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Hey __________, maybe do this. What is your advice for certain corps at this point?


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While I cannot pretend to know the stresses and time management involved in producing a show that is highly competitive in 2019, I do have enough time on the drum corps design and teaching clock to have some opinions as to what some corps need to do now in order to perhaps best elevate their shows knowing that such time for change, balanced with cleaning time, is now crucial. 

What is your advice for certain corps?

My offerings:

BD: Make prop movement and uniform change produced and not perfunctory. Year after year of you doing this has gotten old, frustrating. Could be seen as ego-driven and not at all artistic. 

SCV: Make the styles pop more, especially the funk/rock moments of your show. Add more moments that communicate emotion and not simply headiness and angst.

Bloo: Though nearly a seamless and super entertaining show, is there one more notch up at the end that uses some velocity and drive that makes a ring guaranteed? 

Boston: The ending is the crux for me. The Goliath character and his death comes across as silly, and not a highly produced moment. It is hard to get past.

Crown: Bravo. A brilliant show from top to bottom. Stellar, actually. Checks all the current boxes. Is there room to add something that represents an attempt to push the activity forward?

Cavies: A clever show, well performed, that seems to need more visual variety and a bit of push toward innovation.

BK: This is a stunner. Best since 2015. Fix the balance issues between Front ensemble, battery, and brass and history will be made. 

Cadets: Your drive is evident. The finesse and clarity of the show narrative is not. The new ending is better but not enough. "Do better" comes across as cliche and bando. 

PR: Clean, Clean, Clean. 

Crossmen: Your best offering in a long time. It is hard in 2019 to move up. Cleaning will help, especially on the percussion caption.

Mandarins: It's a good one. Your best showing ever. Moving up in 2019 is tough. The public hanging is in poor taste. Really poor taste. Comes across as an immature and shallow decision. 

Blue Stars: Keep fighting in critique that your are super unique and fresh, yet accessible in the activity. Clean, Clean, Clean. 

SOA: Cool show. Clean. Emote. Enjoy the experience. While making finals is possible, the overall summer experiences more important. 

 

 

 

 

 

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Blue Devils: 7 Golds and 5 Silvers in the last 12 years. Keep doing what you are doing. You are giving us dominance we may never see again in our lifetime. Don't listen to the outside noise that really doesn't matter. With the success you have achieved, some will not like what you do regardless of what you put on the football field. You could come out and march a entire show at 230bpm with break neck drill ending in a massive company front with the horn line achieving volumes that push the stands off their foundation. Guess what........some will still find something to complain about. So who cares what they think. If they don't like your props, or staging etc, they know how to logoff flomarching and not watch your show. Stay the course, stay true to yourselves, and Do it up Devils.   

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22 minutes ago, Chief Guns said:

Blue Devils: 7 Golds and 5 Silvers in the last 12 years. Keep doing what you are doing. You are giving us dominance we may never see again in our lifetime. Don't listen to the outside noise that really doesn't matter. With the success you have achieved, some will not like what you do regardless of what you put on the football field. You could come out and march a entire show at 230bpm with break neck drill ending in a massive company front with the horn line achieving volumes that push the stands off their foundation. Guess what........some will still find something to complain about. So who cares what they think. If they don't like your props, or staging etc, they know how to logoff flomarching and not watch your show. Stay the course, stay true to yourselves, and Do it up Devils.   

Way to inadvertently start some drama between you and the OP for expressing their opinion.

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I know this won't happen but for Phantom: 

Restructure the 2nd half of your show. The drum break in the middle of fire of eternal glory is a real buzzkill and Steals away the momentum of the show. Move that drum break to before the ballad so that fire of eternal glory can be one epic piece like it's supposed to be. 

SCV: Restrcutre the first third of the show visually to make it more interesting. Right now it's the weak link, there isn't anything particularly interesting going on both musically and visually 

 

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7 hours ago, Chief Guns said:

Blue Devils: 7 Golds and 5 Silvers in the last 12 years. Keep doing what you are doing. You are giving us dominance we may never see again in our lifetime. Don't listen to the outside noise that really doesn't matter. With the success you have achieved, some will not like what you do regardless of what you put on the football field. You could come out and march a entire show at 230bpm with break neck drill ending in a massive company front with the horn line achieving volumes that push the stands off their foundation. Guess what........some will still find something to complain about. So who cares what they think. If they don't like your props, or staging etc, they know how to logoff flomarching and not watch your show. Stay the course, stay true to yourselves, and Do it up Devils.   

I disagree with this sentiment. How well did not listening to outside advice work for the Cadets after a decade or more of dominance? Cavaliers? While a BD fan, I too grow tired of the rock back and forth go-to-body we have seen for five or six years, the numerous scatter transitions that are under produced, the over balance of the intellectual versus the emotional, re-using musical devices that are too similar to past year's, needing a detailed pamphlet to get the show arc. If you are a defensive BD fan, you won't agree that any of these things are negative but perhaps "signature" Devil-isms. While one could make that argument, such doesn't change the fact that others of us want to see the corps evolve more than it has. 

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