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Time to Say Goodbye, after 15 years


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43 minutes ago, HockeyDad said:

Hey Gar, re: OSU band making stick figures. That’s a funny (to me anyway) example of change, since it’s a “back to the future” kind of change. I’m sure you know the stick figure thing was all the rage in the 1950s (via the magic of YouTube). So it’s a retread, really. 

Exactly right.  In my father's era, TBDBITL was cutting edge in stick figure design.

And "chair step".

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2 hours ago, HockeyDad said:

That was probably my defense mechanism kicking in for the reply I knew would come (and yup it did) conflating small change marching bands have made over the years to large and dramatic changes drum corps have made, and concluding “see - no difference!”

I hear ya. It's all good. And hard to disagree with what you posted.

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

When do you think it will happen?  I think it will but I’m not sure about the timeline. 

I think it is a ways out, as there seems to be little if any interest by the corps admins and staffs, as far as I can see. 

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16 hours ago, JimF-LowBari said:

At least no one has brought up massive attendance at AL/VFW nationals in their hay day. Yeah lot of attendance but the crowd was there for the convention and the corps show was part of the convention. IOW it was something for the vets to attend as entertainment.

Attending the drum corps show was not compulsory for conventioneers.  And none of them would have attended if not for that last word you said.

Aligning drum corps contests with a large festival, clinic or convention is smart business, and every major drum corps contest organizer has employed that tactic when they can.  Even DCI does this.  The DCI tour pattern has been anchored for decades by the scheduling of the San Antonio show in conjunction with the Texas Bandmasters annual convention in that city.  DCI also makes sure to have a show at the same time/place of the Bands of America Summer Symposium.  Numerous other shows bring band kids in by the busload with clinic programs and associated discount admission to the show.  Should we dismiss those attendance figures too?

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12 hours ago, Terri Schehr said:

When do you think it will happen?  I think it will but I’m not sure about the timeline. 

Well, this is a rules congress year...

Back in 2014, when trombones were so magically fast-tracked for immediate and overwhelming approval, I said to myself that at this rate, activity leaders could only find enough other distractions to amuse themselves for six more years, and we would therefore have woodwinds in 2020.  Of course, that was predicated on he-who-shall-not-be-named leading the campaign. 

Nevertheless, I have heard a crazy, uncorroborated rumor that woodwinds are already in the works, and somehow to be allowed in 2020 without the usual one-year advance notice that a major instrumentation change would require.  But if that rumor were true, someone would have corroborated it by now.

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I wrote something here a few years ago expressing my belief woodwinds in DCI is inevitable. Still feel that way. I know music instrument suppliers would agree!  I can see a slow intro, however, something like this . . .

an extended pit group.  Possibly 16-20 players, off to the side, under a clear plastic covering (when necessary).

DCI is all about broad music and performance education, attracting sponsors who sell "stuff," appealing to school band directors, and building a bigger base of young musicians to participate.

It's too early for me to claim I would say "goodbye." I'm pretty open-minded about change.

 

 

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25 minutes ago, Fred Windish said:

I wrote something here a few years ago expressing my belief woodwinds in DCI is inevitable. Still feel that way. I know music instrument suppliers would agree!  I can see a slow intro, however, something like this . . .

an extended pit group.  Possibly 16-20 players, off to the side, under a clear plastic covering (when necessary).

DCI is all about broad music and performance education, attracting sponsors who sell "stuff," appealing to school band directors, and building a bigger base of young musicians to participate.

It's too early for me to claim I would say "goodbye." I'm pretty open-minded about change.

 

 

Add woodwinds. And the full spectrum of string instruments. Put the entire corps in chairs with music stands. Under a shell. That would be cutting edge. 

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2 hours ago, cixelsyd said:

Attending the drum corps show was not compulsory for conventioneers.  And none of them would have attended if not for that last word you said.

Aligning drum corps contests with a large festival, clinic or convention is smart business, and every major drum corps contest organizer has employed that tactic when they can.  Even DCI does this.  The DCI tour pattern has been anchored for decades by the scheduling of the San Antonio show in conjunction with the Texas Bandmasters annual convention in that city.  DCI also makes sure to have a show at the same time/place of the Bands of America Summer Symposium.  Numerous other shows bring band kids in by the busload with clinic programs and associated discount admission to the show.  Should we dismiss those attendance figures too?

True not compulsory and for some it was supporting the local or state Post. 
 

As for your last sentence I don’t follow BoA or other band circuits so no idea if you’re being snarky or not.

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2 hours ago, cixelsyd said:

Well, this is a rules congress year...

Back in 2014, when trombones were so magically fast-tracked for immediate and overwhelming approval, I said to myself that at this rate, activity leaders could only find enough other distractions to amuse themselves for six more years, and we would therefore have woodwinds in 2020.  Of course, that was predicated on he-who-shall-not-be-named leading the campaign. 

Nevertheless, I have heard a crazy, uncorroborated rumor that woodwinds are already in the works, and somehow to be allowed in 2020 without the usual one-year advance notice that a major instrumentation change would require.  But if that rumor were true, someone would have corroborated it by now.

Is it just "usual" or is it mandated in some by-law than can't be overruled? 

It's not as if this whole notion of instrumentation is a new development that requires exhaustive study.  It's been a slow creep for nearly decades.

I wonder two things: if instrument manufacturers will, or have, developed a line of woodwinds that are more impervious to the summer elements (is rain "wetter" than the snows of football season in the north?  Do they still have bands in the north?), and...

If adoption will be slowed by corps that don't want to change their "signature" sound.  Crown and Phantom come to mind and, increasingly in recent years, Blue Knights.  Which horns would a corps be willing to eliminate to switch to woodwinds?  Would a new marketplace develop for MM's who have switched from a reed to play drum corps and can play both in a show?

I think they can do whatever they wish with prior practice unless its mandated in the by-laws) because, well, they wrote the bylaws!

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