[saxfreq1128]

4 hours ago, leadsop04 said:

 Most people that say these comments tend to be (but not always) brass players that base the level of difficulty of a show by how physically demanding the drill is. (Noticed I said physically demanding because there is a difference between difficult drill and physically demanding drill) The words "marching while playing" are no where on the sheets by the way. Marching is but one way to move around the field. Marching is but one skill set in the visual performance caption. The Blue Devils just tend to pick higher levels of difficulty for their members than these basic high school level skillsets. If you truly watch the show with an open mind you'll see that the entire corps is doing really advanced movement throughout the entire production.

There is more than one way to generate effect. The hornline is but one section of the drum corps. The Blue Devils have the 2 most successful visual designers of all time on their staff. Maybe we should all start asking ourselves why Jay Murphy and Scott Chandler made their decisions on that part of the show. 

Why are the brass "standing" (while doing choreography) in pods during flight of the bumble bee? Was it to generate a visual call and response? Was it to create negative space for the rifles for their killer feature?

 

Why are the brass just walking to a "park and bark" (while doing choreography) for the ballad? Is it to let the flag add on feature be the focus? Is it to let the music drive the effect at this moment? Is it to give the older drum corps fans what they've been begging for? (Just play a full melody and blow my face off)

There designers are brilliant. I'm beyond ecstatic for what this show Is, what it can be, the boundaries of design thst it's pushing, and that it's being rewarded by the judges. I hope this trend continues for the rest of the season.

Hear hear! I especially like your point about negative space, which BD and SCV are using especially masterfully this year.  

I'd only add: the reason to stand in pods and play Flight of the Bumblebee is..... IT'S FLIGHT OF THE BUMBLEBEE, lmao. You don't need to run around while playing that number to prove a point. If you're nailing the piece, you're proving your point—nothing could be more convincing.

[saxfreq1128]

2 hours ago, Midwest said:

I played percussion. I have watched both shows many times. BC and SCV are better corps, better show design, better percussion, better drill, better GE, better Visual. BD deserved to win in 2014. They didn't deserve to win in 2015 or this year. 3,5,10 years from now, no one will remember this BD show.  Most people who respond the way you did are from the west coast. Let's hope the judges from the Midwest will see things differently. My bet is SCV will win finals. While I prefer BC, I can't deny SCV show design and performance is excellent. BD show is something slightly better then a high school band show design. 

So you're not gonna respond to the meat of the post, just make weird claims about how only west coast people can like a show? OoOoooOOkaAAaay

I'm a BD diehard from NYC, and I am not into the west coast at all. The only things I like about California, besides the natural sights, are BD and burritos. 

Edited July 22, 2017 by saxfreq1128

[pudding]

So many "trust the judges" apologists lately. If you guys seriously think that there isn't politics and message-sending going on (not just this year, but every year), then you are either blind or delusional, or both.

[mfrontz]

1 hour ago, pudding said:

So many "trust the judges" apologists lately. If you guys seriously think that there isn't politics and message-sending going on (not just this year, but every year), then you are either blind or delusional, or both.

This seems so out of character. I love your analogy about General Effect and food criticism. Now this seems like a reaction unsupported by evidence.

Edited July 22, 2017 by mfrontz
Substance

[Chief Guns]

1 hour ago, pudding said:

So many "trust the judges" apologists lately. If you guys seriously think that there isn't politics and message-sending going on (not just this year, but every year), then you are either blind or delusional, or both.

Hmmmmmm.......well i am active duty military and i just had my eyes checked at medical so not going blind and i don't think the Navy would have let me re-enlist if i was delusional, especially so late in my career so i am good there. So how about bringing some hard undeniable evidence that politics and message sending is going on. Considering every one has a camera phone nowadays, surely you have some audio or visual proof correct?