BRASSO Posted March 7, 2019 Share Posted March 7, 2019 (edited) 23 minutes ago, JimF-LowBari said: And that Stu made his “reputation” on ramd... ugh....🙄 And to respond to brasso, heard that ain’t drum corps in 1975. Something about matching bells and getting rid of Color Pre. I know of a very well known brass instructor that taught several Junior/ Senior Corps for years... a Hall of Famer... that walked away entirely from the activity when he saw that a few of the Corps he taught had purchased an over the shoulder brass instrument called "the Contra Bass" in that 1960- 1963 time period. He, along with quite a few others, did not consider this instrument a " Drum & Bugle Corps " instrument... but instead a " Marching Band instrument ". Less than 6 years later, just about ALL the competing Jr. and Sr. " Drum & Bugle Corps " were utilizing this " Marching Band ", instrument, so logically, I guess some might say that Stuart Rice himself did not march in a " Drum & Bugle Corps ", as few " purists" " from the 40's-50's era considered the " Contra Bass " as a " Drum & Bugle Corps " instrument when it was 1st introduced in the early 60's in large scale to the Drum Corps activity. Edited March 7, 2019 by BRASSO 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironlips Posted March 7, 2019 Share Posted March 7, 2019 I was going to reply to all this, then realized I already had: http://www.drumcorpsplanet.com/2012/06/inside-the-arc-its-just-not-drum-corps-anymore/ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FTNK Posted March 7, 2019 Share Posted March 7, 2019 I started out writing this post when I was 1/4 of the way through...and I was going to call him a schizophrenic. But now, I get it, you know? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRASSO Posted March 7, 2019 Share Posted March 7, 2019 (edited) 33 minutes ago, HockeyDad said: That’s a fine defense of the WGI model. But I thought the video was focused more on DCI. I will confess I skipped through large portions of it however. He did focus on " Drum & Bugle Corps " for most of his complaints there. That is true. But once he introduced " the Marching Arts " in his commentary there, WGI became germane to that commentary, imo Edited March 7, 2019 by BRASSO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted March 7, 2019 Share Posted March 7, 2019 3 hours ago, HockeyDad said: Much as we are poking fun at this YouTube video, there is a ring of truth to it. There are fewer corps now. Alarmingly so. The G bugle has been abandoned, along with its unique qualities, many of which are missed. Moments of marching and drill excellence creating their own wow moments are replaced by the “look at me” style craziness. Uniforms have been replaced by costumes. We can’t deny the truth of this. But... is this because of the “executives of DCI”? Or would it have happened on its own over time, as every year each corps struggled to put something new and different on the field? I don’t know. yes there are, but he points in many of the wrong directions why. Did some DCi decisions hurt corps staying alive? Sure. they'll never admit it, but they did. However, the style of shows and marching didn't do anything to kill corps. You had many groups like churches, and legions and vfw's stop sponsoring because drum corps money took away from their charter. too many corps tried to run out of a shoebox instead of running like a business, which caused the demise of soooo many corps, even to this day. No long range planning, no structure, no thoughts of gaining revenue. Plus life in general got more expensive. I has in high school the first time gas hit $1 a gallon. I've seen it go over $4 since then. No you need insurance. Now you can't pull the buses into McD's and let the kids eat. Yeah equipment is more expensive...what isn't. housing isn;t free anymore. driving around on decent buses isn't cheap. This video and so many bitter online rants never take real life factors into consideration and just want to blame DCI and show design. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRASSO Posted March 7, 2019 Share Posted March 7, 2019 29 minutes ago, ironlips said: I was going to reply to all this, then realized I already had: http://www.drumcorpsplanet.com/2012/06/inside-the-arc-its-just-not-drum-corps-anymore/ Yup... nicely done too , imo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted March 7, 2019 Share Posted March 7, 2019 1 hour ago, Stu said: Ummmmm....thanks.....I think. (I'll just let that comment stand on it's own LOL) come on, it's too good to pass up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted March 7, 2019 Share Posted March 7, 2019 1 hour ago, BRASSO said: Today, the " Marching Arts " are indeed mostly school and community based now, with few Churches. Veteran groups funding the units anymore like they used too before DCI was started in the early 70's. The growth of the " Marching Arts " activity the last several decades has not been DCI, nor DCA in the Marching Arts. It has been WGI ( Winter Guard International ). DCI predates WGI by approx. 6 years. DCI had far more members their first season than WGI had their 1st seaaon ( 1977-1978 ) Today WGI has 1,830 Guards listed on their website. 895 Percussion units. 205 Winds Units, for a total of 2,930 units. They no longer are limited to just rifles, flags, sabres. Now they have divisions for competition with all manner of brass instrumentations as well. Some of the WGI units are similar to some of the DCI units in that they compete locally, not regionally, nor nationally. This was true throughout the Pre DCI years, and today as well in the Drum Corps activity. WGI units compete indoors, and with smaller numbers of marchers in their performing competition units. This keeps their costs down to operate, and for individuals of limited income means to participate.. As such, its a model that has worked well for them, and probably why they have exploded in growth since their formation, expanded their offerings, and now have far more participating members than DCI and DCA combined now. They toot on brass instruments, bang away on drums, toss flags, sabres, batons, wooden rifles, etc into the air, and march to their hearts content.. just like units did in the 1920's and 1930's. Its still Youth doing healthy things to learn healthy competition, strive for group and individual perfection, learn discipline and teamwork, time management skills, and learn to build self esteem, and self confidence in the process. The " instruments " upon which they have learned these life long skills that benefit themselves as well as our society might have changed a bit over the years ( as they always changed ). But the primary benefits to the individuals as well as to our society for the participation has not changed one iota. And thats the big picture here that the " I don't like modern Drum Corps " folks oftentimes appear to be missing with their vitriol and overly harsh criticisms, imo. And the thing is... one can pick out ANY era, from the 1930's to today, and find people that did not like that decades version of Drum Corps, but instead preferred the one that they marched in. Such criticism is nothing new. Lots of folks from the 40's,50's, 60's, did not much care for Stuart Rice's 1970's to the early 1980 's personal version of" modern Drum Corps " back then either, believe me. he neglects to mention an overwhelming majority of the WGI units listed as scholastic units 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRASSO Posted March 7, 2019 Share Posted March 7, 2019 (edited) 17 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said: he neglects to mention an overwhelming majority of the WGI units listed as scholastic units Over time, the schools filled the void when the Veterans and Church groups no longer were willing to be the chief sponsors for the units. The Vets groups/ Churches had already begun to cut back their sponsorships of Corps all across the country, and up into Canada in the early to mid 60's.. and on a large scale too. This all predates the formation of both DCI, DCA and WGI. I'm not defending DCI here, as they made some missteps along the way, as did individual Corps. But thankfully, the schools filled the void in their establishment of better relationships with the Drum Corps and Winter Guard activity or else they'd likely be even fewer Drum Corps and Winter Guard Units in existence today, imo. Edited March 7, 2019 by BRASSO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted March 7, 2019 Share Posted March 7, 2019 41 minutes ago, ironlips said: I was going to reply to all this, then realized I already had: http://www.drumcorpsplanet.com/2012/06/inside-the-arc-its-just-not-drum-corps-anymore/ Great now I have “The Muffin Man” stuck in my head... along with the interrogation scene in Shrek that refers to it... 😫 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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