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Old Man DCI was cool...


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10 hours ago, Stu said:

Let's call the levels of ability Great, Good, Average, Okay, and Poor.

Back in the 1970's and 80's there were a plethora of corps. And many local corps back then had one or two Great players, but most of the lower corps also had Okay to Poor players. While the very top corps were magnates, the talent spread in them did go from the Great and Good to the Average; again mainly due to there being so many available corps.

Today, yes education has gotten better. However there are also way fewer corps available. So the Okay to Poor players no longer have an outlet. The current lower corps now have the luxury of securing a few Great with some Good and many Average. However, the very top corps now also have the luxury of securing many Great with a few Good. Thus the overall quality of the remaining corps are better today.

At least that is my theory.

Good points. My local-circuit junior corps certainly had its share of okay to poor players, to say the least. Leaning more toward "poor" some years.   :laughing:

The DCA corps where I marched... we won championships while I was there, but just about every year we had at least one member who was, at best, a subpar horn player... but was a great member (marched well, positive attitude, helped out behind the scenes, etc.)... so we would "carry" that person and not worry that he or she was not a very good player. 

Of course, it was much easier to "hide" a subpar horn player, compared to a less-than-average percussionist or color guard performer.  LOL.

Edited by Fran Haring
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4 hours ago, Fran Haring said:

Good points. My local-circuit junior corps certainly had its share of okay to poor players, to say the least. Leaning more toward "poor" some years.   :laughing:

The DCA corps where I marched... we won championships while I was there, but just about every year we had at least one member who was, at best, a subpar horn player... but was a great member (marched well, positive attitude, helped out behind the scenes, etc.)... so we would "carry" that person and not worry that he or she was not a very good player. 

Of course, it was much easier to "hide" a subpar horn player, compared to a less-than-average percussionist or color guard performer.  LOL.

I know people that carried a horn with instructions of "if we hear you play a note you're cut"

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10 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said:

I know people that carried a horn with instructions of "if we hear you play a note you're cut"

Was told bitd Hanover had great remedy for that... shove a cigarette filter in the mouthpiece stem just before the show. If ya try to play your eyes will bug out.

Edited by JimF-LowBari
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1 hour ago, Jeff Ream said:

I know people that carried a horn with instructions of "if we hear you play a note you're cut"

Not playing was usually guaranteed by pulling their mouthpiece before entering the field....or the ever classy plugging it with dirt.

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1 hour ago, JimF-LowBari said:

Was told bitd Hanover had great remedy for that... shove a cigarette filter in the mouthpiece stem just before the show. If ya try to play your eyes will bug out.

Fun story while I was at Cru (Rochester)....we had a mello/sop player, depended on the year, that would occasionally forget he had a cigarette stuck in his third valve slide while going on the field.  Gotta love DCA.

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20 hours ago, IllianaLancerContra said:

I would suggest that the best brass players of the 1970s are just as good as the best brass players today.  The difference is that the weakest players in today's lines are far better than the weakest players BITD.

 I'd agree with this assessment too. I've also stated it before as well:.. there were both more talented marchers in the 60's/ 70's/ 80's marching then. as well as far less talented marchers, marching back then.

 The fact that there were literally hundreds of more Corps back then, made it so. There were marchers marching that could not read music, nor play barely a note very well, all the way up to some marchers that could have stepped into any trumpet. bari, tuba section of today and play with any of the Top 6 Corps of today, imo.. Some of the very best rifle, sabre tossers in the earlier decades were as good as the best of today, imo.. too. The best snares from back then would have to be taught to play and move, as opposed to mostly just play . But there is nothing that tells me the best snares, in due time, could not have been brought up to speed and taught the physical movements required of todays' percussionists as well. ( lest we forget, some of today's percussionists, ie FE''s, do not march, nor move hardly at all either.) The upper tier marcher talent back then was spread out among a much, MUCH,  wider numbers of Corps BITD  than that of today.... several hundred, as opposed to a few dozen Corps that are left today. Since most applicants today tend to want to only consider marching the upper tier Corps, it pushes the talent to the top today... so todays perennial top 12 Corps, are certainly chock full of 1st rate musicians and marchers overall compared to BITD, imo. But yes, I can think of lots of talented brass, guard, percussion players BITD that could've stepped right into any Corps of today and competed and contributed to that Corps just fine.

Edited by BRASSO
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41 minutes ago, Sideways said:

Fun story while I was at Cru (Rochester)....we had a mello/sop player, depended on the year, that would occasionally forget he had a cigarette stuck in his third valve slide while going on the field.  Gotta love DCA.

Flashback to one of our snares in the mid 70s when we were rebuilding. Few seconds after he lit a cig the instructor started warm ups. So there he is doing the routine while puffing away without using his hands. When cig was done, turn head and spit it out of his mouth. Never missed a beat and “I ain’t wasting that smoke, they’re getting expensive”. Yep good old DCA

Edited by JimF-LowBari
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49 minutes ago, Sideways said:

Not playing was usually guaranteed by pulling their mouthpiece before entering the field....or the ever classy plugging it with dirt.

brass judge called them out on it a few weeks before, so they left it in

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7 hours ago, Lance said:

A friend of mine in high school played sax, but started playing baritone about 3 months before auditioning with Xmen.  She made it.  

This was in either 94 or 95.

Wondering if the same would be possible today. 

i know of a kid starting his third year with Cavaliers that was a Sax turned baritone. He marched two years of baritone in a DCA Corps ( Alliance) and then auditioned for Cavaliers and made it. So, yes...it's possible to do, but I doubt it's possible on a 3 month wind-up. 

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